regard had to his Wisdom and Goodness which always determine his Will to command that which is good for the Creature seeing nothing can be so extrase to himself the Almighty would have been as Benign and merciful being ever of necessity the same Sect. 1. Par. 8. as he now is if so be he had inflicted on all Mankind without any Demerit of theirs the most exquisite and endless Torments because he would have been no less their Creator by doing that then in shewing the greatest Kindness imaginable The truth of this Assertion that God obtain'd not a Sovereignty over Man to command him any thing whatsoever pleaseth him upon the bare account of the Creation may be somewhat illustrated if we take into consideration the Right which Parents have to command their Children who doubtless are not obliged to Obedience upon this sole account that they were begotten by them for otherwise Obedience from Children to Parents would be due to be performed to them however qualified insomuch that neither extream Folly nor raging Madness nor any other thing whatsoever could incapacitate them justly to exact at all times and in all things an entire Observance of all their Commands whatever they should be because their Parental Right of Dominion and Authority over them would be in all Conditions the same if it only arose and grew from this that they were the Issue of their Bodies but who ever was known to assert the Duty of such Obedience The truth is in whomsoever a Regular Power of commanding or giving Precepts to others according to the Principles and Dictates of Reason justly resides there are those three things previously required and presumed to be in him First A Will and Desire to do them good Secondly An Understanding sufficient to judge what will at least in probability procure their good Thirdly A Power enabling him to encourage them to Obedience by proposing a Benefit to be rationally expected by their observance of what he commands and on the contrary to deter them from Disobedience by threatning Harm to befal them if they refuse or neglect to do what is enjoyned Whence appears a manifest Reason why God is always actively to be obeyed but Human Powers are not so For God through the absolute Purity of his Nature has a stedfast unchangeable Mind and Will to do good and by reason of his infallible Wisdom a constant Ability to know what is good and in virtue of his Omnipotency a lasting indeficient Power to benefit the due Observers of his Commands and to denuntiate Evil which will infallibly befall the Violaters of them whereas all Human Powers are at one time or other or at least may be destitute of some one or more of the mentioned Qualifications and thereupon may command what is repugnant to some Moral Precept and so are not necessarily to be actively complied with in every thing they give in Command to some Moral Precept I say because though all Positive Divine Precepts as well as Moral are to be actively obeyed yet the Reason of that is founded on the Morality of this Truth that it is contradictory to the Wisdom and Goodness of God to command any thing that will not certainly be good for him who is required to do what is commanded if he yield a chearful Obedience thereunto Here some might probably interpose and say that Slaves and Servants are bound to obey their Lords and Masters and yet they do not do the things commanded for their own but for their Lords and Masters Profit To this I answer that Masters of Servants and Owners of Slaves are not truly speaking their Governours nor is the Duty these owe them properly a Duty of Obedience but of Commutative Justice arising from a mutual Contract express or tacite Servants selling their Work either all of it or half of it or some part of it only as their Masters and they agree for Hire and Slaves parting with the Property of their Bodies and Goods for the saving of their Lives in their Enemies power to have been taken away so that it is upon the account of Compact and Bargain that Servants and Slaves are obliged to perform their Masters and Lords Wills and Pleasures and not from strict Obedience which is properly a Duty tending to the Advantage of those who are obliged to it If it be replied that Subjects however owe Obedience to their Sovereigns in a proper sense and yet These seek their own as well as their Peoples Benefit I rejoyn that since Sovereign Princes cannot without the Aid and Help of others maintain their Authority as the Almighty can do his which makes a difference in that respect between him and all other Governours for the Preservation of the People they are to rule unless They themselves be preserved in Person Power and Wealth agreeable to their Office it is absolutely requisite that They should reap such Benefit by the Obedience of their Subjects as is necessary to preserve Themselves and their Government no less then the People committed to their Charge If it be yet still further urged that admitting God cannot give a Command but only such as tends to the Good of the Creature yet it does not follow thence that this End is the Ratio formalis the very Reason of the goodness of the Command but a necessary Consequent only of it for whatsoever is agreeable to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Wisdom to be made a Law Obedience thereunto must of necessity be good to Man but such a Law however is good in it self of which sort are all the Precepts of the Moral Law. I answer it is an uncontroulable Maxim that Cessante ratione Legis cessat Lex i. e. as to the Equity of it or the reasonableness of its being put in execution for a Legislator may sometimes prudently forbear the direct express Repealing of a Law tho it be not for the present beneficial or fit to be made use of and the Reason of a Law evermore then ceaseth when it becomes unserviceable to the End or unuseful to procure or further the Good for which it was made so that if it were possible that the Moral Law could cease to be serviceable to as many as use it aright to the End for which it was given namely to advance Humane Nature towards its Perfection by the Fruition of Mans Chief Good it would cease to be a Law. For let Aquinas be in the right that Scientia Dei est causa scitorum ab ipso 1 ma. par Quaest 14. Art. 9. 3 m. and consequently that Gods seeing a Law to be perpetually good makes it to be really so yet it is no otherwise then by seeing it to be a perpetual fit apt and proper means to further the procuring of the End designed to be obtained by the true Observers of it thereby From which consideration it is apparent why a perpetual Obligation lies upon all Men to keep the Moral Law namely because it is at all times
and slight those Benefits which God by them tenders to him and in so doing not only sets slight of the Author of them but also rejects the End at which they ultimately aim Felicity No man therefore possibly can deliberately dishonour his Parents or other his Superiors but his Heart will be thereby estranged from God. But much more in wilfully disobeying their just Commands is there an Aversion from their Sovereign Good for therein is a direct Refusal of God's Goodness offered by them whilst every thing they lawfully command is some way more or less directly or by consequence advantageous to the acquisition of Bliss if right use be made thereof The 6th Commandment which is Non occides Thou shalt not kill or Thou shalt do no Murther is not kept by a meer abstaining from desiring contriving or attempting the Death or bodily Harm of our Neighbour but in wishing and doing likewise our Endeavour to preserve his Life and Health in order to the eternal Welfare of his Soul which we cannot do save only as we are excited thereto by the Love we bear to our own Life and good Estate of our Bodies as serviceable to the End for which Life and all the Helps and Attendants of it were given For neither Health nor Life ought to be desired if such Circumstances occur as that the Preservation of them is inconsistent with the everlasting Welfare of the Soul which because it is placed in the Fruition of God the Love we have thereto is the principal reason and motive why we ought to desire to continue in Life and Health our selves or wish the like to our Neighbour for making preparation towards the full Enjoyment of him after this Life is ended And on the contrary the bare doing of bodily Harm to our Neighbour or even the taking away of his Life is no sin simply in it self considered but in this respect only that he who does it has not that due regard for want of the Love of God to the preservation of it which the importance thereof in order to the end whereunto it was given requires For who is ignorant that the Execution of the Penalties in Laws for capital Crimes is no Sin either in the Judge who gives Sentence of Death or in him that executes the same provided they have no personal Malice to the Offender but solely have an Eye to the satisfying of the Law which intends not any Mischief to the Malefactor but Good to the Weal-public by removing an incorrigible Member from among the People But if the Judg or Executioner desire his Death out of hatred to him albeit he deserve to die and be justly condemned and executed there is Murther committed notwithstanding that the Party suffering has no more Torment inflicted on him than if no Malice had been towards him whence it is apparent that the Breach of this Commandment lies in that depraved Disposition of Mind which is opposite to the sound desire of wishing a Man's Neighbour's bodily Welfare in order to the Health of his Soul which because none ever heartily doth but in virtue of his own Love of Bliss the Want of that Love is the formal Reason why the bereaving any one of Life or working his bodily harm is a sin or hinderance to Felicity The 7th Commandment is Thou shalt not commit Adultery the Breach of which doth not consist in the material Act of carnal copulation with anothers Wife but in forsaking the Love of God for an unlawful Pleasure For suppose a Wife should leave her Husband and be married to another Man inculpably ignorant of her former Marriage the Woman alone would offend against this Precept albeit the Man also transgressed the Letter of the Law in carnally knowing anothers Wife Or in case a Man should have his Neighbours Consort put into his Bed thinking her to be his own he offended not although he should commit the external Act of Adultery with her And on the contrary if an Husband lay with his own Wife thinking her to be his Neighbours he would in so doing sin against this Precept and yet no Transgression of it would thereby be made as to the external Act prohibited Hence it is plain that the Violation of the Seventh Comandment is in the depraved Affection of the Will in turning the Heart away from the Love of God to unchast Pleasures and that it is kept by having a Mind undefiled with fleshly Lusts which every one so long hath as Charity or the Love of God above all things is predominant in the Soul. If it be objected that simple Fornication also alienates the Heart from God through the desire of unlawful Venereal Pleasures whence it should be a sin no less grievous then Adultery I answer that he who attempts to pollute his Neighbours Bed knows that he ought upon a double account not to do it First because his Neighbours Wife is not tied in a Matrimonial Bond to him Secondly because she is bound to another and therefore he will have his Heart more hardned in sin or farther estranged from God than if he only desired to satisfie his Lust with one from whom upon the former account alone he holds himself to be restrained and so the sin of Adultery all Circumstances being equal is a more heinous Transgression of the Law of God than the Sin of simple Fornication is The 8th Commandment is Thou shalt not steal by which we are obliged not only to abstain from taking by Force or Fraud whatsoever temporal Good our Neighbour has a Right to but also to employ our Endeavours if just occasion require to help to secure him in the lawful Possession of the same yet with this intent that he use it as a Means to further him in the pursuit of his Eternal Good the fruition of which is the Vltimate End of all Laws whether Divine Moral Canonical or Civil in the sincere Desire whereof they are only truly kept and for want of which they are solely broken as to their principal and Grand Design albeit not as to their particular respective ends which they more immediately but less beneficially look at And therefore even this Precept which more obviously regards and enjoyns the doing Justice may be violated as to the letter of it without a formal Breach thereof as will appear by shewing that in some Case one Man may without violating this Precept take from another without his Consent what the Municipal Laws of the Land where they both live entitle him to which I thus undertake to do No Man by the primary Law of Nature or Reason can or ever could except Adam who was Lord of the whole Earth claim Propriety in any thing without himself Propriety came by a latter Law namely either by Distribution of Lands and Goods made by Adam or else by Division or Occupancy after Adams Decease of what he had not disposed of immediately or mediately in his Life time to which purpose Grotius in his Second Book
it comes to pass that the external Act conceived to be prohibited by the Divine Law is no real Breach thereof save only when and as it impedes or diminisheth the Souls due Affection or Love which of right it ought to have to God in order to its own Felicity as shall hereafter in the explication of the seventh and Eighth Commandments Sect. 19. be made appear 7. In the greatest Alienation therefore of the Heart from God is the greatest sin which Alienation because it befalls the Damned in that their Aversion from God is perpetual the Damned are the greatest Sinners Object 1. Sin is the Transgression of the Law of God. 1 John 3. 4. and the Transgression of the Law is therefore sinful because it is repugnant to the Divine Will and an Offence to God. Solut. The Definition of Sin given by the Blessed Apostle must needs be infallibly true but the reason offered why the Transgression of the Law is sinful is none of the Apostles and its truth may very well be questioned For in case Gods Will had been absolutely set against Sin rather than it should have been ever in the World neither the Author nor Actors of it had received a Being since he was the Maker and Creator of them both And therefore it is not in respect of any Injury Harm or Inconvenience whatsoever that can befall the Almighty who is infinitely above the reach of any Displeasure or Annoyance possible to be done unto him by the committing of Sin that he forbids it but because it is mischievous and hurtful to the Creature in many respects as hath been set forth in the three preceding Sections last past So that the Reason why the Creator gave Man a Law to observe was not simply this that he required Obedience should be given to whatsoever he commanded but that Man through Obedience to the Law which is a Rule that if rightly observed will make him happy might reap the Benefit of the due Observance of it as from this subsequent Argument will I think be evinced Tho Obedience is due to be performed but in respect of some Command given to be obeyed no Command is to be given to be obeyed but in respect of some good End whereunto it tends for to command a thing either to no End at all or to a bad End would be irrational since to do the former would be an impertinent Vanity and to do the latter would be plain Perversness both which since they are infinitely remote and estranged from the Nature of God 't is impossible he should command any thing but for a good End. And forasmuch as he is utterly incapable of receiving any manner or measure of Good by reason of his infinite Self-perfection he cannot possibly require Obedience from his Creature for any Good either of Profit or Pleasure expected to redound thereby to himself And therefore whenever he gives a Law or Command to his Creature he does it for this sole End that the Creature may be benefited thereby in case a sincere and cordial Obedience be performed unto it Object 2. If God cannot possibly give a Command but such only as tends to the Good of the Creature it will not be in his Power to command a thing of that nature that simple Disobedience to his Will without respect had to some or other definite Good to be obtained by fulfilling the Command should be a sin Solut. That God cannot possibly give a Command but for some good End and Purpose and that he himself is incapable of receiving any good hath been proved before But it doth not thence follow that he cannot command a thing to be done without respect had to some or other express definite Good because he may command a thing purely indifferent in it self to the intent that men by yielding Obedience to his Command for the Commands sake may be inured to submit with readiness and chearfulness to his Will in all things which whosoever doth cannot fail of being at length eternally happy because the most of his Precepts at least as in Sect. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20. will be seen are proper means in themselves for procuring mans Felicity which the performing of things wholly indifferent in their Nature when enjoyned by God if any such there be by facilitating of Obedience will be apt to further in that a pliableness to observe Commands in things necessary will be promoted thereby But if it were so that Obedience were good for the meer Commands sake without respect had to the benefit intended to accrue to the sincere Observers of it Disobedience would be equally sinful in every sinful Act whatsoever whence a small stroke given in wrath would be as great a Crime as Parricide or Treason to rob a poor Man of all he has would be a Fault as small as to steal a Penny from the richest Person and to commit Adultery or Incest would be no greater a sin than a lascivious Thought or Word since all sin without exception is absolutely forbidden by God and not one single Crime whatsoeever allowed to be committed But if Disobedience to Gods Commands be therefore sinful in that it causes a Want or Privation of some good or degree thereof which is a Means conducible to Felicity then is every sin greater or less than other by how much the good whereof it deprives the Soul is more or less available then other for bringing it to Bliss And therefore although every Sin be a Transgression of the Law yet inasmuch as every Branch and Title of the Law is not of equal Virtue to further Mans Felicity 't is clear that all Acts whereby the Law is transgressed are not equally bad or sinful Object 3. God by the sole Act of Creation or making Man out of nothing to have an Existence or Being obtained a Sovereignty over him by virtue of which he has a Right of Dominion or a just Power to lay what Commands he pleases upon him Whence it must needs be that every Act of Disobedience to Gods Commands is a Wrong and Injury done unto him although the Performance of the Command would neither do him good nor the omitting to do it procure him any harm Solut. That God has a Right of Dominion over Man or a just Power to command him whatever he pleases is an undeniable Truth but the Ground thereof is not solely as the Objection would make it because Man was created by God and received his Being from him but by reason also that such is the unerrable Rectitude of his Understanding and the absolute Goodness of his Will that he cannot possibly command him any thing but what if duly observed will infallibly procure his Good. For if God by the sole Act of Creation abstracting from this that he created Man from an end agreeable to his Nature certainly to be obtain'd if he obeyed the Law of his Maker had a Right to dispose of him after any manner whatsoever without
assumed Man's Nature on purpose to make up the Breach between God and Man and that his great and gracious Merits were in their Nature considering the infinite Dignity of the Person sufficient to have fully satisfied for an infinite Offence if God had been infinitely offended but to bring them from the Pulpit to the Schools as if the Law given by God to Man had been really intended not for Man's good alone but his own also for all Laws as was shewn sect 8. must of necessity tend to some good is nothing scholastically done For that even the Breach of human Laws from whence the Allegories in the Objection were occasioned is esteemed an Offence against the Maker of them more commonly than cautiously shall in the following Section which for illustration rather than necessity is here inserted be made appear SECT X. The End of Human Laws is the Good of the Community The Breach of them is evil as it hinders the same and not as it meerly opposes the Will of the Legislator Every Breach of them is more or less evil as it is more or less prejudicial to the general Good and has in that respect a greater or less Penalty assigned thereunto Penal Laws are made for preventing of Evils that might happen for want of them and not to take revenge on the Transgressor of the Law for neglecting or crossing the Legislator's Will. 1. 'T Would be wholly frivolous and pertinent for men to make Laws if the end for which they are made could be had and enjoyed without the making of them and therefore some End or other is designed in the making of all human Laws 2. And forasmuch as the End designed in the making of them must if the Institution of Government which is the Ordinance of God be not deserted but kept to be something that is intended for good 't is plain since Laws generally respect the whole City Province or Nation where they are made that the good of the Community consisting of the governour and governed is the general End designed according to the Institution of Government by God in the making of human Laws 3. For if to have the Legislator's Will obeyed otherwise than with regard had to the general good were the End aimed at in the constituting of human Laws then might the Law-giver of right enact any thing for Law though known as well by himself as the People to be destructive of the common good provided it were the Legislator's mind to be obeyed in the observance of it because he would act therein what directly tended to the End of Government to wit Obedience whereas in truth Obedience performed to the Command of the Law-giver is a means by which the End of Government the Public Weal or Good is to be obtained and not the End it self 4. Laws then ought of right to design the common Good and therefore every Law as it contributes more or less to the benefit of the Community is more or less good and by consequence likewise the Breach of every Law is a greater or less Evil Fault or Crime by how much the observance of the Law whereof it is a violation is more or less conducible to the public Commodity 5. Hence it follows that Penalties inserted in Laws are not intended as pure Revenge for offending the Law-giver in the breaking of his Laws but are real Branches of the several Laws wherein they are found tending to enforce through fear of the Penalty to be inflicted the performance of the thing commanded to be done or abstained from when the Laws directive part shall fall short of attaining its End. 6. For since there will be in all places where there 's need of Government some good and some bad people 't is requisite that convenient provision be made by Laws that the good designed to be obtained by Government should be effected and brought to pass as much as may be by both sorts And the way to do it in respect of good men is to direct them but in respect of bad men to awe them and through the fear of Chastisement Amercement or other Penalty to affright them into their Duty or to do what is beneficial to the Public or in case their Malignity be such as that there 's no hope of Amendment to remove them either by perpetual Imprisonment or Exile or Death out of the way that they may not for the future obstruct the good which the Government labours for and that others by their example may be deterred from committing the like Crimes for which they undergo the Penalty of the Law. 7. For that the true intent of the Law in punishing Offenders is that which hath been said will farther appear from this that the Law authorizeth the supream Magistrate to dispense with Penalties in Criminals which of right it could not do if meer Revenge or Satisfaction by way of condign Punishment for the Offence committed were the thing aimed at in the enjoyning of Penalties For to free an Offender without Satisfaction when the Law requires Satisfaction is to do Injustice which the Law that requires Justice to be done could not without contradicting it self empower him to do But if by commanding of Punishment to be inflicted on the Transgressors of the Law the Security of the public Peace be aimed at then is it not only equitable that the Penalty of a Law in such case should be remitted when the inflicting of it is adjudged by the supream Governour to be less beneficial to himself and his Subjects than the omitting the execution thereof would be but even Justice requires that it should be actually omitted and that the person liable by the Letter of the Law to be punished should be freed and delivered from the Penalty which was never intended by the Law-giver to be executed on any one to the prejudice of the Commonweal For to dispense with Penalties is not so truly an Act of meer Grace as of distributive Justice forasmuch as no Dispensation ought of â—â—ght to be given save only to such as the Law it self would have exempted from Punishment in case the Lawgiver had foreseen the Circumstances which render their indemnity better for the Public than their being punished So that whenever a Dispensation to free from the Penalty of the Law is rightly granted the intent of that very Law is more truly fulfilled than if the Penalty were inflicted yea in truth it is only in so doing rightly fulfilled the very ground and reason of granting Dispensations being this that Penal Laws might have their due effect viz. the Good of the Community which in some Cases and Circumstances would by the executing them in their literal sense be prejudiced instead of being promoted 8. The Truth of this Assertion that punitive Justice is not vindicative will yet farther appear from this that Lex Talionis Eye for Eye Tooth for Tooth c. is no part of the Law of Nature as it would of necessity be in case Penalties
inferior Ends beneficial in their kind to some particular purposes may be attained and yet everlasting Misery not be prevented thereby This then being apparent that Charity is the Scope and Aim which the moral Virtues ought to look and level at let 's see in what way they compass their designed End. 2. Prudence which because it is conversant circa agibilia is reckoned with the moral Virtues is the practical Knowledg of things to be desired or shunned in respect of some honest end sought after whence it is manifest that Prudence is deeply engaged in every moral Virtue and therefore how much soever Charity is advanced by any of them Prudence always plays its part in contributing thereunto 3. Justice is said to be a Virtue whereby we give to every one what is due or right for them to have the Discourse whereof I 'le therefore omit till I come to the Decalogue or Moral Law. 4. Fortitude is that Virtue which strengthens the Soul to overcome Difficulties that would avert the Will from the Prosecution of Good for fear of Evil to be encountred with before the Good can be obtained 'T is apparent therefore to see that considering a Christians Life is a continual Warfare where daily Enemies that would hinder Mans Love to God above all things are stoutly to be combated if Victory be desired and expected Fortitude is a Virtue primely useful unto Charity 5. Temperance is a Virtue which regulates the desires of the Will about the Objects of Tast and Touch as Meat Drink and Venery and is hugely serviceable to Charity For whereas the Will through the Corruption of Mans vitiated Nature is prone to follow the Gust of the sensitive Appetite in the immoderate persuit of whatsoever is grateful to it and is apt thereby to be drawn from the Love of its chief Object the Supreme Good which is God Temperance by restraining the sensitive Appetite from excess in its desire of Meat and Drink doth thereby reduce the animal Spirits to a more moderate Quantity and Temper which otherwise through their too great abundance and activeness are wont to excite the sensitive Faculty to a violent lusting after all such things as are pleasing to it and that again disturbs and blunders the Rational Powers of the Soul and by eagerly pressing upon them averts the Understanding from the due Consideration of things and thence totally gains the Phantasie and thereby ensnares and captivates the Will. Besides Temperance is very serviceable ut Causa removens prohibens to Prayer and Meditation the two faithful Ensurers as I may well call them of Charity for they never fail to ensure it to us as will be made appear in the next Section if we fail not to make sure of employing them in their Office. Object 1. By what hath been said of the moral Virtues if true they are not bona per se good in themselves which is contrary to the Opinion of most men Solut. Whatsoever is bonum per se good in it self is of it self the Object of Desire and so having no Reference as such to any farther good in consideration of which it is desirable it ought to be desired for its own sake without respect had to any other good whatsoever to be obtained by it and consequently to be acquiesced in either as the edequate End and Perfection of the Soul or at least as a coordinate part and proportion thereof The former the moral Virtues are not otherwise God would be totally excluded from being in any sort Man's ultimate End and Sovereign Good. Nor can they be the latter First because it is impossible but that the Soul which is fully possessed of God should have all Good and Perfection whereof it is capable and Secondly for that the moral Virtues are Dispositions of the Soul for moderating the Affections of the Will about such Objects as shall have no Being in Heaven and if there be no Objects for the Virtues to be concerned about there will also be no Virtues because they receive their different Natures and Species from the diversity of the Objects they are exercised on Justice indeed seems to be eternally necessary in that we must give for ever to God Angels and Men what is their due but Charity abundantly supplies that forasmuch as to love every one of them as they ought to be beloved eminently contains in it whatsoever is to be rendred to them Object 2. Although a man that deals uprightly to obtain the Reputation of a good Name or defends his Country for Honours sake or lives temperately out of regard to his Health or that does all these for the mentioned or any other such like End be not properly a virtuous man yet he that exercises Justice Fortitude and Temperance for Honesties sake or because it is agreeable to the Principles and Dictates of Reason and so conformable to mans rational Nature to do it is certainly a moral honest man or else there is no such thing as moral Honesty in the World. Solut. He that does a thing for any End be it what it will has his Reward or all he desires in the obtaining of it if so be he have not an Eye to a farther end to be acquired by it and therefore in case every Man did exercise Justice Fortitude and Temperance for the pure Love of them only because they are agreeable to human Nature he had his Reward in doing it and thence fell short of Felicity or his chiefest Good the Fruition of God and consequently he did not act virtuously For he that acts virtuously acts rationally and he that acts rationally acts for a good End which must either be Mans ultimate End or else some intermediate End conducible to the obtaining of it because Mans ultimate End alone is desirable for its own Cause and other things only as they are in order to it as was proved before Par. 1. and in the Solut. of the first Object in this Section Such a Man indeed as is said in the Objection I am now answering to be a moral honest man if there were any such would be less miserable by what he did but so will every one be accordingly as he is less vitious Sect. 7. although he be not in any sort truly Virtuous Is there then you 'l reply no such thing as meer moral Virtue or Honesty I answer yes Meer moral Virtue or Honesty is when a man without the Direction or Help of any other Law save only of the Law of Nature doth from the Consideration of Gods transcendent Excellency in himself of the Creation of the World and especially of Man all demonstrable by Reason as is to be seen by the first third and fourth Section and from the Beauty Order and Preservation of the Universe manifest to sense raise his Thoughts from poring on Earthly things to the Contemplation of the Divine Majesty and Goodness and by frequent admiring and adoring him together with giving Praise and Thanks unto him for
RELIGION AND REASON Adjusted and Accorded OR A DISCOURSE WHEREIN Divine Revelation is made appear to be a congruous and connatural Way of affording proper Means for making Man eternally happy through the perfecting of his RATIONAL NATVRE With an APPENDIX of OBJECTIONS FROM Divers as well Philosophers as Divines and their Respective ANSWERS Licensed Sept. 28. 1687. Rob. Midgley LONDON Printed for the Author and are to be sold at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1688. THE PUBLISHER TO THE READER WHen I first look'd upon the Title and cursorily viewed the Contents of the following Tract I severely enough censured in my Thoughts the boldness of the Undertaking and well-nigh condemned the whole Discourse in my Mind before I had read any part thereof But entring upon the Treatise it self I straightway saw sufficient Cause to suspend a while my Judgment on it and by degrees the further progress I made in it to retract my sharp Censure and at length by frequent reading of the entire Discourse instead of blaming the Author's Attempt to admire the happy Success of the Undertaking and to esteem it as one of the most convincing Tractates so likewise of the greatest Vsefulness I have mostly met with For the Contexture of it is such as that it is in appearance to me a continued Chain of necessary Truths inseparably link'd together and those of such importance at this time when Science falsly so call'd is opposed to Revelation that I trust it may prove an excellent Antidote against the spreading Poyson of several Antichristian Errors of late rise amongst us whilst it clearly shews that Divine Revelation is so far from contradicting dethroning or evacuating Right Reason that the very Design of Christianity is to enlighten elevate and improve the same in order to the rendring it more serviceable by Ways and Means agreeable to human Nature to promote the End of Man's Creation than it could otherwise possibly have been forasmuch as the close and amicable Concurrence of Revelation and Reason is declared and explained throughout the Discourse to be but as one Joynt-Principle of directing and conducting Man to the final happy condition for which he was created Wherein because I hold the Author's Sense to be worthy of general Cognizance especially considering the great Advance of Atheism Antitrinitarianism and other abominable Opinions in this Nation all pretending to Reason but in truth repugnant to it as by this small Piece will I am confident though without mentioning any of them be made appear I advised since it was referred to my decision whether the Author's Latin or English Copy should be published that the English should rather at present be Printed than the Latin one being induced and led thereto chiefly from these two Considerations First Because divers Persons of generous Education and great Wit who though they have a competent Knowledg in the Roman Tongue yet cannot without more pains than they are usually willing to bestow throughly understand a Latin Author having been too much carried away by a shew of Reason in prejudice of Revealed Religion will here find not unpleasant Entertainment and very beneficial for undeceiving them Secondly Because on the contrary many others are such Bigots in Devotion that they are all Zeal without Judgment and so run into various Superstitions for want of a due and just estimate of the Nature of God and Godliness whilst imagining meer Obedience to the divine Will abstracted from the consideration of the proper and peculiar Vsefulness of the Duties commanded by God to make Men truly pious to be the design of Religion as if Faith Hope and Charity were therefore only good and serviceable to render men happy because they are commanded and not therefore commanded by reason they are proper Means conducible in their Natures to that end they weakly think the Almighty to receive real Delight Pleasure and Contentment from the Services of Men and contrariwise to be grieved displeased and angry when he is not exactly worshipped accordingly as they apprehend he desires to be neither reflecting that if disobedience to the Precepts of God wrought an affection of Grief Discontent and Anger in him he would be far more miserable than the most wretched Creature alive seeing innumerable Myriads every moment of time heinously transgress his holy Laws nor yet being aware that God requires Honour and Worship to be given him here on Earth for the furthering the end and intendment of the Gospel in bringing Man to everlasting Beatitude whereby he glorifies his Maker and Redeemer for ever but yet not to requite gratifie and pleasure God thereby who being eternally and essentially happy in his own transcendent Perfection is incapable even to contradiction as the Author says and proves to acquire or receive any the least advantage either of Profit or Pleasure to himself from the very best Performances of his Creature The Mistake or Oversight of which Truth often occasions many great Mischiefs both in Church and State in that through an indiscreet fervor for the Almighty's Honour fiery Zelots think they do God good Service if they obstinately oppose or even destroy his supposed Enemies that dishonour as they conceit his holy Name whensoever any thing is enjoyned by Superiors however innocent in it self which God himself has not commanded to be observed in his Worship And as these are guilty of negative Superstition so are there others that are so of positive whilst in conscientiously performing meer external acts of Adoration and Obedience they belive they honour God as they ought to do and thence really content and please him whereas nothing fulfils his Design of giving Laws to Men whereby he exacts the doing of their Duty unless it be done for the desire they have to enjoy him everlastingly the Fruition of his Presence by loving the same with all the might of the Soul being that Honour which God ultimately requires and whereunto all other Acts of Worship and Adoration are of right to tend of which if they fall short they are evermore perform'd in vain as is demonstratively shewn in the subsequent Discourse where good Reader thou 'lt find how each singular Virtue and every distinct Office of Christian Religion directly tends by divine Ordination to the begetting augmenting or perfecting the love of God in the Soul the whole Treatise almost being nothing else but an exemplifying in particulars what that pious Prelate the Bishop of Bath and Wells in his Exposition on the Church-Catechism or the Practise of divine Love writes in general pag. 4. in these few words As all particular Graces are but the love of God varied by diffeferent Instances and Relations so all particâ—lar Sins are nothing but Concupiscence or the love of one Creature or other in competition with or opposition to the love of God. Which remarkable Truth if it were well imprinted in mens Hearts would as on the one side certainly destroy the Opinion of holding the meer Opus operatum or the external
from hence that the wisdom and goodness of God being infinite and essential will not permit him to do any thing but that which all things duly weighed is clearly best For if it were otherwise he should not always act according to the highest wisdom and greatest goodness and so cease thereupon to be necessarily infinitely wise and good which he cannot do without ceasing to be God. Nor doth it therefore follow that if God should act necessarily every effect of his acting would be infinite for no created Being is capable of Infinity this being peculiar to God alone sect 1. par 7. The Universe then is the best that it could be made neither seems it to be wholly above the reach of human Reason to conceive in some competent measure in what respect it could have been no other than what it is For first it is clear by the event not to mention that it becomes every rational Being to communicate good when he nothing thereby diminisheth his own that it was more agreeable to the divine wisdom and goodness to create than not to create Secondly It is manifest that the Almighty could not create any single Creature or Species of Creatures so perfect but that it would be in his omnipotent Power to create others more and more perfect perpetually forasmuch as between himself and any Creature how perfect soever there would still remain an infinite distance and consequently that it could never enter into his Mind actually to create any single Creature or Species of Creatures for that if he had done it he had not acted according to the highest wisdom and greatest goodness because he could still have created better Thirdly It appears consonant to Reason that it was therefore best to create an Universe of several Beings which in their different Natures and distinct Stations should conspire and co-operate together to procure the most comprehensive and excellent End that whatever could be created should in its whole Latitude possibly be capable to effect and bring to pass under God the Author and principal Cause of all Good. Object 2. If the Almighty cannot but do what is best he is no free Agent and consequently it was not in his Choice whether he would have created the World or not Solut. Though the Almighty cannot but do what is best yet he is nevertheless a free Agent for he is not at all necessitated thereunto from any thing without himself neither is there within himself that which otherwise engages his Will than to make the best Choice or what is most agreeable to his eternal immutable wisdom and goodness which it necessarily always doth but with infinite Freedom not that there can be Election in fieri or to be made truly speaking in God who in that he is a pure essential Act sect 1. par 9. was from Eternity determined in his Will about all things and his Choice always made and in facto esse God at once and ever both actually knowing and willing what is infallibly best thro the necessary and essential perfection of his Nature So that although God could not but create the World yet was the actual willing thereof most voluntary and free if freedom of Will be a Perfection for in him dwelleth the fulness of Perfection sect 1. par 7. Obj. 3. If God did at once and ever actually know and will what is infallibly best the World upon that account should have been created from eternity Solut. There 's no necessity of the Consequence for although God be a pure essential Act sect 1. par 9. and so cannot have any new Thoughts succeeding one another but comprehends and wills all things at once together yet in that he not only ordains the existence of them but also when and how they shall exist he might from eternity will the Creation of the World to be some thousands of years only since as we stedfastly believe from Sacred Writ that it undoubtedly was If it be replied that for the same reason it was in the Almighty's power to have willed the Creation of the World to have been many thousand years sooner than we believe it was and if so then was he not necessitated to create the World when he did I rejoyn that in regard God always of necessity acts according to his absolute wisdom and goodness which are invariable and immutable it follows that what is at any time de facto done by God the same is necessarily done by him and for the best For to have the liberty of not acting when or of otherwise acting than right Reason dictates a thing to be done is a weakness and imperfection whence Sin arises from which therefore even human Nature when perfected is totally freed and consequently since God is essentially perfect he is essentially estranged from it Object 4. If so be the Creation was the effect of God's Will whereunto it was necessarily determined by the Perfection of the Divine Nature it should seem that the Creature is not much obliged to God for the same Solut. Since it is impossible that God in whom is the Plenitude of all Perfection sect 1. par 7. should create the World for any the least Benefit or Pleasure to himself more than what he hath and enjoys in his own Will to communicate good it is manifest that the End for which it was created was the sole Good and Benefit of the Creature which because it could not in any sort whatever merit from God as having its existence and every other good by the sole favour of his Bounty 't is evident that the Creature owes it self and all the good it has or ever shall enjoy solely and wholly to its Maker and Preserver as the principal Author and Bestower of it Nor ought the Gratitude to be less because the Benefit proceeds from such Kindness as the giver could not be restrain'd from shewing by reason of his own innate goodness but much the greater whilst a Benefit or Kindness done which proceeds from Bounty govern'd by solid Reason is more truly and really obliging than that which has no other Bottom or firmer Foundation than the meer accidental Pleasure of the Donor as by the following Instance I shall endeavour to make out Two Men being in extream necessity are reliev'd by two of their Neighbors the one chearfully gives Relief upon this consideration that it is a Good which his Reason tells him he ought by no means to omit the speedy doing of The other affords help upon no rational solid ground which engages him thereto but is meerly led by his Pleasure or present Inclination to do it The two Men preserv'd from perishing receive each of them an equal Benefit but when the one comes to understand that the Neighbor who reliev'd him did it from such stedfast grounds of Reason and Goodness within himself that he would for certain not have suffered him to perish And when the other finds it was almost an equal Match whether he had been lost
eating of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil was forbiddâ—â— because of the Evil which God certainly knew would ensue from the very eating thereof 1. FOrasmuch as the full Fruition of the Beatific Object is Man's Chief Good and the End for which he was created sect 4. par 13. 't is consequent thereunto that it alone is to be desired and sought after for its own Cause and other things so far forth only as they are instrumental and serviceable in some respect or other for the Constitution of it if so be the primitive course of Nature instituted by God sect 4. par 5 6. be pursued and kept to Wherefore since it is found by daily Experience that Man is so far from loving God alone for his own sake and other things in order only to the enjoyment of him that he loves the things of this World more than he loves God and prefers the possession of them before the fruition of his Maker 't is evident that Man has deserted the primitive Institution of Nature and is manifestly fallen from the State and Condition wherein he was created 2. But because Contraries are made more plainly to be seen by their Opposites 't will be conducible to the better understanding of the state where to Man fell to shew more fully than has yet been done in what his state of integrity principally consisted which was this First That the Intellect was indued with the true Knowledg of God so that Man by Creation understood his Maker to be the Author and End of all things and the sole sovereign Good of the Soul and withal sufficiently knew what Duties he was to perform in order to the obtaining of the same Secondly That the Will was aright inclined to both I mean Man's Sovereign Good and the Duties conducible to the acquiring of it and put him upon the due exercise likewise of the same Thirdly That the sensitive Appetite was not immoderately bent upon any thing but was totally subject to the pleasure of the Will. And Fourthly That the Animal Spirits with the whole frame and composure of the Body were of so equal and regular a Temper that no disturbance or unruly Motion proceeded from them to excite the sensitive Faculty to any inordinate Desire The mentioned Rectitude of the Rational Powers we find within our selves to be dissolved and the Disposition of the whole man to be changed and altered whilst by the Senses the animal Spirits are vehemently often excited and the sensitive Appetite from thence inflamed to several Lusts by which the Will is moved to sundry inordinate Desires and the Intellect through them is either darkened that it cannot clearly see Truth or else is diverted and turned away from the due Consideration of it Whence it is abundantly manifest that Man has lost the Integrity which his Maker at first conferred on him 3. Now forasmuch as the irregular Distemper which Man has contracted is not only known to be at present Epidemical but that the Writings of old assure us by the Disputes had about the Origin of Evil and otherways that it has universally infected Mankind for a long time yea and that we have moreover ancient Records of Divine Authority conveyed to us by unquestionable Tradition which assure us that it was derived to us from our first Progenitors it will import much towards the carrying on of my Discourse to understand how this Distemper befel them and by what means it becomes transmitted to their whole Posterity The former of which because the Divine Oracles themselves clearly shew we may by consulting them be certainly acquainted therewith And these tell us that God having given in the state of Innocency this Command to Man being placed in Paradice Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat But of the Tree of the Knowledg of Good and Evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2. 16 17. Our first Parents wilfully brake it by eating of the forbidden Fruit Gen. 3. 6. Where we read And when the Woman saw that the Tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a Tree to be desired to make one wise she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her Husband with her and he did eat 4. From this Text 't is obvious to gather that the Tempters Words to Eve were but one Motive of three which prevailed with her to eat of the forbidden Fruit the whole Progress of the Temptation seeming plainly to have been this The Words spoken by the Tempter to Eve viz. God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your Eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing Good and Evil. Gen. 3. 5. raising some wavering thoughts in her whether she should eat of the Fruit or not induced her to fix her Eyes more earnestly on it then she had formerly done whence being more taken with its Beauty than before she had been for the Text by saying when she saw it was pleasant to the Eyes gives us to understand that she had not been so much delighted with the sight of it at other times as she was at that the phansied Sweetness of the Tast and delicious Nutriment which it would afford meant by these words When she saw 't was good for Food and the expected benefit and pleasure of being made wise in a moment wrought all of them together so strongly on her Phantasie that the Animal Spirits were drawn thereby from their native equal distribution in the Body to flock in greater abundance than usually to the Seat of the sensitive Appetite which caused an immoderate Lusting after the Fruit therein with which the Will growing through the Appetites ardency of Desire more and more affected stifled at length the Exercise of Reason and then fully yielded to the Temptation 5. The Fruit being tasted pleased so well Eves Palate and reaching her Stomach was so grateful to it that she staid not to try what further effect would be wrought by it but went to Adam that he might partake with her of her newly acquired Delight and Satisfaction she gave also saith the Text unto her Husband with her and he did eat Gen. 3. 6. That Adam transgressed the Command of God in eating of the forbidden Fruit as well as Eve is clear then we see by Sacred Writ but the Manner how he was drawn to do it by the Woman is not so evident in Scripture as how she was overcome by the Serpent yet thus far however we are ascertain'd by that infallible Testimony that it was not done by Arguments which deluded his Understanding seeing we read that Adam was not deceived 1 Tim. 2. 14. but by hearkning unto or obeying the Voice of his Wife Gen. 3. 17. And it will not be difficult to make out the rest by Reason For if we first reflect how Women by their smiling Looks sweet Words and
kept his Native Integrity yet our Blessed Saviours Incarnation Doings and Sufferings occasioned by the Laps were as primarily intended by God as the very Creation it self For the All-wise and all-All-good God infallibly knowing what Use Man would make of the Freedom of his Will designed his Creation no sooner than he did a Way which should not only prevent the defeating of the End for which he made man but would also be a means to advance it to an higher degree of Perfection than it could have had without it whilst man has by the Blessed Incarnation of the Son of God of which hereafter in the 9th Section and the gracious Sequel of it far greater Motives to the Love of God in which Felicity consists sect 4. par 13. than by the Creation and all other things besides whatsoever and consequently a certain Means of augmenting the intensness of his Affection to God and thereby the greatness of his eternal Bliss as will hereafter be made out sect 11. 6. This occasional interruption over I go on to shew that Grief Fear Discord Damnation and the Torments of Hell are so many several Branches of the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil For as for Grief it is a Passion which arises from the Sense of an incumbent Evil and Fear from the apprehension of an evil approaching so that in regard there could have no evil happened if Man had continued innocent there would have been neither Fear nor Grief in the World. Nor should Discord or Wars have been found amongst men if their Appetites had continued regular and subject to Reason for generally it is because that several men desire the same single thing which one alone can but enjoy at the same time that differences arise which if the Parties concerned be Sovereigns often grow to Wars But whatever other cause of Dissentions there be 't is the effect of immoderate Desires which sprouted from the Tree of the knowledg of good and evil There is then no Misery incident to Man if Damnation and the Pains of Hell be within the List but derives its Origin from thence which that they are shall be the Work of the following Section to make appear SECT VII Eternal Damnation or the perpetual Loss of Bliss inevitably follows from the perpetual Alienation of the Souls Affections from God. Eternal Torments or the Pains of the Damned necessarily for ever accompany their impious Desires of preferring worldly Vanities before the Enjoyment of God. Hence by these two an Aversion from the Creator and a Conversion to the Creature Man makes himself eternally miserable 1. SInce it has been proved Sect. 4. par 13. that eternal Felicity consists in the immense Pleasure Joy and Contentment that flows from the Beatific Vision or Intellectual Sight of God and that the same Pleasure Joy and Contentment is the Love of Complacency or Delight whereby the Soul inseparably adheres to God with all its might sect 4. par 14. 't is plain that such Alienation of the Soul's Affections from God as shall for ever deprive it of such adherence to him must of necessity deprive it of everlasting Bliss 2. And in regard an everlasting deprivation of Bliss is that eternal Misery which the Schools call Poena Damni 't is clear that Damnation or the perpetual Loss of Bliss inevitably follows the perpetual Alienation of the Souls Affection from God. 3. And whereas it is impossible to alienate the Souls Affections from God upon his own account because in him is no appearance of evil 't is manifest that for the gratifying of some inordinate Desire as the Lust of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye or Pride of Life man's Soul is alienated in affection from God. 4. Wherefore if the Souls Affections be in this Life so bent upon Riches Honour Luxury Revenge or other worldly Contentment that it prefers any of them before the enjoyment of God and thence makes choice thereof as its chief Good and Felicity or the thing wherein it is above all others delighted it must needs be that whatsoever Soul departs this Life so affected must either forsake and leave off that its desire or be satisfied with the Fruition of the Thing desired or else be eternally tormented for to be for ever deprived of that which the Soul perpetually longs for will be an endless affliction 5. And first That a Soul departing this Life with an habitual affection to some worldly Vanity wherein it delights cannot ever shake off that its Desire is apparent from this that the Will which is an essential Faculty of the Soul can never be void of some Desire or other and that it is unconceivable how it should part with those it is habitually possessed of when it leaves the Body since it is certain that the love of God in pious Souls begun here on Earth continues after Death and accompanies them to Heaven as will be seen sect 13. par 2. and that the Nature of Qualities or habitual Dispositions whether good or bad as to their inherence in the Soul is in all men alike And secondly That those Lusts which inseparably adhere to mens Souls after death can never with the enjoyment of what they desire be satisfied is as certainly true as that their Return to the Earth to enjoy the Pleasures of this World shall never come to pass And thirdly that men who have inordinate desires shall after death endure Torments answerable to the strength of Affection which they have for the Things they lust after and cannot possibly enjoy may be gathered from the afflicted miserable condition of those Persons upon Earth whose Hearts are irrevocably set on Riches Honour Luxury Revenge c. when they find themselves totally disappointed of what they earnestly desire For does not Experience shew us that the Heart of many a covetous Wretch is so cemented to his Gold that when it is stollen from him his Life which before he would not have exchanged for Heaven becomes his Hell so as that he hastens by the first thing in his way to be delivered from it And are not the Thoughts of some vain-glorious and ambitious men so intent upon Honour that falling into Disgrace their very Hearts burst for grief of the want of that alone amidst the affluence of almost all other worldly Goods besides As sad distress befals not a few forlorn Lovers whose Affections are so fast glewed to their Mistresses that they judge no Pain like that of frustrated Love insomuch that they chuse the readiest for the best way of offering violence to their restless wearisom Lives What shall I say of envious and revengeful wishes not accomplished than which no Viper can more cruelly gnaw mens Hearts If then mens Desires may be so violent and the frustrating of them so grievous as hath been said while the Soul is involved in a Body of Clay how fierce will the one and how intolerable will the other be when its Operations are not damped thereby Object
Vice the Path of Hell is the preferring the Love of the World before the Love of God. And as the Beatified Souls according to the higher degree of Love wherewith they are affected to God are more happy because fuller of delight so the damned Spirits the stronger affection they have to the things they lust after are more grievously tormented the disappointment of a stronger affection being more afflictive than of a weaker Object 3. According to this Doctrin neither the Bodies of the glorified Saints would participate of Bliss nor the Bodies of the damned have any portion of Pain Solut. Not so for if when the Soul abounds with Joy and Delight it be able to quicken chear and make brisk this dull and heavy Lump of Clay as we see it doth how much more will it through the immense Joys of Heaven have a powerful influence on a spiritual Body And if Grief for the disappointment of mens wished desires here can cast them into violently scorching Fevers how should the excessive Pain of the perpetual Frustration of the damneds hot Lusts but put their Bodies into an everlasting state of Burning Besides since all Bodies must be contain'd in Place as the Bodies of the Saints shall possess the most glorious which are suitable for them so the Bodies of the damned shall in habit the most dismal that are proper for them and therefore what difference of Place can contribute to Bliss and Misery they 'l differently share therein in respect of that also Object 4. Murther is a Sin that cries for Vengeance and yet if the Torments of Hell consist in the Disappointment of mens Desires there would be no Punishment but only the loss of Heaven allotted to that most horrid Crime Solut. Murther is a crying Sin indeed for it stays not for the Judgment of the World to come but it self begins its own Punishment here the Mutherer being tortured and distracted almost with the representation of the Act alone whilst it is a thing so detestable and repugnant to the very Being of human Nature that in despight of all his endeavours to the contrary he starts and is agast at the horror of it as often as it occurs to his mind though but in sleep when he neither dreads the Sentence of a terrestrial nor celestial Judg. So that when after this Life he shall have no intervention of necessary business to divert his Thoughts from it 't will be terrible and tormentive to him beyond expression since his very Essence will have a perpetual perfect antipathy to it and yet he shall ever be haunted and infested with its ghastly and dreadful visage But besides murtherers are tormented as well as other Sinners by their frustrated desires for Good being the Object of the Will every Creature which is endued therewith has an affection for some or other either real or apparent Good and 't is this latter that the wicked of all sorts ardently affect though they judg in general the state of the glorified Saints to be true felicity and their own condition a state of misery notwithstanding that they can by no means relish the manner of delight which the Blessed have for otherwise there could be no such Pain as Poena Damni the loss of Heaven since none are troubled for the want of that which they have not any respect or esteem at all for whence the very Inconsistency of the Thoughts of the damned concerning true and false Bliss set their minds upon the Rack To which is to be added yet another Torment which afflicts likewise without exception the whole Crew of reprobate Souls to wit the gnawing Viper of Envy and Malice towards the Saints in Bliss in that they obtain their full desires when they themselves are totally deprived of their own SECT VIII The only Evil which is prejudicial to Man in respect of the End for which he was created is Malum Culpae the Evil of Fault and it is either Privative or Positive The former consists in an Aversion from God the latter in a Conversion to the Creature Each of them is called Sin the one Formal the other Material The greatest Alienation of the Heart from God makes the greatest Sinner 1. SEeing it was proved sect 4. that God created Man not for any Good whatsoever to accrue thereby to himself but solely and wholly to communicate Good to his Creature 't is manifest that nothing can harm or prejudice Man in respect of the End for which he was created but that alone which is prejudicial to him in respect of his own final Good which since it has been shewn sect 4. par 13 14. to consist in the perfect Love of God 't is clear that nothing is evil to man as man or created to inherit Bliss but either the very Alienation it self of the Hearts Affection from God or something which causes the same or is an inducement thereunto 2. And since the alienation of the Hearts affection from God is in respect of God an aversion from him and that it is evident there can be no aversion from God in whom there is not any the least appearance of evil but through the inordinate desire of some temporal Benefit or Pleasure which is preferred before him 't is manifest that in these two Aversio à Deo Conversio ad Creaturam an aversion from God and a conversion to the Creature is contained the whole Evil that befall man as man or a rational Creature made to enjoy everlasting Bliss since nothing else can make him fail of being eternally happy 3. And forasmuch as the Evil which is an Aversion from God is a meer Privation of that Love of God which the Soul ought to have towards him 't is plain that actual Evil called by Divines Malum Culpae actualis or Peccatum actuale cannot be placed in an Aversion from God but in a Conversion to the Creature 4. Yet in regard it would be no hindrance to man's Felicity however strongly his Soul were addicted to any temporal Good provided the Soul's Affection to God were not any thing abated thereby 't is clear that Sin formally taken is that Evil which is an Aversion from God and that the Conversion of the Heart to the Creature or the inordinate Love of the World and worldly Vanities is Sin materially only and not formally considered 5. But this notwithstanding since it is not possible but that the Soul which immoderately affects the Creature or the satisfying an inordinate Desire must of necessity have its due Affection to God hindred or abated thereby 't is evident that in every inordinate immoderate Conversion to the Creature there is always necessarily implied and involved an aversion from God because to love two Things God and the World chiefly that is God above the World and the World above God both at the same time is plainly repugnant and impossible in regard of which it is properly sinful or formally a Transgression of the Law of God. 6. Hence
beneficial if sincerely obeyed to every one for promoving his everlasting Welfare and not meerly because it is according to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Mind for so is also every positive Command of God for whatever God once approves of he eternally approves of as good for what and so long as he intended it for the longer or shorter Continuance of any of Gods Ordinances or Institutions or the more or less usefulness they are of towards the End to be obtained by them makes them neither more nor less agreeable to the eternal Rectitude of the Divine Wisdom which exactly fits every thing the Almighty institutes for the Occasion he intends it with irreversible Council the whole Change which ever happens in Divine Commands being wholly for the Creatures Sake to whose variable Condition in several Ages of the World several different Institutions and Dispensations have been suited by the eternal immutable Wisdom and good Will of God Opera mutat Deus sed non consilia St. August SECT IX Mans Recovery from his laps'd and lost Condition wherein it consists and how wrought Natural ways and means unable of themselves to procure it Supernatural Causes chiefly prevalent to that End. Of these the Free Love of God to Man and the Incarnation of his eternal only begotten Son with the Consequents of it are the chief 1. SInce it has been made apparent First that the Honour wherewith God requires to be eternally glorified is the loving him with all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind and that so to love him is Mans ultimate End and everlasting Bliss Sect. 4. Secondly That Man by Creation was placed in a Condition through the Rectitude of his Intellect and Integrity of his Will and the due subordination of the inferiour Faculties together with a good Constitution of Body which put him in the direct Way towards the obtaining of that his Ultimate End and chiefest Good. Sect. 4. Thirdly That by eating of the forbidden Fruit Man fell from that Condition wherein he was created into a State of Sin and Misery the latter of which is the necessary conseqent of the former Sect. 5 6. and 7. and Fourthly That Sin is an Aversion from the Creator and a Conversion to the Creature or the deserting the Love of God for the Love of the World Sect. 8. 't is plain that to cause Man to withdraw and take off his Affections from the World and so to place and fix them again on God that he shall at length attain to the full Enjoyment of him in loving him with all his Heart and with all his Soul and with all his Mind is to restore him or to put him again into the Way which shall bring him to the End for which he was created 2. That this could never have been effected by any Natural Means is plain from hence that ever since the native Temper of our first Parents Bodies was corrupted the Objects of sense which before contributed Help and Assistance in their Kind towards the Souls Progress in the Love of God wrought a contrary Effect by alluring the Sensitive Appetite to the immoderate Love of themselves not through any newly acquired Malignity in them but because the Subject receiving them was changed from its first Constitution which being once corrupted the Distemper consequent upon it if not by some means corrected would grow worse For Children by the frequent beating of corporeal Objects on their Senses would be much addicted to those which were grateful to the Carnal Appetite before they grew up to the use of Reason And when they had attained to riper years their Bodies would be grown so hot and their Passions thereby especially being often fomented so strong and violent that they would commonly overbear and sway their Rational Faculties Add to this that Men being prone to be led by the Example of those they converse with the Vices of one another would mutually debauch and confirm them in their inordinate Lusts from all which a general Neglect of God and consequently a gross Ignorance of him would at length ensue The truth of this was so evidently seen among the Gentiles that the Knowledge of the one true God was mostly lost Yea and even those of them who had some right Notions of him did not very well consider the Enjoyment of him by Love to be the sole Sovereign Good of the Soul. Nor were Mens Understandings only exceedingly darkened but their Wills likewise very much vitiated whilst every one through a natural inbred desire to be happy frequently persuing some particular fancied good or other as Wealth Honour Sensual Delights c. which the Constitution of their Bodies their Education Conversation with others or some Occasion or Temptation they met with in the World inclined them to more than to any other Object because so eagerly bent upon their miserable mistaken Felicity that tho the truly chief Good had been demonstrated to their Understandings yet would they not have been induced thereby to endeavour after the Fruition of it as their only Bliss Motives being as necessary for a thorow Amendment to incline the Will as Arguments are to convince the Understanding For as a setled Judgment concerning any supposed Truth cannot be reversed without stronger Reason at least in appearance given than that whereby it is established in the Mind so neither can an Affection rooted in the Will be eradicated but by more powerful Motives than those by which it is fixed there 3. Wherefore seeing then that the Objects of Sense and almost every thing Man is concerned with since the Fall are apt by reason of his corrupted State to alienate his Affections from God 't is clear that Causes not within the Limits of Nature would be necessary to withdraw his Heart from the Love of the World and the false Delights thereof to the Love of God if ever he should arrive at Bliss and such Causes as are not within the Bounds of Nature are supernatural Supernatural Causes therefore are necessary to reduce Man to the Way which leads to the End for which he was created 4. And forasmuch as Man is a Rational Creature and cannot be moved but in a Way agreeable to his Nature without violence offered to the same those supernatural Causes must not force him but connaturally draw and win him by convincing his Understanding of the Truth and by inclining his Will to the Love thereof which are not to be effected but by Arguments and Motives For as the impression of Force is a proper Means whereby to move a Corporeal Substance from one place to another so are Arguments and Motives proper means whereby to draw the Mind off from one Object to another For to say that a Man either assents to or chuses with Reason that for which he sees no Reason general or special so to do appears to be a Contradiction and either to assent unto or to make choice of any thing without Reason is repugnant
and Motives for inducing men to despise the Vanities of the World and to fix their Affections on God and to pursue with diligence the Means available to the full enjoyment of him Lastly It affords far more endearing Considerations of Encouragement to bear with patience Reproches Injuries and all manner of Afflictions which befalmen in the whole course of this miserable Life Object 2. If the Design of Religion be to cause men to forsake the Love of the World and the vain and false Allurements of it what Rational Account can be given of the Temporal Ordinances Rites and Cercmonies of the Jewish Law which in appearance have small or no Tendency thereto Solut. That the Moral Law which directly requires the Love of God and of a man's Neighbour was the principal part of the Mosaical Dispensation is clear by our Saviour's Answer to the Scribe who said that to love God with all the Heart and with all the Vnderstanding and with all the Soul and with all the Strength and to love a man's Neighbour as himself was more than all whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices which is this Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven Mark 12. 33 34. And therefore although there be peradventure some Precepts in Mose's Law which are so purely arbitrary as to be fulfilled in the meer willing observance of them yet God's Design in inuring the Jews to Acts of simple Obedience was questionless this that they might be the more willing and ready to obey him in those things which directly made for their eternal Good. For to give a Command without an intention of Good in some respect or other to man by the performance of it is repugnant to Reason and contradictory to the wisdom and goodness of God Sect. 8. Sol. of Object 1 2 3. But besides it is not a thing easily to be granted that the Temporal Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies of the Judaical Law were so purely arbitrary as they seem upon a slight view to be For since all good Laws respect man's Good that his chief Good is the perfect Love of God and that every thing besides is only for good to him as it contributes in some respect or other thereunto Sect. 5. Par. 1. it necessarily follows that all Laws given by God to Man were intended to be a means of bringing him by the observance of them to the love of himself as his sole sovereign good and by consequence that the Mosaical Law was given to the Jews to win that People by ways convenient and agreeable to their Tempers to set their Affections on God. For though the Motives which it proposed were Promises and Threats of temporal Rewards and Punishments and the Ordinances of it mostly certain Rites and Ceremonies yet were they truly suitable to that Nation whose Hearts were generally gross and childish as the Apostle Paul not obscurely hints saying Till the fulness of time was come the Jews were as Children in Bondage under the Rudiments of the World Gal. 4. 3. that is I conceive as Children are first taught their Rudiments because not capable of better Learning till of riper years so were the Jews instructed by weak and poor means till the World was grown to an Age fit for higher Documents And why mens minds were more gross and terrene towards the Infancy of the World Thomas Albius in his Appendix to Institut Peripâ—tet gives a very probable account However that de facto it was so at least as to the Jews doth appear by their frequent murmuring and revolting even after they had often tasted of the extraordinary goodness of God whenever they disgusted their present Temporal State and Condition For we may infer from thence that if God had told them by his Servant Moses of Spiritual Joys they should have after this life instead of the good Land of Canaan flowing with Milk and Honey if they would obey and keep his Commandments and Statutes such Doctrin would have found small Acceptance the Truth of which if perchance questioned because of the Constancy of the Babylonish Captives in their Religion this I think may well suffice for Answer that part of the Prophecy which told of their carrying to Babylon being fulfilled gave them assurance that as the violation of the Law had occasioned their bringing into Captivity so their close adherence to it for the future would procure their own or their Posterities Restorement to their Native Countrey and Freedom Seeing then the Hearts of the Jewish People were such as that the most connatural way to bring them to love God was by delivering them from Servitude and bodily Dangers and by Promises of temporal Good and Threats of temporal Evil 't is plain the love of worldly good things was so setled in their Minds that the Almighty sought not to be beloved by excluding the love of them out of their Hearts but by gaining their Affections through them whilst he endeavoured to manifest that the whole Earth was his and the fulness thereof to the end they might depend on his Bounty and love him for the same which whosoever of them really did God acquired thereby a Pre-eminence in their Affections forasmuch as the due Consideration thereof would beget a greater love of the Giver than of the Gift For whose seriously reflects that all Good comes from God and that the possession and enjoyment of it proceeds from his bountiful Kindness without any precedent Merit on man's part must needs acknowledg his Gracious Goodness to be such as that he ought to relie thereon as the Sovereign Good and Fountain from which whatsoever he enjoys flows and in so doing his Affections will be carried thereto accordingly that is chiefly and above all Earthly things Thus we see the Reason of the Motives to the Love of God peculiar to the Jews The Temporal Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies of whose Law also however they may seem at first sight to have been Commands relating only to a bare Obedience required in the performance of them were in very deed proper and fit Means to keep the Jewish Nation from Idolatry and to make them observe the substantial part of the Law which was to love God above all things and their Neighbour as themselves Hence the Ordinances of the Paschal Lamb and of unleavened Bread were instituted for Helps to keep God's wonderful Mercy and Kindness to them in freeing them from the Egyptian Bondage in perpetual remembrance that they might ever be reminded to praise laud and magnifie him and consequently to love him for the same Hence their Purifications and Oblations for Sin were ordained to bring their Transgressions to mind that they should acknowledg them and turn from them by Repentance to God. Yea and the seemingly insignificant Ceremonious rites were appointed as things useful for walls of separation between the Jews and Gentiles round about them to withold them from their Idolatries wicked practices of Magical Superstitions and Whoredoms frequent among them for they stood in
will his Love to God be excited till at length if his Faith continue operative it grows into an Habit by which he is put into a State of Salvation or the direct Way to everlasting Bliss Sect. 11. Nor is this the whole benefit of an active Faith for when Charity is thus by its means wrought in the Soul Faith doth not straight give over its Function and begin to be idle but grows more vigorous and lively whilst the Soul being enflamed with the Love of God sets it a fresh on work about the Object the Motives and other Helps of Bliss whence Charity becomes not only confirmed and strengthened but augmented also For although it have frequent need of the Exercise of Faith only to maintain and preserve its Habit that it be not lost by reason of the many Temptations alway ready to ensnare the Affections of the Soul yet in regard the more that Faith is conversant about the Object and Means of Bliss it will from thence be obvious to the Intellect to discover still farther Excellencies in God and greater Love and Kindness in him towards wretched Man it cannot churse but that fresh Representations of Loveliness in God being often made the Soul will become more vigorously affected towards God especially when Charity is in good plight having no present Adversary or Temptation to encounter with 4. After Faith Hope lifts up its Head and 't is twofold either such as precedes Charity or is subsequent to it even as we have seen Faith to be Paragr 3. The Hope which precedes Charity is subservient to Faith in assisting it to beget the Love of God in the Soul in manner here following When Faith has begot some imperfect desires of Bliss before Charity be habitually seated in the Soul some slender hope will arise from the glowings whereby the Soul perceives herself to grow warm in Affection towards God that he will be graciously pleased to perfect the good Work he has already begun in her This Hope tho weak contributes something to Charity if not choaked by fresh Sin for while the Soul hopes for what she desires her desires of what she hopes for is quickned thereby Nevertheless till an habitual Love to God above all things or Charity be throughly framed in the Soul there 's no Spiritual Life therein but only previous dispositions preparing for it Such Hope is therefore by the Schools termed informis and the other Hope which follows Charity is called formata because Charity gives Live and Vigor to it for no man has a firm well grounded Hope that he shall ever inherit Bliss till he find within himself that he has an hearty unfeigned Love to God and really persues the known Means appointed by him to procure a full Fruition of him Thus is Charity the Parent of a true and lively Hope and to this intent that she may be a Stay and Comfort to her Mother for while men rationally hope to enjoy what they love they are cherished confirmed and strengthened thereby in their Love because they have confidence arising from a well-grounded Hope that their Love is not in vain Wherefore the greater our Charity is till perfect that it excludes Hope through possession of the thing hoped for the stronger will our Hope be and the stronger our Hope is the greater Encouragement will be given to Charity which perfected is Felicity Object 2. The Love of God in Heaven may be an adhering with delight to the Object of Felicity or a Complacency Joy and Satisfaction arising from the Beatific Vision or Contemplation of the Divine Excellency But the Love of God upon Earth seems rather to be a Desire only to enjoy him eternally than any the least real participation of Bliss or the Enjoyment of God. Solut. Every true hearted sincere Desire to enjoy God eternally is an Effort and vigorous striving of the Soul to be throughly satisfied with the full fruition of him for ever which since it is caused by the Delight it finds in the solid and devout Consideration and Meditation of the Divine Excellency or of Gods wonderful gracious Kindness to man apprehended by Faith or of both the greater inward Joy and Spiritual Contentment men have in thinking of Gods transcendent Excellency and of his stupendious Kindness shown to Man the stronger will their Desires grow to obtain a full Possession of him to Eternity whence it appears that the Desire to enjoy God is an effect of Charity or Delight taken in him and not Charity it self but is a very great Advancer of it in that it puts men upon the exercise of all things which are known to be available to the Fruition of God and indeed is so like to Charity that it is not without a near Inspection discernable from it yet certainly is distinct from it as may be farther gathered from the constant answer we use to give to one demanding of us why we so earnestly desire this or that thing which is because we have a great Love for it or take much delight in it but do not ever say we love a thing or are delighted with it because we desire it In fine then I take it to be cleared that Charitas viae and Charitas patriae the Love of God here and hereafter differ only as the less and more perfect whence I conceive arose that common Saying of Divines Gratia est semen Gloriae and the occasion of calling aswell Grace as Glory the Kingdom of Heaven in Scripture SECT XIV The Moral habits Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance are truly Virtues in that respect only as they further Charity What the Office of each of them in particular is as 't is subservient unto Charity 1. HAving shown after what manner the Theological Virtues Faith and Hope are useful and serviceable unto Charity it follows to be considered of how the moral Virtues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance minister help thereunto in respect of which alone they are truly Virtues and not otherways For since Charity here and hereafter is Felicity the one begun the other perfected Sect. 13. and that Felicity is the ultimate End of Man Sect. 4. it certainly follows that not any thing at all is virtuous or good to man as man or a Rational Creature made to inherit Bliss but what is in some respect or other advantagious and beneficial to Charity so that although he be commonly esteem'd a Prudent Man who discreetly orders his actions to some honest end proposed a just man whose care it is to do uprightly in the Affairs of the World a stout man who behaves himself couragiously against his Countries Foes a temperate man who regularly moderates his Appetite about Meat and Drink yet is not any of these truly virtuous by so doing except he do it out of Love to that End whereunto all his Actions ought either mediately or immediately to tend because in the obtaining of that alone Humane Nature is perfected the Man made happy whereas other
all the Enjoyments of this Life acquires an habitual Love of him and thence desires to be fully satisfied with the knowledge of him despising all terrestrial Pleasures in comparison of the same and in virtue of his Love to God doth heartily wish to all Mankind the like Happiness he wisheth to himself as knowing that things of the same Kind tend by Nature to the same End. This I take to be pure Moral Vertue or Honesty with which if any man depart hence he will at length through Christ be eternally happy sect 12. par 3 4. But so great is the Corruption of Man's Nature through Original and Actual Sin sect 9. that such Virtue or Honesty is attainable by very few Object 3. If the moral Virtues be therefore not good in themselves by reason they have a tendency to a farther good to be obtained by them 't will follow that nothing that has a tendency to a farther good to be obtained by it is good in it self which is very unlikely to be true Solut. When we speak of moral goodness we evermore intend something by it which is perfective of man's Rational Nature so that to enquire whether the moral Virtues be good in themselves or not is the same as to ask whether they be directly and immediately perfective of man's Rational Nature yea or no or be only useful to procure something which is directly and immediately perfective of it This latter I take to be true not the former and my Reason is because the moral Virtues in that they are not any lasting permanent good of the Soul but pass away and leave it when it becomes possessed of its everlasting good Felicity Solut. of Obj. 1. are instrumentally or so far only good unto it as they are necessarily helps and means to procure that good which is the eternally-during Perfection of it whence it seems plain that the Benefit of the moral Virtues and so likewise of all Gifts Graces and Ordinances as Faith Hope Prayer the Sacraments c. which cease upon the full enjoyment of God consists in their very Tendency towards the good to be obtained by them But yet if any will be so scrupulously nice as to demand Whether that which is necessarily good and useful in its very Nature though but instrumentally to the perfecting of Man be not good in it self I shall not contend but yield it is provided it will be granted me again that it is instrumentally so and no more for then in consequence thereto it must of necessity be owned that it is not desirable for its own sake but for the sake of that which it is an instrumental Cause to procure In this sense I have proved that Faith and Hope are good in themselves as without which Charity cannot be acquired sect 11. par 2 3 4. and the moral Virtues also in this Section par 2 3 4 5. are made out to be no less and so shall Prayer likewise be manifested in the next Section to be good in it self or in its own Nature necessarily useful for acquiring Man's Chief Good in the everlasting Fruition of which his Rational Being will be perfected SECT XV. Prayer offered to God for all things absolutely necessary to Salvation whether the Theological Virtues or Moral or Remission of Sins is evermore effectual if it be made aright and it is always made aright when it is unfeigned fervent and frequently performed 1. SEeing nothing is good to man as man but what either ultimately compleats and perfects him as such or something that hath a tendency and is serviceable thereto sect 14. 't is evident that nothing ought to be desired of God which may prove any the least hindrance to man's ultimate End. 2. In regard therefore Eternal Felicity or the perfect love of God is man's ultimate End and Perfection sect 4. par 12 13. 't is apparent that nothing which will obstruct the Love of God ought to be prayed for 3. And forasmuch as neither Health nor Wealth nor temporal Honour nor even the Saving of Life but may in some Circumstances prove prejudicial to Charity none of all these are absolutely to be prayed for but conditionally only and so far forth as they may be useful in respect of Charity 4. It remains therefore that nothing besides Charity it self and what always furthers it are absolutely to be begged of God. 5. Wherefore since Virtue whether Theological or Moral is a thing which always furthers Charity sect 11 13 14. 't is clear that Virtue is always to be absolutely prayed for 6. And forasmuch as God who is Goodness it self grudges no man that which is really good for him but ever grants him his desire if he ask not amiss Jam. 4. 3. 't is plain that Prayer always obtains Virtue of God whensoever it is made aright which is then done when it is unfeigned fervent and frequent 7. For since the Almighty does not by the sole force of his omnipotent Will immediately confer his gracious Gifts on Man except on some extraordinary Occasions when ordinary Means are insufficient for the designed End otherwise he should be in a still continued course of working Miracles but conveys them to us by second Causes if it be so that unfeigned fervent and frequent Prayer be an effectual Means whereby he conveys unto us the Theological and Moral Virtues then doth unfeigned fervent and frequent Prayer always obtain them of God. 8. And that such Prayer is an effectual Means or which never fails of conveying all the Virtues to us will be made appear by shewing the efficacious power it has to procure each of them in particular 9. For first He that from an unfeigned heart pours forth fervent and frequent Prayer to God that he may live temperately cannot while he doth so live intemperately but on the contrary will endeavour by frequent Acts of Temperance after a constant temperate course of Life and by frequent Acts are Habits or a facility of acting acquired 10. And whoso beggeth of God in sincerity and fervency of Devotion the Grace to deal uprightly to all men will if he be constant likewise in his Request abhor the injuring or doing wrong to any one and by often excercising Acts of Justice he will certainly obtain the habit thereof 11. Neither will he who unfeignedly ardently and constantly prays that he may overcome all such difficulties as would hinder his arriving at Bliss for fear of Temptations and Evils to be encountred with in pursuit thereof forbear to set himself stoutly to oppose and repel Temptations and to reject the Enticements of the World which would draw him from the Love of his gracious God and supream Good to the vain and transitory Delights of it self and so by frequent doing thereof he 'l contract an easiness in overcoming what would eternally destroy his Soul if yielded to 12. And forasmuch as he that is constant in sincere and fervent Prayer for the Grace of Faith will undoubtedly give himself to
read with diligence and devotion the holy Scripture to frequent the hearing of the Word preached and to meditate often on the Contents of Sacred Writ how can it otherwise be but that he should by so doing acquire a firm and stedfast pious Belief of Divine Truths revealed by Christ and his Apostles 13. And in regard that he whose Petition to God is unfeigned and ardent and withal frequently used for obtaining of Hope and putting his Trust and Confidence in God that he will be graciously pleased to excite his Desires and prosper his Endeavours for the attainment of Bliss will doubtless be induced thereby to refrain from those things which he knows must destroy all hope of Salvation and to addict himself to a stricter Course of Life than he had formerly led and so by the daily Use and Exercise of such Ways and Means as are conducible to Felicity he 'l increase his Hope till it grow by degrees into an Habit. 14. And as for Charity whosoever heartily and with earnestness and constancy of Desire to attain to the Love of God above all things makes his humble address to the Heavenly Throne for the same it cannot otherwise fall out but that he must often be put upon the serious consideration of the unmerited great Love of God to Man in creating preserving and redeeming him of the transcendent value of the immense and endless Joys of Heaven and of the Vanity of the short and transitory Pleasures of this World which if pursued will bring him to intolerable and perpetual Misery whence he 'l learn to despise all sublunary fading Delights in comparison of the everlasting enjoyment of his most gracious Maker Sustainer and Saviour the greater and greater desire of which in his Heart cannot chuse but grow by an ardent constancy in Prayer for the same till Charity be habitually seated in the Soul. 15. Thus we see that Prayer if it be such as God commands doth certainly as a subordinate Cause under himself who is the principal Author of all good whatsoever always prove an effectual Means of instilling every Virtue both Theological and Moral into the Soul of Man so that all other Virtues not here particularly treated of as Humility Patience c. are as effectually got by fervent and frequent Prayer proceeding from a sincere affection and desire of them as those which have been handled be Yea and temporal Blessings both for our selves and others are also obtained of God by devout Prayer when the Divine Wisdom sees the bestowing of them will be a Means to improve in Godliness for the Prayers sake the Souls of those for whom the Prayer is made 16. And if Prayer rightly made be so potent and prevalent to procure the Habits of Virtue as we have seen it is how much more easily will it preserve them being once obtained since every time we seriously pray after the Soul is possessed with the habitual Love of God we are exercising and cultivating Faith Hope and Charity whilst he that loves God above all things firmly resolves that the grand and main Design of his whole Life shall be a continued Tendency through God's gracious Assistance towards the perpetual Fruition of him in Heaven so that whenever he makes his pious Addresses to God in Prayer they are always performed in Faith or a stedfast Belief of the Truth and faithful Performance of all Gospel Revelations and Promises and in an assured Hope and Confidence in the Mercy and Goodness of God towards him from the unfeigned Love he finds he has to God so that the more a pious man pray the more he exercises the Graces of Faith Hope and Charity whence their Habits must needs be confirmed and strengthened accordingly 17. The like is also true of the Moral Virtues whose Habits are corroborated and more firmly fixed by the devout Prayers of a godly person for the better one is established in Faith Hope and Charity the greater Vigilancy and Diligence will he use to subdue and keep under by Temperance his carnal appetite to do right by Justice to every one and to strive through Fortitude against all sinful Temptations and the practice of those Virtues cannot fail to invigorate and fortifie them proportionably to the measure thereof Object 1. Why may not you 'l say the meer Consideration of the necessity of Virtue for the obtaining of Blis put men upon the practice of all such things as are apt either to procure it or to keep it when it is procured And if it may what peculiar Excellency or benefit is there in devout Prayer Solut. That the sole Consideration if serious and frequent of the necessity of Virtue in order to Felicity will excite men to desire and seek after it and if already acquired to preserve it there 's no doubt to be made But nevertheless there is a Benefit peculiar to Prayer above and beyond the Utility of such Consideration For First in applying our selves to God who is our sole supream Good we fix our Thoughts more steadily on the Means available to the gaining thereof when we earnestly beg them of him to that end yea and the very Consideration of the Necessity of Virtue will it self be much improved and heightned thereby Secondly Whenever we devoutly pray we comport our selves with great reverence and Humility as before the Throne of God which rendring the Action of Prayer serious and sacred makes it to work a deeper impression of the Virtue prayed for in our Thoughts than the bare consideration of the Virtue without such Prayer would do Thirdly When with earnestness of Desire we petition our heavenly Father to grant us his merciful Assistance for the obtaining any Virtue we on our parts plainly engage our selves thereby to him to employ our own Care and Endeavours towards the acquiring thereof which must needs cause a stronger inclination in the Soul and a more sedulous diligence in our Actions to obtain the Virtue petitioned for than the sole Consideration of the Benefit thereof towards Bliss could possibly do Fourthly There is nothing more quickens the Desire and encourages the Endeavours after any thing we highly value than a well grounded Hope to obtain it by the Means used to obtain it by and we have his Promises who is no less faithful than able to perform that if we ask not amiss as we never do when we pray for Virtue with Sincerity Fervency and Constancy of Mind as is clear by what has been said in this Section we shall most certainly have our Request Object 2. If Sincerity Fervency and Frequency of Prayer be necessary for the acquiring of Virtue it is but rarely I fear attain'd unto for although many pray frequently and with a real desire of what they pray for yet are there but few that do it with much earnestness or fervency of Spirit Solut. There are several degrees of Fervency or Earnestness the lowest of all which and Sincerity of Affection always implies some degree thereof if
that he who for Lucres sake or for Ostentation of his Parts or the like unworthy End by rightly instructing his Neighbour and advising him well truly converts him to God is no more righteous thereby than if he had done him no good at all so that it is neither by reason of the Benefit which befalls a mans Neighbour by his Endeavours for his good nor by reason of the Endeavours themselves but because of the true Love of God in the Heart exciting him to profit his Neighbour in reference to Salvation what he can that a man is justified Yea that Love we owe to our Neighbour is of a different Kind or Species from that wherewith we love God the former being the Love of Benevolence the latter the Love of Complacency for we do not make our Neighbour the Object of Felicity or any coordinate part thereof with God but desire that he may enjoy the same Object together with us which will make us both for ever happy Object 3. If formal Righteousness or the fulfilling of the whole Moral Law consists in the sincere Love of God and not at all in the loving a man's Neighbour as himself it should seem that the Love to a man's Neighbour is not absolutely necessary to Salvation because a justified Person if he depart this World in that Condition cannot at last fail of being for ever blessed Solut. When a man has attained to the sincere Love of God himself and knows as he cannot otherwise chuse but do from the Light of Nature that he ought in a matter of necessary Concern to do as he would be done unto and that eternal Felicity is such to all others as well as to himself he must except he 'l contradict his own Thoughts and forsake his true Love to God wish and promote likewise when opportunity serves his Neighbours Felicity which evidently makes it out that a man cannot possibly be saved unless he love his Neighbour as himself At length then it sufficiently appears in general that the formal reason of keeping the six last Precepts of the Decalogue as well as the four first is placed in that Charity which is the Love of God above all things and by consequence that in the Privation of that Love is the formal Breach of the whole Moral Law the truth of both which as to the six last Commandments shall for clearer evidence be in particular explicated and declared in the next Section SECT XIX There is not any one Precept of the latter Table of the Decalogue truly kept but when it is observed out of Love to God nor is there a real Breach of any of them but when the Soul is either deprived of the Love of God or has the same abated and weakned in it by the Omission of something which is required or by the Commission of something which is forbidden 1. THE fifth Commandment of the Decalogue or first of the Second Table is Honour thy Father and Mother where by Father and Mother I take to be understood according to the usual Paraphrase not our natural Parents only but the Father of our Country also and those whom he sets over us in the Civil Magistracy as likewise our Spiritual Fathers and other Instructers in good Literature and Virtue All and every one of these we are by this Precept bound to honour which is if the act be internal to acknowledg and own in our Minds an Excellency or Eminency in the Person to be honoured above our selves but if the act be external then the Honour required is to express by outward Signs the inward acknowledgment and owning of the honoured Person 's Excellency in our hearts which Excellency since it doth not consist in any essential difference the Sovereign and Subject Father and Son Priest and People Masier and Scholar having all the same Human Nature and the same Definition as they are Men the Excellency of the Sovereign above his Subject of the Father above his Child of the Priest above his People and of the Master above his Scholar must be gathered from the Relation which is between every one of them respectively in regard of which all the former are truly and manifestly superiour in Excellency to the latter whilst from the King as such the Subject has Protection of Life and Estate from the Parents Children receive their natural Being and means of Education from the Priest the People have Spiritual Instruction and many other Helps of Salvation and from the Master the Scholar reaps the Benefit of Learning and good Discipline Whence it appears that the true Ground and Reason of the Honour required by this Commandment is the Good and Benefit which every one to whom Honour is due thereby either actually affords or is in a Capacity and under an Obligation by the Relation he stands in when a just occasion serves to confer And forasmuch as none can be bettered by any Good unless it be applied to him 't is necessary that every one who expects Benefit from his Superiour be obedient to him that is be willing and ready to be directed guided and ruled by him and thus comes Obedience as well as Honour to be due by the Fifth Commandment But yet in regard nothing is absolutely good to us not very Life it self Sect. 15. Par. 3. save only our Supream Good the whole Benefit we get by our Prince Priest Parents and Masters is then alone truly profitable to us in order to the End for which we were created when the use we make thereof proceeds from the Love of God and tends to the Eternal Enjoyment of him Hence it arises that if those our mentioned Governors command any thing which we are certain will prove prejudicial to our Felicity we have no Obligation upon us to do their Commands from which it is clear that the fifth Commandment is not truly kept but when we honour and obey our Prince Priest Parents and Masters for the Love we have to God in the perpetual Enjoyment of him Neither is there any real Breach of this Branch of the Law but in the privation of such Love for nothing is evil but as it deprives of some good whereunto it is opposite and seeing nothing is intrinsecally good but Charity nor relatively good but what some way or other contributes to it Sect. 13 14 15. nothing is evil but either because it destroys Charity and then the Sin is Mortal or because it weakens it in which case the Offence is not Mortal but as the Schools for distinction sake call it Venial To dishonour then our Superiors deliberately is a mortal Breach of this Precept in that the Heart is thereby alienated from God which thus comes to pass He that dishonours his Father or Mother or other his lawful Governours which is through a perverse Mind not to own the Good he receives or might receive by them nor the Excellency and Pre-eminence they acquire by reason thereof above and over him does thereby disregard
from the exercise thereof by some special Compact or Promise But it is not so certain and undoubted a Truth as it is taken by the quoted Author to be for since he himself tells us that Dominium est libertas propriis facultatibus secundum rect am Rationem utendi and rightly it is evident that no Authority has a Right to exercise Dominion otherwise than according to Right Reason and therefore it is not only injurious to revoke a free Gift contrary to Compact or Promise but also if in any other Respect whatsoever it be not according to Right Reason to do it this being the absolute Rule for the exercising Dominion by as from the following Instances will I think be evidently made appear the first of which shall be in a matter of small moment A Pinner makes a Wire-pin and when he has done clips it into pieces and throws it away meerly because he will or for his sole Pleasures sake in doing this he neither wrongs any Person nor the Pin because it is his own and he made it yet in that he does an irrational Act in regard that Reason obliges every man to act in every thing for some good End whereas this is plainly a vain and frivolous Action tending to no good he violates thereby his Rational Nature and so injures himself which because Reason tells him he ought not to do he exercises his Dominion over the Pin not according to but against Right Reason which he is not impower'd by the Right of Dominion to do The second Instance shall be in a matter of moment as follows A Sovereign Prince has a just occasion to make War against a potent Enemy and after due Consultation had with his most wise and faithful Counsellors resolves at length on a Person undoubtedly the fitest in all the Kingdom to be his General and thereupon makes him so The Prince afterward notwithstanding he still upon prudent grounds esteems him a Person in every respect for Fidelity Valour and Conduct more requisite to be employed than any other in that Service yet nevertheless out of Fancy takes his Commission from him and bestows the Command of the Army upon another who through his ill Management is occasion of its Overthrow in this case though the Sovereign does his Subject no wrong in removing him from the high and honourable Trust of being General and conferring it on a Person far less worthy yet nevertheless he wrongs his own Reason and to be injurious to ones own Reason is the principal Wrong if well considered that any man can do because of the most intimate Concern to every one as being that which does Violence to Man 's very Natural Constitution which is Rational and thence becomes the Original of all Injury which any one does either to himself or others The third and last Instance of many that might be brought shall be in God himself in manner following Suppose the Almighty when he created the World to act therein as sure 't will be readily granted he did according to exact Wisdom and that there is no less Reason to continue it being made then there was at first to make it God in this case could not reduce it again to nothing without contradicting his own Reason which because it is impossible for him to do it's impossible likewise to annihilate the Universe upon the account of its being the free Product of his Will not but that he has strength infinitely more then is sufficient to do it but forasmuch as the Universe is the Result of his immutable Wisdom and Goodness that it can never enter into his Thoughts to do it If it be asked what advantage a Man has by Propriety in a thing above another Person that has no Right thereto at all if he may not dispose of it as he pleases I answer this advantage that he may make use of it according to Right Reason at his Pleasure whereas any other who is not the Proprietor cannot without the Owners Leave first had ever lawfully use it at all Objection 6. From the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God Divines usually prove the Necessity of the Eternal Communication of his Divine Nature to the Son and Holy Ghost and thence infer that the World was not a necessary but free Product of the Divine Goodness since otherwise the Almighty should have communicated Being to the Creature no less necessarily then he did his Essence to the Second and Third Person in the Blessed Trinity and consequently an infinite Perfection contrary to what is demonstrated Sect. 3. Answer Though I speak of Gods being necessitated to create Sect. 3. Yet I expresly there say that it is only by his Eternal immutable Wisdom and Goodness and that they no otherways engage his Will save only to make the best Choice not that God was ever undetermined in his Will since it is impossible that his Wisdom being essential to him should not perpetually necessarily know and his Goodness no less essential to him should not perpetually necessarily incline him to will what is best or most agreeable to both and equally impossible that his will not really but notionly only distinct from either whatsoever is in God being God Sect. 1. Par. 11. should not act according to them so that as all the internal Actings of God are essentially wise and essentially good so are they likewise essentially necessary whilst the Divine Wisdom Goodness and Will are essentially the same and his internal Actings nothing else but his very Will essentially actuated with Wisdom and Goodness and by consequence eternally and necessarily so actuated And therefore the Instance from the necessity of communicating the Divine Nature by the Father to the Son and Holy Spirit for proof that the World was not necessarily created in stead of disproving the necessity of the Worlds Creation is clearly an Argument for it For seeing the Communication of the Divine Nature is rendred by the Objection and truly the necessary Result of the infinite Goodness and Perfection of God it plainly argues a greater Perfection in an intelligent Being to act out of necessity of Nature then to act with that Freedom which supposes a Liberty of acting or not acting or pleasure and consequently in regard there are no degrees of Perfection in God who is essential Perfection it self that the Creation was as well a necessary as voluntary Product of the Divine Will and that the reason why the Universe is not of infinite Perfection answerable to the Maker of it is from the Incapacity of the Subject accordingly as was shewn Sect. 3. Par. 1 2 3 8. the World being a Complex of Things the perfectest that could be created ibid. Objection 7. If the World could not have been eternal as it is said in Sect. 3. Par. 4. that it could not the reason thereof must be either because God could not have created it from Eternity for want of Power or because the World it self was incapable of existing eternally But
end to make the Earth so barren as that without the Sweat of their Brows it should not yield them necessary Maintenance And then forasmuch as God works not Miracles where natural causes are sufficient to effect his Purpose 't is most reasonable to think that the Earth was made less fruitful in the way which in the Objection it is supposed that it might fall out to wit by causing that Motion of the Earth or Course peradventure of the Sun it matters not whether which makes difference of Seasons and alteration of the Air whence also Sicknesses and Diseases would be apt to grow and so constant causes of Misery and Mortality be in all Ages ready at hand to put Men in mind of their frail and sinful Condition and thence become not tormentive Revenges but connatural Means Motives and Inducements to make them fly with sorrow of Heart and full purpose of amending their Lives for Wickedness even in the apprehension of the very Pagans was the Cause of the Calamities which befel Men to God for Succour Help and Comfort and so to build their Hopes and put their Trust in him and consequently to love him as their Sovereign Benefactor If it be replied that what has yet been said falls short of resolving the main difficulty which is how the eating of the Fruit could be the connatural Cause or a necessary Motive to God for altering either the Course of the Sun or the Motion of the Earth by which the Air became distempered for the Sin of Man My Answer is first that admitting there was a Change either of the annual course of the Sun or of the Motion of the Earth from what it was at first it will I think be hard to give any other good account why the Change was made save only that which has been given already namely for embarrening the Earth and bringing Distempers and Diseases on Mankind to drive them in a manner to have a sense of their sinful sad Condition to the end they might cast themselves upon the Mercy and Goodness of God and place their Affections on him for the same But I answer secondly that there is in truth no necessity to grant there was any different Course of the Sun or Motion of the Earth from what it was annually afterward for the Omniscient eternally comprehending at once what will ever be the Effects as well of all voluntary as necessary Causes could not chuse but know that Adam would voluntarily fall from the State wherein he created him and exactly at what time and therefore ordered from Eternity such a successively various Course of the Sun or Motion of the Earth as would be congruous both to the Estate of Mans Integrity and of his lapsed Condition for helping him on towards Felicity For that Adams Continuance in Paradise was but short may be rationally inferred from hence that the crafty Serpent could not be ignorant that the longer our first Parents persevered in the Practice of Obedience and frequent pious Duties seriously performed to God the harder still it would be for him to overcome them by his designed Temptation in that Habits are evermore strengthened and confirmed by the iteration of Act and therefore questionless he would not omit especially considering his violent restless Desire to do Mischief the very first opportunity of assailing them and we do not read of any more Temptations of his offered to them but only one so that their Fall might very well be before the Airs Distemper could happen though the annual Course of the Sun or Motion of the Earth was never different from what it is at present If it be alledged that such Knowledge in God as has been mentioned must either be the cause of Adam's Fall and consequently of Sin which would be Blasphemy to affirm or else it must proceed from and depend upon the Fall as the Object whence it is derived which would be absurd to assert I answer there is no necessity of granting either for as to Sin since it is a meer Privation Sect. 8. Par. 3 4. 't is impossible there should be any efficient cause thereof And in that every Man knows his own Thoughts and Actions without a Monitor or receiving notice of them from any thing besides himself is it not evident that if God be as primarily intimate to a Man's Thoughts and Actions as the Man himself is he 'l as primarily know immediately of and from himself the Man's Thoughts and Actions as the Man himself doth from himself And that God is as primarily intimate to every Man's Thoughts and Actions as the Man himself is appears from hence that in whatever any of them is distant from pure nothing it has the same by the Divine Power Will or Mind intrinsically concurring to the Production of it and so God must of necessity as primarily know it and as intimately as the Man knows it himself Nor is the mentioned Divine Concurrence let Man's Thoughts and Actions be what they will any cause at all of Sin for Thoughts and Actions are never sinful as such they are only sinful when and as they are directed and tend to a wrong end and such Direction and Tendency proceeds wholly from Man and not in the least from God by which the Mind is alienated and turned away from the Object of Felicity for in the Alienation and Aversion of the Mind from God in whose Fruition Felicity is placed doth Sin formally consist Sect. 8. Par. 3 4. Objection 11. You assert Sect. 4. par 14. That if Man had once enjoyed the Beatific Vision he could never have fallen from Bliss for which though you produce there such reason as to me I confess appears sufficient to make it out yet the plausibleness of the Praeexistentiarian Hypothesis makes me somewhat doubt of the certainty of the Truth of your Assertion especially considering your agreement with it in this that God does what is best for his Creatures and that it seems reasonable to think that such a praeexistent state as is described in Lux Orientalis Chap. 14. p. 113. was best for Rational Souls Of which Opinion I greatly desire to know what your Sentiments are Answer You put me upon a very ungrateful Task for I love not to intermeddle with other mens Writings yet to afford you what satisfaction I can in a single Sheet I will give you my Thoughts concerning the mentioned Hypothesis so far as relates to my Assertion That the Beatific Vision once fully enjoyed can never be deserted or lost in pursuance of which it will be convenient to transcribe the place you direct me to which contains these express Words The Eternal and Almighty Goodness the blessed Spring and Root of all things made all his Creatures in the best happiest and most perfect condition that their respective Natures rendered them capable of and therefore they were then constituted in the inactuation and exercise of their noblest and most perfect Powers Consequently the Souls of men a
Annotator's Answer to one who would needs prove the Sovereignty of God's Will over his Goodness from hence that it would have been better to have created the World sooner than he did the Answer is this If the World could not be ab aeterno which the Annotator had elsewhere made good it could not but must commence on this side of Eternity and be of finite years I leave to the Opposer to prove that it has not been created assoon as it could be and that is sufficient to prove that its late Production is not inconsistent with that Principle that God's Goodness always is the measure of his Actions For suppose the World of as little continuance as you will if it was not ab aeterno it was once of as little and how can we discern but that this is that very time which seems so little to us Annotations upon Lux Orientalis Chap. 9. pag. 59. This I take to be no less a solid than ingenious Answer to the Objection but withal think that it affords a sufficient ground of Argument whereby to evince that no Hypothesis whatsoever of a praeexistent happy State can be rationally founded on this Presumption that it was better or more agreeable to the Divine Wisdom that it actually should be because in appearance convenient and possible that it might be For supposing the Creation of the World to be good for the Creature as no doubt it is it being impossible that the Creator should be bettered thereby how apt will Man's narrow Reason be to suggest from thence that the sooner it was created the better it would be for them And yet nevertheless considering that Wisdom and Goodness are essential to God so that he cannot but do what all things reckoned upon is absolutely best and that we are ascertain'd by inerrable Testimony of the late Creation of the World we must of necessity conclude that we are deceived in thinking that it had been better that the World should have been of long continuance And therefore we can be no more certainly assured that there really was a praeexistent happy state of Souls because it seems to our short Reasoning that it would have been better for them then it doth follow that the world had continued longer than the holy Scripture assures us it hath because in appearance it would have been better for the Creature for whose Benefit it was made that it had done so Objection 12. If the only end designed by God in creating the World was to communicate and to do good to the Creature and that being immutable he still retains the like Kindness and Good-will to them which he did at first I see no possibility of giving any good account why the Almighty whose Will is irresistable either created not Men and Angels in an indefectible State or at least preserved not all as well as some of them from endless Misery But the difficulty in that respect vanisheth if it be indeed true which is usually said that Gods ultimate Intent in creating the World was to glorifie himself in the final Condition of Men and Angels and that either by shewing his absolute Soveraignty and uncontroulable Dominion in making a Decree of Election and Reprobation antecedent to any Covenant between himself and the Creature Or else by making known his Justice executed upon some Offenders and his Mercy exhibited to others after Terms of Reconciliation had been propounded by the Creator but could not be observed on the Creatures part save only by some few predestinated ones Or lastly by executing due Vengeance after sufficient however inefficacious Grace tendred to all upon the wilful Rejecters thereof and by rewarding with Beatitude the cordial Embraces of it All which Opinions though different from each other yet they every one of them centre in this that the Almightie's great and ultimate End in creating the World was to glorifie himself eternally in the final Estate of the Elect and Reprobate Men and Angels Answer Since every thing done by God as well as Man ought to be done for some good End and that the Divine Nature is totally incapable of any good either of Profit or Pleasure save only what is eternal and essential to him Sect. 8. Solut. of Object 1. it necessarily follows that God created not the World to acquire any good at all to Himself and consequently that it was wholly framed to procure the Benefit of the Creature This allowed of to be true there must be some other cause known to God why he created not Men and Angels in an indefectible State or at least prevented not every ones eternal Ruine than that he sought to acquire to himself everlasting Glory by the manifestation of his Power Justice and Mercy in the final Salvation of some and Damnation of others of his Creatures albeit the same could in no respect whatsoever be discerned by Man what it is But yet it is not I think a thing totally estranged from Human Reason to conceive and apprehend how and in what respect it is better for the Creature that the World was created then otherwise notwithstanding that some both Men and Angels perish everlastingly For let it be considered that it was agreeable to the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to communicate Being and withal that it was impossible to create any single Creature or Species of Creatures however excellent Sect. 3. Par. 8. and our reason will straightway lead us to discover that the infinitely wise and good God propounded to himself the creating such a Complex and Universe of Beings as that the most comprehensive and excellent End which whatsoever could be created should in its whole Latitude be possibly able to aspire to might be attained Which great and noble End each part of the Universe in its proper Station was by the Almighties admirable Disposal and ordering to concur together to produce under himself the principal Cause always promoting the same on his part yet so as that he leaves every second intermediate Cause to act according to its own Nature save only in some cardinal Instances where the Divine Wisdom sees a necessity of an extraordinary or miraculous working above Nature to prevent a Failure too great in respect of the grand designed End to be permitted since otherwise the World would have been made to small or no effect Wherefore seeing Man of all the Creatures upon Earth is alone Rational and determins himself to Action his Nature would be violated which were in effect to unman him if he should be otherwise moved or wrought upon to act than according to his own voluntary Choice founded in the Rational Faculties of the Soul the Intellect and the Will. Which Choice if it be made according to Right Reason in an hearty preferring the Love of the Creator before the Love of the Creature or in placing the Souls Affections upon God as its sole Supream Good and on all other things as subservient to the Enjoyment of him will bring every Man in
the Wicked for the Day of Evil Dr. Patrick in his Paraphrase on the Text tells us That it hath exercised many Pens to little purpose when the Sense is clear which is this The Lord disposeth all things throughout the World to serve such ends as he thinks fit to design which they cannot refuse to comply with for if any Men be so wicked as to oppose his Will he will not lose their Service but when he brings a Calamity upon a Country employ them to be the Executioners of his Wrath. This Interpretation makes nothing at all against any thing I have asserted But suppose the worthy Expositor should himself be mistaken no less then he thinks many others to be we may rationally conclude that no convincing Proof of any thing can be made from a Text whose Sense is so dubious that the determinate meaning of it cannot be assigned Objection 9. In the first Petition of the Lord's Prayer Hallowed be thy Name we desire that God may be glorified in the second Thy Kingdom come we pray for our own and other Mens eternal Glory or Felicity and therefore seeing God's Glory is desired in the first Petition and Man's Glory or Felicity in the second God's Glory and Man's Felicity cannot be the same thing as they are said to be Sect. 4. Solut. of the Objection there made Answer The Glory desired in the first and second Petition is not adequately the same but yet not totally different for in saying Hallowed be thy Name we pray that God's name may be glorified by the whole Work of the Creation of which Man being a Part we petition that Mankind together with the rest of the Universe except the Damned which are irrevocably lost may glorifie God and chiefly in acquiring the respective End for which every thing was created and therefore though the eternal glorifying of God by Man prayed for in the second Petition be not adequately the same with the glorifying God by the whole Creation in obtaining universally its End and observing the Laws appointed for procuring the same desired in the first Petition yet is it the same with Mans particular ultimate End or Felicity which inasmuch as it consists in loving God with all the Power and Strength of the Soul and that such Love is the Honour which God requires to be given by Man to Eternity Sect. 4. in the Solution of the Objection it is plain that Man 's eternal Glory and Felicity is the same with his glorifying God for ever Neither is it any Tautology which the designed Brevity of the Lords Prayer composed by Divine Wisdom necessarily I confess acquits it of when we have first prayed in general that the whole Creation whereof Man is a Part may glorifie God in the attainment chiefly of their respective Ends to crave more particularly for our selves and all others of the same Species with us the End for which Man was created whilst to pray so first in general is a proper operative Means and Inducement to cause us to desire more concernedly and with greater ardency of Devotion that we and our Neighbour may not our selves fail of the End of our Creation when we have already begged that every thing whatsoever may acquire its Perfection If God you 'l say be glorified chiefly in the acquisition of the End for which things were created it should seem that he is not at all glorified in the Damnation of Reprobate Men and Angels in that they neither obtain the End for which Rational and Intelligent Natures were created nor observe the Laws conducible thereunto I answer that therefore they do not glorifie God after the manner intended in the Lord's Prayer yet their Condition nevertheless is not such but that Glory redounds thereby to God and that not only in regard of their Beings whereof they would not be deprived as will hereafter be shown in the Answer to the 9. Obj. which are of God but also in respect that forsaking him and placing their Affections on other Objects never to be obtained they find themselves perpetually tormented and thence of necessity own that their Sufferings proceed from their perverse Desires continued in and that God is altogether Righteous not at all rejoycing or taking Pleasure in their wretched miserable Condition as he himself protesteth As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33. 11. Objection 10. Death is said Sect. 6. among other Miseries which befall Mankind to be the Connatural Effect of eating the forbidden Fruit which seems to be contrary to Experience for Death is often caused by the Inequality and Corruption of the Air 't is clear at least that from thence do spring all Famins Plagues c. and 't is incredible those things should not act upon Man and cause Death although his animal Spirits were ne're so rightly tempered I know some say that in the State of Paradise there was no Summer nor Winter and so none of these things which are the Effects of such inequality of Seasons And indeed those more noble and conspicuous Stars scattered through the Zodiac that is on both sides the Ecliptic are a great sign that the Earth at its first drying was turned just under the Ecliptic and had its Axis still conformed to the Ecliptics Axis Now if this had continued I easily perceive all parts would have perpetually kept the same Relation to the Sun so would have had a constant equability of Heat But now we see it is otherwise and I would gladly learn how the Deviation of the Earth's Axis from the Poles of the Ecliptic to the Poles of the Aequator which is the cause of Winter and Summer and of all Distempers in the Air could be the connatural effect of the Fruit. Answer To this Inquiry in which the whole difficulty is wound up I thus make answer Since it was the good Pleasure of God to prevent the grand sad effect which the eating of the Apple would of necessity have produced I mean Adam's and Eves eternal Misery in case they had not returned to love God as their Sovereign Good it was requisite to let them understand the danger of transgressing the Almighties Command not only in regard of what was past but also of what was to come which to do in a way connatural and suitable to their State seems in reason to have been the very same which the Almighty took For whereas our first Parents were put into the Garden of Eden abounding with Variety of what was good and grateful to them thereby to incline them to be thankful to give Praise and Honour to God and above all to love him as the Author and Giver of every good thing they enjoy'd what so connatural a Course even to the eye of Human Reason could have been taken to bring them home to himself again by Repentance as to turn them out of the pleasant Enjoyments they in the State of their Integrity had experienced and for that