Nature as it were of our Souls and the Business of our Lives Prop. 20. That which makes this to be Bonum per se immutabile which no accident can alter is 1. Because the Foundations of our Obligations are Immutable while our Faculties and Powers endure else they would cease for the de 〈◊〉 itum is a Relation resulting from the meer Being or Position of the Humane Nature as related to God And God will never change Therefore unless Man cease to be man or to be able to act as man the obligation can by no accident be changed 2. Because it is a duty to the supreme Ruler and absolute infinite Good and therefore the very performance of it is exclusive of all changing accidents For he that loveth God as a means to his fleshly pleasure and prosperity only and as less good to him than the world loveth him not as God And he that loveth him as God loveth him as the absolute Power Wisdom and Goodness and therefore exclusively as to all Competitors unless as this love is sinfully defective but that accident of defectiveness maketh not our love to God to be a sin but the defe 〈◊〉 t of it as to degree or frequency of exercise is the sin 3. And also because that God is the Final Object and Love the Final Act which together make up the ultimate end of man including the Vision that kindleth love and the praise joy and obedience which express it But though mean 〈◊〉 may be oft changed and may be too much loved yet the ultimate end is unchangeable and cannot be too much loved by true mental love distinct from distracting passions therefore our Obligations to it are according So that Love to God is the most immutable Moral Good And the same in their place and time must be said of holy Fear Trust and Obedience to God from which no Accident can disoblige us no Command or Prohibition of man no suffering of body or danger of life it self much less the allurements of sensual delights Pr. 21. Accordingly to hate God to distrust his known Promise to disobey his known Law to oppose or persecute his known Interest in the world in his Word and Worship Church and Servants are immutably evil per se which no Accident can make good or lawful For the Reasons before given Pr. 22. But where the object is mutable and the circumstances of things which the Obligation presupposeth there the duty or sinfulness is by supervening Accidents mutable Even Incest which is a hainous sin was a duty to Adams Children because of accidental difference of the case The killing of an innocent Son was well consented to by Abraham when the Lord of Life and of all the world had commanded it and that consent was an act of eminent goodness and accordingly rewarded The borrowing of the Egyptians Goods without intent to restore them and the robbing of them by taking them away was well done when the absolute Owner of the World had by his Precept altered the Propriety Thus the altering of the Case may alter Obligations Pr. 23. But besides the immutable Obligations to God himself there are many instances of our actions towards men and worldy Things which are ordinarily unchanged and only some rare or supernatural declaration of the will of God doth change them For as God the Author and Orderer of Nature sheweth us by experience that he delighteth much in the ordinary Constancy of his operations and rarely changeth the course of Nature so there is an answerable constancy in the ordinary state and order of Things and consequently of obligations or duty And these are the matter of Gods common universal Laws which ordinarily oblige all mankind These are the matter of the second Table of the Decalogue and are seconds in point of immutable Obligation to the first mentioned sort our natural duty to God For though man be mutable and God immutable yet God preserveth so much constancy in Humane Affairs as is just matter of constant universal Laws though they are lyable rarely to dispensations or exceptions And as not murdering not committing Adultery not stealing not lying or false witness bearing are such so also are the meer Positives of the first Table such as are the acts of Instituted Worship and the holy observation of the Lords day Prop. 24. The Cases of Mans Life which are more mutable are the matter of mutable Duty and Sin which are most usually called Good or Evil per accidens because that mutable accidents added to the more constant accidents make them such by change And so it is greatly to be noted that the Act which is a Duty to one Man in one Place at one Time c. may be a sin to another Man or at another Time Place c. And that new accidents may again come in and make that Action that was a sin to become again a Duty And more new accidents may make it a sin again and so over and over Even as when you are weighing in the Ballance one Grain may turn the Scales the other way and two more in the other end may turn them back again and three more in the other end may yet return them and so on many times over and over For Instance Suppose an honest Man cannot pray without some unseemly faults in utterance in secret it is his Duty to pray vocally if that most profit and affect his heart if an exceptious Person be known to over-hear him it may be a sin to do it audibly If his Family be capable of bearing it it is his Duty to do it as he can If strangers come in that would by scorn make it do more hurt than good he may be bound to forbear till they are gone When they are gone it is his Duty again A Fire breaketh out or one falleth into a swound and it is his Duty to forbear When that is over it may be his Duty again c. Pr. 25. Two sorts therefore sin against God that would tye Men to do the very same things of such a mutable Nature without excepting the mutation of accidents 1. Those that will tye them to it by peremptory Laws 2. Those that will censoriously reproach or condemn them as sinners that do not do just as they do when the Circumstances alter the Case Many are so guilty who complain of other Mens Impositions Pr. 26. Hence it is evident that Prudence discerning how the alteration of accidents alter our Obligations is a very needful thing to Christians for the same guidance of their hearts and lives And as Men picture Justice as holding the Ballance so should Christian Prudence be thought on even as judging of Good and Evil with the Ballance in our hand and putting every Grain of considerable accidents into each end And much errour censoriousness disorder and other sin is in the World by ignorant Mens judging of things by some mistaken word of Scripture without prudent weighing of Circumstances and
had been only Indifferent things that the late Convocation had imposed on them For when the Clergy met to chuse Clarks for the Convocation for London at Sion-Colledge the major Vote chose Mr. Calamy and Mr. Baxter whom the Bishop of London according to his Power did reject so that the City of London neither hath nor ever had one Clark of their own chusing in this Convocation which altered the Liturgy but the Dignitaries and the two Clarks chosen by the exterior parts of the Country were the only Persons hence accepted that ever we heard of or could learn And surely our after-consent will hardly be alledged And London is no inconsiderable part of England XL. We refuse not the Renunciation of the solemn Vow and Covenant as if we thought it bound us unto any disloyalty Sedition or other sin For we are ready to profess that it so obligeth no Man It cannot make a Sin to be a Duty or no Sin nor a Duty to our Superiours to be no Duty nor disoblige us from any part of our due Obedience to the King Nay we judge that we must not make our selves a Religion or Law by our own Vows or bind our selves to any thing but what we are bound to antecedently by God and so our Vows must be but secondary Obligations And these being our own thoughts we must needs hold accordingly that this solemn Vow doth bind as to nothing but what God doth bind us to antecedently himself and what would be our Duty had we never taken it And therefore should we renounce this Vow we should still take our selves bound by God himself to do all the good that in it was Vowed Whether the Vow of a thing indifferent bind or not we are not determining but as we hold that no such thing should be Vowed so we declare that it is none of our present case as is aforesaid XLI We are so far from refusing the Oxford Oath or the Subscription upon any disloyal or rebellious Principles that we shall hereafter adjoin such a Profession of this Subject as shall suffice with all Men of common humanity and impartiality to justifie our Principles of Loyalty against Malice it self And if yet Malice will go on to keep open our Divisions and keep us under Odium and unjust Suspensions and provoke men to forbid us to preach Christ's Gospel by talking of the late Wars and charging all on the Non-conformists we shall now only crave their just Answer to these few Questions following Q. 1. Are they willing that so many of the English Non-conformists shall have leave to preach Christ's Gospel freely as never had any hand in the Wars If they will procure us this we are confident that the rest that medled with the Wars are so few and so self-denying that they will thankfully accept of this liberty for their Brethren though they be silenced or banished themselves Q. 2. Was it for matter of War that near two Thousand Ministers were ejected or silenced 1662 or for something else Was this the cause that Mr. Martin of Weeden that lost an Arm in the King's Army and War could not have a day abated him in the Common Goal at Warwick when he preached as a Non-conformist And many other Instances we may give Q. 3. Did ever any of us that now address our selves to you go farther in our Principles than Bishop Bilson did even in his excellent Book of Christian subjection we detested all that went beyond him in his Doctrine of Resistance Or did any of us ever go near so far as your famous R. Hooker in his first and his eighth Book of Eccles Politie published long ago and again by Bishop Gauden and Dedicated to the King whose over Popular Principles one of us long ago at large confuted And were they silenced for this Q. 4. We humbly crave them that remember and knew the Persons to bethink them whether 1. Most of of the Parliament when the War began 2. Most of the Westminster Assembly when they met 3. Most of the Earl of Essex's Collonels and chief Officers 4. Most of the Lord Lieutenants of the Militia 5. Most of the Parliaments Major Generals in the Earl of Essex's time 6. Most of the Sea Captains in the Earl of Warwick's time We say Whether most of these we think ten to one and in some Instances twenty to one were not Conformists As sure as Archbishop Abbots was and all the Bishops save six in his days on whom Doctor Heyling layeth the cause of our Divisions Q. 5. And is it just that all the Conformists be therefore made odious and all the Conformable Ministers silenced for these Conformists sakes even such as never had a hand in the business Q. 6. If the War had been raised only by Non-conformists yet why should a thousand or 1400 Ministers now that were never proved guilty of any Wars be silenced and ruined for other mens Actions any more than the Conformists for the Archbishop of York's who was a Commander for the Parliament Q. 7. Why should no other penalty serve in this case but silencing us to the loss or hazard of the innocent people Is silencing us our suffering most or the Peoples If half the Bakers Brewers and Country Farmers had been in those Wars is there no way to punish them but to put down their Trade and forbidding them to bring Provision to the Markets Would not punishing the innocent as Drunkards or Whoremongers are punished satisfie you Nor any thing but keeping them from preaching the Doctrine of Salvation And that when the Fire consumed the Churches and when in many Parishes the tenth part of the People have no Church to go to Q. 8. Do you think that the Devil and the Papists had rather we were silenced or not Are they pleased with well-doing and with that which promoteth the Protestant interest and mans salvation And hath the Protestant Religion been secured and advantaged by our usage Q. 9. If it be that we Preach worse than others or Preach Sedition or unsound Doctrine why are not we accused of it and judged upon proof And why are we not suffered rather to Preach publickly where witness may be had than driven into corners where Sedition or Heresie may be hid by those that Preach it Q. 10. If you say that our preaching is needless Is not your own then as needless if you preach the same Gospel And must you have Lordships great maintenance reverence honour and obedience for needless preaching And when some Parishes have ten thousand some twenty thousand some thirty thousand some it is thought fourscore thousand Souls when three thousand cannot come to hear in the Church why is Preaching any more needful to those three thousand than to all the rest or to four persons in a Village than to thousands in Cities When our Preaching and other Ministration ceaseth to be notoriously needful we profess our selves joyfully willing to cease Our Flesh had rather have ease and a
28. and 13. 9. Col. 3. 16. and 4. 6. Eph. 4. 7. 29. and 3. 8. Gal. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 6 7. and 9. 8. Joh. 1. 16. c. II. The words MORALITY and MORAL have also divers significations I. In the first most comprehensive and most famous sense MORALITY as distinguished from meer Naturality or Physicks doth signifie the Relation of the Manners or Acts of an Intelligent free Agent to the Governing Will and Law of God And so Actus morales and Actus humani are used in the same sense and all Morality is distinguished into Moral Good and Moral Evil Virtue and Vice II. Some have used MORALITY in a narrower sense unfitly for so much of Man's duty as is revealed by the meer Law of Nature and as is of common obligation to lapsed Mankind And so it comprehendeth the relicts of the Law of Innocent Nature to love God and obey him c. and the additional Law of Lapsed Nature to Repent and use all possible means for our recovery and thankfully improve the Mercies which we receive And thus it is distinguished from Duty known by supernatural Revelation and especially the Mysteries of Redemption by Jesus Christ III. Some use the word improperly also for all that Duty which is of perpetual Obligation whether by natural or supernatural Revelation And so it is distinguished from Temporary Duties And thus the Lords-Day Baptism the Lords-Supper a Gospel Ministry Scripture to be used discipline are said to be Moral-Positives distinct from meer Natural Duties and from Temporaries IV. Lastly Some yet more unaptly confine the sense to the Duties of our common Conversation towards man as distinct from Holiness or our Duty to God And so they distinguish a meer moral honest man from a godly or religious man Though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common Fuel of vain Contendings yet we being not the Masters of Language must take words as we find them used and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them before they lay any stress on them in disputing In reference to these various senses of these words we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth I As to MORALITY in the first and most famous signification we are agreed 1. That all proper Humane Acts are moral that is morally Good or Evil And all Duty and Sin Virtue and Vice in Habit and Act Positive and Privative Vice are parts of Morality moral Good directly and moral Evil reductively and consequently 2. Holiness to the Lord or the Love of God as God is the chief part of Morality and what Duty soever is Evangelical and spiritual is also moral 3. Nothing is morally laudable or rewardable but Moral Good and nothing is punishable but Moral Evil. 4. All Morality is seated primarily in the Will but is secondarily as flowing thence in the imperate Acts of the Intellect and inferior Faculties 5. All truly moral Good in lapsed man is 1. From God's Efficient Grace 2. And exercised on some Objective Grace And 3. Is it self Subjective Grace either special or common 6. The Good called Moral in Infidels and all other ungodly unsanctified men is such but secundum quid and not simpliciter nor in the full or properest sense Because bonum est ex omnibus Causis essentialibus And a good Principle Rule End and right Object especially the formal Object are all essential to a truly good moral Act But every ungodly man in every Action doth want at least some one of these And an Act is denominated in Morality from that which is prevalent in it and not from every conquered deprest ingredient We say not that he that killeth his Father or Prince with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations doth therein do a good work though that reluctancy was good So he that hath some Love to God and Goodness but more Hatred and more love to sinful pleasure doth not a work properly Good which proceedeth from such a mixed Cause But the evil Principle and End is predominant in all ungodly men 7. But materially and secundum quid bad men may do Works that are morally good and physically very good to others as Governing and Protecting Common-wealths and Churches building Cities and Temples and Hospitals relieving the Poor preaching the Gospel expounding Scripture defending Truth promoting Learning and in good Nature Patience Meekness Temperance Chastity Wit and Industry they may be commendable and exemplary and their Precepts and Practice may conduce much to the good of others 8. Whatever good is found in Heathens or Infidels or ungodly Men is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth it being all from God who must not be robbed of his praise 9. A Man that hath but Common Grace is better than he would be if he had none and it is the usual preparatory for special saving Grace Though many civil temperate persons by overvaluing Common Good are hindred from seeking Special Grace that is not caused by the Good but by their abuse of it objectively And though God take occasion from some mens great sins to affright their Consciences to Repentance and Reformation that is not caused by the sin but by Gods Mercy Sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring nor sin as repented of in repenting but before in the committing God may Convert Paul in the act of Persecuting But Persecuting is not the way or means of Conversion Special Grace must be sought in the use of Common Grace and not in a way of negligence contempt or wilful sin II. Of MORALITY in the second sense as taken for Natural Duties which all Mankind is obliged to by Natural Revelation of God's Will we are agreed as followeth 1. The sum of this Natural Morality or Duty is to love God as God for himself and all things else for him even as being of Him and through Him and to Him to obey God and make it our chief care to please him and therein to place and seek our Happiness even in everlasting mutual love To love others as our selves and do all the good we can to all for Soul and Body especially to the most publick Societies to do justly and as we would be done by to use our Bodies as the Servants of our Souls and Soul and Body as the Servants of God And to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these This Natural Evidence will prove to be the Common Duty of Mankind 2. This Love to God and Man before described is true Holiness that is The Soul's separation and devotedness to God 3. All the Evidence which Nature affordeth us herein is not seen by all men that are of natural Wit or Industry no more than all that is revealed by the Scripture is known to all that read the Scripture or that believe it 4. Holiness is the End of Medicinal Grace as used
by Christ on us and as used by us towards Christ as the Mediator Faith in Christ is to kindle in us the holy love of God and obedience to him Love therefore as the final and everlasting Grace is preferred by the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. last v. and 13. throughout 5. Even our Faith in Christ and our Obedience to the Gospel in Preaching Sacraments and such like are neither only of natural nor only of supernatural Obligation but mixt Christ and his Ordinances are supernaturally revealed but being once revealed with the Evidence of Divine Authority natural Revelation then telleth us that it is our Duty to believe and obey 6. That which is of Natural Revelation and Obligation must be performed by supernatural Grace Though Nature prove that all Men should love God as God it is Grace that must dispose and enable them to do it 7. We call Grace supernatural not only because it is not essential to Nature no not to Adam in innocency but because in our lapsed state it is not conveyed to us by Natural Generation but Nature in the state of pravity is deprived of it and because God worketh it by the free gift of his Spirit in a manner beyond the search of man and by it as an effect of his love doth make us lovely in our union and relation to Christ who sanctifieth and justifieth us it being his Image on the Soul which no meer Natural Causes without this operation of God's Love and Spirit can effect But yet 1. We all agree that Holiness is Nature's health or rectitude and therefore sutable to it as its perfection as health is to the Body 2. And that the Spirit of God doth ordinarily make use of his appointed means and especially his Word for our sanctification And these being second Causes which have their proper Natures may so far be called natural Causes And that thus far Grace may be said to be Natural 8. This Holy Love being the final Act on God the final Object and so being man's felicity it self it followeth that all men have so much happiness constitutively as they have holy love to God and Goodness and that no man can be damned that hath the said predominant holy Love while such And that such have no cause to fear damnation any farther than they should fear lest by forfeiting Gods Grace they should lose that love 9. The Mediation of Christ and our Faith in him who is the Glass the Messenger and the great Gift of the Fathers Love are the Means appointed by God to sanctifie us by the effecting of this Love with all its Concomitants and Fruits 10. Therefore as God is called All in All so Christ is called All in all Col. 3. 11. to Believers as being the Way the Truth and the Life 11. Therefore they that would bring men to the holy and felicitating Love of God must preach Jesus Christ and his Grace to them as the means and bring them to believe in him and to take it for their Wisdom to know Christ crucified and glorified and to learn of him and obey him and trust in him and daily to use him as their Mediator for access to God acceptance with him and communication from him 12. To preach up the blessedness of Saints and excellency of holiness without teaching men how to attain it by Christ is but to commend health to the sick without directing them to the Physician and the Remedies And to hear of a Sanctity and Felicity not attainable is to be tormented by despair And to think to obtain it by our works or endeavours without a Mediator and his Grace or by any other Mediator than Christ is the way to lose it by false presumption and neglect of the necessary means It being Christ that is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 13. As Christ on Earth did purchase us this Salvation by his meritorious Righteousness and Sacrifice and is now in Heaven our Head and Intercessor and the Treasury of Grace and Life to Believers so he sanctifieth us by his WORD and SPIRIT and herein differeth from all other Teachers that ever were in the World 1. That his Gospel Doctrine Precepts and Covenant-promises are singularly suited to this sanctifying work 2. That he sendeth forth his Spirit with it to work the Souls of men to that which he teacheth and commandeth that so they may be effectually taught of God Without the Spirit of Jesus no word or means will sanctifie and renew a Soul 14. Therefore all Preachers must jointly preach GOD and holy LOVE trust obedience and delight in him as the END and CHRIST and faith in him and learning of him and obeying him in the use of his healing Remedies as the MEANS This being life eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17. 3. 15. And though the End must be preached as more excellent than the Means yet the Means must be preached as more mysterious and above meer natural Revelation Experience telleth us that all men quickly learn to confess that they should repent of sin and love God as God but they are hardly taught to understand the Mystery of Redemption the Person Incarnation Works Office and Grace of the Redeemer and therefore have here need of longer teaching The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the Love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Spirit must be the Preachers subject as it is the Christians benediction and felicity 16. There are things in Aristotle's Ethicks and in the Ethicks of the Stoicks and and some other Philosophers of great worth and use to Christians to shew us what by natural evidence may be discerned But they are all poor defective spirit-less Doctrines and Precepts in Comparison of the Gospel of Christ though to carnal wit they seem to excel it in Method Language and several Curiosities And the Writings of Christians who do but expound and apply Christ's Doctrine do far excel all the Heathens Ethicks 17. We have no reason to think that any of the Heathens understood all that Nature it self by way of proving-Evidence revealeth Yea or that any Christians perfectly understand it because natural evidences are exceeding numerous and none can say that he seeth them all and they are of various degrees some plain and some obscure and even natural verities as they arise from the great Branches into innumerable Partitions as smaller Sprigs are not perfectly discernable by a mortals Eye 18. Therefore no knowledge of Man much less any Heathens Writings are the certain measure of natural verities in Morality by which the number and certainty of the obscurer Particles may be known 19. Though Heathens know and teach that we must Love God and Goodness above all And all that sincerely love God and Goodness shall certainly be saved Yet this Confession will but more condemn them that have not and practice not what they teach but when they profess to know God
Assembly He chuseth a less convenient Hour of the Day he placeth the Pulpit in a les 〈◊〉 convenient Place he appointeth a tollerable but not the best Translation of the Scripture and Metre of the Psalms or Tunes to be used he appointeth a Bible of a worser Print and supposing him Authorized to chuse the Preacher he appointeth not the best or fittest Preacher which might be had And whether it be the present Pastor or any other we now dispute not that who hath Authority to chuse Chapters and Texts and word the Sermons and Prayers if he chuse a less convenient Chapter Text or Subject and less convenient Method and Words in Preaching and Prayer all this is his Infirmity and Fault but yet the People must not refuse the thing so commanded Not that we must obey it sub ratione maâ—â— as ill chosen and inconvenient but Though it be such not qua but quod inconveniens And the Reasons are 1. An inconvenient ill-chosen Place Time Text Translation Metre Tune c. may be good as a means of Union and Concord in the Worship which without that would not be had and that Union and Concord is a Duty Therefore so is the necessary means though it be not the best that could be chosen If the People will not join with that Translation Metre Tune Subject Place Time which the Minister useth or chuseth they cannot join with him in the Worship Were there no Interposition of Authority but mens consent if a thousand of the People are for a less convenient means Time Place c. and a small part for a more convenient they cannot concur but in some agreement And if the mistaken part will not yield to the other when Unity is necessary for that Unity sake the rest must yield to them 2. The less convenient way may accidentally become a means to avoid Persecution and the loss of all their Liberty and Publick Advantages and they that refuse that may be deprived of all the rest And it 's better worship God e. g. at an inconvenient Time Place c. than not at all 3. The General Obligation to obey our Governours is not nullified by every mistake in the Law or Determination For all Mankind being imperfect it is supposed that all Government by Man is imperfect If we should forbear praying till we can pray without all sin we should never pray and if we should forbear obeying till Rulers Commands be perfect or blameless we should never obey There is some fault in every Translation of the Bible every Version of the Psalms every Sermon and Prayer that we hear or make and in every Book that we Write and Read If no Parent Teacher Master Prince oblige us but only by such Laws and Mandates as have no 〈◊〉 ault all Government and Obedience is null or at an End Obj. No Man is bound to that which is evil Answ 1. It may be evil in the Commander and good in the Obeyer Not that the same thing is good to one and ill to the other though in other Instances that often fall out for it is not the same thing To Command an Inconnveient Time Place Translation Tune c. is one Action and to obey that Command is another 2. We obey it not as evil but as good The inconvenient Time Place c. is not good as inconvenient but as a means of Order and Concord and so we use it And the General Nature of Obedience is good and if we must do no good which we cannot do without some adherent evil we must never Pray Preach Eat Drink or Trade more Pr. 5. if a Ruler go beyond and so without his Authority yet in several Cases we may be bound to do what he Commandeth as such For Instance In case the thing be in it self good or at least indifferent and Lawful and the Honour of the Ruler or the Peace of the Society dependeth on our material obeying him It is our Duty to honour the King and our Parents and Pastors and to avoid all things that will dishonour them or that will encourage others in disobedience or disorder the Society If therefore it were granted to be the Pastors Duty and not the Kings toword our Prayers and Sermons and chuse Translations Chapters Metres Tunes c. yet if the King do it though beyond his Calling that is If he appoint us what Chapter to read every day in Publick and Command some Prayers to be read and some Homilies or Printed Sermons to be sometime read which are all good and lawful in themselves not destroying the Office of the Ministry and if by him or the People it be taken for Contempt and a dishonouring him to disobey him the General Command of honouring the King will here oblige us to the Commanded Action And if the Question be Whether this be formal Obedience or only material We Answer 1. It is but material and not formal Obedience de specie properly as it is to a Command that is without Authority to that thing But 2. It partaketh of formal Obedience as to the Genu in as much as we do it for the honour of a Ruler and because it is his Command who hath Authority to Govern us though not to do it by this mistaken Action Pr. 6. If a Rightful Ruler should go quite beyond the bounds of his Authority so far as that his Command did not at all bind us yet would it not make an indifferent thing become unlawful meerly because he doth Command it what ever any other Accident may do Proved 1. Because there is no force in the Inference It is Commanded ergo it is unlawful 2. Though his Act be culpable and without true power yet he is no Usurper whom we are obliged to disown and all true Governours have their faults 3. The thing may be good and so a Duty on other accidental reasons viz. 1. As a means of Concord 2. Of pleasing others to their edification 3. Of honouring Superiours 4. Of obtaining liberty and avoiding mischief and as such though not as an Act of Obedience may be a Duty 4. Else it would be in the power of ill-minded Rulers to make all indifferent lawful things to be sin or unlawful to us by Commanding them and so to deprive us craftily of all our liberty and make us Slaves If Rulers forbidding them make not all things indifferent sinful which many say much less their commanding them else they might command instead of forbidding and do the same thing We do believe that there may be found some Persons in the world of such weak Understandings and unruly Spirits as to think that it is a sinful betraying of their Liberty to do a thing antecedently indifferent when it is commanded them Were we acquainted with such a one we might ask him 1. At what Age he would have Mankind begin the practice of this Principle Infants cannot learn it If before they can feed themselves they should refuse Meat at the
and what Accidents make a thing unlawful to be commanded and what not and what Scandal is and how far to be avoided which we shall do in these Propositions following Prop. 1. MORALITY is either Regulans or Regulata mensurans or mensurata The first is Radically in God's own Mind and Will and is called by many Lex aeterna and it is signally and expressively in Gods Laws and subord 〈◊〉 nately in Man's Laws as they are a Rule to Subjects Of these we are not now to speak that is not of the holiness of God or his Laws nor of Man's as they are truly a Rule to Subjects Morality as Regulated is subjected in the Minds and Actions of the Creature specially in the WILL and in our Actions as VOLUNTARY and so even the Laws of Men as those Men are God's Subjects and their Laws are Actions good or evil as Regulated by God's Superiour Laws are the Subjects of the Morality now in question Prop. 2. This Morality in Man's Will and Actions is nothing else formally but their Relation of Conformity or Disconformity to God's Law as their Rule and subordinately to subordinate Rules and materially to the End and O 〈◊〉 jects Prop. 3. How far this Moral Relation is immediately founded in a Physical Relation which is before it in order of Nature viz. in the said Relation of the Will and Action to the End and Object as such antecedently to the Relation to the commanding or forbidding Law we would willingly open were it not lest we seem with Men that love not much distinction to justifie or excuse them that censure us as guilty of excess herein and we may do what is now necessary to be done without it Prop. 4. No Being as such no Substance as such no Habit as a Habit no Act as an Act is Morally Good or Evil For so they are but Quid Naturale and God doth not command and forbid Natural Beings as such Prop. 5. All Moral Good and Evil is subjected in Natural Beings or Privations but not immediately as such but as modified circumstantiated and related Prop. 6. Good and Evil make up all Morality there is no third Species There are many things that are Indifferent as to Morality that is neither Morally Good nor Morally Evil but there is nothing Moral-Indifferent Meer Natural Beings and Acts are Indifferent as to Morality that is they are not Moral But whatever is Moral is Morally Good or Evil and not Indifferent Prop. 7. The Subject and quid absolutum Fundamentale of all moral good is quid positivum or a real Being but the Form of moral evil is ever found indeed in a real Subject but not always in a real fundamentum For it is oft at least in total Omissions and Privations of the Act and in Privations of some modal or accidental qualification or rectitude Prop. 8. Yet the formal relations of moral good and evil are both tru 〈◊〉 Relations even Dis-conformity as well as Conformity as curv 〈◊〉 tude and dis-similitude are as well as rectitude and similitude And a Meer Negative is neither good nor evil e. g. Negative Non-conformity which is not Privative Dis-conformity is no sin because there being not the Debitum inessendi the non-inesse is inculpable It seemeth indeed to some Learned Men that non agere may be moral good e. g. Non odisse Deum au 〈◊〉 proximum non ment 〈◊〉 ri not to murder steal c. And it 's true that the 〈◊〉 is the thing remotely commanded or loco materie 〈◊〉 but the thing immâ—â—â—ately commanded is the 〈◊〉 agere The Will by all these Commands is bound positâ—â—ely to nill the forbidden Act e. g. Murder Adultery Lying c. To nill them is the prime Duty or moral Good that we say not with Ockam the only and not-to-d 〈◊〉 them is the secondary but that is as they are Acts restrained or forborn by a Commanding Will For a Man in Infancy or the Womb or in an Apoplexie or when he is wholly taken up with some other sin not then to Steal Lye Murder or commit Adultery is not at all a moral Good But a meer incogitâ—â—â—y non agere non velle may be a true moral Evil The reason is because when a right Volition is commanded as to love God or Man or â—â—ight Action to do good 〈◊〉 not to do it is a breach of the Command And not to will and not to do when we ought is the commonest kind of sinning Prop. 9. Right ordered Actions Dispositions and Habits then as in or of the Will directly and remotely some non agency are the only things commanded called morally Good save that eorum gratia the Soul and whole man or person is well and truly called morall 〈◊〉 Good And the P 〈◊〉 ivation and I 〈◊〉 ordination of Voluntary Actions Dispositions and Habits are the only moral Evil save that the person is also called such eorum gratia Prop. 10. An Action may be Indifferent or of no Morality as to Election or Performance and yet to Deliberate about that Act may be morally good e. g. I may doubt of two ways which are equal to my End as far as can be known by me whether they be so or not or which is the better I may be obliged to deliberate whether they are equal or not to guide my Progress and end my Doubt And when I have found them equal I have found that Comparatively neither of them is matter of Election as by reason to be preferred to the other But yet because I must chuse to g 〈◊〉 on therefore I must take one way and not the other because I cannot go both But this is only a chusing to go and a taking that way but not a chusing it which signifieth a rational preferring it Here my Deliberation is a moral Act and so is my chusing to go but my chusing this way rather than the other is none For upon deliberating I found that neither was Eligible and Choice no Duty Prop. 11. As the smallness of the least Physical Being though undiscernable proveth it not to be Nothing so the smallness of any moral Good or Evil Duty or Sin proveth not that it is no Duty or Sin at all Prop. 12. Moral Good and Evil is it self only an Accident for Habits Dispositions Actions and Relations are Accidents and Privations are either reductively Accidents as some call them or less than Accidents even meer nothings though from a Nullity or Privation a moral Relation truly result on the Person Prop. 13. Therefore when we say that a thing is Good or Evil by Accident we mean somewhat more than that the Good or Evil is an Accident it self for there is no other We mean that it is something acciding or added to the former Accident or State that maketh it now Good or Evil. Prop. 14. In an Action there is considerable 1. The Action as such or as specified only by the Faculty Intellection Volition Imagination c.
2. The Action as farther specified by the terminating Object 1. In the first respect the Gradus Actus is Accidens accident 〈◊〉 And an Act may become Good or Evil by such Intenseness or Remissness as is ordinate or inordinate And the Timing it may do the like As to be thinking when I should sleep 2. In the second respect an Accident supervening or added to the Object is said to make that Action Good or Evil by Accident that is by an alteration of the specifying Object by some Accident And this is the commonest Case and the Sense in which this Controversie in hand is most concerned which therefore we desire to be most observed Prop. 15. Any Man therefore that knoweth what true Knowledge is may easily perceive that he that will Dispute about Bonum vel Malum per se per accidens if he would not lose his labour or deceive must use more diligence in explaining these Terms than they do that toss them about unexplained as if they were sufficiently intelligible of themselves to such as some use to make the Receivers of their cholerick and splenetick evacuations Even Bonum Malum per se is not such Ver se qua substantiam nor per se qua Actum nor per se qua Intellectionem Volitionem aut Praxin execu ivam but per se ut Accidens substantiae scilicet Actum circa Objectum quod est accidens plerumque sine altero accidente superaddito So that the same which now is Bonum vel Malum per accidens is called Bonum vel malum per se in respect to a supervenient Accident And excluding all Accidents or all Good or Evil by Accident so nothing in the World is Bonum or Malum morale per se except what is anon excepted E. G. To Love is an Act that Act as is the Habit also is an Accident To love a Man as godly or wise or as my King or Teacher is to love him for Accidents that is Godliness Wisdom Authority c. This is Bonum per accidens and yet Bonum per se stating the Object thus without farther Accidents To love him as an Enemy and Persecutor and Silencer of Godly Ministers of Christ is Malum per Accidens and yet Malum per se in respect to farther Accidents To love the Man is not Evil but to love him for his Evil. The Exception here is when we are bound to love the simple Essence as such abstracting from all Accidents The principal Instance is of our love to God of which more anon because God hath no Accidents and therefore is loved meerly as in his Essence And no doubt but God is to be loved as in his Essential perfection But yet we are nono of those that against Pet. Hurtado Mendez and other Nominals will undertake to prove that Relations to the Creatures which are Accidents do not truly belong to God such as that of Creator Owner Ruler Benefactor c. we leave that Task to the Thomists and to other Mens judgements how well they perform it The next Instance is our love to Man as Man and so to other Created Essences which we deny not but add 1. That Man's Relation to God as he sheweth his Maker's perfections is a Relation and that 's it that is to be loved morally in Man at least principally and never left out The same we say of other Essences 2. And the Wisdom Goodness and so the moral amiableness of Man at least the principal is it self an Accident The Word of God and the Worship of God are Accidents But yet we say that the properest Notion of Bonum per se is when we love a thing but specially God himself as in the simple Essence 〈◊〉 a supervening obliging Accident And of malum per 〈◊〉 when God's very Essence is hated or not loved But that any morally hate the very substantial Essence of a Creature we leave others to prove Prop. 16. This holdeth about the very Negative Laws of the Decalogue e. g. To kill a Man is in it self no moral Evil else it were sin to Execute Malefactors and Kings Judges and Souldiers were the most criminal sinners To kill a Man Authoritatively that is a Traytor or Murderer is good that is an Act with its due Mode and Object which are Accidents that make it good And to kill the Innocent or without Authority is sin by this Accident of an undue Mode and Object To take another Mans Goods or Money is not Malum per se for it may be done as a Mulct or by Law on just Cause or for the Publick defence by Authority or by his Consent But to take it without Consent Right or Authority is sin by this Accident So also of the seventh Commandment The Law forbids the Act as Clothed with its undue Accidents The Names of Injustice Coveting Murder Adultery Theft False-witness c. all signifie the Acts with the undue prohibited Accidents One of our Casuists excepteth only Lying as simply per se Evil But he that Lyeth sinneth not because he speaketh those same words but because he speaketh words that in relation to his own mind and to the matter and to the hearers understanding are false and deceitful And that Relative Incongruity of the words is the accident that maketh them sinful Prop. 17. Man passeth his life among such a multitude of accidents and circumstances that it is not one but very many that every one of our actions is Clothed with or concerned in which tend to make it Good or Evil. Prop. 18. A chief distinction here to be observed is between Immutable Duties supposing our own continued Faculties and mutable ones and those things are principally or eminently called Good or Evil per se which are so immutably and no supervenient accident can ever make them otherwise And in the most notable Sense those things are called Good or Evil per accidens which by supervening accidents may be changed from what they were before Pr. 19. That which is thus immutably Good per se is Mans Duty to God himself immediately as he is our Owner Ruler Benefactor and End Considering this Duty not in this or that time but in kind in its season and supposing our Faculties and Con-causes For if a Man should be exercising even Love to God when he is bound to sleep for the support of Nature or if a Man should love God with so passionate an affection as would distract him this as so used is not good but we never knew any in much danger of so over-doing Nor is it a Duty for a Man in Infancy or an Apoplexy or deep sleep c. actually to love fear or trust God and in other such Cases of Impossibility But when possible or in its season it is immutably a Duty Not so rarely as the Jansenist chargeth the Jesuite Casuists to hold once in many Weeks or Months or Years but Love constraining us to its holy Fruits must be the very New
of the same mind when Christ would have a right hand or a right eye rather lost than the Soul should be hazarded by the scandal or temptation of it And when he would pay Caesar Tribute when he was free rather than oâ—â—end men And when he so dreadfully speaketh of them that offend or scandalize one of the little ones even weak Believers as that it were better for them that a Milstone were hanged on their necks and they were cast into the Sea Mat. 5. and 18. 8. Mar. 9. 42 43. Mat. 17. 27. and 18. 6. Rom. 14. 13 14 c. This was S. Paul ' s judgment Let us not judge one another any more but judge this rather that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his Brothers way I know and am perswaded by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of it self but to him that esteemeth any thing unclean to him it is unclean But if thy Brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ dyed Let not your good be evil spoken of For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men Let us therefore follow after the things that make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another For meat destroy not the work of God All things indeed are pure but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence It is good neither to eat Flesh nor drink Wine nor that whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or made weak Hast thou faith have it to thy self before God Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth And he that doubteth is damned if he eat because it s not of faith For whatsoever is not of faith is sin This was Paul ' s Doctrine then even to all the Church of Rome So on Rom. 15. 1 c. We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves Let every one of us please his Neighbour for his good to edification For even Christ pleased not himself Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus So 1 Cor. 8. 9. But take 〈◊〉 eed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a Stumbling-block to them that are weak 13. Wherefore if Meat make my Brother to offend I will eat no Flesh while the world standeth lest I make my Brother to oâ—â—end Remember that he that spake this had as great Church-authority as any Bishop and spake this as an Apostlers and not as a meer private Man Pr. 52. The same Author saith Eccl. Polit. p. 230. that this School-distinction of scandalum datum acceptum is apparently false and impertinent and the main thing that hath perplexed all discourses of this Article But we see no Reason to think that the generality of both Protestants Papists are herein mistaken this Writer is in the right or that the School Doctors need go to School to him to reform such Errors It is a Moral Subject Given and Taken are morally meant that is There is scandal culpably given and there is scandal culpably taken only and not so given The distinction is of the Parties culpable All which is culpably taken is not culpably given A man that either purposely or negligently speaketh injurious provoking words doth give the temptation of wrath to the hearer But he that speaketh words which in themselves have no tendency to provoke nor was obliged to foresee that they would provoke doth give no scandal no nor he that justly and aptly reproveth But a peevish or impatient sinner may yet take scandal from them He that leaveth Arsenick where he should know that another is like to take it to his death whether he do it purposely or negligently that is by the Wills commission or omission is the reputed Giver or Moral Cause of that Man's death But he that leaveth it where he could not know and was not obliged to fear that another would so take and use it may say It was taken by him and not given by me An alluring Habit Actions and Gestures which have a Natural tendency to provoke others to sinful lusts have ever been condemned by all sober Divines as Scandal Given which yet chaste Persons may re 〈◊〉 use to Take But if the soberest and modestest Habit prove a Snare it is a Scandal Taken and not culpably given As a Thief if he steal my Knife and cut his own Throat with it cannot say that I gave it him He that speaketh words which are apt to tempt the hearer to Treason or Rebellion doth give the Scandal But if by the reading of any Chapter in the Bible any will be incited to Rebellion or Disloyalty or if by the innocent necessary and sober defence of a just Cause any will be tempted to think unworthily of his Governours or Judges he Taketh Scandal that is not culpably Given him Pr. 53. If a Man were bound to forbear all that others will turn into an occasion of sin he should not only lose all his liberty but omit all his Duty And to think that we are bound to deny no liberty or nothing indifferent to prevent or cure the sin of others is to deny the common Principles of Humanity and on pretense of Justice to renounce common Charity and to become an Adversary to the great Precepts of Christ and his Apostles Therefore the difficulty is to resolve how far and in what cases our liberty must be denyed to save other Men from sin and consequently from damnation which must be determined by the great General Canons Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self Whatsoever you would that Men should do to you so do to them Let all be done to Edification Prefer a greater Good before a less and most avoid the greatest Evil Caeteris paribus the most Publick good of many is the greatest Sin is a greater Evil than bodily wants and sufferings No Ruler may Command any thing which is contrary though but by accident to the Law of God in Nature and Scripture expressed Charity and Justice are Commanded by the Law of Nature and Scripture When accidentally the Man that fell among Thieves was wounded and naked Charity obliged the Priest and Levite to have relieved him If by accident Fire consume Mens Habitations Charity requireth others to relieve them Especially where the Obligation is great and special As for Parents to feed their Children If Rulers forbid them and so would have them murder them by Famine the Command is sinful and the Obligation null because they cannot dissolve the Obligation of God's Natural Laws And the exercise of Charity to Believers that are the Members of Christ is a Duty that none may Countermand