Juice or Glebe of Earth should produce such Variety of Colours We say in Natural Philosophy we know not the Modes of any thing No Man knoweth the Mode how his Soul and Body are united How the several Particles of Matter meet We are puzzled to know what Motion is We can give no Account of these Things Now there being an Amplitude and Fulness of Being in God he is the more intelligible He hath all Being perfectly in him He is therefore more knowable than Creatures that are of limited confin'd narrow Beings The divided separated scatter'd Perfections of the whole Creation are united in God and with that Advance and Improvement extended to infinite Perfection 2 dly The Ways of our knowing do more truly hold of God than of any thing else * There are two Ways of coming to the Knowledge of Things The Way of Perfection and the Way of Negation By these two Ways we come to a more full Knowledge 1. In the Way of Perfection we cannot exceed we need not fear to add to much If you speak of Man's Soul you may say too much But speaking of God you cannot transcend Divine Existence in the Enumeration of any Perfections If we would express a Notion of our Maker we should employ our Mind and Understanding to find out what is best and what is most perfect and then attribute and ascribe it to God And this is the best Way to come to the Knowledge of God 2. In the Way of Negation we are also certain For we cannot remove Imperfection Contraction Limitation far enough from him Therefore we say that Words and Phrases are all to be purg'd and purified from their Contraction and Limitation before we can ascribe them to God Therefore where in Scripture God is represented by the Eyes or other Parts of our Body we must not understand these things formally but in a Way of Perfection So that our Ways of knowing do more truly hold of God than of any thing else For in the Way of adding Perfection we cannot do too much And in the Way of Limitation we cannot take away too much 3 dly Our Relation to God We stand nearer related to God than we do to any thing in the World Our Souls and Bodies are not nearer related than our Souls to God God is more inward to us than our very Souls In him we live move and have our Being God is nearer to us than what is most our selves Also it is the natural and proper Employment of Mind and Understanding to make Search and Enquiry after God The wise Man says God is known by the Fitness and Proportion of one thing to another Mind and Understanding in Man is given on purpose that Man should search after God and acknowledge him So that there is a greater Propriety of Man's Rational Faculties to God than there is of his Eye to Light or his Ear to Sound And it is of greater Deformity for a Man to be void of Sence of Deity than for any Man to be blind so as not to see 4 thly Our Dependance upon God his Conservation of us and his Co-operation with us this leads us to know him Universal and general Causes have ready Acknowledgment Because to them so many things are beholding Aristotle well observes the Sun which is the universal Cause doth concur with every particular Cause to every Production So the Psalmist Nothing is hid from the Heat of it For tho' the Earth be not perceptive of the Light of the Sun because of its Grossness and Opacity yet it hath the Vertue of it So God is acknowledg'd God's concerning himself in our Affairs and our Dependance upon him hath a kind of Universal Acknowledgment Take any Man of any Sobriety of Mind if he relate any thing that befals him he will interpose as God would have it If he escape any Danger he will say as God put it into my Mind and give God the chief Place Thus in several Cases As in Distress O God! our Undertakings in the Name of God Our Protestations in the Presence of God Tho these in the Mouths of many be but Words of course spoken without inward Sence of God in the Mind yet the Custom of them proceeds from a good Original They carry Reason in them and shew Nature's Sence What is without Ground is not of any long Continuance But these meet with no Reproof gain Credit give Assurance find Acceptance and become Religious Persons when us'd in weighty Cases and with serious Minds and due Intention Since therefore there is such a Dependance of our Souls upon God it is impossible but that we should know him They who are in any degree Spiritual or Intelectual and are not altogether sunk down into a brutish Spirit and sensual Affection find and feel within themselves Divine Suggestions Motions and Inspirations Any Man that hath obtain'd any Degree of the Perfection of Reason that doth follow the Divine Governour of Man's Life Reason he doth find that there are Suggestions and Inspirations and that many times when he was resolv'd another way there comes a Light into his Mind a still Voice he hears and he is better directed Except the Atheistical and Prophane and those that are Diabolical all others feel God in his Motions and Suggestions Thus is God most knowable of any thing in the World Here you have an Account of the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion The Natural Knowledge of God And the Knowledge of the Revelation of his Will The Natural Knowledge of God that is the very Issue Effect and Product of Reason Revelation is the other part of Religion And Reason is the Recipient What doth God give his Commands to or his Councels but to the intelligent Agent and the Reason of Man So that Reason hath great place in Religion For Reason is the Recipient of whatsoever God declares And those things that are according to the Nature of God the Reason of Man can discover It is either the Efficient or the Recipient of all that is call'd Religion of all that is communicated from God to Man The Natural Knowledge of God is the Product of Reason The Resolutions of his Will for our further Direction are proposed and communicated to Reason and * in both these ways we are taught of God In the former we are made to know And in the latter we are call'd to be made Partakers of God's Councel By the former we know what God is his Nature that he is By the latter what God would have us to do So here you see the Use of Mind and Understanding in the Way of Religion God teaches us in his Creation in giving us such Faculties he teaches us further in the Resolution of his Will because he satisfies us in what he doth impose upon us Therefore the Use of Reason in Matters of Religion is so far from doing any Harm to Religion that it is the proper Preparatory for Men to look out to God
of Man when he was Apostatized from the Truth of first Inscription The former of these is of things necessary in themselves in their Nature and Quality so immutable and indispensible The latter is the voluntary Results and Determinations of the Divine Will Things that are of an immutable and indispensible Nature we have Knowledge of them by the Light of first Impression The voluntary Results of the Divine Will we have by Revelation from God Man's Observance of God in all Instances of Morality these are Truths of first Inscription and these have a deeper Foundation greater Ground for them than that God gave the Law on Mount Sinai or that he did after ingrave it on Tables of Stone or that we find the Ten Commandments in the Bible For God made Man to them and did write them upon the Heart of Man before he did declare them upon Mount Sinai before he ingraved them upon the Tables of Stone or before they were writ in our Bibles God made Man to them and wrought his Law upon Mens Hearts and as it were interwove it into the Principles of our Reason and the things thereof are the very Sence of Man's Soul and the Image of his Mind So that a Man doth undo his own Being departs from himself and unmakes himself confounds his own Principles when he is disobedient and unconformable to them and must necessarily be self-condemn'd The Law externally given was to revive awaken Man after his Apostacy and Sin and to call him to Remembrance Advertency and Consideration And indeed had there not been a Law written in the Heart of Man a Law without him could be to no Purpose For had we not Principles that are Concreated did we not know something no Man could prove any thing * For he that knows nothing grants nothing Whosoever finds not within himself Principles sutable to the Moral Law whence with Choice he doth comply with it he hath departed from himself and lost the natural Perfection of his Being And to be conformable to this is the Restitution to his State Things of Natural Knowledge or of first Inscription in the Heart of Man by God these are known to be true as soon as ever they are proposed And he hath abused himself and forc'd himself from his Nature and deformed the Creation of God in him whosoever doth not take Acquaintance with subscribe to make acknowledgement of these great Things The great Principles of Reverence of Deity Of Sobriety in the Government of a Man 's own Person Moderate use of the Pleasures and Contentments of this Life The great Instances of Righteousness and Justice in Mens Transactions one with another For they are Connatural to Man Then for Truth of Gospel-Revelation that speaks for it self recommends it self and shews it self to be of God In this Case we may say as the Samaritans to the Woman They were brought to take Cognizance of our Saviour by the credible Report of the Woman But after they had had converse with him Now say they we believe in him not for thy Words but we credited thee so far forth as to come and see him but because we have seen and heard Such are the Declarations of Faith in God by Jesus Christ of Remission of Sins of God's accepting of Sinners upon Repentance that any Man that is awake to any true Apprehensions of God he will readily believe them and embrace them when they are declared to him by any Instrument The great Things of Reveal'd Truth tho' they be not of Reason's Invention yet they are of the prepar'd Mind readily entertain'd and receiv'd As for Instance Remission of Sins to them that repent and deprecate God's Displeasure it is the most credible Thing in the World For God made us Creatures fallible at the best Now here is finite and fallible failing and miscarrying repenting and reforming upon a Declaration from God So false is it that the Matter of our Faith is unaccountable or that there is any thing unreasonable in Religion that there is no such Matter of Credit in the World as the Matters of Faith nothing more intelligible It was a Mystery before God in Christ reconciling the World Now all the World is taken into a Possibility of receiving Benefits hereby Tho' there be nothing of Merit on the Creature 's side nothing that we can do that can deserve yet it is a Matter of very fair Belief that the Original of all Beings the Father of all our Spirits the Fountain of all Good will one way or other pardon Sin and do what behoves him for the Recovery of his laps'd Creation And any probable Narration made in the Name of God of the Way and Means and the particular Circumstances whereby God will do it will fairly induce Belief with sober serious and considerate Minds And what have we to do with others upon the Account of Religion If they be not serious and considerate they are not in a Disposition towards Religion That Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head God hath been speaking this out further and further by his various Revelations in the several Successions of Time He has represented it in divers Shapes But now we have it expounded For the Seed of the Woman is God manifested in the Flesh And breaking the Serpent's Head is destroying the Work of the Devil The Anti-type doth exactly answer the Variety of the Types All foretold of our Saviour was fulfill'd in him We have many things in prophane Stories in several Ages that give Testimony and Light to Parts of Reveal'd Truth Many of their Stories are in Imitation of Scripture History As Nisus's Hair in Imitation of Sampson's Deucalion's Floud in Imitation of Noah's Hercules in Imitation of Joshua c. Many of the Heathens that were not corrupted by Education or Interest or the Strain of the Time do relate many things that are consistent with those that are in the Bible St. Austin tells us he found the Beginning of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel among the Platonists Eusebius read in the Commentaries of the Heathens those Circumstances and Matters of Fact that the Evangelists do mention and also the Signs at our Saviour's Crucifying as the Eclipse of the Sun and an Earthquake and other Accidents Tertullian speaks of sundry things which Pilate writ to Tiberius sutable to what the Evangelists relate concerning our Saviour Yea Mahomet himself who is the last great Impostor doth mention the Souldiers apprehending our Saviour with an Intention to put him to Death Acknowledging him to be a great Prophet but he tells us when those Souldiers were stricken down God took him away and they lighted upon another something like him and crucify'd him Plutarch an Eminent Author gives us an Account of Pan the great Daemon of the Heathens who was heard greatly to complain that a Hebrew Child was born and they never heard him after all the Oracles then ceasing Porphiry tho' of no great Credit
that which we know by the Light of God's Creation which is weakned by Man's Sin and * his Apostacy from God but it doth also do its own proper work and teach a Man to return to his own place to acknowledge God depend upon him and be subservient to him * It teaches him to empty his Mind of all Presumption Pride Arrogance and Self-assuming So that a Man is fit to receive the Grace of Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin together with all Divine Influence Concurrence and Assistance But since I have laid so mighty a weight and so great a stress upon this Acknowledgment in the Text I must needs here prevent an Objection which may be raised and it is this Some may object and say you have no Divine Authority for these words for tho' they are in the Bible they are but here related I confess I have no more Authority from these words being spoken by these Persons of whom they are related than if they were clean the contrary to what they are For I do find concerning our Lord and Saviour that some Persons of like Disposition say that he did do his Miracles by Belzebub the Prince of Devils and if we lay the stress upon the Sayers we must as well credit them as these Therefore I will grant you that I have no Authority for ought I have said from these words materially consider'd or as related and put down here Neither do I lay any weight or stress on the Sense of these Reporters for I will grant that it might be hap-hazard what these Men said for as much as they did not speak out of any purpose or intention or out of any settled Principle and such Men have upon the like occasion given a clean contrary Report Now I will give you a profitable Observation from hence Take care how you quote Scripture for that is Scripture for which you have Divine Authority not that which is barely related in the Text. For you have the Speeches of the Devil and the Advice of the worst or Men related in Scripture Scripture is only consider'd in the truth of Matter of Fact and that these things were done but it doth not follow from hence that they are materially Good No Man must pretend to do as Ehud did because his Action is recorded in Scripture No Man must pretend to borrowing without Intention of paying as the Israelites did for if they had not extraordinary warrant they were * to be condemn'd in their Practice So for us to curse our Enemies as we read in the Psalms the Prophet did not knowing in what Spirit it was done * it is not warrantable for us to do the like from thence Neither must we hate any because the Jews were to hate and to destroy the Seven Nations which they interpreted a Commission to hate all Mankind but themselves Therefore in like case we cannot certainly prove that any thing in the Book of Job is certainly Divine that was spoken by Job's Friends because God himself declares that they had not spoken that which was right concerning him as his Servant Job had done Therefore if you will have Divine Authority see what is said and think it not enough that it is barely related in the Book Neither is it enough to pretend to a single Text nor the Practice or Perswasion of any Man whatsoever nor to any thing accidentally spoken that can amount either to Matter of Faith or Divine Institution it must be express Scripture it must be Scripture in conjunction with Scripture For Scripture as a Rule of Faith is not one Scripture but all And therefore tho' I have taken advantage from these words yet all along I have laid such certain and such infallible Grounds tending to give Satisfaction in the Matters of Reason and Faith as the several Points are capable of And now I proceed to a fourth Argument which is this The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in the State of his Creation And the Suitableness of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed and fallen Condition in order to his Restitution and Recovery And first for the Suitableness of that which we call Natural Religion Natural Religion was the very Temper and Complexion of Man's Soul in the Moment of his Creation It was his natural Temper and the very Disposition of his Mind It was as con-natural to his Soul as Health to any Man's Body So that Man forc'd himself offered Violence to himself and his Principles went against his very make and Constitution when he departed from God And consented to Iniquity It is the same thing in Moral Agents to observe and comply with the Dictates of Reason as it is with inferior Creatures to act according to the Sense and Impetus of their Natures It is the same thing with the World of intelligent and voluntary Agents to do that which right Reason doth demand and require as it is in Sensitives to follow the Guidance of their Sences or in Vegetatives to act according to their Natures It is as natural for a Man in respect of the Principles of God's Creation in him to live in Regard Reverence and Observance of Deity to govern himself according to the Rule of Sobriety and Temperance to live in Love and to carry himself well in God's Family this I say is as natural for him as for a Beast to be guided by his Sences or for the Sun to give light How far therefore are we degenerated and fallen below the State in which God created us since it is so rare a thing for us to comply with the Reason of Things Nothing is more certainly true than that all Vice is unnatural and contrary to the Nature of Man All that we call Sin that which is nought and contrary to the Reason of Things is destructive of Human Nature And a Man forceth himself when he doth it So that to comply with those Principles of natural Light and Knowledge which God did implant in us in the Moment of our Creation and exactly to be obedient to the Ducture of Reason is con-natural to Man in respect of the State of God's Creation And it may be as well expected from an intelligent Agent to observe God and to live righteously and soberly as from any sensitive Agent to follow its Appetite Humility Patience Meekness and such like Vertues they do favour Nature whereas Passion Pride and Envy do waste and destroy Nature Nature's Desires are all moderate and limited But Lust is violent and exorbitant Nature is content with a very few things But if a Man give way to inordinate Desires then there is no Satisfaction to be obtain'd Lust is not a thing that will be satisfied by adding and adding But he that would be satisfied must abate and moderate his Desires and undue Affections It is certain that all Natural Truth all that is founded in Reason and that derives from the Principles of God's Creation that all of these do agree with Man's
their Knowledge imprison the Truth of God and hold it in Unrighteousness In the Language of Scripture none are nominated Sinners but such as now we are representing The Scripture doth never fasten the Title or Denomination upon them that mean well but are in something mistaken who now and then are under an Error having Failings Imperfections and Shortnesses that miscarry upon a violent Temptation or sudden Surprizal You never find these Men are call'd Sinners Neither are the Infirmities of the Regenerate call'd Sin Tho' these are Sins that require God's Forgiveness and are a true Cause for us to be Humble and Modest and to depend upon God But they do not break our Peace with God neither do they havock Conscience or denominate a Person a Sinner The Scripture tells us That those that are born of God do not commit Sin that is in this Sence no one that is regenerate doth pass into the contrary Nature It is unnatural They may have Shortnesses Failings Imperfections But voluntarily to consent to known Iniquity or wilfully to controul the settled Laws of Heaven of Piety to God Justice to Men and Sobriety to our selves this is unnatural These Persons have the Guilt of evil Practice lying upon their Minds They have their own internal Sence reproving them challenging them condemning them For the Cause of all Creatures Misery is rational and accountable and Men do dishonour God and misrepresent him when they say that any Creature falls into Misery by the Use of God's Sovereignty It doth really arise from within us And there is no Danger in respect of God notwithstanding his great Priviledge if Men be innocent and not self-condemn'd Misery and Harm do not proceed from abroad but do arise from within If Omnipotence it self should load me with all Burthens If I am innocent within I shall be able to bear it But if I am guilty I have a Wound within and have nothing within me true to my self All Misery arises out of our selves It is a most gross Mistake and Men are of dull and stupid Spirits who think that that State which we call Hell is an incommodious place only and that God by his Sovereignty throws Men therein For Hell arises out of a Man's self And Hell's Fewel is the Guilt of a Man's Conscience And it is impossible that any should be so miserable as Hell makes a Man and as there a Man is miserable but by his own condemning himself And on the other side when they think that Heaven arises from any Place or any nearness to God or Angels This is not principally * so but * it lies in a refin'd Temper in an internal Reconciliation to the Nature of God and to the Rule of Righteousness So that both Hell and Heaven have their Foundation within Men. Evil knowingly admitted is our Burthen For all Evil is forcible violent and unnatural And a Sinner wrongs his own Principles This might be made appear in respect of God in respect of one another in respect of our selves 1 st In respect of God For consider him as the Father of our Beings and that we are derivatively from him or that our State is Dependency or that we are sinful or that we are under his Love or that he is to be our Judge all these will cause Acts of Piety So that all Acts of Impiety are contrary to the Light of our Reason And whosoever is impious in any Degree or Particular whatsoever he doth hold the Truth in Unrighteousness he confounds his Principles acts contrary to his Nature and contradicts the Principle of God within him * For this is Fundamental to all Religion that Man in the Use of his Reason by Force of Mind and Understanding may as well know that there is a God that governs the World as he may know by the Use of his Eyes there is a Sun For are we not made to know there is a God If we were not made to know that he is we could never know For this we can never be taught For upon whose Credit shall we believe it It is not Divine Faith unless it be grounded on Divine Authority All else is either Reason or Human Perswasion Credulity or Experience We are not capable of Faith unless we know there is a God For if there be Faith in God we must suppose that He is For Faith is a receiving something upon Divine Authority * And if there be not a Natural Knowledge that God is there is no Possibility of any Faith Men know by the Use of their Reason that there is a God And then when a Man receives any Proposition from God's Authority that is Faith Natural Knowledge you see is anticedent and Fundamental to Faith It is as natural and proper for Mind and Understanding to tend towards God as for heavy Things to tend towards their Center For God is the Center of immortal Souls All Understandings seek after God and have a Sence and Feeling of God If Reason did not apprehend God Religion could not be learn'd For there would be nothing in Nature to graft it on Besides we know in Reason that first Principles are self-evident must be seen in their own Light and are perceived by an inward Power of Nature For as we say out of nothing comes nothing so grant nothing and nothing can be proved Wherefore it must be within the Reach of Reason to find that there is a God For upon God's Authority supposing his Being and Veracity we admit and receive all the Results of his Will If God had not made Man to know there is a God there is nothing that God could have demanded of him nothing wherein he might have challenged him nor nothing that he could have expected Man should have received from him Therefore the Make of Man the natural Use of Mind and Understanding this is enough to satisfie any one concerning the Being of God and his essential Perfections And if so whosoever is impious to God whosoever is not subject to all his Commands this Man doth certainly sin against his Conscience and doth practise against his Light and is guilty of holding the Truth in Unrighteousness Thus every one that is Impious Ungodly Prophane or a Despiser of Deity is self-condemn'd sins against his Light and goes against his Conscience goes against his very Make and doth that which is violent horrid and unnatural The second Species of Sin is Unrighteousness Now Righteousness refers to the Duties we mutually owe one another To do as we would be done by To do equally and justly not arbitrarily How doth Violence and Fraud perplex and interrupt Humane Affairs How settledly do Men live where Love and Justice do take place in comparison of Places Arbitrary and Lawless There is a secret Harmony in the Soul with the Rule of Righteousness there is no Displacency Offence or Reluctancy And there is an Antipathy arising at the Appearance of Evil as unnatural to it But a Complacency in Good as the
but the Fewel of it is the Guiltiness of Mens Consciences and God's withdrawing because the Person is uncapable of his Communication Sin is an Act of Violence in it self The Sinner doth force himself and stirs up Strife within himself and in a Sinner there is that within which doth reluctate and condemn him in the inward Court of his own Conscience For if our Hearts did not condemn us all without might be avoided all else would fail if this Internal Guilt and Self-Condemnation might be removed But this Naughtiness of Disposition and Incapacity of Repentance is that which continues the Subject in Misery Hell * therefore is not a Positive Infliction but doth naturally follow upon Guiltiness and a spightful devilish naughty Disposition unto God and Goodness There is something in every Man upon which we may work to which we may apply to wit the Light of Reason and Conscience to which the Difference of Good and Evil may be made appear If we therefore declare Godliness Righteousness and Truth Men have a Voice to give Testimony and Conscience in Men will yield notwithstanding the power Lust hath over them If Reason may not command it will condemn Lastly Here you may have an account what it is that gives a Check and a Stop to the Motion of the Divine Spirit There is an Error in the first Concoction which is hardly remedied which is want of Advertency and Consideration Men do not awaken their Principles but give themselves leave to do what they cannot justifie themselves in Now there is no place for the further Motion of the Divine Grace where the former Grace is neglected and * render'd ineffectual It is self-neglect and voluntary allowing of our selves in Evil which brings us to Misery For there is no Invincible Ignorance in respect of things good in themselves and necessary No Ignorance excuses Immorality in any Instance whatsoever but invincible Ignorance doth excuse Infidelity in the chiefest Point The Reason is because the high Points of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance God hath made every Man to know but for the Resolutions of his Will Man must be perswaded of God and if God do not make Application to him where he doth not give he doth not require Take notice then of the Boldness and Presumption of these obstinate rebellious and contumacious Sinners who having this Proclamation from the Majesty of Heaven that the Wrath of God c. yet will dare to continue in Practices of Unrighteousness and assume to themselves power to controul the establish'd Laws of everlasting Goodness Righteousness and Truth and to vary from tâ—e Reason of things to gratifie their own Sence and to please their own Humours and to serve their own Ends and take upon them to over-rule all things that are holy settled and establish'd from Eternity What shall a Man say to such Persons Yet the Atheistical and Prophane are guilty of this Contumacy But as the Apostle says Their Condemnation is just and their Judgment lingers not We seem agriev'd at God's Plagues and Judgments which do so much disturb our Peace and Settlement in the World but we do greater Acts of Violence For we imprison Truth and give God true cause of Offence and take upon us to controul the Establish'd Laws of Heaven and to do other things than the reason of things dictates to us and directs us to do For the Text tells us that those that are obnoxious to God's Wrath are Persons of ungodly Practice so that they are of themselves condemn'd They cannot give an account to the reason of their own Minds nor satisfie their own Consciences but are hurried on and transported by furious and violent Lusts holding the Truth in Unrighteousness they are self-condemn'd before they be condemn'd of God BECAUSE THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM FOR GOD HATH SHEWED IT Uâ—TO THEM The Apostle doth here take upon him and thinks fit in this great Affair of Life and Death to shew and prove by Reason From hence we may learn three things 1 st That here is a Check and Controul to the forward and presumptuous Imposers that take upon them to dectate and determine and are angry with all Persons that are not concluded by their Sence These Persons take upon them more than the Apostle did 2 dly That Religion stands upon the Grounds of truest Reason for the Apostle here after he hath asserted proves by Reason 3 dly God's Ways and Dealings with his Creatures are accountable in a way of Reason But some think that God uses Arbitrary Power and that they might escape without Punishment if he would and that it is nothing but his Will and Pleasure In the 17th Verse he hath declared the way of Life and Salvation and in the 18th the way of Misery and Death Therefore the Ways of God are accountable in Reason If this were not the Way of God a Way worthy of Truth we might ask why this Apostle may not refer us to his publick Authority who might if any * one because of his extraordinary Conversion and Commission from Heaven but he declines that and proves by Reason But this great Truth is hereby hinted that the way of Reason is the way most accomodate to Humane Nature Therefore let us lay aside imposing one upon another or to use any canting in Religion Let us talk Sense and Reason for the Apostle doth here shew and prove by Reason And God himself who hath all Priviledge he says he will draw them with the Cords of Men and what is that but Arguments satisfactory to the Mind of Men and in the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah shew your selves to be Men that is awaken your rational and intelectual Faculties and take things into serious and impartial Consideration and I will convince you It is an Apology for any finite fallible Creature when he is mistaken if he had some Reason for his Mistake and if he can but shew why he did so think you have him excused 'T is a high Advantage and Double Security to any Teacher or Instructer to have in readiness to shew that what he saith is not his private Imagination but is in Conjunction with the Reason of Things or the Principles of God's Creation and of Divine Revelation if it be a Matter of Faith This but by way of Observation Because the Apostle doth decline his Commission of Apostleship and doth prove by common Reason That which is the Apostle's Argument is that all those who in the Language of Scripture are Sinners all that are ungodly impious towards God and unrighteous in his Family they sin against their Light go against the Principles of natural Conscience imprison Truth and sin against their Knowledge The Argument is because God made Men to know that he himself IS and his natural Perfections This is here plainly attested in this Verse It is shortly spoken to But because it is a Matter of great Weight it is spoken more fully
the way of his Trade He walks from East to West and sends his Goods far and near for the increase of his Wealth What Diligence and Care do Men take to preserve Life and to maintain themselves in Health and Strength and provide for their Families To get an Estate and to keep it We see in every thing that is to be done for the Concerns of this Life there is Care and Caution to be used And shall there be no Care no Pains no Diligence nor Industry used to govern our FACULTIES to moderate our APPETITES for the several Uses and Purposes of Religion which is of the highest Concernment of all others Wherefore in the first place to THE STATE OF RELIGION and * in order to uphold and maintain the same there must be Care taken to discern the Difference between Good and Evil True and False Right and Wrong For these are the great Points of Religion At the Knowledge of these Religion begins And this is every Body's Charge according to his Capacity Opportunity and Ability And this is as necessary to preserve us from Cheats and Impostures as to know our Liberty Our first Work is to establish in our selves a Throne of Judgment throwly to know and understand our Duty and what is to be done what to be avoided And then in point of Practice and Choice to observe this Difference And if this be not done our Religion is to little purpose For it comes all to one not to make any Difference in things or not to observe that Difference The first thing in Religion is to refine a Man's Temper And the second to govern his Practice If a Man's Religion do not * this his Religion is a poor slender Thing and of little Consideration 'T is then only a naked Profession and fit to give him a Denomination I say such a Man's Religion is but of little value For it hath no Efficacy but falls short of the very Principles of Nature For they do certainly and constantly attain their several Effects The Sun the Moon the Stars Fire Air Earth and Water these never fail to act according to their several Principles and to attain their several Effects The Sun hath not fail'd for Six thousand years insomuch that we are surer of its Rising and Setting than we are of our selves Now shall all the Principles in Inferiour Nature throughout the whole Creation regularly constantly and certainly attain their Effects And shall there be only a Failure in the Principles of Reason and Religion But to proceed Thirdly Whosoever doth voluntarily consent to known Iniquity I am sure this Text cannot be verified of such a Person Men that do wittingly and willingly consent to that which their Judgment tells them at that time is Evil are represented in Scripture as sinning with a high hand and with a stiff neck and to resist the Holy Spirit and to commit the great Transgression Now of these the First * sort never made any entrance into Religion As for the second if they do any thing worthy of Religion 't is rather by chance than of choice As for the third they pass into a clean contrary State The first of these to wit those that are Fundamentally Ignorant they stumble at the very Threshold because Religion in every degree begins at some measure of KNOWLEDGE For can a Blind Man judge of Colours No more can a Man that is Fundamentally Ignorant be said to be Religious And as for those that are greatly Careless and Neglective it is uncertain what they will do that do not act by Rule and upon Consideration But as for the Third sort Those that give their Consent to that which is Evil These pass into the Contrary State and take a course to root out of their Minds the very Seeds of Goodness that were sown For so contrary Acts are apt to do No Habit doth absolutely determine the Act tho' it doth greatly dispose and incline to the Action Yet a HABIT may be utterly lost If a Man do for a long time forbear all Acts of Religion he is wanting to that which should continue the Habit. And if there be Contrary Acts the Contrary Habit will be begun and the more they are the more will the contrary Disposition be increased So that in time the Habit of Vertue shall not only be weakned but wholly wrought out and the contrary * Habit brought in This is the Course of things in Nature Every Habit begun is greatly weakned by a bare Forbearance of Acts For every thing must be conserved in the way it was produced A Disposition is first introduced by some Acts and if you do not introduce Act upon Act the Disposition will fail For things that are not brought to a State of Perfection will return back again if they be not maintain'd in the same way that they were produc'd Therefore the Towardliness of some Persons to Vertue is by Intermission of Acts abated and when they come to put forth contrary Acts it is quite expelled And this is the Ground and Foundation of Achitophel's Counsel to Absalom He bids him do a Lewd Act that he might be confirm'd in his wicked Design he had against his Father Therefore let us close with that Good Advice which Jesus the Son of Syrach gives Ecclesiasticus 21. 2. Flee from Sin as from a Serpent The least that can be expected from Religion and Conscience to God is that by means thereof Men be kept from giving their Consent to known Iniquity and be enabled to escape the Pollutions of the World If the Creation below us by their Natural Instinct always do those things that are Regular and attain their End shall not these higher Principles of Reason and Understanding do the like and always preserve us from known Evil and determine us to that which is Morally Good The Principle of Reason Knowledge and Judgment is the highest Principle and transcendent to all others The Principle by which the Sun doth enlighten the World is not to be put in competition with the Reason of Mind and Understanding To which if we add the Aid of God's Grace which doth never fail for He doth prevent us with his Grace it is a Shame and Reproach to us if we vary from the Rule and Measure of Vertue sin against our own Light and Conscience and do worse when we know better I shall now proceed to declare the Purpose and Intent of RELIGION What It aims at and how It doth affect the Subject And that I will do in these Particulars I will consider Religion in its Motion towards God What it doth in the Person in which it is How it appears * and carries it self towards others even to the whole Creation but more especially towards them with whom we daily converse How Religion stands affected towards the Things that are without us or about us either the Necessaries and Conveniencies or Superfluities of Life * And what Religion doth when it is finally
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
in the next Verse THE INVISIBLE THINGS OF GOD FROM THE CREATION ARE NOW CLEARLY SEEN by the Light of Reason and Understanding BEING UNDERSTOOD BY THE THINGS THAT ARE MADE EVEN HIS ETERNAL POWER AND GODHEAD That is That there is a God and his Natural Perfections For whereas here is exprest only his POWER it is a usual Synecdoche instancing in one and understanding all Because there is the same Reason for one as another * Now since this Scripture and other Scriptures use no other Arguments to prove there is a God for Revelation cannot prove it Revelation supposes it therefore I shall forbear all other Reasons For tho' I might produce many Metaphysical Things yet because they are abstract from Sence they shall not be nam'd Therefore I shall as in the Text only name THE EFFECTS OF GOD. And this is the best Demonstration the demonstrating an antecedent Cause by subsequent Effects There are Effects in the World natural of Inanimates of Vegetables and Sensitives and in the World moral of spiritual Substances and intelligent Agents that shew there is a God For they do far transcend Mind and Understanding in Man Therefore they must be the Product of some higher Being And if we bring a Man to acknowledge a Being that is abler and wiser than himself he acknowledges Deity This natural Knowledge of God is wrapt up in the Inward of Man's Mind and Soul that Men whether they will or no whether they be pleased or disaffected whensoever they look into themselves and consult with their own Principles and answer their very Make so oft are they satisfy'd in this Knowledge that there is a God And if they are averse they are self-confounded So that we may conclude that if any Creature on Earth that is born in the Species of Man and that is Partaker of Human Nature be devoid of Sence of Deity it is one of these Three Cases 1 st It is where there is not one ferious Thought nothing becoming Man's Principles no Product of Reason Mind and Understanding but where a Man is sunk below his Nature nay where he ceases to be in his Kind and is worse than a Gibeonite This is Atheism by gross self neglect Such a Man may be without God in the World who only hath Reason and Understanding to live according to Sence or to pursue his Animal Desires And this Man lives every Day to his Loss he doth not act according to the Excellency of the Principles of his Kind 2 dly It is where there is Affectatation and Choice to be an Atheist And then he would have it so struggles with himself doth what he can to keep all Thoughts of Deity out of his Mind He is one that hath an ill Affectation of being Lawless and Arbitrary and gratifying his Senses And so he doth affect being an Atheist that he may be free from Controul Or 3 dly It is where there is contracted Reprobacy of Mind by violent and unnatural Practice And this Case is often represented in Scripture * as by the Prophet Isaiah where it is said Make the Heart of this People fat c. which place is referr'd to six times in the New Testament and speaks to this Purpose that Man by gross abuse of himself may choak the Principles of his Nature These Men have confounded their Principles and transform'd themselves into a monstrous State And we must not produce any thing from what is true of a Monster to prove a Natural State For by Wickedness Mens Minds come to be blinded Aristotle doth well tell us that the Wickedness of Mens Lives and Practices viciates and corrupts the Judgment of Mind and Understanding To conclude with Tully's Argument who is a better Divine than some who pretend to be Christians and yet seem to deny Reason Man himself being a rational and intelligent Agent so an Agent of highest Order Ability and Perfection in this visible World finding his highest Principle his Understanding transcended by sundry Effects of Wisdom and Power where to he well knows he can make no Pretence he cannot avoid acknowledging a higher Agent than himself Upon whose Power and will these surpassing Effects depend A Man in the Use of his Reason surveys the Things that are about him he sees Causes and Effects he sees things depending one upon another he sees things done with * the greatest Skill and Exactness He doth very well know he did not order these things How came they to pass then We our selves are intelligent Agents We can do many things We can disarm the Creation below us and turn them to our own defence but for the Sun Moon and Stars c. We cannot produce these things But we that are intelligent Agents do many strange Effects in Comparison of what the Beasts below do They cannot take Cognizance of our Actions But there are Operations beyond our Understandings * and which surpass our Wisdom Therefore because we * who are able to do such things our selves are Intelligent and have Understanding we must assert that there must be an intelligent Agent that is higher and nobler than our selves upon whose Power and Skill these surpassing Effects depend This is a true Knowledge of God and where more is not reveal'd God will not require more This is Tully's Argument And this comes home to the Apostle in the Text for the Apostle says his BEING his POWER one for all his Perfections they are understood in a Way of Reason by the Effects of God in the World The Height and Excellency of Man in the Use of his Reason is over-born and transcended by the Effects in Nature Therefore they are the Effects of an Agent more perfect and more â—kilful more knowing and more powerful and he is abundantly good Hitherto I have only shewn that it is knowable by the Use of Reason and Understanding that there is a God ALL THINGS BEING MADE IN SUCH PROPORTION AND SUCH FITNESS ONE TO ANOTHER And Man's Reason is transcended For we going after God are at a Loss there is so much of Wisdom and Knowledge and Curiosity in the Things that are made We cannot therefore but Reverence an Agent that is higher than we are For an Account is not be given of them in way of Human Understanding Now I will give Four Arguments that it is more knowable there is a God and what God is in some measure than any thing else 1 st God is more knowable in respect of the Amplitude and Fulness of his Being because of that Ocean of Entity that Fulness of Being that is in him * This is as the Sea * in Comparison to a small Rivulet Every Creature is a Line leading to God God is every-where in every thing So we cannot miss of him For the Heavens declare the Glory of God and every Grass in the Field declares God Man's Understanding is every-where * transcended He cannot give an Account how several Varieties of Colours are in a Flower how the same
is Darkness Confusion and inward Torture All proves contrary to God's Design Justin in his History reports concerning the ancient Scythians That they had neither Houses nor Enclosure of Ground yet Justice had Honour among them not from Positive Laws but the GOOD NATURE of the People A thing to be admired that Nature should bestow that on the Scythians which the Grecians long instructed by Precepts of Philosophers had not attain'd that formed Manners should be transcended by uneducated Barbarity Hence it appears that the Condition of Humane Nature is not so very rude as some report since so much is found in the uncivilized parts of the World Nature is Sovereign to them that use it well in respect of that Modesty and Averseness to that which is not fair and handsom till Men pervert and abuse Nature's Temper by ill Use Custom and Practice Goodness and Vertue are more suitable to Nature's Sence than Wickedness and Vice Vice is contrary to the Nature of Man because contrary to the Order of Reason which is Man's highest Perfection Vice is grievous to Nature witness Irreverence to Deity Intemperance Fury and Cruelty every one feels it so in himself and judges so in others Man forces himself at first before he can at all satisfie himself in any of these In this Sense I understand Heb. 10. 16. I will put my Laws into their Hearts I will write them in their Minds * This is to be understood in respect of Spiritual Precepts founded in Reason and in the Law of the Creation concerning which we need not that one should teach another as in the carnal Institutions of the Law which being foreign to Nature and so many we have need to ask what next what in such a case Men may work themselves out of Nature's Sence out of Judgment of Truth by ill Use Custom and Practice They will not long continue to think * well after once they are come to affect and to do otherwise These two in Conjunction viz. the Affection of the Mind and Practice will bear up with too great a force against Judgment alone Wherefore unless Persons love Goodness and live well we have no hold of them tho' now they seem to think and speak well See the case of Hasael his present Sence and Words Am I a Dog c. but he did so Single Judgment and Understanding will not long hold out against habitual Inclination and Disposition Men unduly practice upon their own Judgments that they may not be disturbed and disquieted in pursuit of their Lusts but if Judgment be once corrupted there is nothing left to make any resistance Evil comes on a main Men go on with full sail Hence Men are Shipwrackt in their Fortunes within themselves broken and come to naught Wherefore in the state of Religion Two things are indispensibly necessary indivisible inseparable Care that Judgment be informed by Truth * and that Heart and Life be reformed by Tincture of it and by Practice And this is Religion PROFESSING THEMSELVES WISE THEY BECOME FOOLS This is said of Persons out of the way of true Reason and Religion These Words may be considered absolutely or in relation to their Conjunction with words which go before or follow after In the former way they afford this Observation That these that think themselves wise are least so for they know not themselves to fail in many things It is the Direction of Wisdom to acknowledge God in all thy ways and not to lean to thy own Understanding For he who trusteth to his own Heart is a Fool. SELF-CONCEIT intoxicates Men and makes them neglective of the Means of Knowledge They who are conceited are Self-Flatterers and towards others Importune grievous troublesom Whosoever falls into the hands of a Self-conceited Person who always is a Dictator and an Imposer upon others to him the Beauty and Excellency of the Divine Vertues Modesty and Sobriety are abundantly testified and recommended The Conceited have lightly considered the Uncertainty of things Variety of Temptations the Representations which are made to Man and our Disparity and Insufficiency to act or determine wisely in several Occasions of Life These are full of themselves but indeed are empty and shallow He knows not himself who thinks himself able enough for his own defence Wise enough to direct himself or who is Good enough to his own Satisfaction The Words taken in a Conjunction with what follows afford this Observation That it is not the Wisdom of Men but their Headiness Presumption and Folly to do in Religion without Reason or otherwise than as they have Direction from God There is no grosser Folly in the World no greater Wrong to one's self than upon account of Religion to come under Obligation to any thing in point of Judgment and Conscience which is not materially true as verified in Reason or Scripture All such is the Persons Superstition which tho' it be not imputed as a Crime to the Person who means well yet is not a Foundation of reward Builders with Hay Stubble suffer loss so far forth tho' themselves stand on the Foundation Man enslaves himself parts with his Liberty which is a dear and choice thing * when he subjects himself to that which made him not to that which is not soveraign to him as Reason is which is his natural Perfection his Home-informer and Monitor within his Breast neither is restorative to him in his Lapsed State as the Principles of Religion are He lays stress upon that which will bear no weight therefore will deceive him As the Superstitious imagines so things are to him but things attain not Effects according to our Fancies but their own Existencies and what they are in Truth and Vertue This other where is accounted Weakness * and Shallowness Nothing betrays Men more than lying Refuges and false Confidencies Religion is that which attains real Effects worthy what we mean by Religion viz. it makes Men humble not conceited Mild gentle not revengeful Good-natured not all for Self Loving not hard-hearted Kind not harsh or cruel Patient not furious not wrathful Courteous affable and sociable not morose soure or dogged Governable not turbulent ready to forgive not implacable favourable in making best Interpretations fair Constructions of Words and Actions not making Men Offenders for a Word ready to commiserate tender-hearted like the Samaritan not as the Jews who would not converse with them If this be in Men then shall the World be sensible of the Good of Religion and find themselves the better for it Lastly let us not run on in a Mistake We see how the Apostle goes on He begins at the Gospel of Christ See how he pursues it He treats of * the Natural Knowledge of God and Fatal Issue of ineffectual Entertainment of it They do preach Christ tho' they do not name him in every Sentence or Period who contend for all Effects of real Goodness and decry Wickedness For
this is the Effect of Christ and his Business God gave him to bless us How by turning us away from Iniquity It is not Christianity to use the name of Christ as a Charm or Spell or Badge of Profession only as they do who use it unintelligibly irrationally unaccountably insignificantly Christ denotes as * in one sence a Person engaged for us in a way we well understand and give account of so a Nature in us which we very well feel and can express They therefore hold forth Christ who declare him one way or other to either of these Effects or Purposes SERMON V. ROMANS I. 26 27. For this Cause God gave them up to vile Affections c. Receiving in themselves that Recompence of their Error which was meet HAVING given an Account of the dreadful Miscarriage of Apostates who held the Truth of God in Unrighteousness and did not love to retain God in their Knowledge but affected to be Atheists that they might be Arbitrary Lawless and live without Fear or Controul and other Characters of them having been given I now proceed to the Second Part that is their PUNISHMENT You have had an Account of Man's Behaviour towards God Now take an Account of God's He gives them up to their own Hearts Lusts. To vile Affections To a reprobate Mind To do things which are not convenient And to have God justified They did but receive the Recompence of their Error To vindicate God from having any hand in the Miscarriages of Men or being * the Cause of it I will shew that neither the Evil of Sin nor the Evil of Punishment can be attributed to God For if God be the first and chiefest Good then Evil is not from him it is not that which he hath designed decreed or appointed But it is Consequential Necessary Fatal and by Consequence Inseparable from the Miscarriages of Sinners In the Sixth of Isaiah v. 10. it is said Make the Heart of this People fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes least they see with their Eyes and hear with their Ears and understand with their Heart and convert and be healed Which place is referr'd to six times in the New Testament And the Scripture never represents the forlorn State of Sinners but it refers to this place It is not that God hath such an Intention or that God will have it so But it is Consequential so it comes to pass so it falls out This is the natural Issue of not dealing ingenuously with Truth they are the worse for their Knowledge if Practice be not answerable * Now to give you an Account that Evil is not to be attributed to God Tho' we find Scripture doth frequently * seem to attribute it to him You must understand that the Scripture-Notion is this Because God is the first and general Cause of all things therefore the Scripture doth attribute all things to God but with great Difference and Distinction Some things as his Efficience such as he doth by himself immediately Some things which he doth by commissioning others i. e. by second Causes And some things by his Permission With this Difference we must understand Scripture attributing things to God For certainly we must resolve that God is no Cause of Evil. For nothing is more certain than that Holiness and Righteousness are the Divine Endowments And Holiness and Righteousness make it altogether repugnant and morally impossible for God to have a Hand in Evil such Evil where-to Iniquity and Deformity is annexed Wherefore we will conclude that whatsoever God doth by himself immediately or in Conjunction with any second Cause it is in it self Good and worthy the first and chiefest Goodness And if that be not true let any one give an Account of these places Is there Unrighteousness in God God forbid If he be unrighteous how can he judge the World Can the Judge of all the World do an unrighteous Act God is holy in all his ways c. He will judge the World in Righteousness Not by an Arbitrary Will But he will proceed according to Rule Can God by Power or Priviledge pervert Right Wherefore there is no Principle true from whence this may follow that God is the Author of Evil. * It is most certainly true of God in relation to his Creatures that he doth fully answer the Relation he stands in to his Creation and whatsoever he hath made Isa. 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have Compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee He certainly doth what is requisite and due in pursuance of all the Principles of his Creation He is not vain as foolish Mortals are to have Beginnings frustrate He doth whatever becomes infinite Goodness He doth all Good upon the highest fullest and clearest Account of Goodness So that is a most real Truth thy Destruction is of thy self But in me is thy Help Nothing is more injuriously spoken of God than that God is the Cause of the Creatures Sin or of the Sinners Misery by the Absoluteness and Arbitrariness of his Will As if save for God's Will a Sinner might well enjoy himself be at Peace within himself be Happy Whereas Vertue hath Reward arising out of it self So Sin and Wickedness hath Punishment Nothing in the World so draws on another thing as Guilt doth Mischief and Punishment Wickedness is contrary to the Nature of Man Therefore cannot but be vexatious and tormenting No Wounds of Body equal the Torments of the Mind Antecedently to the Being of Evil God doth that which infinite Wisdom doth direct for the preventing of it to wit he doth warn he doth admonish he doth declare against it tho' he doth not absoly hinder by his Almighty Power Subsequentially to the Being of Evil when Evil is done by a defective and malicious Cause God if he pleases turns it into Good when he pleases and as he pleases And in this Sense St. Austin It is very happy that a proud arrogant self-conceited Man fall into a Sin that he may see himself That is if God make such a Sin as shames a Man a Means to humble him Else it is expected that God should resist the Proud and that the Back-slider in Heart be filled with his own Ways This is the Goodness of God when he will bring Good out of Evil and turn that which is a Man's Sin and great Fault to tend to his Advancement * But God is not challengable upon any Account for his not hindring For he would counter-work the Design of his Creation For Man by his Make is a free Agent is both intelligent and voluntary Positus in aequilibrio else could not sin Counterpois'd one way by that which is Honest the other way by Profit and Pleasure The Delightfulness of Sense is corrival to that which is in its Nature just and holy
with several Mens Fancies and Opinions Now I will make use of my Text to describe and lay out a truely GOOD Man one that is real in his Religion one that keeps the ways of the Lord c. and that keeps himself from his Iniquity And the better to explain my self I must observe * to you in the first place a Different State of Men a State of Wickedness and Sin when Evil prevails And a State of Religion when Goodness and Vertue take place And these two differ in degree as Heaven and Hell For it is a great Mistake for us to think that all of Heaven or Hell is hereafter for both the one and the other is in measure and degree begun here For Heaven and Hell are not so much a Place as a State They that are reconciled to God in the Frame and Temper of their Minds and that live according to the Law of Heaven the everlasting and immutable Rules of Goodness Righteousness and Truth may truly be said to have begun Heaven while they are upon Earth But they who confound the Difference of Good and Evil and who care not to approve themselves to God but do without difference or distinction These are Partakers of the Devilish Nature and are in the Hellish State There may be Weaknesses Failings Mistakes Misapprehensions some Errors in Judgment and Opinion there may be false Conceits in some things about Religion and all these within the STATE OF RELIGION where Men are substantially honest and mean GOD Goodness and Truth and live in all good Conscience towards God We read Genesis 20. how God did apologize for Abimelech tho' he was not altogether without fault for he ought to have taken more care But yet he was innocent as to the great Transgression and therefore God saith I know thou didst it in the Integrity of thy Heart So St. Paul doth alleviate his Persecution of the Saints Acts 26. 9. I thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus of Nazareth And 1 Tim. 1. 13. he saith he obtain'd Mercy because he did it ignorantly and in Unbelief Therefore we must conclude that none of those things that I have named come within the compass of wickedly departing from God But all those that are sincere in their Religion may yet say I have kept the ways of the Lord c. And thus it is reported of those good Men and Women that are upon Record in Holy Scripture Zechariah and Elizabeth are both said to walk in all the Statutes and Ordinances of the Lord blameless Neither is this particular to them but unto all good Men. This is the Testimony of all the Worthies in the Old Testament that they walked before the Lord in Integrity And this is RELIGION not in the Notion only and in Speculation but in POWER and in TRUTH Wherever it is less or otherwise it is with a double Heart not with a whole Heart as you read Psalm 12. 2. So in St. James we read of a double-minded Man Religion is not satisfied with a bare Profession and partial Reformation This may be for other Ends and Purposes and not out of Love to God and Righteousness But we must harmonize with the Nature Mind and Will of God and find a Displacency and Animosity in our Souls against Evil and this from the Love of Righteousness and Goodness And therefore to bring this home being a matter of the greatest consequence even that by which we must stand or fall I will tell you that this Text is not verified in any of these Cases First In the Case of Fundamental Ignorance Secondly In the Case of great Negligence and Carelesness Thirdly In the Case of voluntary Consent to known Iniquity First It cannot be verified in the Case of Fundamental Ignorance I call it Fundamental IGNORANCE in answer to Fundamental KNOWLEDGE For there is a Knowledge necessary to make a Man good I will not take upon me to determine the least that may be But this is certain there is some degree of Knowledge necessary to make a Man GOOD Therefore to instance in two things that are Fundamentally necessary to Religion and Conscience 1 st To know that there is a GOD and that we all ought to reverence adore and worship Him God hath made Men to know that He is and if they know that He is they must know that they ought to reverence adore and worship Him 2 dly They must have Knowledge of those great Crimes which are against God's Honour which are against the State of a Creature and unworthy in respect of God And this Knowledge I hold Fundamental and indispensable and must be where-ever there is a Capacity And from this I can excuse none but Infants and Idiots that are not come to the Use of Reason or are deprived of it All else may know that there is a God and * may know the great Instances of Evil such as Murder Adultery Blasphemy Perjury and the like I might add a third Instance which yet I do not mention with the like Evidence as the former to wit that there will be Rewards and Punishments in the next World That God will sooner or later judge the World and controul the Wickedness of it and reward eminent Vertue and Goodness Such a Belief as this tho' it be not equally knowable to the other two yet it is knowable and is necessary for the encouraging of Vertue and Discouragement of Vice and Wickedness This is the first thing Those that are ignorant of the things that are Fundamentally necessary to RELIGION cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from God For these have wickedly departed from Him altho' they have no more than Natural Knowledge and those Principles with which at first God created Man For these things are manifest to all Men And all Men are A LAW unto themselves in these Matters And therefore the Apostle saith that God is not far from every one of us And that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the Creation of the World and those things that he hath made So that they who deny his Eternal Power and Godhead are without excuse Secondly They who are greatly careless and neglective of God cannot say that they have kept the ways of the Lord c. For two things are absolutely necessary to the State of Religion and wherein we ought to take great care to wit Judgment of Right and Conscience to do accordingly The Judgment of what is Right and Wrong True and False Good and Evil do require great Care Diligence and Pains Nay let me ask you what there is in the whole Life of Man that is valuable or worthy but doth require Care Pains Industry and Diligence Go over the several Employments of the World The Husbandman plows and sows and doth every thing necessary to his Land before he expects a Crop Take the Merchant in