Direction to Vertue antecedent to all our Reasoning and Discourse Which Theages the Pythagorean stiles a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain natural Impetus or Enthusiasme by which without any previous Discourse or Deliberation we are forcibly carried on towards vertuous Actions For some Affections there are in our Nature which do in the general plainly signifie to us that there is such a thing as Moral Good and Evil in Humane Actions and others that do as plainly point out what those Actions are wherein this moral good and evil is subjected Of the first sort are the Affections of Love and Hatred Complacency and Horror Glory and Shame Repentance and Self-satisfaction which plainly declare that there are answerable Objects in the Nature of Things and Actions that there is a Good to be beloved and an Evil to be hated a Deformity to be abhorred and a Beauty to be delighted in an Excellency to be gloried in and a Filthiness to be ashamed of a Well-doing to be satisfied 〈…〉 an Ill doing to be repented of For 〈◊〉 theâ—e were no such real Distinctions in the Nature of Things and Actions all these Affections in us would be utterly vain and impertinent And as these Affections of our Nature do signifie in the general that there is a moral Good and Evil in our Actions so there are others which do particularly point out what Actions are morally Good and what Evil. Thus for Instance the Passions of Veneration and Disdain do plainly direct us to Honour God and our Superiors and to be constant in good Courses out of a generous Scorn of all Temptations to the contrary Thus Commiseration and Envy direct us to Charity and Justice to lament and assist those who are undeservedly unfortunate and to be displeased with the Advancement of base and undeserving People and consequently to be just and equal in our Distributions and to proportion them to mens Merit and Desert For by this Passion of Envy Nature teaches us that there is such a thing as just and unjust equal and unequal and that the former is to be embraced and the latter to be shunned And to name no more thus Sorrow and Joy doth by a silent Language disswade us from injuring and perswade us to benefit one another For so by the mournful Voice the dejected Eyes and Countenance the Sighs and Groans and Tears of the sorrowful and opprest all which are the powerful Rhetorick of Nature we are importuned not only to forbear heaping any further Injuries upon them but also to commiserate their Griefs and by our timely Aids to succour and relieve them As on the contrary the florid and chearful Looks the pleasant and grateful Air which we behold in those that rejoyce are so many Charms and Attractives by which Nature allures us to mutual Vrbanity and Sweetness of Behaviour and a continual Study to please and gratifie one another By these and many other Instances I might give it is evident that tho by our own ill Government we too often deprave our Affections and corrupt them into Vices yet their natural Drift and tendency lies towards Vertue Thus by their own natural Light which they carry before us they direct our steps to the Way we are to walk in and point out all those Tracts of eternal Goodness that lead to our Happiness For since these Affections are in us antecedently to all our Deliberations and Choices it is evident they were placed there by the Author of our Natures and therefore since 't is He who hath inclined them to all that they naturally incline to He doth in Effect direct and guide us by their Inclinations So that their natural Tendencies and Directions are the Voice of God in our Natures which murmurs and whispers to us that natural Law which our Reason indeed doth more plainly and articulately promulge And from this natural Tendency of our Affections to Good proceeds that pleasant and painful Sense of good and bad Actions which we experience in our selves before ever we can discourse For thus before we are capable of reasoning our selves into any Pleasure or Displeasure our Nature is rejoyced in a kind or just Action either in our selves or others and we are sensibly pleased when we have pleasured those that oblige us and as sensibly grieved when we are conscious of having grieved and offended them We love to see those fare well who we imagine have deserved well and when any unjust Violence is offered them our Nature shrinks at and abhors it We pity and compassionate the miserable when we know not why and are ready to offer at their Relief when we can give no Reason for it which shews that these things proceed not either from our Education or deliberate Choice but from the Nature of our Affections which have a Sympathy with Vertue and an Antipathy to Vice implanted in their very Constitution And hence it is that in the Beginnings of Sin our Nature is commonly so shy of an evil Action that it approaches it with such a modest Coyness and goes blushing to it like a bashful Virgin to an Adulterers Bed that it passes into it with such Regret and Reluctancy and looks back upon it with such Shame and Confusion which in our tender years when as yet we are not arrived to the Exercise of our Understandings cannot be supposed to proceed from Reason and Conscience and therefore must be from the natural Sense of our Affections which by these and such like Indications do signifie that they are violated and offended Now this natural Sense of Good and Evil which springs from the Frame and Nature of our Affections was doubtless intended by God to be the 〈◊〉 guide of Humane Nature that so when as yet 't is not capable of following Reason and Conscience it might be directed to what is Good and be preserved from wicked Habits and Prejudices by its own Sense and Feeling till such time as it 's capable of the Conduct of Reason that so when this leading Faculty undertakes the Charge of it it may find it 〈…〉 to its 〈◊〉 and be able to manage it with more Ease and Facility And thus by the natural Drift and Tendency of our Affections God hath plainly revealed to us what is good and what not IV. GOD hath also entailed upon our Actions natural Rewards and Punishments and thereby plainly declared which are good and which evil For it is easily demonstrable by an Induction of Particulars that every Vertue hath some natural Efficacy in it to advance both our publick Good and our private Interest That Temperance and Charity Righteousness and Fidelity Gratitude and Humility are not only convenient but absolutely necessary to our Joy and Comfort our Peace and Quietness our Safety and Contentment to the Health of our Body and the Satisfaction of our Mind and the Security and Happiness of our Society with one another Whereas on the contrary Vice naturally teems with mischievous Effects and is ever productive
Distinguish between Men and Men but by Rewarding and Punishing them because if he make any Distinction in his Affections between us we may be sure his Love will incline him to Reward and his Hatred to Punish us and since 't is as Easie to him to follow his Inclination as not since he can Reward where he Loves and Punish where he Hates without any Disturbance to his own Happiness what should hinder him from doing it supposing that he really loves or hates or makes any Distinction in his Affections between those that serve and those that neglect him So that unless he Reward the one and Punish the other he can make no Visible Distinction in his Affections between them If he be Contrarily affected to Good and Bad men his Affections will infallibly appear in his Actions but if he use them Alike it is plain they are Alike to him So that unless we believe that God distinguishes between Good and Bad men by Rewarding and Punishing them we must look upon Both as Indifferent to him and believe that he concerns himself neither with the one nor the other and if we think it is Indifferent to God whether we are Good or Bad to be sure it will not be Indifferent to us whose natures are so Biassed with Bad Inclinations which having neither Hope nor Fear to Restrain them will Run towards Bad Objects without Rub or Interruption And what likelihood is there that we who are so Prone and Inclinable to evil should concern our selves in the service of God whilst we look upon it as a thing Indifferent to him whether we serve him or no Wherefore to the subduing our minds to the Obligations of Religion it is necessary we should believe that God is so far a Rewarder of Good and Punisher of Bad Men as to make a sensible Distinction between them and demonstrate that he is differently affected towards them For to what end should we serve a God that takes no notice of us that regards not what we do but sits above in the Heavens as an unconcerned spectator of our Actions why should we cross our own inclinations and forsake our beloved lusts for his sake when it is altogether Indifferent to him what we do or whither we go or what becomes of us II. Considering how Promiscuously the Goods and Evils of this life are distributed among Good and Bad Men it is necessary that we should believe there is a Future state of Rewards and Punishments For though sometimes in this life God rewards Good men and punishes Bad with such signal and Remarkable Goods and Evils as are sufficient Indications of the vast Distinction he makes between them yet this is Extraordinary and besides the Constant and Regular Course of his Providence which for wise and excellent ends and purposes doth ordinarily scatter Good and Evil among men with an open and undistinguishing hand insomuch that as the Wise man observes Eccles. 9.1 2 3. No man knoweth either Love or Hatred by all that is before him all things come alike to all there is one event to the Righteous and to the Wicked and as is the Good so is the sinner and he that sweareth as he that feareth an Oath this is an evil among all things that are done under the Sun that there is one Event to all Since therefore Gods love of Good men and Hatred of Bad appears not by any thing before us we must either conclude that they are both Indifferent to him which would be to Rase the very Foundations of Religion or that there is a Future state of Rewards and Punishments wherein there will be no more such Promiscuous Distributions no more such Cross-coupling of Prosperity with Vice and Misery with Virtue but all things will be Adjusted sutably to mens Deserts and Qualifications and those that are Good Advanced to immortal Glory and Honour and those that are Bad Deprest into eternal Shame and Confusion For the Difference which God makes between them in the present course of his Providence is too small and indiscernable to induce us to believe that he makes any Difference between them in his Esteem and Affection and therefore either we must believe that there is another state wherein he makes a far wider difference between them or conclude that they are both Indifferent to him and that he hath no more Regard to the one than the other or that he hath no Regard at all to Either which as I shewed before utterly dissolves the Obligations of Religion III. IT is necessary we should believe those Future Rewards and Punishments to be such as do Infinitely Transcend any Good we can reap in our sinful neglect of God and any Evil we can incur by our submission to him 'T is true were our natures equally inclined to submit to or neglect him we should need no more Good and Evil to move us one way than t'other but the same Proportion of Goods and Evils which tempts us now to Forsake and Abandon him would equally tempt us to serve and obey him but alas this is far from our case for in submitting to God we move counter to our selves we cross the Grain of our Degenerate Nature and run away from our dearest Inclinations whereas in forsaking him we Row with the Tide and are driven on with an impetuous current of sinful Lusts and Affections and the case being thus the temptations on the one side must be incomparably greater if ever they prevail with us than they need be on the other For Men are easily tempted to act in compliance with their own Inclinations and the smallest Goods or Evils that can be proposed to 'em from without will readily induce 'em to do what they have a mind to but to prevail with a Man to do that which he is extreamly averse to to act against Nature and live in defiance with his own Inclinations requires a mighty force of outward temptation and it must be a very great Good that he will not lose a very formidable Evil that he will not incur rather than enter into any course of action that is irksom and ungrateful to his nature So that unless we believe the Goods and Evils of the other World to be incomparably greater than all the pleasures of Sin and all the sufferings of Piety and Virtue there will not be force enough in our Faith to persuade us because those future Goods and Evils move against Nature and persuade us to a course of life we are extreamly averse to whereas these present ones join hands with our Inclinations and find a ready concurrence in our wills and affections and a very small temptation will prevail against a great one when it hath Nature that Bosom Orator to solicite and plead for it Wherefore unless we believe the Rewards and Punishments of the future state to be such as infinitely outweigh those present Goods and Evils that tempt us to sin they will never be able to prevail against 'em
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
nothing in him but what his own Reason perfectly approves no Inclination in his Will or Nature but what is exactly agreeable to the fairest Ideas of his own Mind And since it is for his own Goodness-sake that he loves himself as he doth we may be sure that there is nothing without him can be so dear to him as that in us which is the Image of his Goodness Every like we say loves its like and the righteous Lord saith the Psalmist loveth Righteousness Psal. 11.7 i. e. being righteous himself he loves Righteousness in others by an invincible sympathy of Nature His greatest Heaven and Delight is in his own most righteous Nature and next to that in righteous Souls that imitate and resemble him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath not a more grateful Habitation upon Earth than in a pure and vertuous Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Apollo that Mimick of God by his Pythian Oracle i. e. I rejoyce as much in pious Souls as in my own Heaven Which is much what the same with that gracious Declaration that God himself makes by the Prophet Isaiah 57.15 thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Since therefore moral Duties are all but so many Copies and Exemplifications of Gods Nature this is a sufficient Reason why he should prefer them before all the Positives of Religion III. GOD principally requires moral Goodness because 't is by the Practice of this that we advance to our own natural Happiness For the natural Happiness of reasonable Creatures consists in being entirely governed by right Reason i. e. in having our Minds perfectly informed what it is that right Reason requires of us and our Wills and Affections reduced to an entire Conformity thereunto And this is the Perfection of moral Goodness which consists in behaving our selves towards God and our selves and all the World as right Reason advises or as it becomes rational Creatures placed in our Circumstances and Relations And when by practising all that true Piety and Vertue which moral Goodness implies we are perfectly accomplished in our Behaviour towards God our selves and all the World so as to render to each without any Reserve or Reluctancy what is fit and due in the Judgment of right Reason we are arrived to the most happy State that a reasonable Nature can aspire to 'T is true in this Life we cannot be perfectly happy and that not only because we live in wretched Bodies that are continually liable to Pain and Sickness but also because we are imperfect our selves and have none to converse with but imperfect Creatures But were we once stript of these natural and moral Imperfections wheresoever we lived we should necessarily be happy Were I to live all alone without this painful Body I should necessarily be in a great measure happy while I followed right Reason tho I lived in the darkest Nook of the Creation For there I should still contemplate God and while I did so my mind would be always ravish'd with his Beauty and Perfections there I should most ardently love him and while I did so I should sympathise and share with him in his Happiness there I should still adore and praise him and while I did so I should feel my self continually drawn up to him and wrapt into a real Injoyment of him there I should be imitating his Perfections and while I did so I should enjoy an unspeakable Self-satisfaction perceiving how every Moment I grew a more Divine and Godlike Creature there I should intirely resign up my self to his heavenly Will and Disposal and while I did so I should be perpetually exulting under a joyous Assurance of his Love and Favour in a word there I should firmly depend upon his Truth and Goodness and while I did so I should be always triumphing in a sure and certain Hope of a happy Being for ever Thus were I shut up all alone in an unbodied State and had none but God to converse with by behaving my self towards him as right Reason directs me I should always enjoy him and in that Injoyment should be always Happy And if while I thus behaved my self towards God I took care at the same time to demean my self towards my self with that exact Prudence and Temperance and Fortitude and Humility which right Reason requires I should hereby create another Heaven within me a Heaven of calm Thoughts quiet and uniform Desires serene and placid Affections which would be so many everflowing Springs of Pleasure Tranquillity and Contentment within me But if while I thus enjoyed God and my self by behaving my self as right Reason directs I might be admitted to live and converse among perfect Spirits and to demean my self towards them with that exact Charity and Justice and Peaceableness and Modesty which right Reason requires the Wit of man could not conceive a true Pleasure beyond what I should now enjoy For now I should be possest of every thing my utmost Wishes could propose of a good God a Godlike joyful and contented Soul a peaceable kind and righteous Neighbourhood and so all above within and without me would be a pure and perfect Heaven And indeed when I have thrown off this Body and am stript into a naked Ghost the only or at least the greatest goods my Nature will be capable of enjoying are God my self and blessed Spirits and these are no otherwise injoyable but only by Acts of Piety and Vertue without which there is no good thing beyond the Grave that a Soul can tast or relish So that if when I go to seek my Fortune in the World of Spirits God should thus bespeak me O man now thou art leaving all these Injoyments of Sence consult with thy self what will do thee good and thou shalt have whatsoever thou wilt ask to carry with thee into that spiritual State I am sure the utmost I should crave would be this Lord give me a heart inflamed with Love and winged with Duty to thee that thereby I may but enjoy thee give me a sober and a temperate mind that thereby I may but enjoy my self give me a kind a peaceable and a righteous Temper that thereby I may but enjoy the sweet Society of blessed Spirits O give me but these blessed things and thou hast crowned all my wishes and to Eternity I will never crave any other Favour for my self but only this that I may continue a pious and a vertuous Soul for ever for while I continue so I am sure I shall enjoy all spiritual Good and be as happy as Heaven can make me So that the main Happiness you see of Humane Nature consists in the Perfection of moral Goodness and it being so it is no wonder that the good God who above all things desires the
act freely wicked Parents will frequently spoil their Constitutions by the repeated Excesses of their Riot and Wantonness and while they do so their Diseases without a Miracle will descend upon their righteous as well as unrighteous Posterity and wicked Neighbours whilst it lies in their way or serves their Interest will wrong and oppress the just and unjust without any distinction But you will say why then doth not Providence interpose between second Causes and good Men and miraculously protect them from their mischievous Effects To which in short I answer that in some extraordinary cases God hath interposed of which there are innumerable Instances both in sacred and profane History but to expect that he should ordinarily and constantly do this is very unreasonable because it cannot be done without giving a perpetual Disturbance to the Course of Nature which being in the whole most orderly and regular full of admirable Beauty and Contrivance ought not to be disturbed and inverted upon ordinary Occasions For if the established Course of things be wise and regular in the whole why should we expect that God should be perpetually tampering with it and interrrupting and varying it by his immediate Interposals as if he were dissatisfied with his own Contrivance and upon every Revisal of this great Volume of the World did still discover new Errataes in it to be corrected and amended The Evils therefore which good Men suffer are not ordinarily so momentous as to oblige a wise and good God to interrupt the Couse of Nature to prevent them and it is much better that some violences should be offered to good Men than that a constant violence should be offered to the Nature of things and since God can carry on his good Designs to good Men in a still and silent Path and cause all their adverse Accidents to unwind of themselves and at last to clear up into a blessed Close is it not much better he should do it this way than by offering perpetual Violence and Disturbance to Nature II. THE happening of all things alike to all is no Argument against a Providence because the Goods and Evils of this World are so mean and inconsiderable that it would be beneath the Wisdom of Providence to be very exact and curious in the distribution of them It is no part of wisdom to be nice and curious about Trifles 'T was ridiculous enough in Caligula to imploy a mighty Army only to gather a great heap of Cockle shels but when he had gathered them it would have been much more ridiculous to have taken a great deal of care to divide them amongst his Soldiers in exact Proportions to each ones Merit and Desert Now though we look upon the Goods and Evils of this World as things of vast and mighty Moment yet God who sees them with far better Eyes than we knows very well that they are but Trifles in comparison with those endless Goods or Evils we must enjoy or suffer in another World and that it is a very inconsiderable thing whether we fare well or ill this moment who immediately after must fare well or ill for ever and therefore he looks on it as he justly may as a thing beneath his infinite Wisdom to be very exact and curious in dividing to us these momentary Trifles in just Proportions to our particular Deserts and did we not strangely magnifie them by looking on them through the false Opticks of our own fantastick Hopes and Fears we should be so far from objecting against Gods Providence these unequal Distributions of them that were they more exact and equal we should rather object against his Wisdom as thinking it a very mean Employment for a Deity to be very nice and curious in proportioning such momentary Enjoyments and Sufferings to the Merit or Demerit of immortal Creatures So that considering of what little moment the present Goods and Evils are which good Men suffer and bad Men enjoy they ought rather to be lookt on as an Argument of Gods Wisdom than as an Objection against his Providence for he understands the just value of things and knows that the best of these worldly Goods are bad enough to be thrown away upon the worst of Men and so expresses his just scorn of these admired Vanities by scattering them abroad with a careless Hand for why should he partake of the Errours of vulgar Opinion and express himself so very regardful of these Trifles as to put them in gold Scales and weigh them out to Mankind by Grains and Scruples III. THAT all things here do happen alike to all is no Argument against Providence because this Life is properly the state of our Trial and Probation and not of our Reward and Punishment The divine Providence hath placed us here as Candidates and Probationers for those everlasting Preferments it designs us hereafter that so by training and exercising us in all those excellent Virtues that are proper to our Natures it may improve us from one degree of Perfection to another 'till at last it hath accomplished us for the heavenly State in order to which Design it is necessary that there should be an unequal Distribution of things whereby good Men may sometimes suffer and bad Men prosper otherwise there would be no occasion for any of our passive Virtues nor any tryal of our active For Affliction is the Theatre of Patience and Fortitude and Resignation to God and without it there would be no room in the Lives of good Men for the Exercise of these virtues which for want of Objects to act on would rust and wax languid Again Difficulty is the Touchstone of our Love and Faith and Ingenuity but should Providence be always crowning the Righteous and dragging Offenders to Execution such a Procedure would determin our Liberty and leave us no room for the Exercise of our Faith and Ingenuity for then the Rewards and Punishments of Providence would be so sensibly and continually present with us and so urgently press upon our Hopes and Fears that it would be impossible for us not to believe in God and next to impossible not to obey him and being thus forced to believe and obey what Excellency would there be in our Piety and Virtue What Charity is it for a Miser to lend his Money upon Assurance of twenty per cent Or what Loyalty for a Traitor to discover his Conspirators within sight of a Wrack And just as little Virtue would there be in any of our good Works were there an exact Equality in the Distributions of Prodence For then we should never do a good Work but upon the certain Prospect of an immediate Reward nor repent of a bad one but upon the irresistible Dread of some immediate Punishment But in this inequality of things wherein the good often suffer and the wicked prosper we are left in a free and unconstrain'd Condition and whether we are virtuous or vitious devout or profane it is out of Choice and not of Necessity
ill as certainly pursue him with a dire Revenge This Belief carries with it such constraining Terrors and Allurements as cannot but affect all reasonable Minds and finally prevail with their Hopes and Fears against all contrary Temptations Wherefore if ever we would fix the Obligations of Religion upon our Minds it concerns us above all things to be throughly instructed in the Nature and confirmed in the Belief of the divine Providence CHAP. V. Of the necessity of believing divine Rewards and Punishments in order to our being truly Religious HUMANE Nature is framed to move upon the Hinges of Hope and Fear and to be elicited and drawn forth in Action either by the Proposal of some attainable Good or Prospect of some avoidable Evil the former of which begets Hope in us and that Pursuit the latter Fear and that Flight and Avoidance and accordingly we find all Laws address to the Hopes and Fears of Men with Proposals of Reward and Punishment as to the Master-Springs and Principles of their Action by which they are moved to do or forbear according as they are required and enjoyned And indeed to give Laws to Men without inforcing them with Rewards and Punishments would be to leave it indifferent whether they obeyed them or no which is inconsistent with the Nature of Laws for Laws necessarily imply an Obligation to Obedience but what Obligation could we have to obey them did they leave it indifferent as to any Good or Evil accrewing from it whether we obeyed them or no for if it will be as well for us one way as t'other what matter is it which way we determine our selves And this holds good in nothing more than in the Matter of our Obedience to the Laws of Religion to which our corrupt Nature is above all things backward and averse all that spiritual Exercise which those Laws require being quite against the Grain of our Earthy and sensual Inclinations so that were we not drawn to it by the Hope of Good and driven by the Fear of Evil to be sure our own bad natures would keep us at an eternal Distance from it but unless we believe God to be a Rewarder of those that obey and a Punisher of those that despise him we have no ground to hope for any Good or to dread any Evil at his hands For unless we believe that he will Crown those that serve him with some Mark of his Favour how can we think he is pleased with them there being no other way for him to express his being Pleased but by Crowning 'em with some signal Reward and if he be not Pleased with those that serve him to be sure he is not Displeased with those that Neglect him and if he be not Displeased with 'em what Reason have we to apprehend that he will Punish ' em Thus the unbelief of Gods being a Rewarder of those that obey him draws after it an unbelief of his being a Punisher of those that Despise him and so on the contrary For unless we believe him to be so much concerned for his Service as to punish those that neglect it we have no reason to think he is so much concerned for it as to reward those that embrace it So that the belief and unbelief of Gods being a Rewarder and a Punisher do by necessary consequence mutually imply each other and unless we believe Both there is no reason we should believe Either And when our nature is so averse as it is to his Service what should induce us to serve him when we expect no Good from him or hinder us from slighting him when we fear no Evil And what is there can bring us home to God when we are carried away from him with an impetuous Tide of corrupt Inclinations and have neither Hope nor Fear to Bound or Restrain it So that considering the Aversation of our Nature to Gods service it is morally impossible we should ever be heartily reconciled to it without being Drawn with the Hope of Reward and Driven with the Fear of Punishment In the Prosecution of this Argument I shall indeavour to shew First How far it 's necessary that our Belief of divine Rewards and Punishments should extend Secondly What Evidence there is to induce us to believe them Thirdly By what Means this is to be Begotten and Confirmed SECT I. How far it is necessary that our belief of divine Rewards and Punishments should extend FOR to induce us to submit to the Obligations of Religion it is by no means sufficient that we believe in the general that God will Reward us if we do well and Punish us if we do wickedly For this we may firmly believe and yet at the same time prefer the Pleasures of sin as much greater Goods than the Rewards of Vertue and Dread the Difficulties of Vertue as much greater Evils than the Punishments of sin wherefore to Render our Belief of divine Rewards and Punishments an Effectual Principle of Religion these four things are necessary First That we should believe that God is so far a Rewarder of those that serve him and so far a Punisher of those that neglect him as to make a Plain and sensible Distinction between them Secondly Considering how Promiscuously the Goods and Evils of this World are distributed among Good and Bad men it 's necessary we should believe That there is a Future state of Rewards and Punishments Thirdly It is necessary we should believe those Future Rewards and Punishments to be such as do Infinitely Transcend any Good we can Reap by our sins and any Evil we can Incur by doing our Duty Fourthly It is necessary we should believe that there is no other way for us to Avoid those Punishments but by forsaking our sins or to Acquire those Rewards but by submitting to our Duty I. IT is necessary we should believe that God is so far a Rewarder of those that serve and so far a Punisher of those that Neglect him as to make a plain and sensible distinction between them For unless we believe that God makes some Distinction between those serve and those that neglect him we shall Confound Good and Evil in our own Apprehensions and look upon all humane actions as Indifferent and thereby dissolve all the Ties and Obligations of Religion For things are in Themselves as they are in the Judgment and Esteem of God who cannot be mistaken in Estimating their Natures and therefore unless there be some Distinction between Men and Men and Actions and Actions in the Esteem of God rhey must be all Alike and Indifferent in their Own natures And if all Actions are Indifferent in themselves we are free from all the Ties and Obligations of Religion and 't is left Indifferent to us whether we will Worship God or Blaspheme him So that unless we believe that God makes some Distinction between the Good and bad Religion can have no force at all upon our minds But now there is no other way for God to