and what Accidents make a thing unlawful to be commanded and what not and what Scandal is and how far to be avoided which we shall do in these Propositions following Prop. 1. MORALITY is either Regulans or Regulata mensurans or mensurata The first is Radically in God's own Mind and Will and is called by many Lex aeterna and it is signally and expressively in Gods Laws and subord 〈◊〉 nately in Man's Laws as they are a Rule to Subjects Of these we are not now to speak that is not of the holiness of God or his Laws nor of Man's as they are truly a Rule to Subjects Morality as Regulated is subjected in the Minds and Actions of the Creature specially in the WILL and in our Actions as VOLUNTARY and so even the Laws of Men as those Men are God's Subjects and their Laws are Actions good or evil as Regulated by God's Superiour Laws are the Subjects of the Morality now in question Prop. 2. This Morality in Man's Will and Actions is nothing else formally but their Relation of Conformity or Disconformity to God's Law as their Rule and subordinately to subordinate Rules and materially to the End and O 〈◊〉 jects Prop. 3. How far this Moral Relation is immediately founded in a Physical Relation which is before it in order of Nature viz. in the said Relation of the Will and Action to the End and Object as such antecedently to the Relation to the commanding or forbidding Law we would willingly open were it not lest we seem with Men that love not much distinction to justifie or excuse them that censure us as guilty of excess herein and we may do what is now necessary to be done without it Prop. 4. No Being as such no Substance as such no Habit as a Habit no Act as an Act is Morally Good or Evil For so they are but Quid Naturale and God doth not command and forbid Natural Beings as such Prop. 5. All Moral Good and Evil is subjected in Natural Beings or Privations but not immediately as such but as modified circumstantiated and related Prop. 6. Good and Evil make up all Morality there is no third Species There are many things that are Indifferent as to Morality that is neither Morally Good nor Morally Evil but there is nothing Moral-Indifferent Meer Natural Beings and Acts are Indifferent as to Morality that is they are not Moral But whatever is Moral is Morally Good or Evil and not Indifferent Prop. 7. The Subject and quid absolutum Fundamentale of all moral good is quid positivum or a real Being but the Form of moral evil is ever found indeed in a real Subject but not always in a real fundamentum For it is oft at least in total Omissions and Privations of the Act and in Privations of some modal or accidental qualification or rectitude Prop. 8. Yet the formal relations of moral good and evil are both tru 〈◊〉 Relations even Dis-conformity as well as Conformity as curv 〈◊〉 tude and dis-similitude are as well as rectitude and similitude And a Meer Negative is neither good nor evil e. g. Negative Non-conformity which is not Privative Dis-conformity is no sin because there being not the Debitum inessendi the non-inesse is inculpable It seemeth indeed to some Learned Men that non agere may be moral good e. g. Non odisse Deum au 〈◊〉 proximum non ment 〈◊〉 ri not to murder steal c. And it 's true that the 〈◊〉 is the thing remotely commanded or loco materie 〈◊〉 but the thing immâ—â—â—ately commanded is the 〈◊〉 agere The Will by all these Commands is bound positâ—â—ely to nill the forbidden Act e. g. Murder Adultery Lying c. To nill them is the prime Duty or moral Good that we say not with Ockam the only and not-to-d 〈◊〉 them is the secondary but that is as they are Acts restrained or forborn by a Commanding Will For a Man in Infancy or the Womb or in an Apoplexie or when he is wholly taken up with some other sin not then to Steal Lye Murder or commit Adultery is not at all a moral Good But a meer incogitâ—â—â—y non agere non velle may be a true moral Evil The reason is because when a right Volition is commanded as to love God or Man or â—â—ight Action to do good 〈◊〉 not to do it is a breach of the Command And not to will and not to do when we ought is the commonest kind of sinning Prop. 9. Right ordered Actions Dispositions and Habits then as in or of the Will directly and remotely some non agency are the only things commanded called morally Good save that eorum gratia the Soul and whole man or person is well and truly called morall 〈◊〉 Good And the P 〈◊〉 ivation and I 〈◊〉 ordination of Voluntary Actions Dispositions and Habits are the only moral Evil save that the person is also called such eorum gratia Prop. 10. An Action may be Indifferent or of no Morality as to Election or Performance and yet to Deliberate about that Act may be morally good e. g. I may doubt of two ways which are equal to my End as far as can be known by me whether they be so or not or which is the better I may be obliged to deliberate whether they are equal or not to guide my Progress and end my Doubt And when I have found them equal I have found that Comparatively neither of them is matter of Election as by reason to be preferred to the other But yet because I must chuse to g 〈◊〉 on therefore I must take one way and not the other because I cannot go both But this is only a chusing to go and a taking that way but not a chusing it which signifieth a rational preferring it Here my Deliberation is a moral Act and so is my chusing to go but my chusing this way rather than the other is none For upon deliberating I found that neither was Eligible and Choice no Duty Prop. 11. As the smallness of the least Physical Being though undiscernable proveth it not to be Nothing so the smallness of any moral Good or Evil Duty or Sin proveth not that it is no Duty or Sin at all Prop. 12. Moral Good and Evil is it self only an Accident for Habits Dispositions Actions and Relations are Accidents and Privations are either reductively Accidents as some call them or less than Accidents even meer nothings though from a Nullity or Privation a moral Relation truly result on the Person Prop. 13. Therefore when we say that a thing is Good or Evil by Accident we mean somewhat more than that the Good or Evil is an Accident it self for there is no other We mean that it is something acciding or added to the former Accident or State that maketh it now Good or Evil. Prop. 14. In an Action there is considerable 1. The Action as such or as specified only by the Faculty Intellection Volition Imagination c.
Darkness Why should Men be feigned so mad as to argue at this rate Pr. 2. If the Question be whether any Ruler have power to Command a thing which would be no Duty but indifferent if he did not Command it It is to question that which all sober Persons must assert in the disjunctive use of Things or Actions as to each other That is 1. Nothing is to be done or commanded that is not good before or made good and useful by the Command Idle Laws are not good if idle words be bad 2. The End and Benefit of an Action may be necessary and the commanding of an Action or Circumstance before indifferent comparatively as to others may be disjunctively necessary either this or that and the indifferency taken away and the thing made both Naturally and Morally good by the Determination of the Command For Instance It is necessary that the Army keep together and march in Unity and Order It is therefore necessary that they all meet or Rendezvous at one determinate certain place and it is necessary that they meet at one determinate certain time or day It is therefore necessary that one certain place and time be determined By Consent it will not be It is therefore necessary that it be done by Command None of this is indifferent But the place and day may be antecedently so indifferent that no Man can see a Reason why one rather than the other should be chosen no more than why of two equal Eggs I should chuse this rather than the other In this case it is not properly chusing but taking I do not chuse this rather than the other there being no preserence of Esteem but only I take this and not the other because I must take one and I must take but one And when the indifferent Place and Time is determined of it then and thereby is made profitable to the End which is Unity and Order Thus far things necessary in genere this or that disjunctively and unnecessary antecedently in particular this no more necessary than that may be commanded by Authority and are thereby made Naturally useful and Morally the Subjects Duty Pr. 3. If the Question be only in matters of God's worship or Religion whether the same hold there we affirm that it there holdeth also Which we thus explain 1. No Ruler hath Authority to forbid what God commandeth or to command what God forbiddeth as to Action or any Circumstance of an Action 2. No Man can command by pretence of an Authority co-ordinate with God's but only derived and subordinate 3. No Man can do any thing which God hath appropriated to himself as his own proper work as to make Universal Laws for the whole World or Church to make another Gospel Divine Covenant or Sacraments of Gods Covenant to add to or diminish or alter the Word of God to alter the Ministry Church-state or Laws which he hath made or to make the like or to change his Institutions 4. No Man can command any thing but what God giveth him Authority to command for there is no Power but of God 5. But God giveth Men Authority to command things before indifferent in his Worship such as we before described about Civil or Military things That is It is necessary that the Worship of God be orderly performed in Sacred Assemblies and that Unity and Concord be there kept It is therefore necessary that many meet in the same Place and the same Time and use the same Translation of Scripture at that time and the same Metre and Tune of Psalms and hear the same Preacher on the same Text and the same Sermon and that the Preacher at that time use the same words and Method of Prayer and Sermon to them all whether by Notes or without c. But whether it be this place or that this day and hour or that this Translation Metre Tune or that this Chapter Text Method words or that may be indifferent before and needful and a Duty to the People after the Determination of the Ruler to whom it doth belong Pr. 4. If a Ruler do not Act quite out of the Matter or Circuit of his own Jurisdiction about a thing which belongeth not to him nor by his Determination of Circumstances subvert the thing Circumstantiated and the very End or Work it self though he miss it in a Work which belongeth to his Office and do it not the best way but be culpable in his Command the Subject yet may be bound to do what is so commanded and is not excused by the faultiness of the Rulers determining Commands Which we thus explain 1. It belongeth not to a King to govern a Mans thoughts Therefore if he make Laws for our thoughts it is doubted by many whether they oblige unless as he is the Official Promulgator of God's Laws or exhort Men to obey them Yet knowing that he is God's Minister for our good if he should Ministerially command us not to think ill of God or well of wickedness c. we will not concur with those that affirm that no secondary Obligation ariseth from his Command as long as we all hold that if a Church-Pastor Ministerially as Christ's Officer forbid blasphemous malicious filthy thoughts and Command holy meditation and mental Prayer and Thanksgiving his Ministerial Command hath an answerable Obligation It sufficeth us therefore to say that Kings cannot punish Men or reward them for their thoughts which is from their Natural Incapacity of knowing them For could they know a Thoughtful Plot of Treason or a wise and honest contrivance or design for Publick good we cannot say that they might not answerably punish and reward them But to go to clearer Instances It belongeth to the King to give general regulating Laws to Physicians to Mariners to Parents to Nurses to Farriers to Brewers Bakers Cooks c. He may forbid Physicians the use of some dangerous Drugs and Mariners some times and places that are unsafe and Parents and Nurses to give their Children some pernicious Food or wicked Counsel or Education and Brewers Bakers and Cooks to poison Men or deceive them in the matter of their Trades But if he make such Laws as take these Mens Callings out of their hands If he will chuse a Physician for every Patient and the Medicines that every Physician shall use with Dose Time and other Circumstances and what Food every Parent shall give his Children with the Measure Time c. and so of the rest This is to go beyond his Calling and so beyond his true Authority and such Laws oblige not So if a King will give such Laws to Christ's true Ministers as turn them out of their Callings and take them all upon himself it is an acting beyond and without Authority and doth not oblige It is the Office of a Pastor of the Church to have and use the Keys of the Church to be the immediate Ministerial Judge of Individuals who is to be taken in by Baptisme and
Nature as it were of our Souls and the Business of our Lives Prop. 20. That which makes this to be Bonum per se immutabile which no accident can alter is 1. Because the Foundations of our Obligations are Immutable while our Faculties and Powers endure else they would cease for the de 〈◊〉 itum is a Relation resulting from the meer Being or Position of the Humane Nature as related to God And God will never change Therefore unless Man cease to be man or to be able to act as man the obligation can by no accident be changed 2. Because it is a duty to the supreme Ruler and absolute infinite Good and therefore the very performance of it is exclusive of all changing accidents For he that loveth God as a means to his fleshly pleasure and prosperity only and as less good to him than the world loveth him not as God And he that loveth him as God loveth him as the absolute Power Wisdom and Goodness and therefore exclusively as to all Competitors unless as this love is sinfully defective but that accident of defectiveness maketh not our love to God to be a sin but the defe 〈◊〉 t of it as to degree or frequency of exercise is the sin 3. And also because that God is the Final Object and Love the Final Act which together make up the ultimate end of man including the Vision that kindleth love and the praise joy and obedience which express it But though mean 〈◊〉 may be oft changed and may be too much loved yet the ultimate end is unchangeable and cannot be too much loved by true mental love distinct from distracting passions therefore our Obligations to it are according So that Love to God is the most immutable Moral Good And the same in their place and time must be said of holy Fear Trust and Obedience to God from which no Accident can disoblige us no Command or Prohibition of man no suffering of body or danger of life it self much less the allurements of sensual delights Pr. 21. Accordingly to hate God to distrust his known Promise to disobey his known Law to oppose or persecute his known Interest in the world in his Word and Worship Church and Servants are immutably evil per se which no Accident can make good or lawful For the Reasons before given Pr. 22. But where the object is mutable and the circumstances of things which the Obligation presupposeth there the duty or sinfulness is by supervening Accidents mutable Even Incest which is a hainous sin was a duty to Adams Children because of accidental difference of the case The killing of an innocent Son was well consented to by Abraham when the Lord of Life and of all the world had commanded it and that consent was an act of eminent goodness and accordingly rewarded The borrowing of the Egyptians Goods without intent to restore them and the robbing of them by taking them away was well done when the absolute Owner of the World had by his Precept altered the Propriety Thus the altering of the Case may alter Obligations Pr. 23. But besides the immutable Obligations to God himself there are many instances of our actions towards men and worldy Things which are ordinarily unchanged and only some rare or supernatural declaration of the will of God doth change them For as God the Author and Orderer of Nature sheweth us by experience that he delighteth much in the ordinary Constancy of his operations and rarely changeth the course of Nature so there is an answerable constancy in the ordinary state and order of Things and consequently of obligations or duty And these are the matter of Gods common universal Laws which ordinarily oblige all mankind These are the matter of the second Table of the Decalogue and are seconds in point of immutable Obligation to the first mentioned sort our natural duty to God For though man be mutable and God immutable yet God preserveth so much constancy in Humane Affairs as is just matter of constant universal Laws though they are lyable rarely to dispensations or exceptions And as not murdering not committing Adultery not stealing not lying or false witness bearing are such so also are the meer Positives of the first Table such as are the acts of Instituted Worship and the holy observation of the Lords day Prop. 24. The Cases of Mans Life which are more mutable are the matter of mutable Duty and Sin which are most usually called Good or Evil per accidens because that mutable accidents added to the more constant accidents make them such by change And so it is greatly to be noted that the Act which is a Duty to one Man in one Place at one Time c. may be a sin to another Man or at another Time Place c. And that new accidents may again come in and make that Action that was a sin to become again a Duty And more new accidents may make it a sin again and so over and over Even as when you are weighing in the Ballance one Grain may turn the Scales the other way and two more in the other end may turn them back again and three more in the other end may yet return them and so on many times over and over For Instance Suppose an honest Man cannot pray without some unseemly faults in utterance in secret it is his Duty to pray vocally if that most profit and affect his heart if an exceptious Person be known to over-hear him it may be a sin to do it audibly If his Family be capable of bearing it it is his Duty to do it as he can If strangers come in that would by scorn make it do more hurt than good he may be bound to forbear till they are gone When they are gone it is his Duty again A Fire breaketh out or one falleth into a swound and it is his Duty to forbear When that is over it may be his Duty again c. Pr. 25. Two sorts therefore sin against God that would tye Men to do the very same things of such a mutable Nature without excepting the mutation of accidents 1. Those that will tye them to it by peremptory Laws 2. Those that will censoriously reproach or condemn them as sinners that do not do just as they do when the Circumstances alter the Case Many are so guilty who complain of other Mens Impositions Pr. 26. Hence it is evident that Prudence discerning how the alteration of accidents alter our Obligations is a very needful thing to Christians for the same guidance of their hearts and lives And as Men picture Justice as holding the Ballance so should Christian Prudence be thought on even as judging of Good and Evil with the Ballance in our hand and putting every Grain of considerable accidents into each end And much errour censoriousness disorder and other sin is in the World by ignorant Mens judging of things by some mistaken word of Scripture without prudent weighing of Circumstances and
of us hold that neither Christ nor his Apostles over appointed any Elders to Rule the Church by the power of the Keys distinct from the Magistrates Government by the Sword but only ordained Ministers of Christ who have also authority to preach and administer both the Sacraments However we know that when many of these belonged to one Congregation one that was the Chief Speaker usually the Bishop was w 〈◊〉 nt to preach and the rest to be his Assistants especially in private Care of Souls and those of us that think otherwise that Christ or his Apostles made such a Church Office as Ruling Elders not-ordained or that have no power of preaching or administring Sacraments do not hold such essential to the Church nor refuse to live in love and peace and Communion with the Churches that have no such Elders And we all think that so small a difference should make no greater a breach among us VIII We are against the Excommunicating of Kings and of other Magistrates on whose Honour the well-governing and peace of the Kingdom doth depend and are sorry to find some of our sharp Accusers of another mind Our Reasons are because the dishonouring of them is forbidden in the Fifth Commandment And Positive Institutions caeteris paribus must give place to Moral Natural Laws Rituals and matters of Order are no Duties when they make against those Grand Duties which are their Ends or those that are of fundamental or greater use And this Christ hath often taught us by sending the contrary minded to learn what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice and bidding the unreconciled leave their Gift at the Altar c. The End is to be preferred before the Means which indeed are no Means when against the End And Church-Order is not to be pretended for disordering and confounding Kingdoms or against the publick good and safety We judge that Bishop Bilson Bishop Andrews and such others have truly heretofore determined that some wicked impenitent Princes may be denyed the Sacrament but not defamed or dishonoured by a Sentence of Excommunication Much less by any Foreign Usurper or any Minister at home that the Prince himself doth not by consent make the Guid of his Soul for no other but he that is called to give him the Sacrament if qualified is the denyer of it if he be unqualified unless as he is to do what he doth by the advice and consent of Fellow Pastors But the very use of Excommunication is to punish and reform men by dishonouring and shaming them therefore it is not to be used where we owe such honour by the Fifth Commandment to our Prince Obj. 1. We are bid also to honour Father and Mother 2. Yea to honour all men Answ 1. We dare not justifie any Pastors publick disgraceful excommunicating his own Father or Mother unless where a publick obligation for publick good requireth it 2. But to both instances we say that a greater end and more publick good is to be preferred to a le 〈◊〉 s And when a private mans honour is forfeited we cannot give him that which he hath cast away and God will penally take away till he repent But when the publick order and welfare which is above all personal good obligeth us to honour Magistrates a subordinat 〈◊〉 Law will not suspend it Publick Excommunication is an Act of Government to be exercised on the Governed for the Ends of Government But for a Prelate or Priest or any other to do this on his Governours though of another rank crosseth the Ends of Government Nor are Subjects so to be tempted to contemn their Rulers lest they come to think as Bellarmine and such Papists that Infidels are not to Govern Christians nor to be tolerated in their Government or as their very Religion teacheth them Concil Later c. 3. sub Innoc. 3. that when Princes are excommunicated they may be deposed by the Pope or as their learnedest Doctors say that they are no Kings and to kill them is not to kill the King See the Testimonies of this cited at large and expresly by H. Fowlis in his Book of Popish Treasons If ever any Protestants Episcopal Presbyterian or Independents were or be of another mind for the Excommunicating of Kings or Chief Rulers that 's nothing to us who shall neither live nor dye by the Faith or Opinion of others But we should so much the rather here disown it IX It is none of our judgment that when men are excommunicated by Pope Prelates Presbyters or People who are the four Pretenders to that Power the Magistrate must be their Lictor or Executioner or must further punish men by the Sword meerly eo nomine because they are excommunicate or because they reconcile not themselves to the Church by penitence and obedience or because the Pope or Prelate or Priests deliver up the excommunicate to him to be punished or threaten him if he will not do it The Civil Ruler may punish the same men for the same Crimes but upon their own exploration and judgment of the Cause and not as meer Hangmen that must needs execute the judgment of other Judges Their own Conscience must be satisfied and they must know what they do and why else to how many base and bloody offices the factious worldly Clergy may oblige them the Papal Kingdom hath long given men too sad a proof And we must profess that we are fully perswaded that we have good Reason to conclude that so near a Prosecution by the Civil Power as is the imprisoning and undoing of Persons Excommunicate meerly because they stand Excommunicate and are not absolved as Penitents hath not a few nor small incommodities Ecclesiastical 1. So great a Dominion in the Clergy hath done much to corrupt the Sacred Office and make men naturally proud unmeet for the humble Services of the Gospel 2. And it breedeth in the People a distast and hatred of the Clergy as if they were the grievous Wolves that devour the Flock in Sheeps Cloathing and bear not Grapes and Figs but wear Thorns and Thistles to p 〈◊〉 ick and hurt them and causeth their Exhortations to be the more unsuccessful 3. It seemeth to dishonour the Discipline instituted by Christ as if the Keys of his Church â—â—re of no more signification than the Crown of Thorn◠〈◊〉 Reed with which he was derided and could do nothing without the Princes Sword 4. It contradicteth the experience of above 300 years when Church Discipline was exercised more effectually than it is now and that not only without the Sword of the Magistrate but also against his will and opposition Yea it was many a hundred years more after Emperours were Christian before the Keys were ever thus seconded by the Sword and had not the Donatists by inhumane assaulting the Orthodox provoked the Churches and Magistrates it had been like to have been long before the Sword had been drawn against Hereticks at all 5. And that which much
28. and 13. 9. Col. 3. 16. and 4. 6. Eph. 4. 7. 29. and 3. 8. Gal. 2. 9. 2 Cor. 8. 6 7. and 9. 8. Joh. 1. 16. c. II. The words MORALITY and MORAL have also divers significations I. In the first most comprehensive and most famous sense MORALITY as distinguished from meer Naturality or Physicks doth signifie the Relation of the Manners or Acts of an Intelligent free Agent to the Governing Will and Law of God And so Actus morales and Actus humani are used in the same sense and all Morality is distinguished into Moral Good and Moral Evil Virtue and Vice II. Some have used MORALITY in a narrower sense unfitly for so much of Man's duty as is revealed by the meer Law of Nature and as is of common obligation to lapsed Mankind And so it comprehendeth the relicts of the Law of Innocent Nature to love God and obey him c. and the additional Law of Lapsed Nature to Repent and use all possible means for our recovery and thankfully improve the Mercies which we receive And thus it is distinguished from Duty known by supernatural Revelation and especially the Mysteries of Redemption by Jesus Christ III. Some use the word improperly also for all that Duty which is of perpetual Obligation whether by natural or supernatural Revelation And so it is distinguished from Temporary Duties And thus the Lords-Day Baptism the Lords-Supper a Gospel Ministry Scripture to be used discipline are said to be Moral-Positives distinct from meer Natural Duties and from Temporaries IV. Lastly Some yet more unaptly confine the sense to the Duties of our common Conversation towards man as distinct from Holiness or our Duty to God And so they distinguish a meer moral honest man from a godly or religious man Though we wish that the needless use of words improperly were not the common Fuel of vain Contendings yet we being not the Masters of Language must take words as we find them used and leave all men arbitrarily to use them as they please so be it they will but tell us what they mean by them before they lay any stress on them in disputing In reference to these various senses of these words we suppose that we are all agreed as followeth I As to MORALITY in the first and most famous signification we are agreed 1. That all proper Humane Acts are moral that is morally Good or Evil And all Duty and Sin Virtue and Vice in Habit and Act Positive and Privative Vice are parts of Morality moral Good directly and moral Evil reductively and consequently 2. Holiness to the Lord or the Love of God as God is the chief part of Morality and what Duty soever is Evangelical and spiritual is also moral 3. Nothing is morally laudable or rewardable but Moral Good and nothing is punishable but Moral Evil. 4. All Morality is seated primarily in the Will but is secondarily as flowing thence in the imperate Acts of the Intellect and inferior Faculties 5. All truly moral Good in lapsed man is 1. From God's Efficient Grace 2. And exercised on some Objective Grace And 3. Is it self Subjective Grace either special or common 6. The Good called Moral in Infidels and all other ungodly unsanctified men is such but secundum quid and not simpliciter nor in the full or properest sense Because bonum est ex omnibus Causis essentialibus And a good Principle Rule End and right Object especially the formal Object are all essential to a truly good moral Act But every ungodly man in every Action doth want at least some one of these And an Act is denominated in Morality from that which is prevalent in it and not from every conquered deprest ingredient We say not that he that killeth his Father or Prince with the reluctancy of better thoughts and inclinations doth therein do a good work though that reluctancy was good So he that hath some Love to God and Goodness but more Hatred and more love to sinful pleasure doth not a work properly Good which proceedeth from such a mixed Cause But the evil Principle and End is predominant in all ungodly men 7. But materially and secundum quid bad men may do Works that are morally good and physically very good to others as Governing and Protecting Common-wealths and Churches building Cities and Temples and Hospitals relieving the Poor preaching the Gospel expounding Scripture defending Truth promoting Learning and in good Nature Patience Meekness Temperance Chastity Wit and Industry they may be commendable and exemplary and their Precepts and Practice may conduce much to the good of others 8. Whatever good is found in Heathens or Infidels or ungodly Men is to be acknowledged and praised proportionably according to its real worth it being all from God who must not be robbed of his praise 9. A Man that hath but Common Grace is better than he would be if he had none and it is the usual preparatory for special saving Grace Though many civil temperate persons by overvaluing Common Good are hindred from seeking Special Grace that is not caused by the Good but by their abuse of it objectively And though God take occasion from some mens great sins to affright their Consciences to Repentance and Reformation that is not caused by the sin but by Gods Mercy Sin as remembred is not sin in the act of remembring nor sin as repented of in repenting but before in the committing God may Convert Paul in the act of Persecuting But Persecuting is not the way or means of Conversion Special Grace must be sought in the use of Common Grace and not in a way of negligence contempt or wilful sin II. Of MORALITY in the second sense as taken for Natural Duties which all Mankind is obliged to by Natural Revelation of God's Will we are agreed as followeth 1. The sum of this Natural Morality or Duty is to love God as God for himself and all things else for him even as being of Him and through Him and to Him to obey God and make it our chief care to please him and therein to place and seek our Happiness even in everlasting mutual love To love others as our selves and do all the good we can to all for Soul and Body especially to the most publick Societies to do justly and as we would be done by to use our Bodies as the Servants of our Souls and Soul and Body as the Servants of God And to hate and avoid all that is contrary to these This Natural Evidence will prove to be the Common Duty of Mankind 2. This Love to God and Man before described is true Holiness that is The Soul's separation and devotedness to God 3. All the Evidence which Nature affordeth us herein is not seen by all men that are of natural Wit or Industry no more than all that is revealed by the Scripture is known to all that read the Scripture or that believe it 4. Holiness is the End of Medicinal Grace as used