would not have been a full exemplification of his Doctrine nor a perfect Revelation of it to the World Example bringeth Doctrine neer our Senses and thereby maketh it more clear and powerfull § 20. It is the undertaken Office of Jesus Christ to send the Holy Spirit into Believers mindes and to write out the substance of this Law upon their hearts and give them such holy and heavenly inclinations that it may become as it were a Natural Law unto them and they obey it with love facility and delight though not in perfection till they arrive at the state of Perfection So much to shew WHAT the Christian Religion is CHAP. IV. Of the Nature and Properties of the Christian Religion HAving understood the matter and words of the Christian Religion before I proceeded any further I thought it meet to pass a judgment upon the nature temperament constitution and properties of it And therein I found that which must needs be a great preparative to belief § 1. And first I found that it is a most holy and spiritual Religion resolved into the most excellent Principles and Ends glorifying God and humbling man and teaching us the most divine and heavenly life in the love and patient service of our Creator 1. It is most Holy for it calleth us up entirely unto God and consisteth in our absolute dedication and devotedness to him 2. It is most Spiritual leading us from things carnal and terrene and being principally about the government of the Soul and placing all our felicity in things spiritual and not in fleshly pleasures with the Epicureans and Mahometans It teacheth us to worship God in a spiritual manner and not either irrationally toyishly or irreverently And it directeth our lives to a daily converse with God in holiness 3. The Principles of it are the three Essentialities of God in Unity viz. the Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness and the three grand Relations of God to Man as founded in his three most famous works viz as our Creator our Redeemer and our Regenerater or Sanctifier and the three great Relations arising from Creation and also from Redemption viz. as he is our Owner our Ruler and our Benefactor or chiefest Good and End 4. The Ends of the Christian Religion I find are proximately the saving of man from Satan and the Justice of God the sanctifying them to God and purifying them from sin the pardon of their sins and the everlasting happiness of their Souls in the pleasing and fruition of God for ever In a word it is but the redeeming us from our carnal self the world and the devil to the love and service of our Creator 5. Nothing can be spoken more honourably of God in all his perfections in the language of poor mortals than what the Christian Religion speaketh of him 6. And no Religion so much humbleth man by opening the malignity both of his original and actual sin and declaring the displeasure of God against it 7. It teacheth us who once lived as without God in the world to live wholly unto God and to make nothing of all the world in comparison of him 8. And it teacheth us to live upon the hopes of heaven and fetch our motives and our comforts from it § 2. I find that the Christian Religion is the most pure and clean and utterly opposite to all that is evil There is no vertue which it commendeth not nor duty which it commandeth not nor vice which it condemneth not nor sin which it forbiddeth not The chief thing in it which occasioneth the rebellion and displeasure of the world against it is the purity and goodness of it which is contrary to their sensual nature and as Physick to their licentious lives would it indulge their vices and give them leave to sin they could endure it § 3. Particularly it most vehemently condemneth the grand vices of Pride Worldliness and Sensuality and all their polluting and pernicious fruits 1. No Religion doth so much to teach men Humility and make Pride appear an odious thing It openeth the malignity of it as it lifteth up the mind against God or Man it condemneth it as Satans image it giveth us a multitude of humbling precepts and motives and secondeth them all with the strangest example of condescension and lowliness in Christ that was ever presented to the view of man Whereas I find even in the famousest of the Roman Heathens that a great deal of pride was taken for a virtue and men were instructed and exhorted to be proud under pretence of maintaining and vindicating their honour and true Humility was taken for disgraceful baseness and men were driven from it by the scorn not only of the vulgar but of Philosophers themselves 2. And there is no Religion that is fitted so much to the destruction of Worldliness or of the love of Riches as Christianity is for it teacheth men most effectually the vanity of the world it appointeth them a holy life so hateful to worldly men as will occasion them to feel the vexation of the world it openeth to them the hopes of a life so much better as may teach them to take all the wealth and glory of this world for a shadow a feather or a dream It condemneth worldly love as the sin inconsistent with the love of God and the certain mark of a drossy unsanctified miserable soul It setteth before us such an example of Christ as must needs shame worldliness with all true believers 3. And for Sensuality it openeth the shame of its beastiality and maketh the carnal mind and life to be enmity to God and the contrary to that spiritual mind and life which is the property of all that shall be saved It strictly and vehemently condemneth all gluttony and excess of drink all ryotting and time-wasting needless sports all fornication and ribald talk and wanton carriage words or thoughts Whereas I find among Heathens and Mahometans that inordinate sensuality was much indulged excess of eating and drinking was made a matter of no great blame time-wasting Plays were as little accused as if men had no greater matter to do in the world than to pass away time in some sensual or fantastical delight either by fornication or many wives at once their lust was gratified and so their minds were debased polluted and called down and made unfit for spiritual contemplation and a holy life From whence no doubt it came to pass that they were so dark about things spiritual and divine and so overspread with errors about many plain and necessary things § 4. There is no Religion which so notably detecteth and disgraceth the sin of SELFISHNESS nor so effectually teacheth SELF-DENIAL as the Christian Religion doth It maketh man understand the nature of his corrupt depraved state that it is a falling from GOD to SELF and that his recovery lieth in returning from SELF to GOD. It sheweth him how selfishness is the principle of divisions enmity
the flames of Troy that ript up his own Mother that he might see the place where once he lay Did Caligula think so Did Commodus Caracalla Heliogabalus think so Did the Spaniards think so by the Indians who are said by their own Writers to have murdered in forty two years space no less than fifty millions of them Did King Philip think so who put his own Son and Heir to death by the Inquisition besides so many thousands more in Spain and the Low Countreys by that and other wayes How full of such bloody instances is the World If it were a Tyrants interest that kept him under some moderation to the people of his own Dominions it might yet possibly leave him a bloody destroyer of other Nations in his Conquests The World hath not wanted men that think the lives of many thousands a little sacrifice to a proud design or furious passion and are no more troubled at it than a Pythagorean would be to kill a Bird. It hath had such as Sylla Messala Catiline and the Conquerours of Jerusalem who as Josephus saith crucified so many thousands till they wanted Crosses for men and place for Crosses besides the greater numbers famished Obj. But if Chief Governours be under no Law they are under Covenants by which they are obliged Answ What shall make their Covenants obligatory to their consciences if they be under no government of God The reason why mens Covenants bind them is because they are under the government of God who requireth all men to keep their Covenants and condemneth Covenant-breakers But if God had never commanded Covenant-keeping nor forbad Covenant-breaking they could never be matter of duty or sin So that this Doctrin that God hath made no Laws for man and is not his Governour doth leave all Soveraigns from under the least conscientious restraint from any acts of cruelty or injustice and tendeth to deliver up the world to be a sacrifice to their lusts when it is the government of the universal Soveraign that is their restraint § 9. VI. If God have not the Soveraignty over all the world then no man on earth can have any Governing Power But Princes and Rulers have a Governing Power Therefore the Soveraignty is in God The reason of the major is because Kings can have no power but what they receive from some or other there is no effect without a cause And if they receive it it is either from God or Man as the Original Not from Man for the people themselves have no governing power to use or give as to the government of Commonwealths for their personal power over themselves is of another species and cometh short of this in many respects as else-where I have proved And if it were otherwise yet they have nothing themselves but derivatively from God as is proved before and therefore they themselves must have their power from him from whom they are and have all that they possess But God cannot give that which he hath not himself either formally or eminently Therefore he hath governing power formally or eminently or else no Prince or Man or Angel can have any no more than they can have being or reason without him And though his power be transcendent his exercise of it must be according to the capacity of the subject and therefore morally by Laws and Executions So that as all things else in the creature are derived so is power And as in beings aut Deus aut nihil is an undeniable truth so as to governing power or Soveraignty either it is Primitively Supremely and Transcendently in God or there is none in any Prince or Parents for if they have it not from Him they can have none at all Obj. Governing by Laws is caused by humane impotency because man is not every where present nor of power to effect himself in and by others all the things which he commandeth But were man Omnipresent and Omnipotent as God is he would make all men do well and not command them to do it Therefore it is so in the Government of God Answ It is granted that man is impotent and God Omnipotent and Omnipresent and therefore that God could indeed do as is here intimated even make all men do well and not command it But 1. it is apparent that de facto he doth not so 2. And his wisdom being more eminently to be manifested in the work of Government than his Omnipotency doth shew us partly why he doth not so even because the sapiential way is more suitable to his ends and to the subject Creation did most eminently glorifie or manifest Omnipotency Government doth most eminently glorifie God's Omniscience or Wisdom as our Perfection or Glorification will most eminently manifest and glorifie his Love and Goodness Each Attribute shineth most eminently in its proper work and mans conceits must not confound this perfect order Yet let it be here noted that all this while I meddle not with the controversie of the Liberty of man's will and so whether God's sapiential government by Laws do operate also by necessitation and Physical causation as the natural motions of the Orbs or the artificial motions of an Engine I only argue that whether God thus operate by his Government by secret necessitation or not yet it is most certain that he governeth Morally and useth the Means of Doctrin Laws and Judgments which might consist with Physical necessitating efficacy in all that do obey indeed if God's wisdom and man's freedom of will did inferr nothing to the contrary But if it had been granted that all God's government is by Physical efficacy it would stand good nevertheless that Laws and Judgment are part of the means which he maketh so effectual But yet I shall go further in the next Argument § 10. VII Experience satisfieth all the rational world that there is de facto a course of Duty appointed by God for men which they do not eventually fulfil Therefore there is not only a Moral Government which is effectual but also which is separated from necessitating efficacy They that deny this and plead for Physical Government only must affirm that nothing is any man's Duty but what he actually performeth and that nothing is any man's sin which he doth or omitteth to do that is that there is no sin or moral evil in the world For all that God Physically effecteth is good and they suppose him to have no Law which commandeth any thing but what he Physically effecteth and he will not Physically effect that which he forbiddeth And if there be no such thing as moral evil or sin in the world then no man should fear any or avoid any Let but a man leave any thing undone if it be nourishing his children defending his King loving God or man and he may thence conclude that it never was his duty Let him but do any thing that he hath a mind to if it be killing Father or Mother or his Prince or Friend
be to our benefit only and his hurt yea though it be in going to the slaughter if he did so by us could do us no wrong nor give us any just excuse for our disobedience For as sweet as life is to us it is not so much Ours in right as His and therefore should be at his disposal § 9. The breaking of Gods Laws must needs deserve a greater penalty than the breaking of any Man's Laws as such The difference of the Rulers and their Authority puts this past all controversie of which yet I shall say more anon § 10. What is said of the subjection of Individuals to God is true of all just Societies as such the Kingdoms of the world being all under God the universal King as small parcels of his Kingdom as particular Corporations are under a humane King Therefore Kings and Kingdoms owe their absolute obedience to God and may not intend any ultimate end but the pleasing of their universal Soveraign nor set up any interest against him or above him or in coordination with him nor manage any way of Government but in dependance on him as the Principle and the End of it nor make any Laws but such as stand in due subordination to his Laws nor command any duty but what hath in its order a true subserviency and conducibility to his pleasure CHAP. X. Of GOD's particular Laws as known in Nature THe true nature of a Law I have opened before It is not necessary that it be written nor spoken but that it be in general any apt signification of the Will of the Rector to his subjects instituting what shall be due from them and to them for the ends of Government Therefore whatsoever is a signification of Gods will to man appointing us our duty and telling us what benefit shall be ours upon the performance and what loss or hurt shall befall us if we sin is a Law of God § 1. A Law being the Rectors Instrument of Governing there can be no Law where there is no Government And therefore that which some call The eternal Law is indeed no Law at all But it is the Principle of all just Laws The Eternal Wisdom and Goodness of God that is the Perfection of his Nature and Will as related to a Possible or future Kingdom is denominated Justice And this Justice some call the Eternal Law But it is truly no Law because it is the will of God in himself and not as Rector nor is it any signification of that Will nor doth it suppose any governed subjects in being from Eternity nor doth it make any duty to any from Eternity But all the Laws which God maketh in time and consequently which men make which are just and good are but the Products of this Eternal Will and Justice And whereas some say that there is an eternall truth in such Axiomes as these Thou shalt love God above all and do as thou would'st be done by and the good should be incouraged and the bad punished c. I answer God formeth not Propositions And therefore there were no such Propositions from Eternity Nor was there any Creature to love God or to do Good or Evil and be the subject of such Propositions That Proposition therefore which was not from Eternity was neither true nor false from Eternity for non entis non sunt accidentia vel modi But this is true that from Eternity there were the grounds of the verity of such Propositions when they should after be And that if there had been subjects from Eternity for such Propositions and Intellects to frame them they would have been of Eternal truth § 2. At the same time of his Creation that God made Man his subject he also made him some Laws to govern him For subjection being a general obligation to obedience would signifie nothing if there were no particular duties to be the matter of that obedience Else Man should owe God no obedience from the beginning but be Lawless for where there is no Law there is no Obedience Taking a Law in the true comprehensive sense as I here do § 3. All the objective significations in natura rerum within us or without us of the Will of God concerning our Duty reward or punishment are the True Law of Nature in the primary proper sense § 4. Therefore it is falsly defined by all Writers who make it consist in certain axioms as some say born in us or written on our hearts from our birth as others say dispositively there It is true that there is in the nature of Mans Soul a certain aptitude to understand certain Truths as soon as they are revealed that is as soon as the very Natura rerum is observed And it is true that this disposition is brought to actual knowledge as soon as the minde comes to actual consideration of the things But it is not true that there is any actual knowledge of any Principles born in Man Nor is it true that the said Disposition to know is truly a Law nor yet that the actual knowledge following it is a Law But the disposition may be called a Law Metonymically as being the aptitude of the faculties to receive and obey a Law as the Light of the Eye which is the potentia dispositio videndi may be called the Light of the Sun but unhansomly And the subsequent actual knowledge of Principles may be called the Law of Nature metonymically as being the perception of it and an effect of it as actual sight may be called the Light of the Sun and as actual knowledge of the Kings Laws may be called His Laws within us that is the effect of them or the Reception of them But this is far from propriety of speech That the inward axiomes as known are not Laws is evident 1. Because a Law is in genere objectivo and this is in genere actionum A Law is in genere signorum but this is the discerning of the sign A Law is the will of the Rector signified this is his will known A Law is Obligatory this is the perception of an Obligation A Law maketh duty but this is the knowledge of a duty made 2. The Law is not in our power to change or abrogate But a mans inward dispositions and perceptions are much in his power to encrease or diminish or obliterate Every man that is wilfully sensual and wicked may do much to blot out the Law of Nature which is said to be written on his heart But wickedness cannot alter or obliterare the Law of God If this were Gods Law which is upon the heart when a sinner hath blotted it out he is disobliged from duty and punishment For where there is no Law there is no duty or transgression But no sinner can so disoblige himself by altering his Makers Laws 3. Else there would be as many Laws of Nature not only as there are men but as there are diversity of perceptions But Gods Law is
not so uncertain and multiform a thing 4. And if Mans disposition or actual knowledge be Gods Law it may be also called Mans Law And so the Kings Law should be the Subjects perception of it It is therefore most evident that the true Law of Nature is another thing And is it not then a matter of admiration that so many sagacious accurate Schoolmen Philosophers Lawyers and Divines should for so long time go on in such false definitions of it The whole World belongeth to the Law of Nature so far as it signifieth to us the will of God about our duty and reward and punishment The World is as Gods Statute Book The foresaid natural aptitude maketh us fit to read and practise it The Law of Nature is as the external Light of the Sun and the said natural disposition is as the visive faculty to make use of it Yet much of the Law of Nature is within us too But it is there only in genere objectivo signi Man 's own Nature his Reason Free will and Executive power are the most notable signs of his duty to God To which all Mercies Judgements and other signifying means belong § 5. The way that God doth by Nature oblige us is by laying such fundamenta from which our duty shall naturally result as from the signification of his Will § 6. These fundamenta are some of them unalterable while we have a being and some of them alterable And therefore some Laws of Nature are alterable and some unalterable accordingly As for instance Man is made a Rational free Agent and God is unchangeably his Rightfull Governour of infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness Therefore the nature of God and Man in via thus compared are the fundamentum from whence constantly resulteth our indispensable duty to love him trust him fear him and obey him But if our being or reason or free-will which are our essential Capacities cease our obligations cease cessante fundamento God hath made Man a sociable Creature and while he is in society the Law of Nature obligeth him to many things which he hath no obligation to when the society is dissolved As when a Parent Childe Wife or Neighbour dieth all our duties to them cease Nature by the position of many circumstances hath made Incest ordinarily a thing producing manifold evils and a sin against God And yet Nature so placed the children of Adam in other circumstances that the said Nature made that their duty to marry one another which in others would have been an unnatural thing Nature forbiddeth Parents to murder their children But when God the absolute Lord of life would that way try Abrahams obedience when he was sure that he had a supernatural command even Nature obliged him to obey it Nature forbiddeth men to rob each other of their proper goods But when the Owner of all things had given the Israelites the Egyptians goods and changed the propriety the fundamentum of their former natural obligation ceased Changes in natura rerum which are the foundation of our obligation may make changes in the obligations which before were natural But so far as Nature that Nature which foundeth duty is the same the duty remaineth still the same The contrary would be a plain contradiction § 7. The Authoritas Imperantis is the formall object of all obedience and so all our duty is formally duty to God as our Supream or to Men as his Officers But as to the Material object our Natural duties are either I. Towards God II. To our selves III. To others § 8. I. The prime duties of the Law of Nature are towards God and are our full consent to the three Relations of which two are mentioned before To be Gods Rational Creatures and not obliged to take him heartily for our Absolute Owner and Ruler is a Contradiction in Nature § 9. Mans Nature being what it is and Related thus to God and Gods Nature and Relations being as afore described Man is naturally obliged to take God to be what he is in all his Attributes forementioned cap. 5. and to suit his will and affections to God accordingly that is to take him to be omnipotent omniscient and most good most faithfull and most just c. and to believe him seek him trust him love him fear him obey him meditate on him to honour him and preferre him before all the World and this with all our Heart and might and to take our chiefest pleasure in it All this so evidently resulteth from the Nature of God and Man compared that I cannot perceive that it needeth proof or illustration § 10. It is a contradiction to Nature that any of this duty proper to God may be given to any other and that any Creature or Idol of our Imagination should be esteemed loved trusted obeyed or honoured as God For that were falshood in us injury to God and abuse of the Creature § 11. Nature requireth that Man having the gift of speech from God should imploy his Tongue in the Praise and service of his Maker This plainly resulteth from our own Nature and the use of the Tongue compared with or related to Gods Nature and perfections with his propriety in us and all that 's ours and his Government of us § 12. Seeing Man liveth in totall dependance upon God and in continual receivings from him Nature obligeth him to use his heart and tongue in holy desires express'd and exercised in Prayer and in returning thanks to his great Benefactor of which more anon For though God know all our sins and wants already yet the Tongue is fitted to confess our sins and to express our desires And by confessing and expressing a twofold capacity for mercy accreweth to us That is 1. Our own Humiliation is excited and increased by the said Confessions and our Desires and Love and Hope excited and increased by our own Petitions the tongue having a power to reflect back on the heart and the exercise of all good affections being the means of their increase 2. And a person that is found in the actual exercise of Repentance and holy Desire and Love is morally and in point of Justice a much fitter recipient for pardon and acceptance and other blessings than another is And it being proved by Nature that Prayer Confession and Thanksgiving hath so much usefulness to our good and to our further duty Nature will tell us that the tongue and heart should be thus imployed And therefore Nature teacheth all men in the World that believe there is a God to confess their sins to him and call upon him in their distress and to give him thanks for their receivings § 13. Seeing Societies as such are totally dependent upon God and mens gifts are communicative and Solemnities are operative Nature teacheth us that God ought to be solemnly acknowledged worshipped and honoured both in Families and in more solemn appointed assemblies It greatly affecteth our own hearts to praise
unjust that the fullest evidence for their Justification doth but seem to aggravate their faults and nothing is so great a Crime as their highest Virtues Or if their Justification be undenyable they rage the more because they are hindered from making them suffer as deeply in their Names as in their Bodies These things are no more questionable than the Warrs of Alexander or Caesar the World having longer proof and fuller evidence of them § 15. And ordinarily God himself so ordereth it that his faithfullest Subjects shall be the deepest sufferers in this life § 16. Therefore self-denyal mortification contempt of the World and patience under manifold sufferings from God and Man are necessary to all who will be faithfull to God in the unquestionable duties before described It is tryed Friendship and Obedience which is most valuable And unwholsom pleasures though preferred by the foolish Patient are forbidden by our wise Physician that they hinder not our health and greater Pleasures § 17. Therefore if Worldly fleshly pleasures were our end and chief Good the best men would have the smallest measure of them Obj. But you restrain man further than God restraineth him and binde him to more than God bindeth him to and make superstition to seem his duty and then raise these consequences from such Premises Answ What I mean by sin and duty I have so fully opened before and proved to be such by the light of Reason that this Objection hath no place Even the sober Heathens the Greek Philosophers and Romane Worthies found and confessed all this to be true If there be any thing in the Life before described which all sound Reason doth not justifie and command let him that is able manifest so much If not it is no superstition to live as a man that is governed by God and led by Reason and to do that which all our faculties were made for And for austerities I have pleaded for none which are not become needfull to our own preservation and felicity As a Patient will endure a strict dyet and exercise and blood-letting and bitter Physick for his health It is not any affected unprofitable austerities that I plead for but those which are for our good and fit us for our duty and keep the flesh from rebelling against Reason and keep Man from living like a Beast Even less than many of the Philosophers plead for and he that useth but thus much which is needfull will finde it both opposed as unsufferable by the World and murmured against by his suffering and displeased Flesh and that the Soul cannot do its duty but at a considerable cost and trouble to the Body Though there may be an evil masked and cunningly moderated which men call Goodness which may be had at a cheaper rate But saith Seneca truly Non est Bonitas pessimis esse meliorem CHAP. XIV That there is a Life of Retribution after this TO know whether there be a Life after this for men to receive Rewards or Punishments in is a matter of greatest importance to Mankinde to be fully resolved in upon which depend our Comforts and our Religion and without which we know not what to expect to hope for or to fear nor what to intend and seek after through our lives nor how to order our hearts or actions This therefore I shall inquire into by the help of Reason and Natural evidence as one that would not be deceived nor deceive in so great a matter And I shall pass by those arguments which are commonly fetcht from the Souls immateriality and independence upon matter and other such like which are commonly to be found in Physicks and Metaphysicks as being not such as my present method leadeth me to and shall make use of such as are the necessary consectaries of the certain Truths already proved Object But whatever Rationalities may be drawn from the Divine Attributes to prove a future state yet it depending wholly on the Divine Will and the Divine Will being absolutely free we can have no rational inducements to bring us to any sufficient knowledge of it but by a clear Revelation of the Divine Will Answ Is the Law of Nature no clear Revelation of Gods will or is it a Law without any Rewards or Penalties It depended on Gods will whether man should be his Subject or no obliged to obey him But doth it follow therefore that it cannot be proved By making him a Rational free Agent and sociable placed among occasions of good and evil God did reveal that it was his will that Man should be his Subject and obey him One action of God doth oft reveal his will concerning another Those Attributes of God which signifie his Relation to us do reveal much of his will concerning what he will do with us in those Relations And though his will be free his perfections consist not with falshood and mutability If in freedom you include indetermination then when we prove the determination of it ad unum you will plead no longer that it is free no more than it is yet free whether he will make the World § 1. I. He that is the most Righteous Governour of the World making a just difference by Rewards and Punishments between the obedient and the wicked which yet he maketh not in this life will certainly make it after this life But God is the most Righteous Governour of the World making a just difference by Rewards and Punishments between the obedient and the wicked which yet he maketh not in this life Therefore he will make it after this life That God is the Governour of the World in a proper sense by Laws and Moral Government is proved And that he is Righteous is contained in the Perfections of his Nature To deny either of these is to deny him to be God That his Laws of Nature have not only Precepts of Duty but sanctions of Reward and Punishment is also proved And further may be thus 1. If there be no Rewards or Punishments there is no Judgement or Execution But there is Judgement and Execution for they are parts of Government Ergo 2. Without Rewards and Punishments Precepts would be vain to such as us and uneffectual as to their ends But God hath not made his Laws in vain Ergo. Obj. Governours use not to give men Rewards for their Obedience subjects must obey without Reward Answ It is not the Name but the Thing that we enquire of Call it a Benefit if you had rather All Government is upheld by Rewards and Punishment Reward is either that which is common to all obedient Subjects or such as is specially proper to some All subjects that are faithfull have title to protection and approbation and justification against all false accusations and to their share in that peace and felicity of the Common-wealth which is the end of the Government And some Commonwealths having far greater felicities than others accordingly the Subjects of
that the object of those hopes and fears are certain truths which are so necessary to the government of the world and this needeth no other proof but this If God can govern the world without a course of deceit and lying then the objects of these necessary hopes and fears are true But God can govern the world without a course of deceit and lying Ergo. The Major is evident because to govern by the hopes and fears of falshoods or things that are not when those hopes and fears are not only of God but made necessary to Government is to govern by deceit and lying or if it had not been by falshood uttered but falshood permitted the Minor is certain For if God cannot govern without such a course of deceit it is either for want of Power or of Wisdom or of Goodness that is Holiness and Benignity of Will But the Omnipotent wanteth not Power and the Omniscient wanteth not Wisdom to find out true and suitable means and he that is Optimus wanteth neither Holiness to love truth and hate falshood nor Benignity to love his Creature and therefore needeth no such means And he that believeth that God himself doth govern the world by a cheat even by the hopes and fears of fictions will sure think it best to imitate his God and to govern and trade and live accordingly This argument was à necessitate ad ordinem the next shall be only from God's actual government § 6. VI. If God do de facto govern the world by the hopes and fears of Good and Evil in another Life then the object of those hopes and fears is certain But God doth de facto so govern Ergo. The Major is proved as before for that which proved that God can govern without falshood proved also that he doth govern without it It belongeth only to the Impotent the Ignorant or the Bad to use such means Obj. May not a Parent or Physician honestly deceive a Child or Patient for his recovery to health why then may not God do so Answ 1. They do it through insufficiency to attain their end by a better means but the Omnipotent and Omniscient hath no such insufficiency 2. They may not lie or utter any untruth to do it though they may hide some truth by words which he is apt to mistake But if the world be governed by such hopes and fears of futurity it is hard to think whence they should fetch the object but from some divine revelation in nature 3. A whole course of Government of all the rational world by so sorry an instrument as deceit and falshood is more inconsistent with the nature and perfections of God than a particular act of deceit in a work of necessity and charity is with the nature of imperfect man The Minor is proved in the answer to the last objections and by the common experience of the world Obj. How little doth the hopes and fears of another world do with the most Do you not see that fleshly interest ruleth them and therefore they are what the Great ones would have them be who can help or hurt them Answ 1. I have proved how much worse it would be ◠that restraint which these hopes and fears make were taken off 2. That this restraint is general in all Nations almost of the earth though the prevalency of sin do much enfeeble it 3. That Rulers themselves are under some of these restraints in their Law-making and Judgement Though fleshly interest much prevail against it there are some remnants of secret hopes or fears in the consciences of sinners which keep up so much good as is yet left and keep men from those villanies in which they might hope to escape all sufferings from men § 7. VII If God himself kindle in the best of men desires to know him love him and enjoy him perfectly hereafter then such desires shall attain their end But God himself doth kindle such desires in the best of men Ergo And consequently there is such a Life to come Here 1. I must prove that the best men have such desires 2. That God kindleth them 3. That therefore he will satisfie them 1. And for the first the Consciences of all Good men are my witnesses whose desires to know God better to love him and please him more and to enjoy his Love is as the very pulse and breath of their souls For this they groan and pray and seek for this they labour wait and suffer If you could help them to more of the Knowledge and Love of God you would satisfie them more than to give them all the wealth and honours of the World Their Religious lives their labours prayers contemplations and sufferings prove all this and shew for what they long and live Obj. But this is caused by the power of a deluded fantasie which seeketh after that which is not to be had What if you fall in Love with the Sun Will it prove that you must be loved by it see it and enjoy it in the life to come Answ 1. To the similitude Either the Sun is a rational free Agent or not If it be it is either the chief Agent or a dependent Instrument If it were the first as it is not I should owe my self totally to it in the exercise of all the powers given me as is aforesaid And if it gave me such Desires I might suppose it was not in vain But if it give me nothing but as an Instrument or dependent Cause I owe it nothing but in subserviency to the first Cause But in such subserviency if God had commanded me to love and honour it as a Lover of Mankinde and a Rational Benefactor and had placed any of my duty or felicity in seeking perfection in that love and honour I should obey him and expect an answerable benefit But if it be no intelligent Agent or I cannot know that it is so then I can owe it no other respect but what is due to a natural Instrument of God 2. To the matter That these desires are not from a deluded fantasie but the work of God I prove 1. In that I have fully proved them already to be our Duty by the Law of Nature To love God with all the heart and might and consequently to desire to love him and please him and enjoy him in perfection that is in the utmost of our capacity is a proved duty 2. In that the Best men are the possessors of it And the more all other Virtues and Obedience do abound the more this aboundeth And the more any are vicious impious sensual worldly the less they have of these desires after God 3. They encrease in the use of holy means appointed by God and they decay by evil means All sin is against it and all obedience doth promote it 4. It is found most suitable to the tendency of our faculties as their only perfection The only true advancement of Reason
and rectitude and felicity of the Will If it be not by God that the Love and Desires of God are kindled in us then no good is to be ascribed unto God For we have here no greater good Now that God will satisfie these desires is proved In that he maketh nothing in vain nor kindleth any such desires as shall deceive them and make all their lives a meer delusion Yea and do this by the very best of men None of this is consistent with the perfections of God § 8. VIII If there were no life of Retribution after this Obedience to God would be finally mens loss and ruine But Obedience to God shall not be finally mens loss and ruine Ergo there is another Life The Major is proved before However it would be best in point of Honesty it would be worst to thousands in point of personal Vtility Even to all those that forsaking all the sinfull pleasures of this World do conflict with their flesh and keep it under and suffer the loss of all outward comforts by the cruelty of Persecutors and it may be through melancholy or weak fears have little comfort from God instead of them and at last perhaps be tormented and put to death by cruelty Few will think this desirable for it self And that our Obedience to God shall not be mens final loss and ruine needeth no proof but this that he hath made our self-love a Principle inseparable from our nature and maketh use of it in the Government of the World and commandeth nothing but what is finally for our good and so conjoyneth the pleasing of him and our own felicity inseparably in our end His Regiment is paternal His Glory which he seeketh by us is the Glory of his Goodness communicated and accumulated on us This taken in with the Wisdom and Goodness of his Nature will tell any man that to be a loser finally by our Obedience to God is a thing that no man need to fear He doth not serve himself upon us to our hurt nor command us that which will undo us He neither wanteth Power Wisdom nor Goodness to make us gainers by our duty It is the desire of natural Justice in all ut bonis bene sit malis male If I finde but any duty commanded me by God my Conscience and my sense of the Divine perfections will not give me leave to think that I shall ever prove finally a loser by performing it though he had never made me any promise of reward so far the Law of Nature hath a kinde of Promise in it that if he do but say Do this I will not doubt but the doing of it is for my good And if he bid me but use any means to my own happiness I should blaspheme if I suspected it would tend to my loss and misery and was made my snare § 9. IX The highest Love and Obedience to God is never a work of imprudence or folly nor ever to be Repented of But such they would be to many if there were no life to come Ergo By imprudence and folly I mean that course which tendeth to our own undoing as aforesaid No man shall ever have cause to repent of his fidelity to God and say I did foolishly in ruining my self by it This argument being but a meer consectary of the former I pass over § 10. X. If no man living be certain that there is no future life of Retribution then it is certain that there is such a life But no man living is certain that there is no such life Ergo its certain that there is The Major is proved thus If all men be in Reason obliged to seek the happiness and escape the punishments of another life before all the treasures and pleasures of this World then it is certain that such a Life of happiness and punishments there is But if no man be certain that there is no such life the bare probability or possibility that there is such doth in reason oblige all men to seek it above all the World Ergo it is certain that such a life there is My argument is from our Obligation to seek it before all to the certain being of it 1. That no man is certain that there is no life to come I need not prove as long as no man ever proved such an opinion and the boldest Atheists or Infidels say no more than that they think there is no other life but all confess that they have no assurance of it 2. If so then that the possibility or probability obligeth us to regard it in our hopes fears and endeavours before all this World is evident from the incomparableness of them or great disparity of the things When most of the World think there is another life and there is so much for it as we here lay down and a few Atheists say only we do not believe it or it is not likely though it be not a thing that we are certain of now Reason commandeth every man that loveth himself to preferr it before all earthly things Because we are fully certain beyond all doubt that all earthly things are of short duration and will quickly leave us and when they are gone they are to us as if they had never been They are a shadow a dream a something which is next to nothing To say It will shortly have an end doth blot out the praise and embitter the pleasures of all below What the better are all generations past for all the wealth and fleshly pleasures which they ever received in the World There is no wise man but would preferre the least probability of attaining full felicity and escaping death and torments before the certainty of possessing a pin or a penny for an hour The disparity is much greater between things temporal and everlasting than any such similitude can reach All the Christians and all the Mahometans and most of the Heathens of the World do hold the Immortality of the Soul and the perpetuity of the Happiness or misery hereafter The Atheist is not sure of the contrary and he is sure that a few years or hours will put an end to all his temporal pleasures and equal those that lived here in pleasure and in pain And therefore that at the worst his loss or hazard of the pleasures of sin for the hopes of eternal pleasure is not a thing considerable If those that dissent from him prove in the right the sensualist is utterly undone for ever He must live in endless pain and misery and must lose an endless unspeakable joy and glory which he might have possest as well as others But if he himself prove in the right he gets nothing by it but the pleasing of inordinate concupiscence for a few years and will die with as much emptiness of content as if he had lived in continual pain Now this being the true case no sober reason can deny but that wisdom obligeth
wrath contentions envy malice covetousness injustice oppression wars uncharitableness and all the iniquity of the world And how self is the grand enemy of God and Man and of the Publick good and peace and contrary to the love of God and our neighbour and the Common-wealth It giveth us so many precepts for self-denial as no other Religion did ever mention and such an example against it in Jesus Christ as is the astonishment of Men and Angels And therefore all other Religions did in vain attempt the true purifying of heart and life or the pacifying of the divided minds of men while they let alone this sin of selfishness or lightly touch'd it which is the root and heart of all the rest § 5. No Religion doth so much reveal to us the Nature of God and his works for Man and Relations to him as the Christian Religion doth And doubtless that is the most excellent doctrine which maketh known God most to mans mind and that is the best Religion which bringeth man nearest to his Creator in love and purity Few of the Heathens knew God in his Unity and fewer in the Trinity of his Essential Primalities many question'd his particular Providence and Government they knew not man's relation or duty to him while they were distracted with the observance of a multitude of Gods they indeed had none Though God be incomprehensible to us all yet is there a great deal of the glory of his perfections revealed to us in the light of Christianity which we may seek in vain with any other sort of men § 6. No Religion doth so wonderfully open and magnifie and reconcile God's Justice and Mercy to Mankind as Christianity doth It sheweth how his Justice is founded in his Holiness and his governing Relation it justifieth it by opening the purity of his Nature the evil of sin and the use of punishment to the right government of the world and it magnifieth it by opening the dreadfulness and certainty of his penalties and the sufferings of our Redeemer when he made himself a Sacrifice for our sins By the revelation of justice sin and misery it revealeth the wonderful greatness of Gods mercy it openeth those operations and effects of it which Heathenism and Mahometanism are utter strangers to they speak diminutively both of Mercy and Justice and cannot tell how to make God merciful without making him vnjust nor to make him just without obscuring the glory of his mercy which is peculiarly set forth in the work of Redemption and the Covenant of Grace and promise of everlasting Blessedness § 7. The Christian Religion openeth many other parts of holy doctrine which are unknown to men that learned them not from thence Such as the doctrin of the Creation and the Fall and of original sin and of Justification Sanctification Adoption and the right worshipping of God of which mention is made before more distinctly § 8. No Religion can be more Charitable for it wholly consisteth in the love of God and one another and in the means to kindle and maintain this love The whole Law of Christ is fulfilled in love even in loving God for himself above all and our neighbours as our selves for the sake of God yea our enemies so far as there is any thing amiable in them The end of all the Commandments is love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and unfeigned faith And all Christians are obliged to love each other with a pure heart and fervently yea to shew that love which they profess to Christ himself by the loving of one another How frequently and earnestly is this great duty pressed by Christ and his Apostles how great a stress doth he lay upon it He maketh it the evidence of our love to God He promiseth salvation to it He forbiddeth selfishness that it may not hinder it He commandeth us to live in the constant expression of it and to provoke one another to love and to good works He hath made himself the most matchless and wonderful example of it He hath told us that according to mens charity he will judge them at the last day How dry and barren are all Religions and Writings that we have ever come to the knowledge of in the world in the point of love and the fruits of love in comparison of the Gospel of Jesus Christ § 9. I find that the Christian Religion is most for Vnity and Peace of any Religion in the world most vehemently commanding them and appointing the fittest means for the attaining of them 1. All Christians are commanded to be of one mind to think the same things and speak the same things and discord and division and contention is earnestly forbidden them and condemned and all occasions which may lead them thereunto 2. And they have one Head and Centre one God and Saviour who is their common Governour End and Interest in whom therefore they may all unite when most others in the world do shew a man no further end than self-preservation and so while self is each mans end and interest there are as many ends as men and how then is it possible that such should have any true unity and concord But to every true Christian the pleasing and glorifying of God and the promoting of his Kingdom for the salvation of the world is above all self-interest whatsoever and therefore in this they are all united And though they all seek their own felicity and salvation it is only in the seeking of this higher end which is finis amantis sed creaturae amantis creatorem the end of a lover which desireth unity and respecteth both the lover and the beloved but it is not the end of the love of equals but of the creature to the Creator who therefore preferreth his beloved before himself in his intentions So that it is only this holy centring in God that can ever make men all of a mind and agree the disagreeing world While Self is every mans end they will have such constant contrariety of interests that it will be impossible for them to agree but covetousness ambition and sensuality will keep them in factions contentions and wars continually Moreover it is Christianity that most urgeth and effectually giveth a hearty love to one another and teacheth them to love their neighbours as themselves and to do as they would have others to do by them and this is the true root and spring of concord And it is Christianity which most teacheth the forgiving of wrongs and loving of enemies and forbearing that revenge which Heathens were wont to account an honour And it is Christianity which teacheth men to contemn all the riches and honours of the world which is the bone that worldly dogs do fight for and the great occasion of their strife and it teacheth them to mortifie all those vices which feed mens divisions and contentions So that if any man live as a Christian he must needs be a man of unity
lusts And nature it self doth abhor the notion when it is brought into the light and will hear him with some horrour who shall speak out and say God is not to be chiefly loved for himself nor as he is best in himself nor as my ultimate objective end but only to be loved next my self as a means to my felicity or pleasure as meat drink ease and sport and lust are And virtue or holiness is not to be loved chiefly for it self that is as it is the Image of God and pleasing to him but as it conduceth to my pleasure As Cicero excellently noteth there is a great deal of difference between these two To love vertue as vertue and so to take pleasure in it because it is virtue and To love virtue for pleasures sake more than for its own For he that doth so must say as Cicero chargeth Epicurus plainly to say that Luxury is not to be discommended if it be not unpleasant for the end is the measure and rule to judge of all the means If pleasure as pleasure be best then to him that so continues it to live more pleasedly in whoredom and drunkenness and theft and murder than in godliness and honesty it will be better so to do And virtue and lust or wickedness will stand in competition only in the point of pleasure And then which think you will have the greater party and what a case would mankind be in I am perswaded that the well studying the excellent discourse of Cicero on this point and the reasons which the Stoicks and the rest of the Philosophers give against the Plebeian Philosophers as Cicero calleth them may much conduce to help many Divines themselves to a righter understanding of the same controversie as in Theology they have otherwise worded it Whether God or our own felicity be most to be loved And yet without running into the fanatick extreme of separating the love of God and our selves and calling men to try whether for his glory they can be willing to be damned Only when you read the Philosopher saying that virtue in and for it self is to be loved as our felicity elucidate it by remembring that this is because that vertue in it self is the Image of God and by our felicity they mean the perfection of our natures in respect of the end for which we were made And that as the excellency of my knife or pen yea or my horse is not to be measured by their own pleasure but their usefulness to me because I am their end so is it as to man's perfection as he is made for God and related to him for all that he hath no need of us seeing he can be pleased in us Thus this Philosophical controversie is coincident with one of the greatest in Theologie Though I have displeased many Readers by making this Treatise swell so big by answering so many objections as I have done yet I know that many will expect that I should have made it much greater by answering 1. Abundance of particular objections from Scripture-difficulties 2. And many discourses of several sorts of persons who contradict some things which I have said But I supersede any further labour of that kind for these following reasons 1. It would fill many volumes to do it as the number and quality of the Objections do require 2. Those that require it are yet so lazie that they will not read this much which I have already written as esteeming it too long 3. They may find it done already by Commentators if they will have but the patience to peruse them 4. I have laid down that evidence for the main cause of GODLINESS and CHRISTIANITY by which he that well digesteth it will be enabled himself to defend it against abundance of cavils which I cannot have time to enumerate and answer 5. The scribles of self-conceited men are so tedious and every one so confident that his reasons are considerable and yet every one so impatient to be contradicted and confuted that it is endless to write against them and it is unprofitable to sober Readers as well as tedious to me and ungrateful to themselves To instance but in the last that came to my hands an Inquisitio in fidem Christianoram hujus seculi the name prefixed I so much honour that I will not mention it Page 3. he calleth confidence in errour by the name of certainty as if every man were certain that hath but ignorance enough to over-look all cause of doubting Page 13. He will not contend if you say that it is by divine faith that we believe the words to be true which are Gods and by humane faith by which we believe them to be the words of God He saith that Faith hath no degrees but is alway equal to it self to believe is to assent and to doubt is to suspend assent Ergo where there is the least doubt there is no faith and where there is no doubt there is the highest faith Ergo Faith is always in the highest and is never more or less And yet it may be called small when it is quasi nulla that quasi is to make up a gap in respect of the subject or at least hardly yielded and in regard of the object when few things are believed Page 26. He maketh the Calvinists to be Enthusiasts that is Fanaticks because they say that they know the Scripture by the Spirit as if subjectively we had no need of the Spirit to teach us the things of God and objectively the spirit of miracles and sanctification were not the notifying evidence or testimony of the truth of Christ The same name he vouchsafeth them that hold That the Scripture is known by universal tradition to be God's word and every mans own reason must tell him or discern the meaning of it And he concludeth that if every one may expound the Scripture even in fundamentals then every man may plead against all Magistrates in defence of murder or any other crime as a rational plea and say Why should you punish me for that which God hath bid me do As if God would have no reasonable creature but bruits only to be his subjects As if a man could knowingly obey a Law which he neither knoweth nor must know the meaning of and is bound to do he knoweth not what And as if the Kings subjects must not understand the meaning of the fifth Commandment nor of Rom. 13. Honour thy father and mother and Let every soul be subject to the higher powers and not resist Or as if Kings must govern only dogs and swine or might make murder adultery idolatry and perjury the duty of all their subjects when they pleased because none must judge of the meaning of God's Law by which they are forbidden or as if it were the only way to make men obedient to Kings and Parents to have no understanding that God commandeth any man to obey them nor to know any Law of God that doth
and he may be sure that it is no sin because he hath done it for if God forbid it not it is no sin nay he may make it an effect of God's government But this consequence is so false and horrid that no Nation on earth receiveth it and Cannibals themselves abhor it who eat not their friends but strangers and enemies § 11. VIII If God be not the Governour of the world by Laws then no man need to fear or avoid any thing forbidden by the Laws of Man who can either keep it secret by Wit or keep himself from humane revenge by Power But the consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The reason of the consequence is evident because where no humane revenge is to be feared there no punishment at all is to be feared if God be no Governour of the world but those that can hide their actions by craft or make them good by power need not fear any humane revenge therefore they need to fear none at all upon the Atheists grounds And if that be so 1. How easie is it for cunning malice to burn a Town to kill a King to poison wife or children and to defraud a neighbour and never be discovered If this be so then Thieves Adulterers Traitors when they are detected have failed only in point of wit that they concealed it not and not in point of honesty and duty 2. And then any Rebel that can get enow to follow him hath as good a cause as the King that he rebelleth against and if he conquer he need not accuse himself of doing any wrong And then there will be nothing for conscience to blame any man for nor for one man to accuse another of but witlesness or impotency And then the Thief must suffer only for want of strength or cunning and not because he did any wrong § 12. IX If there be no Government by God there can be no true Propriety but Strength and he that is strongest hath right to all that he can lay hold on But the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent The consequence is undeniable for if there be no Divine Government there is no Law but Humane and no man can have any Right besides Strength to make Laws for any other whomsoever For if God have no Government and Law he constituteth no Debitum vel Jus no Dueness or Right And man can have no Right to govern others if he have no Governour to give any If God do give Right to Govern he thereby maketh obedience to that Governour a duty and he that constituteth or instituteth Right and Duty governeth And if God give men No Right to Govern they can have none And then if Strength be all their Title any man that can get as much Strength doth get as good a Title and may seize upon the Lives the Lands and Estates of Prince or People and give Laws to the weaker as others before gave Laws to him And so there will utter confusion and misery be let in upon the world As in the Poet's description of the degenerate Age Vivitur ex raptu non hospes ab hospite tutus c. Reason would have nothing to say against strength the great Dog would have the best title to the bone Melior mihi dextera lingua est Dummodo pugnando superem tu vince loquendo Ovid. Met. The honest poor and peaceable would have such a peace with thieves and strong ones Cum pecore infirmo quae solet esse lupis Ovid. § 13. If God govern not the world then meer Communities are uncapable of Right or Wrong and no man is bound in duty to spare his brother's life or state But the Consequent is false therefore so is the Antecedent By a Community I mean a company of men that have yet set up no Government among them If God be not their Governour such have none at all and so are under no moral obligation for Covenants themselves cannot bind if there be no superiour obligation requiring man to stand to his Covenants Obj. Then God's Covenants to man do not bind him Answ Not at all by proper obligation as if it were his Duty to keep them and his Sin to break them for God is not capable of duty or sin But yet improperly they may be called Obligations because they are the demonstrations of his Will which the perfection of his Nature will not let him violate It would be an imperfection if God should break promise though not a sin or crime And therefore it is impossible for God to lie Obj. But suppose we say that Man is under no other obligations than a Beast and that among men there is no proper right or wrong duty or fault yet men by confederacies without any other Government would settle Rules for the safety of cohabitation and converse and for love of themselves would forbear wronging others And this is all the Law of Nature that Man hath above Bruits Answ Those Confederacies would no further oblige them than their Interest required them to observe them Still by this rule a man is left free to kill wife and children if he be weary of them which no neighbour being wronged by none will seem obliged to revenge still he that is the stronger is left to do his worst without fault to seize upon other mens estates and to depose Kings and destroy them and all the world would be in a state of war Or if self-interest keep some quiet for a time it would be but till they had strength and opportunity to do otherwise He is not fit for humane society who would tell all about him I take my self free to defraud and murder any of you as soon as my own safety and interest will allow it me And no man that thus taketh a man for a beast can expect any better usage than a beast himself any further than self-love shall restrain others from abusing him nor can he plead any better title to his estate nor exemption from the violence of the stronger And it will also follow that honesty is nothing but self-preserving policy and that blasphemy and impiety against God need not be feared or avoided nor any thing as a fault but only as a folly exposing the person himself to danger Incest Perjury Lying might be impudencies but not any crimes Obj. If you supposed them in God they would be but imperfections and not crimes and why should you judge othewise of them in Man Answ Because the absolute perfection of his Nature is instead of a Law to God who hath no Superiour But man hath a Superiour and hath an imperfect nature which is therefore to be regulated by the wisdom and will of that perfect Superiour And moreover if Man have reason and wisdom above a Beast which maketh him capable of knowing Right and Wrong and of being moved by the things that are evident to reason though not to sense and if he