claps of Thunder together with the prodigious sound of a Trumpet rending and tearing the Heavens so that Moses himself exceedingly fear'd and trembled But the Gospel being wholly a design of Mercy and Love carries with it no terrors and affrightments but is composed of the kind invitations of Peace and comfort the Mount Sion wherein the resplendent glory of the first-born is displayed shining only with the gentle beams of an attractive and pleasing light and Jesus the blessed Mediator of this New Covenant with his extended Arms proclames his willingness to embrace and receive the World which he has reconciled to God with his own blood This is that Oeconomy which the Apostle calls the foolishness of preaching not as if it were so in it self but because 't is a way of condescending wisdome wherein God stoops down to our apprehensions and frames things so as we may understand them and receive an infinite benefit by them For Man partly from the frame and constitution of his Nature consisting of Body as well as Soul but much more from his fall and descent into this lower life becomes wonderfully affected with gross Phantasms and Exterior Representations Whence it comes to pass that we do more easily and frequently conceive of things as they appear to sense than as they are in themselves when apprehended by a more discerning Principle Wherefore the Infinite Wisdome of God that makes not its Operations in a way of Absolute soveraignty and immensity of Power forcing the Creatures against those inbred Principles she hath placed in them but sweetly and powerfully directs them in a steady way of congruity and proportionateness to the natures of things being to work out Man from this low contracted state the sad Region of sin and Death to a participation of Immortality and more free emanations of Divine life contrived a way most sutable and agreeable to the shallow capacities and faculties of Humane Souls God would not appear to us in a flame of fire nor speak by an Angel in a body of pure Air but in the Form of a Servant clothed with our Humane Flesh and subject to all the harmless Passions of our Nature that he might more kindly disenslave us from the cruel Tyranny of sin and Satan For let us but consult with our own Reasons whether this be not a greater Incitation and more powerful inducement to Men to believe and obey the Declarations of the Divine Will to exhibit to them some extraordinary and remarkable Person that should by the fullest demonstrations and sensible signs prove himself to be the Eternal Son of God and by sweetly compulsive Motives even to the suffering a barbarous and shameful Death attract Humane Minds to the Imitation of his Virtues and following his steps than that God should by any of those forementioned ways manifest himself in effects of Benignity or Displeasure The whole Nation of the Jews discover the sense of Mankind in such a case when being affrighted with the terrors accompanying the descent of God upon the Mount they said unto Moses speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we dye For 1. Considering the world partly from themselves and partly from the cunning of Satan so much addicted and given over to the belief of sense had not Christ visibly appeared and conversed with Men the Gospel could never have captivated Humane Understandings with such irresistible evidence or wrought in them such a full perswasion of the things it taught as we see it hath done Should the great Pillars of the Christian Faith I mean the Apostles and Disciples of the Holy Jesus have laid its first ground-work upon the hearing of some voice or perswaded their Auditors as Numa Pompilius and some other Heathen Law-givers from the converse they had with some Angel that their Doctrine was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delivered to them from Heaven and had God for its Author yet how hardly would Men have embraced it upon these accounts especially considering those imminent and apparent Dangers they were likely to incur upon the profession of it How ill resented is that great Doctrine of our Blessed Saviour Self-denyal and Resignation among vulgar spirits and how difficult a thing is it to bring off degenerated Hearts from the Interests of the World and is it likely then that Men should be so prodigal of their dearest Blood as to sacrifice it to an uncertain Rumour and Report which every Impostor is able to pretend But to see the meek Lamb of God made in our own likeness having left the sacred Mansions of Light and Glory and clothed himself with our frail Mortality to behold him I say testifying by many Miracles and irrefragable Arguments through the whole course of his abode on Earth and at last taking it upon his Death that he was the Son of the ever-living God and came down from Heaven to make known to Men that God was reconciled to the World through him this must needs strike our Imaginations more forcibly than whatever else the wit of Man could possibly conceive 2. The Gospel was intended to transform and work our Natures into that which is the flower and perfection of the Divine life that is an universal love to call off our minds from those little Interests they are apt to espouse by looking upon themselves as so many particular Beings divided and separated from the rest of the World and created only for themselves and their Private concernments and to beget in them an universally extensive charity by widening their Capacities to the Dimensions of the whole Creation By which we are taught not to think it enough that our love ascend in copious flames to Heaven unless it likewise descend in due measures and degrees upon all Mankind And indeed it is impossible for a Man that is throughly baptized into this spirit of Universal love to have any self designs in opposition to the general good of the whole World but he must needs be infinitely desirous and pleased to see the life and nature of God communicated to all Beings capable of receiving of it And this love is so strong and vigorous that it firmly unites it self to all in whom it finds any true likeness and resemblance of the Divine Image and so far endears them to it self as to constrain us to lay down our lives for the Brethren But certainly this Flame could never have burnt so bright if it had not been raised and quickned by that sensible demonstration of inimitable affection in the Death of the Holy Jesus For what greater incouragement could there be to oblige and unite Mens souls to one another than that their love should first be kindled from Heaven by that great and unparallel'd Exemplar of noble Charity who laid down his life to expiate the crimes of his own and his Fathers Enemies 2. Of a congruity and complyance with the state and condition of Mankind both in respect of 1. Moral
THE SACRED METHOD OF Saving Humane Souls BY JESUS CHRIST By Henry Hallywell Minister of the Gospel at Ifeild in Sussex 1 Cor. II. vii But we speak the wisdome of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdome which God ordained before the World unto our Glory LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1677. THE PREFACE TO THE READER Reader THere are very few Books of what quality soever though it be but an ordinary Pamphlet that passes the Press without some fair bespeaking the Reader wherefore in conformity to the Custome I am to advertise Thee that the Design of these following Papers is to shew the excellency of the frame and constitution of the Gospel or that Sacred Method by which God brings Men to Heaven by his Son Jesus Christ which very thing to the considering and judicious is a testimony sufficient of the Divinity of it there being such abundant evidence of the choicest Attributes of the Deity his Goodness Wisdome and Power in the contexture of it For when I consider who is the Author of the Evangelical Oeconomy namely the Blessed Son of God that Eternal Logos who has expressed such an Infinite Wisdome in the frame of Heaven and Earth I cannot but think that what is there so largely diffused and spread abroad is as it were summ'd up and contracted into a living Image and beautiful Representation in the frame of the Gospel And certainly the Introduction of the Christian Religion and the regenerating the World by it being set off in the Scriptures by the glorious Appellative of Creation and Jesus the Blessed Author and Finisher of it stiling himself the beginning of the Creation of God i. e. of the Evangelical Dispensation the spirit of God does clearly intimate to us that the Goodness Wisdome and Power of the Divinity are more eminently and transcendently displayed in the Recovery of Mankind by the Gospel than in their first Production So that if it be a Piece of our Duty as certainly it is to think the most honourably and magnificently of the works of God's hands it were a sinful debasing that sacred Project and Contrivance which was laid before the Foundation of the World to let our conceptions of it dwindle into some poor and trifling Design and make such a pitiful Representation of it as shall be unworthy that Eternal Wisdome the Creatress of all things to interess it self withal For nothing is more sure than that the Gospel is so contrived as may most of all do honour to God and promote the welfare and happiness of Mankind And upon this Ground and Foundation I have built the following Discourse which whoever will take the pains to peruse I desire him to lay aside his Prejudices and not to charge every thing that he shall find disagreeing with his present sentiments and perswasions with the opprobrious and invidious term of Heresie For by this means it comes to pass that Religion is made only to serve an Interest and wait upon a Faction and the grand Interest of Christianity is indeed hugely disserved by such oblique Arts and unwarrantable Insinuations It shews Men indeed to be affected with a mighty Zeal but it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that bitter zeal which the Apostle tells us is an effect of that wisdome that descends not from above but is earthly sensual devilish But I am very incurious of the censures of angry and peevish Men being secure in the sense of having endeavoured to do honour to God by begetting in Men right Apprehensions of his Nature and according to my mean Ability promoted the Offices and Duties of a Virtuous life by shewing the necessity of them in order to our everlasting Happiness And with this Advertisement I remit the Reader to the Discourse it self Farewell IMPRIMATUR Hic Liber cui Titulus The Sacred Method of c. GEO. HOOPER R mo D no Arch. Cant. à Sac. Dom. 21. Nov. 1676. THE SACRED METHOD OF Saving Humane Souls BY JESUS CHRIST THE Christian Religion is frequently called by Saint Paul a Mystery wherein it is very probable he might allude to the Mysterious Rites of the Gentile Superstition as the Eleusynia or some such secret and mysterious Actions of the Pagan Religion And in opposition to these the Apostle declares to the World a higher Mystery and teaches us that Christianity in all respects exceeds the most sacred and venerable Actions of Paganisme For although the Heathen Mystagogi pretended a high and noble design and boasted the end of their Sacred Mysteries to be the leading and conducting the Initiati to the Presence and Fruition of the worshipped Deity or in plainer terms the everlasting Blessedness of Mens Immortal Souls the sole priviledge and prerogative of the Christian Mystery the Gospel of the Son of God yet they failed infinitely in the way and means of accomplishing this so excellent a purpose the whole procedure being bottom'd upon an uncertain Foundation and doubtful evidence and no better than an Histrionical Representation brought on by those delusive Spirits who affected a Divine Honour whereby instead of perfecting and bettering they really vitiated and debauched the minds of Men and made their most recondite and sacred Rites little better than practices of Filthiness and Uncleanness In which regard the Christian Oeconomy is justly stiled by the Apostle a Mystery of Godliness whose end is not only the highest perfection of Humane Souls but every where in all its parts breathes the exactest holiness and purity of Body and Soul as the only way to attain an Immortal Blessedness and Felicity By this Mystery then of the Gospel we are not to understand a dark and intricate Riddle contrived only to amuze and dazle the minds of Men and which when explicated and unfolded has no greater likelihood of benefiting the knower than Samson's Riddle of feeding the Philistines but we are to conceive by it a sacred and recondite Method of saving Humane Souls that is of purifying their minds to such degrees and measures as may render them capable of an entrance into the highest Heavens Great is the Mystery of Godliness i. e. the Way and Method of saving Mankind by the Gospel is indeed wonderful and admirable For the sacred plot of the Gospel was not then framed or laid when it was promulgated and manifested to the World but lay hid in the bosome of an Infinite Understanding from ages and generations and is expresly called by the same Apostle the mysterious and recondite wisdome of God which he ordained before the World whose projection and contrivance was from the out-goings of Eternity So that in this Affair of the Gospel we are not to look for any thing mean low and shallow but for something which may be worthy of God an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a design which may evidently and clearly display the highest Perfections of God its Author For the better illustration of which we may
desperateness of the Disease magnifies the skill of the Physician so the fatal and universal Degeneracy of the Sons of Men commends the transcendent love of God in their Recovery and Redemption Greater love than this can no Man show than to lay down his Life for his Friend but herein has God commended his love to us in that while we were Enemies to God and righteousness and strangers to his life Christ dyed for us Such is that Testimony and Witness which our Saviour bears to Divine Love and Goodness every word of which is strangely emphatical So in such a wonderful and transcendent manner God the great Lord of all Beings who stands not in need of any of his Creatures but is Infinite Fulness and Happiness to Himself loved first and without any Motive or Occasion of this love given from us herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us the World not only the particular Nation of the Jews with whom formerly he entred into Covenant but the whole Race of Mankind Christ becoming a Propitiation for our sins says the Apostle the best Interpreter of himself 1 Joh. 2.2 and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole World that he gave delivered unto Death freely and that upon no other Motive or Invitation but that of his own Eternal Goodness and Love his only begotten Son not a Servant or an Angel not an adopted but his own Natural Son that Son who is one with himself and in whom he is well pleased as the obedience of Abraham was more grateful to God when he with-held not his Son his only Son from him The whole Gospel is a Design and Contrivance of Infinite Love and Goodness a palpable Pledge and Assurance of which was the sending of Jesus Christ from Heaven He that spared not his own Son says the Apostle as if he had said The delivering up of our Lord Jesus Christ to be an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of Men is so high a Demonstration of Infinite Love that it begets in us a confident Assurance and full Perswasion that the same goodness will not fail of bestowing upon us whatever may possibly contribute to our everlasting Happiness as far as our Natures are capable of The summe of all is this that to Infinite Goodness we owe not only the Production but the continual Preservation of our Beings not only the freeing us from a certain Misery and a just and deserved Punishment but the receiving us into grace and favour and investing us with a Happiness much bigger than our hopes and expectations even the Eternal enjoyment of Himself in Heaven And that this should be wrought and effected by Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God who left the Sacred Mansions of Heaven and veiled his Glory under a clould of Flesh and Blood and while he lived upon Earth endured the contradictions of sinners the bitter reproaches of vile and ungodly Men and at last suffered an Ignominious and accursed Death upon the Cross What is it but an everlasting Monument of Divine Goodness such a high Demonstration of Infinite Love as may well make us cry out with wonder and amazement Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us 2. Secondly in the Frame and Mystery of the Gospel there is a clear Demonstration of Infinite Wisdome To them who are called says the Apostle Christ the Power and the Wisdom of God i. e. Though the preaching of the Gospel were a stumbling block to the Jews and accounted but foolishness by the Greeks the one expecting their Messiah to be an earthly Prince and dreaming of nothing but worldly Felicity and the other counting it not worth the hearing because not agreeing with the Principles of that vain Philosophy they had addicted themselves to yet to those who were docible tractable and obedient there appeared an Infinite Wisdome and an Eternal Understanding they could not look into it but they beheld as the same Apostle speaks the mysterious and recondite wisdome of God which he ordained before the World that is whose sacred plot and contrivance was not then framed or laid when it was first promulgated and manifested to the World but lay hid in the bosome of an Infinite Understanding from all Eternity 'T is true the loveliness and glory of this great Wisdome appears not so evidently to all partly from their own carelesness and negligence in not arriving to that measure and degree of Holiness which may fit and qualifie them for a clear discerning of it Hence the Apostle says that he speaks wisdome among them that are perfect such as were well grown in the practice of the Offices and Duties of Christianity such as had senses exercised to discern good and evil Heb. 5.14 and partly through the great Corruption Depravity and Degeneracy of the minds of others which put them into an utter Incapacity and Impossibility while they remain such of understanding Divine and Heavenly Truths for the natural animal or sensual man receives not the things of the spirit of God But where these Impediments are removed and the spirits of Men aptly disposed for the Reception of so great a Blessing such Persons behold with enravishment and joy the exact strokes and perfect lineaments of an Eternal Wisdome Which Wisdome appears 1. In the Admirableness of the Contrivance of the Gospel Christianity carries with it such evident Proofs of an Incomprehensible Wisdome that those sagacious Creatures the Angels imploy themselves in searching into it And surely it must needs be an admirable piece of Wisdome and a wonderful Contrivance that must draw those Blessed Creatures to look into it Now the Wonderfulness and Admirableness of the Evangelical Plot and Contrivance for the Salvation of Humane Souls shews it self 1. In finding out a way whereby God might demonstrate both his just and implacable hatred of sin and his exuberant Love and Goodness in saving Men. Sin is no part of God's Creation nor any thing of the true Nature of the Soul but an extraneous and adventitious Being brought first into the World by the Devil the great Enemy of Mankind It is the Destruction and Ruine of the Workmanship of God's own hands and being so infinitely contrary to his Sacred Life and Nature it is no wonder if he bear an irreconcileable hatred against it and seek by all means the driving it quite out of the World But although God by reason of the Infinite Purity and Holiness of his Nature could not look with any favourable eye upon sin yet his Almighty Love pitied his Creatures and his bowels yerned over them being as it were grieved and troubled at the heart that they should be miserable for ever Wherefore God through his Eternal Wisdome resolved upon a course which should both effectually extirpate and eradicate sin and evil out of the World and yet reduce those strayed souls which through it had revolted from his blessed
Life and Nature to a participation of it again And this he hath done by sending his own Son into the World to become an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of all Mankind For should God have cast Men off for ever and thrown them into Hell though he had still been Just and Righteous in his Actions and declared but a high dislike of that which his Essential Holiness could never patronize or countenance yet his Goodness and Love had not so conspicuously and gloriously appeared On the other hand should God have received the World into grace and favour forgiving their Iniquities without any previous satisfaction for sin though he might have done this without any breach of the Eternal Purity and Justice of his Nature yet he had not so sensibly affected the minds of Men with his just aversation of sin nor so effectually discovered to them his Anger and Displeasure against all evil and wickedness But now in the Death of Jesus Christ God has reconciled Goodness and Holiness Justice and Mercy punishing sin and yet saving the sinner Behold therefore and wonder at the Ineffable Goodness and Transcendent love of God! Could not Man redeem his Brother and give unto God a Ransome for him No surely for that Sacrifice that is presented and offered up to God must be without spot and blemish but when the Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men he beheld them all gone aside and become filthy so that there was not one that did good no not one But if this might not be yet could not God have declared his will to us by an Angel by a Voice from Heaven or by uniting himself to the Angelical Nature Certainly he might but none of these ways could have been with such endearing circumstances with such sensible Testimonies of dear Compassion and Benignity as enravish ingenuous Minds into sutable Returns and expressions of love Jesus Christ therefore the Delights of his Father the Brightness of his Glory and the express Image and character of his Person took flesh and dwelt among us He that was in the form of God clothed with all the Majesty and Glory of the supramundane life yet emptyed himself of all this unspeakable Felicity and took upon him the form of a Servant i. e. an Earthly or a body of flesh and blood in opposition to that state which he before called the form of God and being found in that servile scheme he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross What higher expressions of love can Humane Understandings possibly conceive than these The endearing love of Friends could never give any greater evidence of it self than that they lay down their lives one for another but such was the transcendent love of Jesus that he dyed for Rebels for Apostates from that sacred life of God to which alone the Soveraign Command and Rule both of Heaven and Earth does of right belong Behold him a Man of sorrows exposed to the envy hatred and malice of the cruel and unbelieving Jews and yet so inwardly affected with tenderness and commiseration towards them that he omits nothing which a Heart enflamed with love and compassion could do to make them happy And though God in his Eternal Wisdome foresaw the accursed Disposition of the Jewish Nation who as they had been heretofore thirsty after the blood of the Prophets and righteous Men so now would never leave till they had satiated their Revenge in the Blood of his only begotten Son yet he delivers him up into their hands for so the Apostle speaks that they had taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him that was given out of the protecting hand and providence of God to the will of his Enemies A love which the Tongues of Men and Angels are never able sufficiently to express And as the Infinite love of God appears in this way of saving Men by Christ Jesus so his severity and hatred against sin is no less manifest and conspicuous for in that God spared not his own Son but delivered him up to Death it is a sufficient proof and Argument of his utter Detestation of all sin and evil No circumstance of his bitter Passion but speaks forth the heavy wrath and indignation of God against sin When he came into the Garden of Gethsemane where began the first Scene of his Tragical Passion the Scripture tells us that he was sore amazed and very heavy and this inward grief and ineffable trouble of his soul he expresses in that Passionate speech to his Disciples My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto Death not only extensively such as must last till Death it self do end it but likewise intensively so great as is usually at the very point of Death And whence arose this sorrow It was not out of any cowardly fear of pain and death for knowing all things that should come upon him yet with a firm constancy and sedate Resolution of mind he comes to his implacable Enemies at Jerusalem and when he was betrayed in the Garden he willingly offers himself into their hands I am he Though certain it is our Blessed Saviour bearing about him our Humane Nature was likewise subject to all the harmless Passions and affections of it and was so far from that Stoical stubbornness and insensibility that his Passive and tender Constitution filled him with grief and yielded to the fear of pain and Death Nor did his sorrow proceed from any displeasure of God against his Person for he being perfectly obedient and fully and exactly conformable to his Fathers will it could not be that he should groan under the anger and wrath of God Nor was it altogether Bodily pains that made him so but there was something extraordinary As 1. A withdrawing the sensibleness of Divine Assistance from him As the Sun at our Saviour's Crucifixion though not disjoyned from the World yet for a time deserted the World by withdrawing his light from it And although this withholding the sensibleness of the Divine Presence was done without any Aversation and dislike of the Person of our blessed Lord which not only before but at that very instant was tenderly beloved of God yet the Apprehension of it could not but make him bemoan his case in that sad exclamation My God my God why or how hast thou forsaken me 2. Because then all the Powers of Hell and darkness were let loose upon him The Prince of Darkness with his accursed Legions did then as we may reasonably suppose appear to him in the most affrighting and dreadful forms and by the Permission of Divine Providence exerted and tryed the utmost of their Insulting Rage in these their last and most furious Assaults the Conquest and Victory over whom being to be atchieved not by the Divine Power but by the Piety and Obedience of our Saviour he falls into an Agony and an Angel descends from
Light and Glory as shall cause them to shine as the Sun and Stars for evermore So that what the Poet fabulously speaks of the Apotheosis of Daphnis shall much more be verified in the Translation of every good Man into the Kingdome of Heaven Candidus insuetum miratur limen Olympi Sub pedibusque videt nubes sidera Daphnis Having thus far brought this Discourse towards an end and displayed the Goodness Wisdome and Power of God in the Gospel the great Instrument of the blessedness of Mankind it becomes our duty to receive it with the highest and most honourable thoughts and apprehensions not to let our Conceptions dwindle into something low and mean and unworthy of the Nature of God who hath so intimately concerned himself in it For whatever whether Opinion or Practice lessens that esteem and veneration Men ought to have of the Works of God is a high Affront and Injury and an Unworthy Derogation from the Perfections of the Divine Nature whereas nothing shallow trifling and contemptible can ever be a sutable Object of Divine Goodness Wisdome and Power much less can there be any thing such in the Evangelical Oeconomy which was designed for so great a Work and so Universal and general a Good as the Immortal Happiness of Humane Souls The very light of Reason it self teaches us that we ought to speak worthily of God and to have due and right Apprehensions of his Nature the Excellency of which though it were in a great measure stamped and ingraved upon the Minds of Men at their first Creation yet is more clearly and sensibly discovered under the Gospel than by any other Dispensation since the World began And as we are to take care that our thoughts and expressions be agreeabe and becoming so great a Mystery so are we concerned vigorously to prosecute that which is the Grand Intent scope and aim of the Gospel that is our progress and growth in Virtue and Holiness to perfect our Minds in true Goodness by a sincere Practice of all the indispensable Laws and Rules of Righteousness For however Men may please themselves in expounding Christianity in an Opinionative and Notional way in peculiar Phrases and Terms of Art as if Religion were a thing deduced and borrowed from the Schools yet certain it is that the true Life of God which our Holy Lord and Master Jesus Christ came to disseminate and propagate by the Gospel is not a bare sound of Words but an inward Principle of Life and Power elevating and raising the Souls of Men from all childish toyes and follies to a manly and generous Apprehension of Righteousness and Virtue advancing their Rational to a compleat and entire command and superiority over their sensual and Animal Powers and Faculties and begetting in them such a lively sense of whatever is absolutely good and holy as may at last reduce their thoughts words and actions into an entire conformity to the Divine Will And forasmuch as this Heavenly Life consists in the sincere Prosecution and Practice of Virtue and that Morality and Virtue are depressed beneath the concerns of Christianity by those who pretend a more free Exaltation of Grace as it will not be Impertinent to the present Discourse so I am sure 't is infinitely necessary for every Man to contribute his Pains in stopping and damming up that Flood of Wickedness and Immorality that has broken in upon the World by shewing the Indispensable Necessity of the Practice of Morality that true Religion and Virtue are at no such Mortal Jarrs but that whoever is false and Hypocritical to the sincere and Conscientious Practice of it though he flie to Heaven in his vain Dreams and Imaginations and talk of the Vision of God and an Immediate Communion and Converse with Him yet he has neither seen nor known Him and is so far from being a true Christian that he has very little of the Life of Christianity dwelling in him As I desire not therefore to charge any Man with the Evil Consequences of his Opinion but charitably suppose that he holds fast to the Foundation and whatever Tendency his Opinions may have in their Consecutions that yet in their Primary Intention he designs not the discountenancing of unfeigned Piety so neither would I nor can by any considering Person be upbraided with setting and exalting Works above the Grace of God as will appear when I have a little explicated and unfolded those Termes which have of late raised such hideous storms and Tragedies By Virtue therefore I mean that Power of the Soul which so rules and governs all the Animal motions and inclinations that she does every where and in every thing constantly and unmoveably follow that which is best As for the word Grace all the Notions of it in the Sacred Dialect as a Learned Critick observes spring from that Primary Notion of it for Charity or Liberality Wherefore the Participation of the Divine Nature being the highest Perfection and Accomplishment of the Soul of Man and the ultimate end of Christianity it self all those Acts which have a Natural Tendency to the furtherance and attainment of so high and glorious a purpose are stiled Virtues they being nothing but the Powerful Exertions of the Soul in the subjugation of its Corporeal Passions that it may with ease and constancy follow that which is simply Best and Graces because they are the free undeserved and Gratuitous Donations of him whose Almighty and Beneficent Spirit pervades the whole Order and Comprehension of Intellectual Agents refining and purifying the Minds and Spirits of the lapsed Creation and every where attempting the Replantation of that Beautiful Image Sin and Vice had obliterated and defaced Now for the Term Moral remaining to be explained I conceive it may signifie Whatever contains in it an Eternal Immutable and Indispensable Obligation By Eternal Immutable and Indispensable I exclude from it all Temporary Constitutions and Positive Sanctions though deriving their Authority from GOD Himself I add Obligation to difference Moral Truths from Speculative and Theoretical for there may be many Physical and Mathematical Notions which may properly be called Eternal and Immutable Verities which yet lay no necessary Obligation upon Us. That what is once moved will continue to move till something hinder it is alike an Eternal and Immutable Verity with this That every Man is to honour his Parents but the One layes a necessary Obligation upon the Soul whereas the other does not Wherefore though the subject of all Truths whatever and so of Moral Ones be the Perceptive and Intellectual Part of the Soul yet the sole and Adequate Object of Morality seems to be the Immutable Idea's and Reasons of Good and Evil. And so far forth as the Soul exercises it self in the Discrimination of Moral Entities it is called by the Name of Conscience So that the mistake seems to arise from hence that Men distribute Humane Actions in reference to Religion into Moral and Evangelical whereas Moral is