consider not what may lawfully be done but what is most becoming a Disciple of Iesus Christ to do In a word what ever is best in any action what ever most serves the ends of piety what ever tends most to the credit of our Religion and the benefit of others let us consider that and act accordingly And thus I am sure to design and act is most suitable to the nature and genius of our Christian Religion nay indeed it is the principal Law and Commandment of it The design of Christianity is not to adjust the precise bounds of Vertue and Vice lawful and unlawful which is that that a great many among us so greedily hanker after For the best that could have come from such a design had been only this that Men by this means might have been fairly instructed how they might have avoided the being bad though they never became very good But the design of Christianity is to make Men as good as they can possibly be as devout as humble as charitable as temperate as contented as heavenly-minded as their natures will allow of in this World And for the producing this effect the exact distinguishing the limits of the several Vertues and their opposite Vices signifies very little The Laws of our great Master are not like the Civil Municipal Laws of Kingdoms which are therefore wonderfully nice and critical and particular in setting bounds to the practices of Men because they only look at overt actions so that if a Man do but keep his actions within the compass of the letter of the Law he may be accounted a good Subject and is no way obnoxious to the penalties which the Law threatens If our Religion had been of this strain we should without doubt have had a World of particular Laws and Precepts and directions about our actions in all emergent Cases more than we now have And we might as easily have known from the Bible what was forbidden unlawful anger what was excessive drinking what was pride and luxury in Apparel and the like as we now know by the Statute-Book what is Burglary or Murder or Treason But there was no need of these particularities in the institution of Christ Jesus His Religion was to be a Spiritual thing And the design of it was not to make us chast or temperate or humble or charitable in such a degree but to make us as chast and temperate as humble and charitable as pure and holy in all our Conversation as we possibly can be This I say was the design of Christ's Religion It was to be the Highest Philosophy that was ever taught to Mankind It was to make us the most excellent and perfect Creatures as to purity of mind and heart that humane nature is capable of And therefore it hath not been so accurate and particular in prescribing bounds to our outward actions because it was abundantly enough for the securing them to oblige us to the highest degree of inward purity And this it hath done above all the Laws and Religions in the World It teacheth us to abhor every thing that is evil or impure in all the kinds of it in all the degrees of it and in all the tendencies towards it And to lay out our selves in the pursuit of every thing that is honest that is lovely that is praise-worthy and of good report among Men. If this now be the design of our Religion and these be the Laws of it I leave it to you to judge of these two things First Whether it doth not highly concern all of us that profess this holy Religion to endeavour in all our Conversation to be as holy and as vertuous as we can and to do as much good as we can and not to content our selves with such a degree of honesty and vertue as is just sufficient to the rendering us not vicious And then secondly Whether if we do thus endeavour we can easily be at a loss in distinguishing between good and evil duty and sin in any instance And consequently Whether we can be much in danger of ill using our liberty and so transgressing upon that account I have been longer upon this first head than I intended but I shall make amends for it by dispatching the two following in so much the fewer words And indeed after so large an account as I have given of the general Rule there is less need of dwelling upon particular ones II. In the second place In order to the right use of our liberty and so securing our selves from falling into sin through mistaking the measures of good and evil This will be a good rule to propose to our selves namely That in matters of Duty we should rather do too much than too little But in matters of Indifferency we should rather take too little of our liberty than too much First As to matters of Duty my meaning is this That where the Laws of God have generally and indefinitely commanded a thing but have not set down rules about the particular measures and proportions of it in that case it is advisable rather to do more than we are perhaps precisely bound to do that so we may be sure we have performed our duty than by being scanty in our obedience to run the hazard of falling short of our duty Thus for instance Our Lord in the New Testament hath often and solemnly commanded us to pray But neither he nor his Apostles have any where told us how often we are to pray only they have bid us pray frequently In this Case now a Man that makes a Conscience of performing his duty will take all occasions and opportunities of lifting up holy hands and devout affections to his heavenly Father However he will not fail at least once every time he riseth and once every time he goes to rest to offer up a solemn Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise Less than this I say he must not do for fear he break the Commandment of praying frequently praying continually But more than this it will become him to do in order to the giving himself satisfaction that he hath fully performed it Thus again To give alms to the poor is an indispensable Duty of our Religion But what proportion of our substance we are to give away in Alms and Charity is no where set down but is wholly left to our discretion Now in this case it is certainly much more advisable to give liberally and largely and plentifully even as much as our condition in this World and the necessities of our Families can allow though by so doing we should prove to have given in greater abundance than we were strictly obliged to Than by giving stingily and pinchingly now and then a little pocket money or so to run the hazard of being Transgressors of the Commandment and having our Portion among the covetous and unmerciful There is no damage comes to a Man by doing the former but on the contrary a great deal of good For God never
fails bounteously to reward the bountiful hand But there is both damage and infinite danger in the latter And thus we are to practise in all other Duties Only this caution we must take along with us That we are always so to proportion the measures of every single duty as to render it consistent with the performance of the other duties of our lives As for instance we must not spend so much time in Prayer as to hinder the pursuit of our Callings and necessary business We must so give Alms as yet to leave our selves enough to pay every one their own and to make a competent provision for our Families But let us but take care to secure this and then we cannot easily exceed in the measures of any duty The more we pray and the more we give alms still the better And so in all other instances of duty But now in the second place the quite contrary to this are we to practise in matters of liberty There the rule is rather to take less than is allowed us than to take all Rather to abridge our selves of our lawful liberties than by doing all that we may lawfully do indanger our falling into sin There is no harm at all in departing from our Rights and Priviledges which God hath indulged us But there is a great harm in extending them beyond their bounds There is no evil in not gratifying our desires and appetites in all the things they crave which are allowable and which we are permitted to gratify them in But there is an infinite evil in gratifying them in unlawful forbidden instances And therefore every wise and good Man will be sure to keep on the safe side and to prevent the danger of doing more than he should do he will not always do all that he may do The truth is that Man that makes no scruple of using his liberty to the utmost stretch and extent of it upon all occasions and regards nothing more in his actions than just that he do not fall into some direct sin That Man cannot always be innocent but will be drawn into a hundred irregularities and miscarriages Thus for Example he that useth himself to eat or to drink to the utmost pitch that can be said to be within the limits of Temperance it is impossible but such a one will now and then be unavoidably overtaken in the sin of Gluttony or Drunkenness He that will use all the liberties that the Law allows him for the making advantages to himself in his Trade or his dealings with other Men Such a one will not be able to avoid the just imputation of being in many instances an Oppressor or a hard Conscienced Man The safest way therefore if we mean to preserve our Vertue amidst the multitude of snares and Temptations that we meet with in the World is to set bounds even to our lawful liberties to keep our actions within such a compass as not to come even near the Confines of Vice and Sin Though it is but a point and that often an undiscernable one that distinguisheth between what is lawful and what is unlawful Yet there is a great latitude in what is lawful That is if I gratify my Appetites but a little I do that which is lawful and if I gratify them more I may do that which is lawful likewise But he shews the most honest and vertuous Mind that in his actions takes but a little of this Latitude and by that means keeps himself at a good distance from that which is vitious and criminal III. But thirdly and lastly To what degree soever we may think fit to make use of our liberty yet at all times Assoon as we begin to doubt or fear we have gone as far as we lawfully can go it is then high time to break off and to proceed no further This is the last Rule I have to offer upon this occasion And thus also where-ever we have a just ground of suspicion or doubt whether a thing be lawful or no this doubt or suspicion is of it self reason enough to make us forbear that thing Unless indeed there be a Necessity or a great Charity to be served by the doing of it which may in reason over-balance the suspicion of its lawfulness Thus in matters of Recreation If we have the least doubt whether this or the other Pleasure or Divertisement be innocent and lawful why that is Argument enough without more ado to make us forbear it though perhaps we see others use it without scruple Thus in matters of Temperance when we first begin to suspect that we have drunk as much as is convenient for us Let us by all means leave off and break from the Company Thus in matters of Sobriety when we have reason to doubt that we are come up to the full bounds of the Christian gravity and modesty and that any degree more of pomp or bravery in our garb or in our attendance or in our Equipage will relish of Pride or Vanity or Affectation It is high time rather to abate something of our sumptuousness in these things than to proceed any further And thus lastly in matters of Equity and Iustice when we first begin to have a suspicion that such a practice is an indirect or knavish trick or that we are too severe and hard upon a Man upon whom we have got an advantage Why this suspicion alone is enough in reason to check us in our cariere and to put us upon more fair and moderate courses This is a Rule that will for ever be fit for us to practise for it is grounded upon Eternal Reason Indeed it is as old as Morality Quod dubitas ne feceris Do nothing that you doubt of is a Maxim that obtain'd among the Heathens as well as among us Christians I dare not indeed say that this Rule holds universally in all Cases For Cases do sometimes happen wherein it will be advisable for a Man to act even against his doubts But in such matters as I am now speaking of matters wherein a Man is at perfect liberty to act or not to act In all such Cases it will always without exception be a true and a safe and a wise Rule And I am sure if Men would seriously charge themselves with the practice of it they would hereby prevent a multitude of Sins and Transgressions with which they usually inflame their Accounts against the Day of Judgment And thus much of the Rules I had to propose as to the use of our Liberty in such cases where a Man is at a loss in finding out the measures and bounds of duty and sin and upon that account is in danger of Transgressing I have only two things more to add upon this Argument by way of Application and I have done The one as a Caution to prevent the misapplying these Rules the other as an encouragement to put them in practice That which I have to say by way of caution is this That what
is and that therefore he may go on some time longer with the Company the Wine by this means steals upon him and he is before he was aware fallen into the sin of Intemperance and Excess And thus it is not only as to the use of our liberty in things allowed but as to the performance of our duty in things commanded Every Man is sensible that it is a principal Law of our Religion to be Charitable and to give Alms out of our substance But now it is not so easy a matter for any Man to define and set out the quantum or the precise proportion of Alms which every one is bound to give so as to be able to pronounce that if a Man give so much he performs his duty and is a Charitable Man for one in his Circumstances but if he gives less than that he is Covetous and Uncharitable Now I say because this duty of Charity is thus indefinitely left and there is such an affinity and undistinguishableness between the least measures of Charity and the sin of being uncharitable Men do from hence often take occasion to fall short in the performance of it And as in the former instance I gave about drinking they are apt to take more liberty than is allowed them so in this they are apt to do less than is commanded them For if they do but give something to the poor out of their yearly Income they think they give enough to satisfy the Command of Charity and so they make no Conscience of saving and hoarding without end or without measure There are a hundred more instances besides these two that I have named wherein there is such a latitude left to our practices and the difference between lawful and unlawful duty and sin lies in so small a compass that it is hard to separate and distinguish them unless a Man be both very wise and very honest We have not any Law of God which defines how often we are to pray Or when it is our duty to fast Or to what degree we may be angry Or how we are to govern our selves as to the quantity or kinds of our meat and drink Or how far we may comply with the Customs of the World Or how splendid we may be in our apparel and equippage Or what games and recreations may be used and how often Or what Rules we are to go by in buying and selling and our other dealings with Men Or how far we may seek our own when our right cannot be obtained without prejudice to our Neighbour In these I say and abundance of other Cases we have no express particular Laws of God to steer and measure our actions by nor indeed is it possible we should have Because what is fit and reasonable to be done in these Cases admits of so great a difference from the infinite variety of the circumstances of particular Men. What now must we do in these Cases How must we order our selves that we may perform our duty and keep out of sin Why in answer to this I say We have only general rules to direct us in these matters and those rules we are to apply to our own particular cases In this latitude that things are left in we are to use our liberty as carefully and as prudently as is possible taking our measures from the principles of reason and the general rules of the Gospel Now what those general rules and measures are it is my business at this time to treat of And three things I have here to propose for the use of our liberty which will I think be a sufficient direction to us in all cases of this nature and which if we do carefully observe we shall never use our liberty for an occasion to the Flesh but we shall both come up to what is our duty and shall likewise avoid all those sins which Mankind are so frequently betrayed into through the too great affinity that there is between Vertue and Vice and the indiscreet exercise of their liberty upon occasion thereof And the first thing I would possess you all with and which indeed as it is the most general so it is the best advice that can be given in this matter is this That we would endeavour to be heartily honest and serious in the business of Religion That we would sincerely devote our selves to the service of God That we would purify our minds as much as may be from all sensual and selfish Principles and in all our actions and pursuits have more respect to the doing our duty and the approving our selves to our great Lord and Master than to any other consideration This is that which St. Paul so often exhorts us to Whether saith he you eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God And again Whatever ye do do it heartily as unto the Lord knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance If we could once get our selves possessed of this Probity this Purity of mind and heart it would better instruct us in the use of our liberty and teach us to distinguish between good and evil what is fit to be done and what ought not to be done in all cases and emergencies we are concerned in than all the dry Rules of Casuistical learning be they never so carefully and accurately laid down When a Man is once arrived to that holy temper of mind that he heartily loves God and his Neighbour and has such a lively sense of the truth and the excellency of Christ's Religion that he is resolved that that shall influence and govern the whole course of his Life and that he will do all his actions as much as he can for the honour of our Lord and the advancement of his service in the World There can hardly any particular case occur to such a Man in which he will not have rules and measures ready at hand to steer and direct him in his proceedings Nay this general Principle alone of doing all his actions to the glory of God that is to say to the honour of his Religion and the edification of his Neighbour I say this alone will afford him sufficient light and direction for the government of his actions in all Contingencies Because there is no action he can be ingaged in but it is at the first sight discernable whether the doing of it or the not doing of it doth more tend to the honour of his Religion or the good of others That which makes the conduct of a Man's self in this World so nice and difficult a matter and has given occasion to the discussion of so many cases of Conscience about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of Actions is this That Men are not throughly honest but halt between God and the World They have a great mind to serve their pleasures and their ambition and their secular ends and yet to serve God too and this puts them upon tampering and trying to