and when he pleases directs them quite contrary to their Intentions for the way of Man saith the Prophet is not in himself it is not in Man that walketh to direct his steps Jer. 10.23 It is the Man that walks and acts but it is God alone that leads his Way and directs his Actions to what End he pleases ALL which it is necessary we should believe in order to our being truly religious For while we look upon God as a Foreiner to the World that hath altogether retired himself from the Affairs of it and abandoned it to the Disposal of blind Chance or Necessity he must stand for a Cypher in our Esteem and signifie no more to us than the Emperor of the World in the Moon who for all we know may be a glorious and puissant Prince but is so far removed from us and our Affairs that he can do us neither good nor hurt And if God intermeddle not with those Goods and Evils which happen here below what doth he signifie to us who live apart from him in another World from which he is wholly retired and withdrawn But if we firmly believe that there is nothing befalls us whether it be in the Course of Nature or by Chance or Design but by his Order and Direction we must lay aside our Reason and Humanity if for every Good we want or do receive we do not apply our selves to him with humble and submissive thankfull and ingenuous Minds and if under every Evil that we feel or fear we do not resign up our Wills and lift up our Eyes to him as to the sole Arbitrator of our Fate For where should we pay our Thanks or whence should we expect our Supplies and Deliverances but to him who is the Fountain of all Good and from him who is the supreme Moderator of all Events Who is there in Heaven or Earth whom we are so much concerned to please and so much obliged to acknowledge and submit to so much engaged to trust to and rely on as him who hath all our Fortunes in his Hands and the absolute Disposal of every thing in which we are or may or can be any way interested or concerned So that the Belief of Gods over-ruling Providence hath every Link of our Duty fastened to it in a strong and rational Concatenation and if it be loosened from this Principle the whole Chain must necessarily fall in sunder V. and Lastly To oblige us to be truly religious it is also necessary we should believe that God is the Supreme Governor of the rational World which is a distinct Branch of Providence from the former For all things whatsoever are subject to Gods Order and Disposal but in strictness of Speech 't is only rational Beings that are subject to his Government For Government supposes Laws and Laws Rewards and Punishments of which rational Beings alone are capable they alone having the power to deliberate and upon Deliberation to choose what is good and refuse what is Evil without which no Being can deserve either to be rewarded or punished So that the Government of God in strictness of Speech respects only the rational World consisting of Angels and Men. As for the Government of Angels 't is impossible we should understand any more of it than what God hath revealed because tho they converse with us and our Affairs yet we do not converse with them our Spiritual Nature by which we are near allied to them being shut up in Matter which like a Wall of Partition divides us from them and hinders us from looking over into their World and from seeing their Nature and Operations and surveying their Polity and Government Indeed so far as we understand their Natures we may easily understand the Laws by which God Governs them because we know Gods Laws are always adapted to the Natures of things and consequently since we know that they are rational Creatures we may conclude from thence that whatsoever is fit and decorous for rational Creatures as such they stand obliged to by the Law of their Natures But since there are particular Powers and Properties in their Natures which we understand not 't is impossible we should understand all the particular Laws by which they are Governed Only thus much in general we know that the whole Order of Angelical Beings were from the first Moment of their Creation subjected to Laws fitted to their Nature by which natural Laws they stood obliged to obey their Creator in all his positive Commands and Institutions and that these Laws whatsoever they were both natural and positive were established in Rewards and Punishments by which if they continued obedient they were to continue for ever in their most blissful Ranks and Stations but if they rebelled were immediately to be banished thence into everlasting Wretchedness and Misery that a certain Order of these Angelical Beings excited either by their Pride or Envy or sensual Affection did under their Head or Chieftain revolt from God by transgressing some natural or positive Law for which they were expelled the high Territories of Happiness and driven into these lower Parts of the World where under the Prince of their Rebellion they have ever since waged War against God and Man that in this state of War they are under the Restraint of Gods almighty Power who sets Bounds to their Power and Malice which it cannot pass and determins it to what Ends and Purposes he pleases employing it sometimes to try and chasten good Men sometimes to execute his Wrath upon the Children of Disobedience and sometimes again letting it loose merely to display his own almighty Power in its Defeat and Overthrow in which State they are reserved as Prisoners at large to the Judgment of the great Day whereby together with wicked men they shall be sentenced and confined to everlasting Flames and Darkness that the good Angels in reward of their constant Obedience are continued and fixed in a most blissful Condition in which they enjoy the constant Smiles of God and the unspeakable Pleasure of being entirely resigned to his Will who upon all Occasions sends them to and fro the World as the great Messengers and Ministers of his Providence to Minister to the Recovery of recoverable Sinners and to pour out the Vials of his Wrath upon the obstinate and unreclaimable to assist protect and comfort good Men while they live and when they depart from hence to conduct their Spirits through the aery Territories of the wicked Angels into those blissful Mansions that are prepared to receive them till the Resurrection at which time their Part will be to summon and gather both the good and bad before the Tribunal of Christ to receive their final Sentence to everlasting Weal or Wo. THIS is the main of what we know concerning Gods Government of Angels the sincere Belief of which will be of vast Advantage to us in the whole Course of our Religion For since there is such a mighty Colony of evil
flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Psalm 92.7 If then in the Consequents of things good Men are blessed in their Afflictions and bad Men plagued in their Prosperities as it is apparent they generally are these unequal Distributions are so far from being an Argument against Providence that they are a glorious Instance of it For wherein could the divine Providence better express its Justice and Wisdom together than by benefiting the good and punishing the bad by such cross and improbable Methods V. THAT all things here do happen alike to all is no Argument against Providence because it is very requisite it should often do so to assure us of a Judgment to come For were the Affairs of this World managed with that exact Equality as that the good did never suffer nor the bad escape unpunished we should be deprived of one of the best moral Arguments of a future Judgment For as on the one hand should Providence never reward the good nor punish the bad in this Life but confound them together without any Distinction it might tempt us to despair of any just Retributions from it in the Life to come so on the other hand were the Goods and Evils of this Life weighed out to Men in exact Proportions to their Merit and Demerit without any Inequality we might be tempted to think that there is no need of and consequently no ground to expect any Judgment to come For what occasion would there be for any future Judgment if all things were already exactly balanced and adjusted and therefore as to confirm us in the Belief of the Justice of Providence it was requisite the same plain Instances should be given of its Distinguishing the good from the bad by present Rewards and Punishments so to confirm us in the Expectation of a Judgment to come it was no less requisite that there should be some In equality in the present Management and Distribution of things and that the Goods and Evils of this World should not be administred with that exact Regularity as to prevent the necessity of a day of Judgment but that there should be undecided Cases enough remaining for a future Tribunal to adjust and determine So that as in the present management of things there is Equality enough to induce us to believe a just Providence so there is also Inequality enough to induce us to expect a future Judgment God having wisely provided in his present Administration of things to give us Instances enough of his just Procedure towards the good and bad and yet to leave us Instances enough of unrewarded Virtue and prosperous Wickedness to assure us that he intends an after Reckoning For how can we reflect upon these repeated Examples of just Reward and Punishment which in every Age almost God sets before us and not believe that he governs the World And how can we reflect upon those manifold Evils which some good Men suffer and Goods which some bad Men enjoy without believing that he hath appointed a Day wherein he will adjust these Inequalities and vindicate the Cause of oppressed Virtue and crush triumphant Wickedness into everlasting Confusion VI. And lastly That all things here do happen alike to all is no Argument against Providence because the exact Adjustment of things is reserved for a future Judgment I confess were God to make no other Distribution to the just and unjust but what is made in this Life the Inequality of it would be a strong Objection against his Providence but then considering that all this cloudy Scene of things will shortly close up in a righteous Judgment wherein for the Evils which the good have suffered they shall be awarded an eternal Happiness and for the Goods which the bad have enjoyed they shall be doomed to everlasting Wretchedness this is sufficient to vindicate the Justice of Providence were these present Inequalities a thousand times greater than they are For suppose that after a short Melancholy Dream good Men were to live happily and after as short a pleasant one bad Men were to live wretchedly but for a thousand years in this World we might as well object against Providence this unequal Distribution of the melancholy Dream to the good and the pleasant one to the bad notwithstanding the succeeding thousand years of their Happiness and Misery as we do the sufferings of the Righteous and Prosperities of the Wicked which bear far less Proportion to that Eternity of Happiness and Misery that is to succeed them than the Sorrow or Pleasure of a Moments Dream doth to a thousand years real Calamity or Blessedness FOR the Providence of God from the first to the last is all but one continued Plot like that of a well-contrived Comedy which at first is very obscure and intricate so that by what is past or present there is no guessing at the Conclusion for all through the intermediate Acts Virtue and Honour fight their way through Difficulties and Disappointments and sometimes the Hero acts a sad and sometimes the Villain a prosperous Part at which the unskilful Spectator grieves and is ready to damn the Poet for distributing such unequal Fates but then in the fifth and last Act all the cross Accidents clear up and issue in a fair Conclusion and in the close of all the Hero is crowned and the Villain hissed off the Stage Let us therefore have but the patience to stay 'till Providence hath finished its whole Plot and closed up all its mighty Scenes in the general Judgment of the World and then we shall see all these Inequalities set right and the Fates of good and bad Men determined by a most just Award But for us to quarrel at Providence now who are yet got no farther it may be than to the middle of the great Drama and to find fault with its Procedure for crossing the good and prospering the bad is rudely to overturn the Stage before the Entrance into the fifth Act and to hiss off the Almighty Poet for not compleating his Design before he is arrived to the Conclusion And thus I have endeavoured to answer more at large this Objection against Providence because it hath been more insisted on than any other and hath more generally stumbled Mens Belief of divine Providence V. And lastly It is farther objected that the Being of a just and good Providence is not to be reconciled with that wretched State and Condition to which we behold the greatest part of Mankind abandoned For if there were a good Providence that over-ruled the Affairs of this World how is it imaginable that ever so great a part of Mankind as the Infidel World includes should be left so utterly destitute as they are of the Knowledg of God and of the Means of attaining their everlasting Happiness To which I shall briefly answer these three things I. THAT the Infidel World is not perhaps left so utterly destitute as we are apt to imagine for they have the Law of Nature to
THE Christian Life PART II. Wherein the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF Christian Duty Are assigned explained and proved VOLUME I. BY JOHN SCOTT Rector of St. Peters Poor London LONDON Printed for Robert Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London And one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. My Lord I Here present to your Lordship the first Volume of a second Part of that Treatise of Christian Life which I published some years since and which under the Protection of your Venerable Name hath found good acceptance with the World and to make an ingenuous confession to your Lordship my design in this second Dedication is not purely to render you the due Respects of a Presbyter to his Diocesan nor to tender those just Acknowledgments I ow to your Lordship for the happiness I have enjoy'd with the rest of your Clergy under the auspicious Influence of your serene and watchful Government no nor yet to express the grateful sense I have and shall always retain of the personal Obligations you have laid upon me no my Lord though these were all of them sufficient Inducements yet I confess that together with these I had a certain Politick end in my eye For I thank God I can truly say my main Design in composing this Treatise was to benefit the World but reflecting upon the manifold defects it abounds with after all the pains I had bestowed upon it I found that to palliate its internal blemishes it was but needful to grace it with some external Ornament and could think of none so proper for my purpose as this of affixing your Lordships Name to it a Name that carries with it power enough to recommend any thing to the World that is but pious and honest and well-designed and all that I am sure this is how defective soever it be in other respects which together with the experience I have had of the great candor and benignity of your Lordships temper gives me encouragement to hope that you will not only accept but approve it and then I am sure your Lordships approbation will give it credit and authority enough with the World to enable it to effect those good and honest ends for which it was sincerely intended by Your Lordships Most humble Most obliged and Faithful Servant John Scott THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHEN I wrote the Treatise of Christian Life of which this and another Volume now in the Press is a second Part I had no design of engaging any further in that Argument but now I find by experience that Writing is like Building wherein the undertaker to supply some defect or serve some convenience which at first he foresaw not is usually forced to exceed his first Model and proposal and many times to double the charge and expence of it For after that Treatise began to be a little known in the World I was advised from several hands that there was one thing wanting in it which is the common defect of most practical Treatises and that was an Explication and Proof of those main Principles of Religion in which the Obligation of our Christian Duty is founded which they thought might be sufficiently done within a very narrow compass though herein I find that either they were very much mistaken or that I have very much exceeded the necessary limits of my Argument which I am not yet convinced of but that I must submit to the judgment of the World I confess the prospect of doing it in that narrow compass they talk'd of was a great inducement with me to undertake it and perhaps had I foreseen at first what a large field of discourse it would oblige me to traverse I should never have entered on it but when once I was in I could not handsomly retreat AND indeed considering with what prodigious rudeness and insolence the very foundations of Religion are struck at in this dissolute Age he who would now treat of them to any purpose will find himself obliged not only to give a distinct and clear explication of them but also to assert the truth of them with convincing evidence and to answer and expose those Atheistical Cavils that are levelled against them which later would have been much less necessary in an Age of a more serious and Religious Genius And upon this account I have been forced upon a much larger and more laborious proof of the several Principles of Religion than I first intended Not that I have any great hope of reclaiming those who are professed Atheists to the acknowledgment of the truth for when men are seduced by lust as I verily believe most Atheists are there is little reason to expect they will be reduced by reason But that which I chiefly aimed at is to confirm and establish those that are wavering and to Antidote all against this spreading contagion of Irreligion and Atheism which in a fatal Chain draws after it not only the ruine of mens Souls hereafter but also the utter subversion of all Humane Society here And it is this hath constrained me to enlarge this Second Part into two Volumes which at first view I promised my self to finish in one IN this first Volume I have treated only of those Principles which are common to natural Religion and Christianity together as an Introduction to which I have in the first Chapter explained and demonstrated the natural distinction of Humane Actions into good and evil by some eternal Reasons for or against them and having shewn at large that God hath made this distinction sufficiently clear and evident to all men to enable them to conduct themselves to their own happiness and that those actions of men which fall under this natural distinction are the principal subject matter of the commands and prohibitions of Religion I proceed in the second Chapter briefly to explain the nature of Religion in General and of natural and Christian Religion in particular from the nature of both which I have deduced those fundamental Principles from whence the Obligations of Religion are derived the five first of which being common to natural Religion with Christianity I have handled in this first Volume in so many distinct Chapters AND then as for the last viz. the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ our Mediator which contains under it all those Religious Principles that are peculiar to Christianity though I have endeavoured to treat of it with all the brevity that is consistent with a clear and satisfactory account of the whole Argument yet it is run out into a second Volume which is now in the Press and I hope within a few Weeks will be ready to follow this And perhaps when the Reader considers the copiousness of the Argument it handles he will rather blame me for being too brief than too tedious for in treating of those
of Horror in the Conscience Anguish in the mind Discord in the Affections Diseases in the Body and Confusions and Disturbances in Humane Society Since therefore the Divine Wisdom and Contrivance hath thus inseparably coupled good Effects to good Actions and evil ones to evil it hath hereby very plainly and sensibly declared to us what it would have us do and what not For seeing it hath so constituted things as that in the Course of Nature such Proportions of Happiness do necessarily result to us from such Actions and such Proportions of Misery from their Contraries what can be more evident than that its Design was hereby to encourage us to the one and affright us from the other So that by these natural Rewards and Punishments which in the Course of things God hath chained to our Actions he hath as expresly prescribed us what to do and what not as he could have done if he had spoken to us in an audible voice from the Battlements of Heaven For since the whole Train of Natural Effects is to be resolved into the Providence of God and since his Providence hath so ordered and contrived things as that in the ordinary Course of them good Effects do spring out of good Actions and evil out of evil ones what else could he intend by it but to allure us to the one and terrifie us from the other For it is by Rewards and Punishments that all Lawgivers declare their Will and Pleasure concerning those Actions which they command and sorbid and therefore since God in his Providential Government of the World hath thought good to link natural Rewards to such Actions and natural Punishments to such these are to be lookt upon as the great Sanctions of the Law of Nature whereby he commands what pleases and prohibits what displeases him For when God had no otherwise revealed himself to the World than only by the establsht Course and Nature of things that was the great Bible by which alone Mankind was instructed in their Duty and there being no revealed Threats or Promises annexed to good and bad Actions Gods Will and Pleasure concerning them was visible only in the good and bad Consequents which they drew after them which are so plain and obvious to the Observation of Mankind that 't would be the most inexcusable Inadvertency not to take Notice of them So that the moral Good and Evil of all Actions finally resolves into the natural Good and Evil that is appendant to them and therefore are our Actions morally good because they are naturally beneficial to us and therefore morally evil because they are naturally prejudicial and hurtful and those which in their own nature are neither good nor evil are indifferent in themselves and left altogether undetermined by the Law of Nature which commands and forbids nothing but under the Sanction of those natural Rewards and Punishments which in the Course of things are made necessary to Humane Actions V. TO these natural Rewards and Punishments which God hath entailed upon good and bad Actions he hath thought good many times to superadd supernatural Blessings and Judgments For tho he had before sufficiently expressed his Will concerning Humane Actions in the great Bible of Nature and by their natural Effects had plainly enough distinguished the good from the bad yet considering what heedless and inobservant Creatures we are and how apt to overlook the ordinary Consequents of our Actions he hath not altogether abandoned us to the easie Instructions of Nature but out of his superabundant Care to shew us what is Good and lead us to our Duty and Happiness he hath from time to time seconded the natural Rewards and Punishments of our Actions with supernatural Favours and Judgments that so by these he might awake our drowsie Attention and revive in us the languishing sense of our Duty Of which we have infinite Instances in the several Ages of the World there being scarce any History either Sacred or Prosane that abounds not with them Several of which both Blessings and Judgments do as plainly evince themselves to be intended by God for Rewards and Punishments as if they had been attended with a Voice from Heaven proclaiming the Reasons for which they were sent For how many famous Instances have of we miraculous Deliverances of Righteous Persons who by an Invisible Hand have been rescued from the greatest Dangers when in all outward appearance their Condition was hopeless and desperate and of wonderful Blessings that have hapned to them not only without but contrary to all secondary Causes of some that have been so eminently rewarded in kind as that the Goods which they received were most visible Significations of the Goods which they did of others who have received the Blessings which they have asked whilst they were praying for them and obtained them with such distinguishing Circumstances as plainly signified them to be the Answers and Returns of their devout Addresses to Heaven And so on the contrary how many notable Examples are there of such miraculous Judgments inflicted upon unrighteous Persons as have either exceeded the Power of secondary Causes or been caused by them contrary to their natural tendencies of men that have been punished in the very Act of their Sin and sometimes in the very Part by which they have offended that have had the evil of their Sin retaliated upon them in a correspondent Evil of Suffering and been struck with those very Judgments which they have imprecated on themselves in the Justification of a known Falshood All which supernatural Judgments and Blessings of God are only his Comments on the Text of Nature by which he farther explains to us the Meaning of those natural Rewards and Punishments which Vertue and Vice draw after them and shews us what clear Indications they are of his Almighty Pleasure and Displeasure For when he rewards men supernaturally it is for those Actions that carry a natural Reward with them and when he punishes them supernaturally it is for such Actions as do carry a natural Punishment with them so that his supernatural Rewards and Punishments do speak the same Sense and Language with his natural only they speak plainer and louder to rouse and awake those stupid Souls that are deaf to and regardless of the soft and still voice of natural Rewards and Punishments Thus when the old World by not attending to the natural Consequents of their own Actions had almost extinguished their Sense of Good and Evil God by a supernatural Deluge in which he drowned the wicked and preserved the righteous consigned to all future Generations a standing Monument of his Hatred of Sin and Love of Righteousness that so by the Remembrance of it he might keep Mens heedless Minds more attentive to the natural Rewards and Punishments of their Actions And when the Remembrance of this was almost worn out and with it mens natural Sense of good and evil God by raining down Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorra and rescuing
of and it may be reasonably supposed that in those Summaries of our Duty wherein but a few Parts are enumerated they are such as are the Chief and principal it being contrary to all Rules of Language to express the Whole of any thing by the meanest and most inconsiderable Parts of it V. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of Duty that God requires of us is that wheresoever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described their Character is always made up of Instances of Morality Thus the Description of Job is that he was a man perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1 And in the 15th Psalm the Description which David gives of the man who should abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord is this that he walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart that he backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour c. he that doth these things saith he shall never be moved And the greatest Character that is given of Moses the Darling and Favorite of God is that he was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth Numb 12.3 Thus also the Character of Cornelius by which he was so indeared to God is that he was a just and devout man one that feared God with all his house who gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God always Acts 10.2 And in a word the general Character of those whom God accepts is in every Nation he who doth righteousness is accepted of God Acts 10.35 Thus moral Goodness is the great Stamp and Impress that renders men current in the Esteem of God whereas on the contrary the common Brand by which Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion are stigmatized is their being zealous for the Positives and cold and indifferent as to the Morals of Religion For so our Saviour Characters the Pharisees woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tyth of Mint Annis and Cummin which yet was a positive Duty and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faithfulness these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind Guides ye strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Math. 23.23.24 plainly implying the Morals of Religion to be as much greater than the Positives in weight and moment as a Camel is than a Gnat in bulk Since therefore Moral Goodness is always mentioned as the great Character of Gods Favourites and the Neglect of it out of a pretended zeal to the positive Duties of Religion is always recorded as a Mark of the most odious Hypocrites this is a sufficient Argument how high a Value God sets upon the Moralities of Religion VI. and Lastly ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal Part of Religion is that at the great Account between God and us his main Inquisition will be concerning such Actions as are morally good or evil For so Rom. 2.6 we are told that God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life But to them who are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness tribulation and wrath indignation and anguish And accordingly Enoch as he is quoted by St. Jude verses 14.15 declares this to be the Occasion of the Lords coming with thousands of his Saints viz. to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him all which are matters of Fact against the eternal Rules of Morality And our Saviour himself in that Popular Scheme and Description he gives of the Proceedings of the Day of Judgment plainly declares that one of the principal Matters he will then inquire into will be our Neglect or Observance of that great moral Duty of Charity towards the poor and needy Mat. 25.32 46. Which is a plain Evidence that our obeying or disobeying the eternal Laws of Morality is that by which we do most please or displease God since 't is upon this that he will most insist in his final Arbitration of our eternal Fate For since his last Judgment is only the final Execution of his Laws we may be sure that whatsoever it is that he will principally insist on in his Judgment that is the principal matter of his Laws And now having sufficiently proved the Truth of the Proposition I proceed to the Reasons of it upon what Accounts it is that God hath made moral Goodness the main and principal Part of our Religion The chief Reasons of which are these four First BECAUSE 't is by moral Goodness that we do most honor him Secondly BECAUSE 't is by this that we do most imitate him Thirdly BECAUSE 't is by this that we advance to our own Happiness Fourthly WHEN all our positive Duty is ceast this is to be the eternal Work and Business of our Nature I. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Religion because 't is by this that we do him the greatest Honour It is an excellent saying of Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the best honour we can do to a self sufficient being is to receive the good things he holds forth unto us and therefore 't is not by giving to God that you honour him but by rendring your selves worthy to receive of him for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. whosoever gives honour to God as to one that wants doth not consider that he thereby sets himself above God For by his own self-sufficiency he is infinitely removed above all Capacity of Want and so can never need any additional Contributions of Glory and Happiness from his Creatures For Glory being nothing else but the Resplendency of Perfection which always reflects its own Beams upon it self where ever there is infinite perfection as to be sure there is in the Nature of God there must an infinite Glory proceed from it and therefore being infinitely glorious in himself it is impossible that any thing we do should add any further Glory to him So that if we would truly honour and glorify him it must not be by giving to but by receiving from him Now the best thing we can receive from God is Himself and Himself we do receive in our strict compliance with the eternal Laws of Goodness Which Laws being transcribed from the Nature of God from his own eternal Righteousness and Goodness we do by obeying them derive Gods Nature into ours So that while we write after the Copie of his Laws we write out the Perfections of his Being and his Laws being the Seal upon which he hath ingraven his
and Power did originally range it self into this beautiful World and to shew at least the possibility of all the strange Appearances in Nature without supposing a God which is such a task as their feeble Understandings durst never attempt for the utmost they can pretend to is a few Terms of the Atheistical Philosophy which they have learned by rote and do cant and smatter with as much Skill and Understanding as Parrots do the Lessons that are taught them And tho the brisk young Gentlemen will sometimes boldly affirm and if you dare take them up will lay a Wager on it too that Reason is nothing but a Train of Imaginations that Choice is nothing but the last stroke of outward Object on the Fancy and that there is nothing in Nature but Matter and Motion yet should you be so rude as to ask them what they mean by these Phrases you would uncase their Ignorance and utterly undoe them So that such as these are only the Hawkers and Retailers of Atheism that noise and cry it about but have neither Wit not Industry enough to understand it but do take it up with the same implicit Faith as the Papists do their Religion Thus as the Ambition of being accounted wiser than others causes men to affect Singularity in their Opinions so the Affectation of Singularity in Opinion doth very often transport men into Atheism NOW tho I would by no means plead for Mens enslaving their Understandings to vulgar Opinions so as to put a stop to all Advancements of Knowledge and hinder the World from ever growing wiser yet doubtless for men to quarrel at Opinions for no other reason but because they are vulgarly received is not only a rude Affront to the Reason of Mankind but also an effectual way to involve our selves in an endless Labyrinth of mistakes For while I affect to be singular in my Opinion I deprive my self of the Assistance of other mens Understandings and in my travel for Knowledge chuse rather to go alone by my self through untrodden by-ways than to keep the Road and follow the Tract of those that have gone before me So that unless I am wiser than all the World which is very unlikely it is a thousand to one but I bewilder and loose my self for how wise and sagacious soever I may be it is certain that many Heads are wiser than one and therefore when all heads concur in the same judgment it is probable at least that that judgment is true he therefore who rejects an Opinion because all or most do embrace it affects to think counter to the strongest Evidence and to believe against the greatest Probability 'T is true in many things the generality of men have been mistaken which is a sufficient reason why we should not pin our Faith upon the Sleeve of Vulgar Opinions but impartially examine before we confidently embrace them but yet there is a Reverence due to the Judgment of Mankind and the Laws of Modesty require us not to be confident against it without very great reason but to affect to run counter to it especially in such a matter of moment as the Belief or Disbelief of a Deity is not only the highest Arrogance but the most extravagant Madness For it is at least probable that there is a God because all Mankind do believe one and if there be one it is of infinite Moment that we should believe it and act accordingly and therefore for men to turn Atheists out of mere Singularity is not only to believe there is no God because it is probable there is but to play and dally with ones own Fate and run the hazard of being eternally miserbale out of a wanton Affectation of contradicting the Judgment of Mankind V. ANOTHER great Cause of Atheism is custom of drolling on and ridiculing the most serious things a humour which hath strangely prevailed in this pleasant and jocular Age wherein the wild rovings of mens Fancies into odd Similitudes startling Metaphors humorous Expressions and sportive Representations of things are grown more acceptable in almost all Conversations than the most solid Reason and Discourse and 't is generally lookt upon as a far more genteel and fashionable Quality for a man to be witty than Wise. Now though I do not deny but that Wit in it self is a very useful and valuable Indowment and serves to many excellent purposes as namely to pollish and adorn the most serious Truths and represent them to mens Minds in the most comely and affecting Dresses to expose what is apparently base and ridiculous and lash it with the Satyrs it makes against it self to quicken and give life to a solid ArguMent and render it more piercing and convictive and in a word to indear our Society and give a relish and picquancy to our Conversation and to recreate our Minds after we have been tired out or cloyed with severer Occupations though Wit I say be a very useful Quality as to all these good purposes yet unless a wise Man hath the keeping it that knows when and where and how to apply it it is like Wild-fire that flies at rovers runs hissing about and blows up every thing that comes in its way without any respect or discrimination And indeed the more grave and serious any thing is the more prone it will be to expose and ridicule it For the life of Wit consists in the surprisingness of its Conceits and Expressions in making such smart or uncouth Representations of things as are most apt to raise a pleasing Wonder and Amazement in those that hear us Now there is nothing more surprising in its own nature than to see or hear a serious thing sportfully represented and drest up in an antick and ridiculous Disguise the very exposing it in a Garb and Figure so unexpected because so very unlike and unsutable to it self is apt of its own Nature to surprise and amuse the Spectators or Hearers which surprise if he be a vain person will tickle him into Laughter but if he be serious will affect him with Detestation and Horror to see a serious thing so contemptibly treated But the greatest part of Men being of vain and trifling Spirits that are whisled up and down in little levities of Fancy there is nothing commonly doth more gratefully surprise them and provoke their Laughter than ridiculous Representations of serious Arguments and hence it comes to pass that 't is grown a great Instance of wit among the generality of men to sport and play with serious things to burlesque the sense of them and apply them to ridicuculous purposes whereas in reality this mistaken sort of Wit is nothing but dull and impudent Buffoonery and a very little Wit joyned with a great deal of Sauciness will enable a Man to make sport with the most serious Arguments For 't is but cloathing them in rude and porterly Expressions or misconstruing them to a profane or ludicrous sense or debauching the Phrases by which they are
yet still they pursue 'em and ever and anon break in upon 'em and scare and terrifie 'em and because their minds are so haunted with these importunate terrours of the World to come they are affraid to look inwards but are fain to live abroad in their own defence as not daring to trust themselves alone with themselves all which are plain Presages of a future Judgment and Vengeance that awaits wicked Souls after this life For if this dread of future Punishment be natural to us as its sticking so closely and universally to humane Nature plainly argues it is it must be imprest on us by the great Author of Nature and for him to impress a Passion on us which hath no real Object would be to impose a Cheat upon our Natures and abuse our minds with a false Alarm So that either we must suppose that God hath implanted in our Natures a â—â—ead of that which is not which is a dishonourable reflection on his Truth and Veracity or that there is really a future Punishment answerable to that dread AND as the dread of future Punishment is natural to us when we do ill so the desire and expectance of future Reward is no less natural to us when we do well For I dare boldly say there never was any vertuous Man of whatsoever Nation or Religion or sect of Philosophers whose mind hath not been winged with earnest hopes and desires of a future happiness and there is none that ever yet either denied or despair'd of it but only such as have first debauched the very Principles of their Nature For such it 's evident were the Sadduces and Epicureans sects of Men that had drowned all that was humane in 'em in sensuality and voluptuousness and are branded upon Record for their shameful Indulgence to their own brutish Genius and such are no Standards of humane Nature but ought rather to be look'd upon as Monsters of Men. And therefore as we do not judg of the natural Figures and proportions of humane Bodies by monstrous and mishapen births so neither ought we to judg of what is natural or unnatural to Men by those brutes in humane shape who by submitting their Reason to their passions and Appetites have disfigur'd their Natures and distorted it into an unnatural Position But if we would know what is humane and natural to us we must take our measures from those who live most conformably to the Laws of a Rational Nature and these are they whom we call Pious and Virtuous who are therefore to be look'd upon as the true Standards of humane Nature by whom we may best judg of what is natural and unnatural to us and if we judg by these we shall most certainly find that Virtue and the hopes of Immortality are so nearly allied that like Hippocrates Twins they live and die together For though while Men live a brutish and sensual Life their future hopes are usually drowned in their present Enjoyments yet when once they recover out of this unnatural state and begin to live like reasonable beings immediately they feel great desires and expectations of a future happiness springing up in their minds and so arising higher and higher proportionably as they advance in virtue and goodness which is a plain evidence that these hopes and desires are natural to us and interwoven with the frame and constitution of our Souls But now how can it consist with the goodness of God to implant such desires and hopes in our Natures and then withhold from 'em that which is the only Object that can sute and satisfie ' em For as a great Divine of our own hath well observed Other Beings we see have no natural desire in vain the good God having so ordered things that there are Objects in Nature apportioned to all their natural Appetites but if there be no future state of happiness reserved for good Men We are by a natural Principle most strongly inclined to that which we can never attain to as if God had purposely framed us with such inclinations that so we might be perpetually tormented between those two Passions Desire and Despair an earnest propension after a future Happiness and an utter incapacity of enjoying it as if Nature it self whereby all other things are disposed to their perfection did serve only in Man to make him miserable and which is more considerable as if Virtue which is the perfection of Nature did only serve to contribute to our infelicity by raising in us such desires and expectations as without a future Happiness must be for ever disappointed But if this Desire and Expectation be natural to us as it evidently is it must be implanted there by the God of Nature with whose truth and goodness it can never consist to inspire us with such Desires and Hopes as he knows have no Object in the nature of things and so can never be fulfilled and accomplish'd V. FROM the excellent frame and constitution of humane Nature it 's also evident that there is a future state of Reward and Punishment For whoever shall impartially consider the frame of our Natures will easily discern that we are made for much greater purposes than to enjoy this World and that our faculties are as much too big for these sensitive fruitions as the Channel of the Ocean is for the streams of a little River For the highest happiness we can frame an Idea of is the enjoyment of God by contemplation and love and imitation of his Perfections as I have proved at large Part. 1. c. 3. which doth as far excel all Worldly happiness as the Enjoyments of a Prince do the pleasures of a Fly and yet it is evident that our minds are framed with a natural capacity of enjoying this supream Beatitude i. e. of contemplating and loving and imitating God For as for the Being and Existence of God all things round about us preach and proclaim it and which way soever we turn our Eyes we behold the footsteps of his Power and Wisdom and being endowed with a reasoning faculty we can easily ascend to the infinite Perfections of his Nature by those borrowed Perfections we behold in his Creatures which are so many lively Comments and Paraphrases upon him and so far forth as they are Perfefections must necessarily meet and concenter in him and then such is the frame of our natures that from the contemplation of the Beauty and Perfection of any Being we naturally proceed to admire and love it so that unless our wills be violently prejudiced against the Perfections of God our contemplation must necessarily kindle our love of 'em and then those Perfections which we love and admire in another we are naturally ambitious to transcribe into our selves so that being once inflamed with the love of God that will be continually prompting us to imitate him and that will by degrees mould us into a fair and glorious resemblance of him Thus God hath implanted in the very frame of our Nature