to our Enemy then consider he is a Man that is one who is liable to Error but yet capable of Information One who is subject to do Evil but yet often is changed and amends his Life One of God's Creatures and one of the most excellent of them and shall we destroy that which we could not make that which God himself made with so much Wisdom and such greatness of Power Can we have so little esteem of the Work of God Can we destroy what we do not understand Besides Man is God's Image and all the Lines can never be so much obliterated as that there should be no resemblance And if there remain any Lineaments of our Father's Face in a Picture we shall surely keep it as a sacred Relique Will not this move us Yet our own Likeness may Can we love our selves and not love our own Picture that is so very like us Or not love one that is Flesh of our Flesh and Bone of our Bone So every Man is to another Or lastly Have we any Love to our Saviour and shall not we love his Disciple Do we value our Religion and have no more regard to the Professors of it Did Christ die for him that he might live for ever and will not you suffer him to live here Briefly there is often a great deal of Good in him that is our Enemy and we must love that and him for the sake of that Good We do not well to cast away the Corn with the Chaff nor the Garment because of one Spot nor disfigure the Face because of a Mole nor pull out the other Eye because one is lost already And yet thus we do here when we hate the Man tho he be otherwise very good because he is our Enemy But 3. If there be very little that can be called good in him if he be an Infidel and foolish and evil if he not only be no Christian but hath also put off Humanity if worse than a Beast if almost as bad as we imagine the Devil is then the greater is his Misery and since he is capable of Recovery the more compassionable is his Case The Man is miserable and therefore to be pitied It is unnatural Cruelty it is monstrous Inhumanity to hate to prosecute one in Misery And this is the State of that Man whom I have here described nay it is in part true of every one that is my Enemy For every Man is so far from Happiness as he is from Love and Hatred is distant enough from that Besides He who continues in Spite and Malice against me is an Enemy to God and he that is so is in the unhappiest Condition imaginable Why should we add to his Misery which is already so great Thirdly Consider your selves they are your Enemies 1. It is no way proper for your selves to sentence and punish in the case because you are so apt to mistake every where and especially to be partial in your own cause We are neither wise nor just enough to be Judges in such a matter We may be so far deceived as to think them our Enemies who are not and we oftner mistake thus than we think we do In this case to hate is very evil in the opinion of all It is supposed in the Text that Men are our Enemies yet we must love them If they be not so we are worse than Heathens and if they be yet The Cause being our own we cannot be thought competent Judges for our selves against another Man We are so apt to over-value every petty Interest of our own as to think that all other Mens Concerns how great and valuable soever must give place to ours We generally only consider our own Affairs and are wholly regardless of other Mens This is one Reason why all Controversies betwixt Man and Man are referr'd in all Countries to a third Person who is more indifferent and impartial and so will probably be more wise and just than a Party would be Here also it cannot be proper for you because it belongs to God himself Vengeance is mine and I will repay it saith the Lord He only can understand the Crime so as to proportion a Punishment to it Considering how apt we are to be over-passionate in our own Concerns and to be too much exasperated where we are opposed in any little trifling Interest we should rather refer our selves to one that is perfectly wise and just than pass Sentence our selves against a Man as we do if we hate him It becomes the Modesty of one that knows himself apt to mistake to refer himself to the Judgment of another and if we will be decided by him who is most fit to determine that is by God himself then the Controversy is ended and we must not hate but love our Enemies 2. He is our Enemy but a Friend perhaps to many others as good and better than we and cannot we be satisfied with and love that which is prejudicial to our particular Interest if others receive Advantage by it If the Rain that overflows me make my Neighbour's Field fruitful I must not dislike it And if the Sun warms thousands by the Heat which scorches me or the Season by which I suffer favour many others I am not to be displeased And if he that is mine Enemy and opposes my Interest be a Friend to many I will love him in as much as I am taught to regard other Mens Interests and not only to mind mine own Things He that only considers himself and his own particular Advantage is his Center may hate every thing that opposes him in it but he that takes other Mens Concernments into his thoughts and desires their Welfare as his own as everyone doth that is true either to Christianity or Nature will not be so much disaffected to that which is against himself if it be for others but will love that which doth them good tho it prejudice himself 3dly Your Enemies Who have therefore known what it is to have Enemies and have felt the evil Effects of Hatred and Uncharitableness It is reasonable to expect that such should not do that which they know to be so great an Evil. If it be no Evil to have Enemies why do you complain And if it be why will you do thus You see the Evil of it in others why not in your selves Will you condemn that in them which you allow and practise Both Religion and Nature teach us to be affected towards other Men as we are to our selves to love our Neighbours as our selves and to do to them as we would have them do to us The Providence of God has given us such Natures and put us in such Circumstances in the World that we have the greatest Engagements laid upon us to mutual Kindness and Good-will He had made us all of one Stock we are also like one another we stand in need of each others Help and Service We make voluntary Agreements and enter into
Covenants and Contracts by the Institution of God as well as by the Constitutions and Appointments of Men to love and serve one another Love is the Heart of Civil Society And besides all this Provision which Divine Wisdom has made for our Exercise of Love he has by the Gospel taught it us and obliged us to it in a most extraordinary manner For Love your Enemies that is 4thly Yours who were loved when you were Enemies and had been miserable if you had not Rom. 5. 10. When we were yet Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son Here are three Particulars very considerable 1. What kind of Enemies we were 2. Who it was to whom we were Enemies and who loved us 3. With what kind of Love 1. We were the most causeless and unreasonable the most disingenuous and unworthy the most weak and inconsiderable Enemies that could be What Reason or shadow of Reason will any Man bring for his Hatred against God Why should Man be angry with God Or why should he hate him who is altogether Good and can do no Evil What could make him at odds with his Maker or engage him in a quarrel with his Preserver This is wholly unaccountable How base and ungrateful is Man to oppose the Interest of God who has done him so much Good Doth he thus requite his Love his great Kindness Lastly How little can he do against God He is not nor cannot be hurt by Mens Ingratitude and Rebellion No what we intended against Heaven falls upon our own Heads Such a kind of Enemies we were and yet 2. Our God and Saviour loved us God who is infinitely wise who depended not on us who is our Example and Patern and to be like him is our greatest Perfection And lest any should say Because he depended not on us and was so much above us therefore he loved us God in our Nature the Man Jesus Christ loved us he who was like as we are in all things except Sin He that was so injured as never Man was who received the greatest Indignities and Contunâ—elies and tasted the bitterest Fruits of Malice yet he loved and prayed for and did good to his worst and cruellest Enemies 3. God and Christ loved their Enemies with the greatest and reallest Love God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. And our Saviour laid down his Life and greater Love than this hath none Now then we who have seen such Examples of Love as are those of the ever-blessed God and our Saviour and who have received so much of Good by this Love to us when we were Enemies how can we not love our Enemies who are in no degree so unreasonable or disingenuous or inconsiderable as we were to God 5thly Tours who are Christians and therefore cannot be hurt by any Man so as to be made miserable All that any Man can do against a Disciple of Christ is but little so little that it is not worth his earnest Contention Our Saviour bids us not fear them that can kill the Body and after that have no more that they can do And our Imagination representing Evils much greater than we find them if there be no reason to fear our Enemies there can be none to hate them There is nothing more conducing nor indeed essential to our Happiness than Love And therefore the Religion of Christ which manifestly designs our greatest Happiness has by all means secured the Practice of Love it has removed all Obstacles out of the way and enlarged its Bounds discovering new Objects that were not before thought of extending it to Just and Unjust Strangers and Acquaintance Friends and Enemies 6thly This is the wisest Method we can take to be freed from the Evil we complain of We shall hereby most probably 1. Put an end to this Evil. 2. Prevent new ones to our selves and others And if this be true then there can be no Plea for Hatred This is the meaning of Hatred to deliver our selves from some Evil to destroy that Now let us compare and see whether Love be not a better and wiser Method to this than Hatred 1. It is more innocent doth less harm to the Party himself or others and destroys less Good 2. It doth more ordinarily prevail upon Men to lay aside all malicious thoughts And there are many Causes in Nature which make it necessary so to do 1. We are naturally prone to imitate and here is a contrary Example set before us a Patern of Love 2. There is no Reason for any to hate one that loves him because we only hate that which is evil to us but if any Person love us we cannot think he doth us evil for he designs and will do us good So that he who hates such an one hates his own Good 3. Ingenuity 3. Returning Love for Hatred quencheth the Violence of it The common opinion is let the Sun shine upon the Kitchin-Fire it will put it out Love takes away the Fuel from those consuming Fires it destroys both the Parents and the Nurse of Enmity which are Hatred and Evil These propagate and preserve but Love and Goodness destroy and extirpate it Overcome Evil with Good saith the Apostle that indeed is the likeliest way to overcome it Love by yielding overcome that which by resistance increases its strength as Wooll-packs damp the force of that Cannon-Bullet which will make Breaches upon a Stone-Wall Farther let us consider 1. Either we deserved to be opposed in this Interest or we did not If we did why do we complain If not our Reward will be greater Let us patiently bear Persecution and the Revilings of Men and great will be our Recompence that God will give us 2. Our Enemy either doth well or ill in being so if well love if ill pity him His Sin is worse to him than our Suffering can be to us If he do ill do not follow his Example if well do not hate him 3. This Practice will bring Religion into Repute we shall adorn our Profission and shew that Christianity can do something singular somewhat above other Religions that they who have the Light of the Gospel exceed Heathens and Infidels in their Lives 4. It is necessary to Salvation Our Sins will not be pardoned to us unless we pardon others If ye forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive yours Whatsoever ye would that others should do to you the same do ye to them 5. We condemn our selves if we do not Our Prayers and our Lives clash We daily pray for Forgiveness from God as we forgive others and yet we do it not 6. This is a firm Foundation of Peace If this Principle obtained there would be no Quarrels for these cannot arise except both Parties be agreed to be Enemies If all these Arguments be well considered it will appear how little reason the Enemies of our Religion have to take any Advantage from this
as they account unnatural Precept of our Saviour to disparage his whole Gospel I hope my Discourse has shewn both how reasonable and how natural it is and that it has taken away all the Pretences which weak and inconsiderate or ill-natured Men have for their neglect of it So that I have prevented my self of what I propounded to do next viz. III. To shew the Falseness of those Objections which are offered against it The most considerable I think are these Object 1. It is unnatural to love one that does and intends us Mischief Object 2. It is necessary to hate for our own Defence and Preservation Object 3. Example doth encline us to it Object 4. If we hate our Enemies they will expect and be afraid of this and so will be deterred from being our Enemies In Answer to the First Objection 1. I have shewn in my Explication that we are not required to love any thing that is in it self evil 2. I have in my following Discourse shown that this Evil may be a Cause of much Good unto us here but especially hereafter Or if of no Good to us yet there is so much Good to others as may make our Love prevail above Hatred For the 2d Objection I have made out that Hatred is not the likeliest Method to be rid of this Evil or to prevent it for the future For the 3d Objection I have shew'd that we must not follow Example to do Evil. It may become Apes and Children to be wholly determined by Example and to imitate every thing they see but it is very unworthy of them who have the use of their Reason As for the fourth Objection I answer 1. This is no Method to remove or lessen but to continue and encrease their Hatred It is commonly said Men hate what they fear These two differ very little We hate all Evil and fear that which is absent but Love on the other hand removes this Evil from the Mind and therefore 2. Tends to reform and mend the Offender himself It is a means to free him from his Malice which is not extinguished but rather inflamed by that which increaseth his Fear For notwithstanding that his Intention and Mind is as evil as before Fear not at all abating his desire of doing harm but only cutting short his Opportunity And therefore 3. It will if it increase his Hatred and lessen his Opportunity make him watch every little occasion of doing the Mischief he designs And it is hard for us to keep such a constant and strict Watch as to give no Advantage to one who seeks it If all these Reasons which I have proposed prevail not with us to put in practice this Precept of Loving our Enemies yet let the Authority of our Lord and Saviour persuade us I say unto you I who practised thus my self I whose you are who have Right to you and all Men I who know what is good for you better than you do your selves I say unto you Love your Enemies All the Inference I shall make is That then we must love those who are not our Enemies and still much more our Friends and those that love us If we must love those that intend and practise Evil against us much more those that desire and do us Good If he that loves not his Enemy be short of a Christian he who loves not his Friend is worse than an Infidel and if he be so then the Name of Christ will not save him He that is a Pagan tho he seem a Christian shall fall under the Condemnation of Unbelievers I conclude all with reminding you of my Intention in this Discourse which was to serve the Designs of Love by removing one of the greatest Obstacles of it out of the way Let us all therefore be persuaded to love universally to be pleased with Good where-ever we see it even in our Enemies to procure it where-ever it is wanting and there is any capacity of it Let us be so wise as to serve our selves and Religion of all the Conditions of Life which we are in by making them serviceable to Love and Good-will which assuredly is the best Life we can live that which will make us most acceptable to God most easy and delightful to our selves and most useful and pleasant to others it is the best that Earth or Heaven is capable of God of his infinite Mercy grant unto us the true Spirit of Christ that Spirit whose Fruits are Love and Joy and Peace Meekness Long-suffering Gentleness Patience Goodness Faith and Temperance that no Law may be against us that we may begin to live that Life here which we hope to live hereafter and which glorified Saints and Angels now live in the highest Heavens you the Life which God himself lives who is Love it self to whom he Honour and Glory and Praise for ever and ever Amen OF Calling no Man MASTER MATTH 23. 8 9 10. But be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and all ye are Brethren And call no Man your Father upon Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ IT appears from his Discourse in this Chapter that our Blessed Saviour had conceived a great and just Indignation against the Scribes and Pharisees It was surely a great Anger that moyed the meekest Man upon Earth so freely and sharply to rebuke them The Lamb of God here became a Lion and he who was ordinarily a Man of Consolations is now turned into a Son of Thunder denouncing Woes against them which we cannot construe as the Issue of a hot and hasty Temper for our Saviour's whole Carriage both to his own Disciples who were such as would have sufficiently exercised a great Patience as well as to his deadly Enemies argues his admirable Mildness and that he it was in whom that Prophecy was fulfilled that he should not cry nor lift up nor cause his Voice to be heard in the Streets A bruised Reed he should not break c. We may therefore conclude that there must be some just and reasonable and great Cause of this great Indignation and this we find was an Accumulation of great Wickedness in these Men which received Aggravations 1. From their Pretences to greater Sanctity than others 2. From their having greater Opportunities of being better than others 3. Because they being many of them in in publick place their Practice must have a bad Influence on their Followers For they who pretend Holiness and are wicked they who are wicked tho they have great helps to be good and by being wicked cause others to be so too their Sin is exceeding sinful The Particulars for which our Saviour taxes them were principally these 1. Their great Pride They loved the uppermost Rooms at Feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogues and Greetings in the Markets and to be called of Men Rabbi Rabbi c. And under that
Poverty as an armed Man 2. When a Man doth not give but throw away neither considers to whom nor why he gives nor what he hath He slatters away his Estate he spends meerly because he hath no power to keep To avoid the Extreme of parting with Nothing this lavishing Man parts with All. 3. Solomon and Experience say the same That he who loves Pleasure shall be a poor Man He who loves Wine and Oil shall not be rich The Sons of Appetite if they be not born to Estates never get them and seldom keep what they have got to their hands Certainly this is a great Waster By means of a Whorish Woman saith the Wise Man is a Man brought to a Piece of Bread Luxury and Incontinence Gluttonny and Drunkenness are very chargeable Sins How many Men have eat and drunk up great Estates And how many have sold their Lands to make their Mistresses fine 4. And who knows not how many have been undone by Gaming have ventured and lost great Estates by trusting to their own Skill and Fortune 5. And are there not many ruin'd by Law-Suits They either are contentious and sue others or unjust and provoke others that have no mind to it to sue them Now the beneficent good Man he is out of danger of losing his Estate in any of these Ways For 1. He cannot be idle and unactive He will be labouring for this Reason that he may have to give to him that wants He will overlook his Affairs and mind his Shop or his Field or where-ever his Employment is because this will enable him to do Good 2. Tho he be liberal and charitable yet not prodigal and profuse He will part with what he hath freely on a good account but not on none at all He is so bountiful as to lay out whensoever it becomes him and yet is so frugal also as to keep what he hath when it doth not misbecome him 3. He sees how unprofitable it is to himself to the World to waste away his Time and Substance in Eating and Drinking or any other Sensuality He finds these Courses are mischievous to him and render him useless to other Men. Because he is bent to do as much Good as he can he will not rise up early to drink strong-Drink nor continue at Night till Wine inflame him 4. He loves himself too well to lose and his Neighbour too well to win an Estate at Cards or Dice This good Man cannot be so foolish as to run such a Hazard as this to disable himself from doing that Good which he otherwise might nor can he take any pleasure to undo his Neighbour 5. This good Man will neither be so quarrelsom as to contend with others where he hath not Right nor yet so unjust as by detaining their Rights to engage others to sue him And when ever he is forced by the Injustice of others he doth it more to vindicate Justice and preserve those Rights which Custom and the Wisdom of their Forefathers have setled than upon any private particular Account 4thly The secret Blessing of God goes with the good Man Providence will and doth concern it self that such an one should not want the Power to do Good who hath such a mind to it It is by the secret Curse of God upon him that the Covetous Man puts his Money into Bags with Holes He puts it in but never takes it out never sees never enjoys it He gets and loses what he has got And it is the Blessing of God that makes the liberal Mans Bread which he casts upon the Waters where it seems quite lost after many days to return to him again He that takes care of others God will take care of him and if he lay aside his own private Concerns to serve other Men the Angels of God will minister to him Thus I have briefly yet so plainly evinced that to do Good is the way to be rich that I cannot but hope Covetonsness it self will be engaged to Beneficence I now proceed to shew how much an universal Beneficence conduces to private and particular Friendships and how much if it obtain'd in the World it would tend to Publick Peace 1. A Friend is certainly the greatest of all external good Things Nothing so profitable nothing so pleasant nothing so suitable to and becoming a Man as a Friend Nothing without him so much contributes to the attaining all his Ends. My Friend is my Riches and my Reputation my Life and Health my Pleasure and Delight my Understanding and Wisdom the Guide and Conductor of my Life the Governor of my Passions he that moderates my Desires and subdues mine Anger and doubles my Joys that excites all the good and useful that restrains and quells the evil and pernicious Motions of my Mind My Friend doth me Good when my self cannot for he rectifies my Mistakes and allays my Griefs and unburdens me of all the Loads which mine own Folly and Melancholy would bind fast on Thus he is better to me than my self he is more than all the World besides when I cannot help my self and when others will not he doth In sum my Friend is to me both my self and all the World nay my 〈◊〉 visible God I do with my Friend enjoy both Solitude and Company When I converse with him I have both the Secrecy of mine own Breast and the Ease and Freedom of Discourse I speak and yet have the Security of Silence When I am with him I am retir'd into mine own Thoughts and can contemplate without disturbance and yet I feel the highest Pleasure and most ravishing Delights that the whole Frame of Nature can yield The Glories of the Sun are not so pleasant to behold as the Face of my Friend and the most melodious Musick cannot be so grateful to my Ears as the Voice of the Person who loves me and whom I love He is the Epitome of the whole World and the liveliest Image of God himself He is God and Man in one Person if I may so say for he hath the Love and Goodness of God an infinite Good-will join'd with the Weakness and Impotency of Man I can scarce forbear to go on and set forth the Excellency and Usefulness of Friendship which of all the things in the World doth most conduce to both our spiritual and bodily Welfare our present and future greatest Happiness But I have said all this only that I may the more commend this universal Goodness which is the best if not only Means to great and good Friendships To do Good to him is the Sign and Effect of my Love to another and 't is the sure Cause of his Love to me and where there is a mutual Love it will not long be conceal'd and where it is discovered that is Friendship This therefore is the Way to make all Men my Friends to do Good to All they cannot possibly hate their Benefactor This is the way to extinguish all the Fires of Hatred
only be in danger to lose the Good-will of thy Equals thy Friends but of thy Superiours nay thy Governours will be ready to punish thee with Conâ—iscation of Goods Imprisonment perhaps Death it self Thy Name is cast out from amongst Men thou art reckon'd as an Evil-doer and art thought worthy to suffer all manner of Evils which Men can inflict on thee Let this be supposed to be our Case which was the Primitive Christians but God be praised it is not ours for we enjoy Peace and Liberty we may be as good as we will nay and have many great Advantages and Helps to be good yet since we have so very long neglected and misimproved and abused them we know not what calamitous Times the Divine Providence may bring us into Now that we may be better prepared for the making such Times serviceable to our good Purposes and making the best of all these Evils which may at any time befal us so as to lose no Opportunity of doing well which they may be conceived by any Care and Prudence of ours to afford us I will lay down some general Advices The Sum of which is that We must endeavour as much as is possible i. e. as much as is consistent with Religion and Vertue to conciliate the good will of all Men to bring them into a good opinion both of our Religion and of our selves To make not only our Inferiours and Equals the generality the multitude to think well of both but also to strive to approve our selves and to commend our Religion to the Rich and the Great to the Learned and Wise to Princes and Nobles to Men of all Employments and Ways in all Offices and Relations and Conditions And that will be by doing those things which all commend and esteem Good by abstaining from those which every one accounts Evil and blames by being of such a behaviour as all approve and like This I am sure was the Counsel which was given to the first Professors of our Religion to teach them how to carry themselves in those difficult Times in which they lived This is the Sense of my Text and that which St. Paul seems particularly to have intended when he bid them walk circumspectly redeeming the Time and that they should strive after an excellent knowledg of the Will of God All which seems to have particular reference to the Evil Days In a parallel place which we mentioned in the beginning the Apostle calls upon them to walk in Wisdom towards them that are without redeeming the Time which plainly imports that they should have such a Consideration of the Extranei the Infidels that by their Carriage towards them they might gain from them those Advantages and Seasons which were requisite for their doing the Good which their Religion enjoyned them This is the general Advice Strive to adorn your Profession to commend your selves by that which every Man approves Commend your Religion which you will do if you can but make it appear And therefore give a true clear representation of it in your Discourses and then it will carry its own defence with it every Man will be convinced of its Goodness But especially shew in your Conversation the excellency of this Wisdom Let it appear by the admirable Effects which it has on your Spirit and Behaviour that it is a most divine thing in that it keeps you from doing that which is Evil and engages you to do that which is Good and Honest in the sight of all Men But What is that honest Conversation which St. Peter exhorts the Christians to have among the Gentiles that whereas they spake against them as Evil-doers they might be ashamed who did falsly accuse the Christian Life 1 Pet. 3. 16. I answer Tho it may be some Men are so greatly corrupted and become so much either Brutes or Devils that there is very little of that which is truly Good that they will account so Yet I hope there are not many of these Monsters and that there will very few be found who do not entertain a good opinion of the Men 1. Who are Innocent Which therefore our Saviour thought fit particularly to recommend to his Disciples that were to be among Wolves Be harmless says he as Doves Innocence has a certain Charm in it which composes Rage and Fierceness and casts a Damp on the fury of a Persecutor Hurt no Body in Word or Deed This is the likeliest way to procure such safety to your selves that none will hurt you For who will be an Enemy to him that is an Enemy to no Man 2. If you would escape the ill-Thoughts and Oppositions of Men be humble and modest Do not aim at things too high for you Do not undertake what you are not fit for keep within your own Compass Do not ambitiously contend with more worthy Men those that are more fit for a place than your selves Do not grasp at every thing whilst you can do little or nothing for such a Carriage as this makes every one your Enemy Whereas if your Deportment be such that it shews you think of your self as you ought it will conciliate every ones Esteem 3. To be mild and patient is not only in the sight of God but of Men also very valuable Soft Words says Solomon will turn away Wrath. And common Observation assures us that nothing does so blunt the edg of a sharp Anger as a â—eek Behaviour If the Man of Fury will begin to afflict such a one yet he can hardly continue the edge will be soon taken off and his Malice grow weary when it is not animated and enraged by an angry Opposition The first Christians wearied the Rage of their Persecutors by their Patience 4. I advise to hearty and universal Good-Will He that would be hated by none must himself hate none And he that would be loved by all must love all Nor is good Wishes and a good Will and good Words all that I mean by Love But all such good Deeds as thou canst do Where thou art fit to give it and others capable to receive it counsel admonish reprove Where thou hast an Estate and seest thy Brother in want relieve him And by the way Is not this the likeliest course to secure thy Estate For when every one knows that thou usest it to the best Purposes that thou neither oppressest thy Neighbour nor yet hoardest up thy Treasure but puttest it to the best uses feedest the Hungry cloathest the Naked suppliest the nececessities of the Poor layest it out on some publick Works Who will go about to wrong thee of that Estate with which thou dost so much good Or if there be any such Monsters yet the Generality will be on thy side He must be a great and covetous Tyrant who will take away an Estate that does so much Good And what Man is he who will abridge those of their Liberty who make it appear that they do not use it as a Cloak of
in opposition to their Opinion of old must be understood in the same Sense they took them in and then the plain Sense of our Saviour is that we should design their Good and Welfare who desire and intend ill to us That we should repay Hatred with Love ill Offices with good ones and in sum do well to them that do evil to us not requiting Hatred with Hatred one ill turn with another 3. Let us consider the Words with Relation to other Precepts This is necessary to be considered for the understanding the Bounds and Limits of any Precept and consequently how far it is obligatory There are two Propositions which in general may serve for Rules in the Interpretation of any Command and they are not that I know denied by any First That no Action that is impossible is commanded and none that is necessary forbidden If any Laws be made that keep not within these Bounds it argues Folly and perhaps Cruelty in the Maker of them and he to whom they are made cannot be under any Obligation Secondly No Law that is particular and of less moment can null one that is greater and universally obliging Such are those Love and do Good Avoid Evil c. And where two good things are in Competition and one is apperently better chuse the best because that which is less good habet Rationem mali 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the untransgressible Law it is contrary to Nature to do otherwise this is perpetually obliging This is a Law which cannot be abrogated from which no other Law can derogate in the least So that no Precept whatsoever can oblige any Person not to do that which is better Of two good things the greater of two Evils the lesser is always to be chosen And indeed Men naturally do chuse that which they appreliend to be so These two Rules premised it is manifest that our Saviour in this Precept of loving our Enemies doth not command us 1. To love any thing that is in it self Evil nor to be pleased with our own Harm considered in it self This is impossible for Humane Nature to do He doth not by this intend to make us affected to Evil as we are to Good This we cannot be whilst we are Men our Nature must be first destroyed Every one naturally and necessarily intends his own Preservation and is averse from that which tends to his Ruine The desire of his own Preservation and Perfection is a Principle so deeply ingraven in Man's Nature that it cannot be obliterated Nor 2. Are we here commanded to do no Evil to those who are our Enemies Men who are competent Judges of Offences and who have Power and Right to punish Offenders are not hereby forbidden to inflict Penalties on them where other Methods will be probably ineffectual to remove or prevent some greater Evils This makes doing ill to any not only excusable but necessary where a greater Evil cannot be removed without it And 3. If we may do any Evil to another then we may also desire and will it It is unquestionable a Man may will to do what he may do And he may do Evil to another Man where 1. It is the likeliest means to procure the Offender some greater Good than by this he is depriv'd of Or 2. Where it is but consistent with his Happiness if it be in order to the greater Good and Advantage of others the Liberty and Security of other Men the Publick Peace This is the only Reason I can readily think of why the Life of a Robber should be taken away that People may be secure and quiet in their Possessions and encouraged to Labour and Industry to get by their being protected by the Laws in keeping what they have and also lest the Contagion should spread and the Malefactor himself proceed to more Offences and others receive the Infection from him All which is more valuable than such a Man's Life These are the Principles of Justice and our Saviour came not to overturn any of these Foundations This then seems to be the Sense of our Saviour in this Precept Not that we should love any thing that is Evil to us and tends to our Ruine as such Nor that we should not endeavour and take the best and likeliest ways to free our selves from a bad Estate Nor that we should not do and desire some Evil to Men who may be our Enemies provided that it be in order to a greater Good than it is a Deprivation of to themselves or others and never inconsistent with their Happiness But that we should desire and do as much as we can all that Good to them who design and do the worst Evils to us which can be consistent with our wisest Endeavours after their our own and others greatest Good This seems to be all that is meant by this Precept Only this Caution is necessary that Passion and Interest and Folly must not determine in the case but Wisdom and Righteousness must sit in Judgment and decide what is and what is not consistent with their or other Mens greater Good II. Now let us consider the Reasonableness of such a Practice considered in it self and the Arguments that are drawn from such a Consideration of it as well as the more external that perswade to it 1. Consider Love in it self It is the most pleasant as well as the most beneficial and perfective Operation of Man There is none but will confess himself beholden to this Passion for the greatest Delights he hath ever met with It is that which makes us receive any thing of Pleasure in our Enjoyments Without it the best Condition would afford us no Content and with it we shall have Satisfaction in the worst It is Love more than any other thing that differences Mens Delights Estates Enjoyments c. Our Delight consists not in having abundance of Riches nor in being honoured nor in knowing much but in our Love and value for these things He that hath much and loves not his Wealth hath no more of pleasure from his Riches than he who is poor Hence is it that the Necessitous hath more of Delight in his Condition than the Wealthy-Man in his because he more loves and values his few Necessaries than the other can his many Superfluiries But I need no further Evidence of the Pleasures of Love and Good-will than an Appeal to every Mans Sense and Observation of himself will give The more he has of this the better it is with him If therefore it be extended as far as there is any thing that may be an Object of Love how great must his Delight be The most that we know of Heaven which is a State of the greatest Pleasure and Delight that Humane Nature can have is that there is a constant and a great Love and Hell which is the greatest Torment is destitute of all Good-will Love and Kindness are banished hence and Spite and Hatred and Envy take the place How
beneficial this Temper is to Humane Nature is very apparent The Body it self shares in the Advantages that come by it In the Opinion of the French Philosopher as well as the Observation of many it is literally Health to the Navel and Marrow to all the Bones It gives Warmth and Motion to the Blood and new fresh Spirits to the whole Body and on this account he thinks it more adviseable to live in a mistaken Love than in Hatred that is true and hath a Foundation But if this admit of Dispute yet that is unquestionable that it is far better to love with Reason than to hate without it and that is all I plead for But these are the least of the Advantages we have by Love the greater are those which more immediately concern the Soul and they are summ'd up in this the knocking off the Shackles and Fetters which Hatred and Sorrow and Fear had bound up our Powers by Love that comes and mightily rescues us from that Bondage and Thraldom It sets us at liberty unties the Tongue of the Dumb and unlooses our Hands that were bound It brings us back from the Solitude whither Hatred or Fear had driven us to a Converse amongst Men and makes us active and disposes us to the Employment of all our Powers which is necessary to their Perfection and hath a great tendency to it That is the first from the consideration of Love in General Secondly Now consider it with its Object Enemies 1. They may do us much Good and we are often the better for them 1. That whereby they intend to ruin us is often our Advancement the Blow by which they would kill cures us so that the Sword becomes a Lancet and the Enemy who designs to make Wounds proves a Chirurgion and heals them Indeed this being besides their Intention we perhaps shall not think they merit our Love or Thanks the more but however they are Instruments of Good to us and we should love that which is any cause of Good to us Joseph on this account was not himself nor would have his Brethren angry with themselves because tho they intended him Evil yet God did him good by it and used them as Instruments thereof We love things that cannot intend us any Good if yet we receive any from them such are all without Reason Thus the Sword with which a Man hath defended himself is of great value with him and why should not we as well love them that do us Good against their Will as those that do it without any Will at all But 2. We owe much to their evil Designs and mischievous Devices against us This makes us cautious and circumspect and this Caution makes us wise He considered this rightly who when he would repay every one what he had received from them gave his Prudence to his Enemies This Apprehension makes us more exact in what we do than otherwise we should be We shall go upright if we know there be those that watch for our halting We shall be more accurat in our Actions where we are to receive our Doom from Enemies than where Friends are to judg us Friends are often so blinded with Passion that they can see nothing that is amiss and Enemies are so envious that they acknowledg nothing Good but what is eminently so This is therefore a Spur to make us do our best Many Men if they had had fewer Friends and more Enemies had been much better than now they are Therefore we must love them as we love Poisons that are mixt by the Physician so as they are made soveraign Medicines and cure our Disease This is the first 2. Tho our Enemies do Evil to us yet there is Good in them and for the sake of that we must love them Wilt thou destroy the Righteous with the Wicked said Abraham to God Far be it from thee It is the same Injustice for any to hate and destroy the Good which is in any Man with the Evil where a Separation can be made God sent his Angel to bring Lot out of Sodom and in the Deluge Noah was warned and saved in the Ark We should follow this Example prosecute and destroy the Wickedness the Evil of a Man hate that with a perfect Hatred but spare the Man be kind to our own Kindred have regard to God's Creature and Image lovâ— the Christian Physicians do never cut off any part of the Body which is not so corrupted that there is no hopes of a Cure and where the rest of the Body is not in danger by it and the Part it self not vital not necessary to Life And in the Body Politick the Relatives of an Offender are not involved in his Sufferings where the Offence is not very great nor there unless it can be supposed they were Partners with him or it be necessary for the publick and greater Good both to demonstrate a great Severity against such Crimes and thereby to terrify Men and also the more to engage all Relations to concern themselves in one anothers well-doing Somewhat like this should our Carriage be in the Case before us Is there any hopes that the Evil may be removed from the Life and Mind of the Man without his Ruine Try if it may And it is hard to say that a Man is or can be so much our Enemy that he will never be our Friend We cannot affirm that the Case is desperate that he is unreconcileable Surely no Man is so much a Devil as to be implacable this can never be Besides there may sometimes be a deal of Wisdom and Goodness which must be loved and the Man valued for it Lastly We are never to do any Evil which will make it impossible for our Enemies to be happy this would be to cut off a vital Part. Such was his hellish Malice who perswaded his Enemy to blaspheme in hopes of Life and then presently stabb'd him and then triumph'd in the greatness of the Mischief I never yet met with an Instance of one more a Devil This Man had perfectly cast off Humanity and he hath done so too in great measure who doth not so much desire every other Man's Happiness as that he can do nothing that is not in order to at least very consistent with it As to the other Comparison let us not do that which the Soveraign Lord of Heaven and Earth so much disowns punish the Fathers for the Transgression of the Children Let every one die for his own iniquity Find out the Criminal let him suffer Here 's a disorderly Passion founded on some easy and ordinary Mistakes remove these but let the Man live Let not him suffer unless this be the best Method for the removal of this and prevention of a worse Evil that may befal him What I have now said signifies that a special Care and due Regard should be had to all that is good and when our Anger and Displeasure would instigate us to devise and do Mischief
is the Rule our Saviour has given That we should make every Man's Case our own for naturally Man is not so apt to consider another as himself This will both excite us to Diligence and make us charitable But to conclude this Particular If any Man ask me What that is that every one can and must do for all and every Man in the World without exception I answer He may and must pray to God that they may be good Christians in this Life and blessed and happy in the future We must pray that which God hath declared to be his Will All Men may be saved and come to the knowledg of the Truth i. e. that they may be brought to believe and obey the Gospel and so may be made Partakers of everlasting Life and Glory Our Liturgy also teaches us to pray that God would have Mercy upon all Men. But I need not prove that this is our Duty surely there 's none that owns himself a Christian or but a Man that doubts of this I therefore take it for granted and will infer from this Concession 1. That every Man in the World ought to desire that every other Man may be good and vertuous on Earth and everlastingly happy in Heaven If he must pray for this that implies he must desire it and if he do pray to God for it if he be hearty and sincere he does desire it 2. That every Man ought also to do what he can to further every other Man 's present Goodness and thereby his future Happiness If he be a Man that can discourse rationally and movingly he should plainly describe their Duties to the Ignorant and passionately exhort the Lazy and Careless to the performance of them Or if he has a good Pen let him deliver these things to Posterity which are useful for them to know But that which the Unlearned may reach is to live a religious and an honest Life and by this commend the Practice of Holiness to others And who knows how far the Influence of one poor Man's Goodness may reach perhaps to both the Indies and the furthest parts of the World This is the second thing I infer our Endeavour From which follows by way of Corollary that we must take care never to do any thing that interferes with our Endeavour after every other Man's Happiness hereafter and his Goodness here We must never do any thing that 's inconsistent with Mens being good Men in this World and their Happiness in that to come But that 's not all that is implied in our Endeavour that we do nothing to oppose and hinder Men from being good and happy It implies also that we do that which is serviceable to the attaining these Ends and in all dealings with them in all we do to and about them that we help forward their Vertue and Happiness that either by more remote or nearer Methods either by our selves or others we contribute to their present Holiness and their Glory in the Life to come If we do not thus we are inconsistent with our selves and our Actions contradict each other we are acted by contrary Passions and the Principles of our Actions oppose and thwart each other For when we desire Men may be good and vertuous and everlastingly happy this proceeds from Love and Good-will but when we design to punish them in their Bodies or to diminish their Reputations or lessen their Estates unless this be in order to their great Happiness and unless we intend to further that in such ways we do not act from Charity but Hatred except such particular Evils be inâ—licted on them by us for their Amendment and with especial regard to their everlasting Salvation we are not charitable but malicious And if it be so we are at variance with our selves we desire Men may be miserable here and happy hereafter not that thereby they may be so I wish that which I have here said may not be a Sanctuary to Uncharitableness and that Men will say they intend to do Men some greater Good by the Evils they lay on them Landlords oppress their Tenants to make them more diligent Masters will be hard severe and high to their Servants to keep them in their due Observance Fathers austere to their Children to teach them Obedience One Man will eclipse another Man's Reputation that he may not have an opportunity to do so much Mischief as he might if he was unsuspected It 's well if these be not meer Excuses of Passion and ill Nature 't is well if they think as they say and if it be as they think that these be the best ways to secure Men from those Evils But I fear it 's too often Peevishness and a waspish angry Spirit that evaporates and is not employ'd by Religion and under the Conduct of Charity nor designs any Good or if Good be intended I doubt very often some wiser and better Method might be taken for the effecting it The Apostle tells us of overcoming Evil with Good I know the hypocritical proud Pharisees those false-hearted Pretenders were sharply rebuked by our Saviour and I doubt not but there are such in our Days Only let 's be cautious we do not over-hastily condemn Men nor inconsiderately resolve upon the Use of extreme Remedies till the Disease seem incurable by any other When in some of these Ways we do that which tends to bring Men nearer Perfection and Happiness we do them Good But I need not be very particular in this because every Man's Mind will faithfully suggest to him what 's good to and for other Men. No Man that is inclined to do Good to others can easily be ignorant or mistaken All the Danger is in these two Particulars 1. That he should only consider a part and not the whole or the present only without reference to what 's future and so many times may do them Hurt instead of Good I have endeavoured to prevent this Mistake in my Explication where I have determin'd those Actions to be good to others which conduce to the obtaining of their last End which tend to make them perfect and happy 2dly The other is That he only hath regard to one or a few and neglects others and more Now the Text directs us here also and teaches us to do Good to all Men which is a Principle of great Wisdom and Justice and that Man who observes it and hath attain'd to this Disposition to regard Universality to take unto his Thoughts the Concerns of all Men he will govern himself in his Carriage to them discreetly He will be just and impartial in his Dealing he will not out of a too particular respect neglect a more common publick Good will not to serve one or a few disserve and prejudice nay or be mindless of the Concerns of the Community of many He that lives by this Rule so to do Good to one Man as remembring he must do so to all he will neither be guilty of Littleness
Good to them that do most Good he will discharge his Office well his Laws will be no tyrannical arbitrary unaccountable Impositions but a gentle and easy Yoke his Sentence will be equitable and his Execution full of Mildness and Humanity And how little cause of Quarrels and Commotions there can be in a State whose Governors are thus qualified we all see Thus is it where the Magistrates are bent on doing Good to all especially to the Best and most Vertuous 2. This Publick-spiritedness is no less necessary for Ministers to engage them to that extraordinary Diligence they must use to carry them through all the Opposition and Difficulties they shall certainly meet with in their general Converse with all sorts with Men of the meanest Capacities of lowest Rank and greatest Vices and worst Natures Nothing but this Universal Benevolence can fit them for such Converse Only he that loves all will bear with such Conversation as a Minister meets with All the Care and Pains he is at first to find out good and wholesom and fit Truths and then to deliver them intelligibly and acceptably must have their Rise from his great Good-will to Men and therefore he doth thus because he is on a design of doing Good to them Where the Minister is destitute of this good Temper he is idle and careless and his Discourses useless and insignificant because he is without Charity he is a sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbal and his Carriage foolish and hurtful The great Work of Ministers is to teach Religion so as it may be both known and done to make it easy to be understood and easy to be practised c. Thus I have endeavoured to make plain that Universal Beneficence is both available and necessary to all the valuable Interests which Man can propose to himself whether he regard the present or the future State whether he consider himself and his own particular State or the Publick whether he be in a private or a publick Capacity he must strictly observe this Rule of doing Good to All. So that if we would be either good or happy in this World or he that to come if we would serve our selves or others if we would please and honour our God and Saviour adorn our Profession if we would have Pleasure in Life and Peace in and Glory after Death if we would do all we can to make others as good as we wish they were we must herein exercise our selves to do all the Good we can to all If any are idle and would be doing nothing I do assure them they shall have more pleasure in this active Life than in Sleep and Dulness If any love themselves only and do not regard how it goes with others I do assure them that this is the best and likeliest way to serve themselves As many as are of particular Affections confined to Kindred or a Party or so let them enlarge their Love to All and they will proportionably increase their Pleasure And if any are malicious and love to do Mischief I undertake to make it appear to them that the Pleasures of Love are far greater than those of Revenge And I entreat such to leave off to lead the Life of Devils and live that of Angels If Heaven be more desirable than Hell it 's better to love than to hate Consider what has been said and God grant that we may all in good earnest set upon the Practice of that most excellent Duty to which we are exhorted And let the good Spirit of God inspire the whole World with that Goodness and Love to one another and all Men that so we may both live well here and be happy for ever hereafter for the sake of Jesus Christ Now to this Blessed Saviour who hath loved us and washed us in his own Blood together with the Father and the Holy Spirit be eternally given all Honour Praise and Glory Amen FINIS †Dr. Henry Mâ—â—â— in his Enchirid. Ethic.
appears such to him Now this is a very good and necessary thing in general and it may be also fit for him to undertake in particular that is he is qualified to defend it for else he had much better let it alone But if he be not careful this his love of and Zeal for Truth may endanger his falling into abundance of miscarriages For whilst he is engaged in a zealous defence of one Truth he may heedlesly give up many others as important as that or he may suffer himself to be put out of temper and the good state or use of his Mind he may hereby render himself unfit for and in a manner uncapable of some other Works which are not less considerable than this He may by too great earnestness if dispose himself so as that he shall not be in 〈◊〉 fit to receive the Influences of 〈◊〉 nor to think of and go out after God He may be so far transported as to leap ouerall the Bounds not only of Charity 〈…〉 but of Truth and Justice 〈◊〉 And if so be he can hope this will be serviceable to the upholding that which he thinks Truth he will not stick to blacken and 〈◊〉 and uncharitably 〈◊〉 and falsly to calumniate his Adversary â—s he call him Thus a Man may be drawn into manifold mischief from so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as vindicating Truth is if he be not aware and careful to prevent and obviate the Evile to which this very good thing has some tendency Again What tendency is there and how easily do Man pass from true and real Religion the pure and spiritual Worship of God to formality and 〈◊〉 in Devotions to superstious Practices to Idolatry it self which move the baâ—e of all true Religion The same may be observed concerning the Tendencies of all the Natural and Innocent and of the very best and perfectest Actions we do which if we do not take good heed to our selves will lead us into foul Miscarriages and sinful Practices For they have some tendency to make us proud and think too well and highly of our selves A good performance makes other Men speak and us think well of our selves and if we at that time forgâ—t God and acknowledg not our dependance on him we take too much to our selves Or if we over-look our own many Defects and Shortnesses and are affected to our selves as if we had no fault then the good we have done has led us into a great mischief This then is another Reason why we should be thaâ— caucious and circumspect because of the evil Tendencies which the very best Actions and Things have 3. Unless we be very careful and exact we shall not be able to set the proper Limits to several vertuous and good Actions Without which we shall not in case of competition give a true preference to the â—â—ttâ—â— nor shall we allot to each its proper time And where we are defective in these we shall run into great Faults and grand Mischiefs I before said that there is great need of some exactnese to set and keep the bounds betwixt Vertue and Vice I now say there is need of great care to know and observe the difference betwixt one Virtue and another the want of which is of most pernicious Consequence in the Life of Man I make account the comparative knowledg of Good and Evil i. e. the understanding what 's better or worse than other is intrinfecal and essential to that Wisdom that guides our Practice And according as any Man has more or less of this Knowledg he is thus far more or less wise He is wise that does all his Actions it such subordination to each other that they are all subservient to the best and highest we can exert But this subordination can never be kept without great care and exactness The truth of this and the force of the Argument will be better discern'd by particular Instances Obedience to Governors is a great Duty but he that knows not in what order this stands to others may by this neglect and violate some greater He who thinks he is to be absolutely and universally determined in his practice by the decrees of his Superiors if they enact that which is imâ—â—â—â—bly and eternally evil into a Law will look on himself as obliged to obey And tho they forbid what God has expresly commanded or command what God has forbid he will think himself bound to an Universal Obedience to their Edicts If a Nebuchadnezzar should set up an Idol and require him to bow down to it this Man who has set no Limits to his Obedience to Governors will fall down and worship the Image that is he will obey his earthly Governors in such Instances as are expresly contrary to the immutable indispensible Laws of Heaven And on the other hand he that has not learn'd to make difference betwixt his Prince and his Father or Master or any other Secular Power and to pay a greater regard to him than to any other Superior will be apt to fall into Snares and Sin For as often as their Commands clash he will be in danger to disobey the Supream Again The Man that makes no discrimination betwixt the greater and the other Commands the more and less weighty Matters of the Law will be in danger to spend his Zeal and Time in tithing Mint and Aniss and Cummin whilst he neglects Truth and Justice and the Love of God He will not omit an hour by his own appointment set apart for private or publick Devotion to do the greatest act of Charity that can be done He will not prophane the Sabbath to save a Life c. This is sufficient to shew the necessity of limiting and distinguishing those which are confessedly our Duties that so we may do the greater and not culpably leave the lesser undone that they may not justle out each other And what critical exactness is necessary to the thus weighing and ballancing one good Action with another to the comparing them so together that we may see the order and relation they have to each other and to all the rest 4. He had need live very exactly who keeps himself in a disposition to know and chuse well and to do that which is good that is that he may be in the best capacity to understand to apprehend and judg what 's Good and Evil inclined and forward to will and chuse the one and to refuse the other and have all his executive Powers ready to obey his Will guided by Understanding How careful and exact must he be in his Actions who would keep himself in this fitness to do all the good that offers it self to him Especially if we consider these two things 1. That every false Reasoning disorderly Passion irregular Appetite ill Action indisposes unfits him and makes him averse to doing good For the truth of this I appeal to experience And 2. If he be unprepared indisposed for the present whatever Knowledg he may have acquired or
more brute Animals nor as unbodied Spirits that we should endeavour the Welfare both of the Mind and of the Animal together of neither abstractedly and singly 3. The Soul or Mind is confessed to be more excellent than the Body And every one who thinks a Man has Pre-eminence over a Beast will not deny but that it is and ought to be superiour For tho the Spirit uses the Ministrations of the Body yet in abundance of Instances it governs and disposes of it as it pleases And it is manifest that the Mind was not made to be subject to the Body but the Body to it the Soul of Man is supream There is none who observes Man's Frame but must conclude that it is the Will of his Creator that his Mind should rule and his Body be in Subjection 4. The Soul has a sense or understanding of Good and Evil and an Inclination or Love to all that appears good and an Aversion from all that to it seems evil And according as any thing is apprehended by the Mind to be good or evil so it determines it self and all within its Power to or from it for or against it This is the Cardo or Hinge on which all our Frame turns the first Spring of all our Motions the Primum Mobile in Man as all Men acknowledg by their Practice For when they would engage themselves or others to any Undertaking they shew its Goodness or when they would take them off from it they make it appear evil Which Practice plainly supposes that we all believe Man determines himself according as he apprehends a thing to be good or bad If this be true then we cannot but conclude that God intended when he made Man after such a manner that his Will should be conformable to and guided by his Understanding and in particular that he should will and do good that all he did should be good for else why should he frame him so as that he can will nothing but what appears to him under that colour and why did he so form the Human Understanding that some Things and Actions are by all thought Good and Evil But we shall be more fully assured of this that God who made us vvills that vve should love and do all Good and hate and shun all Evil if vve make a nearer Inspection into the Souls of Men for vve may observe not only an unalterable Inclination to do that vvhich vve think to be on one account or other Good But 5. Also a very earnest desire and care to knovv more perfectly vvhat is and all that is Good or Evil. No Man is vvilling to be ignorant or mistaken and he is no-vvhere more careful of true Understanding than in the matters of Good and Evil. That natural Desire of Perfection vvhich is common to all things does exert it self in the Mind of Man in this Particular And if this be the condition of Man that he does naturally and necessarily perceive some things that are Good and Evil and by an easy and natural Ratiocination will discover others And if he go on to Perfection which all desire and tend to he will attain to a clear and certain knowledge of all that is Good And if it be unnatural for him to will without or against all understanding Then we must conclude that his Wise Lord wills that he should do all that is Good 6. This will further appear if we consider the Account to which Men call themselves for their Actions wherein they approve and acquit themselves if they have done well but disallow and condemn all evil Actions Nay if they did ill tho they intended well they blame themselves for their Miscarriage which supposes that they think they might and should have prevented this by being better informed in the matter they undertook But if they know or thought it was Evil and yet chose to do it they then rebuke themselves sharply and their Consciences arraign them for a notorious Crime and they are without Excuse to themselves All this shews that he who made Man thus to review his Performances to excuse and approve the Good to censure and condemn the Evil will'd that all he does should be good Love of Good seems to be the supream of all our Passions that to which all the rest of our Affections lead and in which all our Faculties terminate from which all our other Passions issue and by which the Mind governs the Body and is governed it self And the greater and better the Good is the more naturally it is loved Therefore as we have shewed that according to natural Order this Good of the Mind ought to be preferr'd before the Good of the Body so that which is right and fit and becoming before any other Good of the Mind that is the Moral before the Natural for the one is in order to the other This Subordination and Subserviency which is so conspicuous among our several Faculties shews us that it is God's Will that we should thus reduce our selves out of that Ataxy and Conftssion into which Sin has brought us into that excellent Harmony and Serviceableness of one Faculty to another and of all to the supream that we should assert the Minds Superiority over the Body and as to what is principal in the Mind viz. the love of what is fit and becoming that all the rest should be brought under subjection to it I might now proceed to abundance of Particulars but that they would detain me too long on this Argument It may be sufficient to my purpose in general that whosoever considers the various Faculties of Man and the Order and Reference they have to each other the many Inclinations and Appetites and Capacities of our Natures and the Operations which do necessarily flow from them and will allow that the Exercise and Perfection of and keeping due order amongst these natural Faculties the following these Inclinations and the Gratification of these Appetites the filling up these Capacities the doing these Actions which necessarily follow Nature are the Will of our Creator as they must be unless he has made things in vain that is unless he knew not or car'd not what he did From thence he will most certainly collect abundance of the Divine Laws and attain to a most clear Knowledg of what God requires of him If we further consider the Reference Man has 1. To God 2. To other Men. 3. The Order and Rank and Relation he is in to Inferiour Animals and other Beings we should presently discover what kind of Behaviour becomes him on all these accounts i. e. what is best and therefore fittest for such a one in such Circumstances to do and consequently what is the Will of the wise and good Maker and Governour Thus we have discovered God's Will that we should do good not only from a Consideration of the Divine Nature to which Goodness is essential But likewise from a view of the Nature which he has given us which is
the Will or Desires of the Mind or Discourses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the former are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And were by nature the Children of Wrath even as others And were truly really as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used Gal. 4. 8. or fully and perfectly as the Syriack and St. Hierom or by Nature i. e. made by Custom such as deserv'd and became obnoxious to Punishment or by Birth born Idolaters And as if he had not fully enough described their Misery before they were converted to Christianity in the 11th Verse he calls on them to remember that they who were Gentiles in the Flesh were called the Vncircumcision that is were destitute of that Federal Rite whereby the Israelites entred into Covenant with God VVere at that time without Christ that is had not the Promises of Christ at least not so plainly as the Jews or knew not and so had no expectation of a Messiah Alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel Were not Members of that Commonwealth which was by God's own appointment and wherein he did preside in a special manner for he was their King and bestowed many special Favours on them that were his Subjects And Strangers from the Covenant of Promise that is those which were made with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses which had great and good Promises annexed to them Having no Hope that is no sure well-grounded Hope of Pardon and Resurrection and Eternal Life The Philosophers themselves were very uncertain and doubtful in these matters And without God in the VVorld i. e. without the true and certain Knowledg of and Love to God and Worship of him And also set at the greatest distance from the Influences of the Divine Goodness as all wicked Persons and those that are led Captives by the Devil at his will are A most dismal Condition to be without God in the World See a farther Description of this sad State Ephes 4. 17. As other Gentiles walk in the Vanity of their Minds which is exprest most signally in the worshipping of Idols as that Phrase is used in Rom. 1. They became vain in their Imaginations Having their Vnderstandings darkned their Minds being ignorant and mistaken their Discourses obscure and confused perplext and doubtful Being alienated from the Life of God Mere Strangers to that Divine Life which God lives and requires them to live Through the Ignorance that is in them because of the hardness of their Heart Here he assigns the Cause of all the other Mischiefs which are also a part of them that is Ignorance proceeding from ill Custom or that Vnwillingness which was the Effect of ill Custom for that is signified by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I need not give any further account from the Scriptures of the Condition of the Gentiles before Christianity The Sum of what we have found concerning it is that they by long ill use of themselves had as it were so seared their Hearts and made them so sensless that they were ignorant and vain in their Imaginations and obscure and uncertain and frequently mistaken in their Reasonings in general and more particularly they were without the Knowledg of the true God Worshippers of Idols and of vicious and wicked Practices to which they were engaged by the Examples of most Men. And that they were under the Power of the Devil and liable to that Punishment which the Divine Justice would inflict on them Very great was the Misery they lay order at present and they were still liable to and in danger of more and greater afterwards and very little were the Probabilities of escaping from them They were as miserable as Ignorance and Folly as Wickedness and Vice as Idolatry and Atheism as the Malice and the Power of the Devil could make them and then their Misery must be very great They were Men of vicious Lives and when this is said enough is said to shew their Misery for they that are without Vertue want the greatest Good of which Humane Nature is capable and they that are wicked are under the worst Evil that can befal a Man in this State and they are in great danger of all that Misery to which Man is liable they are obnoxious to these terrible Punishments which the Divine Vengeance will certainly inflict on all wicked Doers the very Apprehension of which tho uncertain did so astonish and amaze them that it was alone a great Punishment as the Poet excellently describes it Quos diri confcia facti Mens habet attonitos surdo verbere caedit Occultum quatiente Animo tortore flagellum Paena autem vehemens multo savior illis Quos 〈◊〉 aedituus c. Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore Testem If the Presensions of that Misery were so â—rmenting what will the Misery it self be For those are not the Effects of a deluded Imagination which many times make things greater than we find them but they are the very Results of our Natures the Discoveries which natural Sagacity makes and Nature doth not deceive us This was the Condition of the Heathen World and no Possibility of escaping but by living well which how hard was it for them to do who must struggle with so many Difficulties vanquish so mighty Oppositions before they could forsake their evil Ways and learn to do well It is true it was not impossible for God has implanted in Man a Power of Consideration which is inseparable from his Nature and to which he has ingaged and inclined him by a love of Truth and desire of Good which are also inseparable from the Nature of Man Now in whatsoever Condition any Man on Earth is if he come to consider impartially and universally he will through the Grace of God which is never wanting to him that diligently uses God's means in time be recovered out of the worst State But alas how hard is it for him to consider who has been long accustomed to Inconsideration How easily is he diverted from beginning this Work How frequently interrupted in it How apt is he to give it over Nay and tho Men did with some Diligence consider themselves and the World yet how easily might they slip into Error and mistake Good and Evil in divers Instances And so notwithstanding that it was not utterly impossible for them through God's Grace assisting to get out of that woful Condition in which the Gentiles were yet it was extreamly difficult and tho they might get out of Danger yet they could not be quite out of Fear for they had no Revelation that God would accept of their Repentance they had no assurance of a future Life and therefore they must through fear of Death be all their Life-time subject to Bondage So then we have no Reason to question that Account of their Condition which the Scripture hath given as that the whole World of Gentiles did lie in Wickedness 1 John 5. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lay prostrate before the wicked One or
of the whole Earth for in all places where there are Men of this Character and Quality Men of the truly Christian Temper and Spirit Men that obey the Law of Christ and live as he did there are the Members of Christ's Body For Christ is not a Name and a Word nor is Christianity a Profession and a Shew only nor is the Company of the Faithful Men of an external Denomination but Christ is a spiritual Head and Christianity is an inward Principle of Life and Power and Christians are not those who have a Form of Knowledg and Godliness but the Power They are Christians who are inwardly such who have not only wash'd their Flesh in the Sacred Font but who have purified their Hearts who have cleansed their Consciences from dead Works to serve the Living God And where-ever in the World such Men are in what places how remote soever they are of the same Body of which Christ is Head and in whatsoever distant times they lived they were of the same Society For there were alway two great Corporations or Bodies of Men in the World and never more one who obeyed the Laws of God of whom the only begotten of the Father the Eternal Word is the Head the other who cast the Laws of God behind them and follow their own Lusts of these the Devil the Prince of Apostate Angels is the Governour So that the Men of this Christian Temper and Life in whatever Ages or Places of the World they have lived or do or shall live they are of this Society or Church Nay it extends it self further to those in Heaven also the Spirits of just Men made perfect They are indeed the Church Triumphant but they are still of the Church so that of this there shall be no end When we shall put off these corruptible Bodies and leave this Earth and go to Heaven yet even then and there we shall continue in the same Society and be Members of the Body of Christ From this Consideration we may infer What a grand Privilege it is to be of this truly Catholick Church which hath been in all Ages of the World and which will continue for ever which is not only in all places of this Earth but in Heaven also For by our being of the same Body we are engaged and disposed to an universal Love to all holy and good Men as Men of the fame Country or Town are more inclined to love each other rather than Strangers And this is a great Advantage indeed to have our Love directed aright and increased But besides this we communicate with the Saints of all Times and Places and receive many Benefits upon the account of their Prayers and their Holiness How many times hath the infinitely good God transmitted down his Blessings to many Generations for the sakes of his Abrahams and his Davids and the whole World but especially Men of the same Society with them have fared the better because of them This also is considerable That we cannot be separated from this Body by any length of Time or distance of Place where-ever we live or where-ever we are if we be of the Christian Spirit and Temper and live the Life of Christ we are of the Christian Church Nay tho it should happen that we be deprived of the outward Ordinances provided this be not through our own â—ault our Neglect or Contempt of the Divine Institutions we are not in this Case deprived of the Inward and Spiritual Influences which we have by our Union with this Mystical Body For the Prayers of the Vniversal Church bring Blessings upon us and the Spirit of Christ which enlivens and animates all his Members quickens us excites and assists our Endeavours and that care which our great and good Lord hath of all his Disciples reacheth us and we partake of his Protection as well as others that are of his Kingdom Thirdly There is such an excellent Order established in this Christian Polity that there is no clashing nor interfering of opposite interests but on the contrary each part doth assist other and is assisted by it and they all most friendly conspire together in the best manner to promote the welfare of all and every one There are no Confusions and Disorders but every one hath his Work his Business allotted him and that is according to every Man's Gifts and Qualifications and every Man is required to attend and do that Work which he is sitted for Now because Order and consequently Peace cannot be preserv'd without Government Christ hath instituted an excellent Government in his Church a Government that is both gentle and yet sufficiently strict for the attaining its Ends which is the Common Good And herein our Saviour hath shewn that he hath a care of the Body and therefore hath appointed Officers Deacons to see to the necessities of the Saints Men whose Business it should be to receive the charitable Gifts of some and bestow them upon the Indigent But he hath taken especial care of the Soul and therefore hath appointed others Presbyters whose Work this is to teach and instruct to exhort and persuade Men to live well and to administer his Holy Sacraments And he hath set Bishops over them to see that they do their Office and these Superiors are to ingage Men by their own Examples as well as by their Authority There are several Abuses and things which are destructive of Government all which our wise and good Governor the Lord Jesus hath as much as can be by his Institution prevented They are such such as these 1. Vsurpation of Office This will quickly bring in the greatest Disorder imaginable into any state if any Man may thrust himself into what Office he pleaseth for mens Ambition will lead them to desire those things for which they are no way fitted and divers will be aiming at the same which would therefore bring in Everlasting Contentions To prevent this our Saviour hath shewn by his own Example that Men must not take the honour of such Offices to themselves and by his Apostles hath straitly charged that none run before they be sent And therefore they did in the first times of Christianity which hath been continued ever since solemnly Ordaiâ— and set apart Men by Fasting and Prayer and Imposition of Hands 2. But lest they should authorize Men that were not fit for that Employment we have in several places of the inspired Epistles the Qualifications and Characters of those Men who should be commissioned 1 Tim. 3. 2 3. 3. That they may not affect a boundless Absoluteness he hath declared to them and others that he is Supream that they are all subject to him and that therefore we are to call no Man Master on Earth That is own none here to be Absolute and Supream account none to have Dominion ever our Faith They are all under Christ tho they be above us and must be accountable to him Nay they must be owned and obeyed by us
supplied by Equity It is not so general that it does not descend to Particular Instances There is no Necessity of new Laws to be added or a Dispensation from those that are already As there is the great Justice so the greatest Equity in the Laws of Christ Besides this I also infer these two great Commendations of the Laws of Christ from what I have said 1. That care is taken by them to prevent the secret commission of those Faults whereby one might hurt another Tho humane Laws and Courts may never take cognizance of some Crimes and if they do may not condemn them yet the Christian Law obliges in such Cases to forbear those Practices whereby we might prejudice our Brethren We must not harm another tho no Man does see or can ever discover us And we are injoined to do those good Offices to others to which we are not tied by any humane Authority 2. The very Principles of all Good and Evil Practices to our Neighbours are the Matter of the Christian Law For those Affections nay the very first Motions and Thoughts that lead to do them Evil are restrain'd and as far as they can be supposed to fall under our Liberty forbid And therefore not only Murder but Hatred and Malice and Envy yea unjust Anger and even Uncharitableness are forbidden and whosoever allows himself in such evil Affections as these transgresses the Law of Christ All those immoderate and unreasonable Appetites and Desires of Honours and Riches and Pleasures which are the Springs of all Injustice and Injuries to our Brethren are prohibited and as much as may be suppressed and cut off by the Law Thus it is not in Humane Laws they cannot take such an effectual Course to prevent the secret Practices of Mischief and they do not so much as pretend to command or forbid Mens inward Thoughts and Affections 3. Let us consider the End at which the Christian Law aims That is in general ultimately the Perfection and Happiness of all Men but more especially and immediatly the Perfection of Vertue and Holiness in them who obey it Which will be easily understood by this That this Law directs and ingages to all vertuous and good Practices As many as are obedient to it have by doing well attained an excellent Temper and are from this New Nature disposed constantly and strongly inclin'd to do well So that now they act from an inward Principle from a Nature a Life and by this means they are fill'd with Satisfaction and Joy And being now in a disposition to use themselves and what they have to the best and the wisest Purposes that is for the Perfection of all God's Creatures and thereby for the Service and Pleasure and Honour of God himself they are in the likeliest way and have taken the best course to receive more outward Advantages and Accessions of Power from him who is alway designing and doing the greatest Good and whose usual Method is to give to them who improve what they have And so all other Perfections and what-ever else is requisite to compleat the greatest Happiness of which Humane Nature is capable may well be expected to follow Perfection of Holiness But then besides as to other Men see how their good State is also consequent on the Holiness of them who obey the Gospel For according as they attain to more Perfection they are by their very Natures inclined as well as ingaged by particular Precepts to communicate their good things to their Brethren and when themselves are become Vertuous to be diligent and restless in their Endeavours to make other Men so too and consequently to do them all the good Office in all kinds which are in their Power Thus I have briefly shewed That the End of the Commandment or Gospel-Declaration is the doing good to one another and to all Men by shewing how it effects this and brings it to pass And is not this an admirable Advantage to be of a Society 1. Where the Law does not as the Laws of too many Societies do intend the and Mischief if not to the most yet to very many Nor 2. where it does not only aim at some petty inconsiderable inferior Good which is only good in a Subordination and Subservienty to some higher which is the Case of the Laws of all Civil Corporations But 3. it aims at the greatest and highest and best Good and not only of the Generality but of all and every one that are Members of this Society nay and of every Man in the World Not only the present temporary but also and more especially the future and everlasting Happiness of them 4. Let us consider the Authority which is no less than that of the Soveraign Lord of Men and Angels It is no petty and controlable nor yet an unjust and usurped Power by which this Law is enacted It is not the decree of Impotence or Folly or Madness nor is it the Effect of the greatest wisest and justest earthly Powers but it is the Determination of Heaven the Counsel of the infinite Wisdom and Goodness and Power which made and now upholds the World All which manifestly appears from the Harmony of this Law with the Principles of our Nature and Creation and also from the direct tendency it hath to the Perfection and Happiness of Mankind For which Reasons we cannot but think it a Contrivance of the Maker and Preserver of Man the infinitely good God And besides this Law was so attested with mighty Wonders and Miracles such as by their Goodness and Greatness proclaimed their Author Now a Law enacted by such an Authority must necessarily come with a great Force upon the Minds of them that are subject For if the Command of a King come with Power How unresistible must we think the Commands of God himself How will it engage every one to Obedience And then how happy must they needs be who live in a Society where the Laws of God are so carefully observed There are few Societies in the World so ill bested with Laws but that if they be obey'd out of reverence to the Authority that made them the Members of it will be in a good State How much more must it be so here where the Laws have such an immediate and direct tendency to make those that observe them perfect and happy where they do so straitly injoin a mutual care of and love to one another 5. The Sanction on which our Christian Law is established is next to be considered By this I understand as all do those Rewards but especially Punishments which are promis'd and threatned whereby the Hopes and Fears of Men are excited and they by them engaged to Obedience and deterr'd from the Transgression of the Laws This seems to me as a Reserue which wise Law-givers have for foolish and inconsiderate and degenerate Man For whilst Men are Wise and Good they will discover the Good at which the Law aims and that will be sufficient to move them
Men and Angels and they continuing to do well shall be Partakers of everlasting Life and Happiness This is the Condition these are the Privileges of every true Christian of every Man who is not grossly wanting to himself and careless of his own manifestly greatest and best Interests The Inferences I would make are these two I. Let us then set an high value upon the Christian Religion in general and in particular on our being Members of that Body of which Christ is the Head Since so many and such inestimable Advantages accrue to us by being parts of this Society let us take the greatest care to preserve our selves in Union with it Let us not as too many in our Days are be indifferent whether we be of this Body or no Let us not needlesly separate our selves from it Do not make slight Account of those Censures which cut us off from the Church for if they be exercised non errante Clave that is upon good ground a just Cause and by a just Authority God confirms in Heaven what his Commissioners do upon Earth Whose Sins they remit or retain are remitted or retained by him also And if there be a Male Administration yet the excommunicated Person is deprived of some Benefits which otherwise he might have Have a great regard for that Body of which whosoever is a Member hath so great Privileges Be careful not to make any unnecessary and unnatural Divisions and Schisms in it or to do any thing that may tend to the dissolution of that most excellent Scociety II. Let us behave our selves as becomes the Members of this excellent Society and let our Lives and Tempers our Devotion towards God our Justice and Charity towards Men our good Government of our selves according to the Rules of Temperance and Moderation let these make it manifest what excellent Advantages we have by being Members of the Christian Church We have Advantages above others let us shew this by living better Lives than others If we be not much better than other Men we must needs be far worse Let us not be so foolish as to neglect the Advantages we have Forsake not the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is c. Neglect not the Sacraments as too too many do I conclude all by reminding you in short of the Advantages of which I have spoken And desire you 1. To consider Men singly And 2. In Societies And under the First That their Knowledg and Wisdom their Vertue and Goodness their Quiet and Peace their Joy and Pleasure their future and everlasting Happiness are further'd and secured by their being Members of this Society Under the second That this sacred Society is a great Security to and Establishment of that Order which is necessary to all Civil Societies and doth greatly conduce to that Peace and Prosperity i. e. Wealth and Credit which is their End This Society is so far from interfering with the Civil that it is very beneficial to them for it preserves and confirms them All this Good is procured by Mens being incorporated into the Body of Christ as appears First By the first Admission and Entrance into the Church which is done by a publick Profession of the Religion of Christ a being baptized into the Name of Father Son and Holy-Ghost All which must lay a great Engagement on us to live holy and excellent Lives that so we may live answerably to the Profession we have made and the Engagement we have taken upon us Secondly This will also appear hugely beneficial to that excellent Order and Government which is setled and is to be observed in the Church but especially those incomparably good Laws which are given to this Society those especially which are peculiar to it Those of Love and doing good to all in especial manner of Love to one another of forgiving even Enemies of Meekness c. And also that most humane and proper Discipline which is prescribed to be used toward Offenders For this is a Government whose design is the Increase of every Man's Vertue and Happiness And this Government is so excellently contrived that the particular and private Interests of any do never clash or interfere with the publick Interest of the Society in general And tho many Corruptions and Abuses have crept into the Government of the Christian Church yet even in a very Male-Administration of it there are still great Helps to Vertue And those very Formalities and Shadows and Names of some Offices and Things which remain may serve to put us in mind what ought to be and what we should take care to do or to avoid It is in this as in other Governments better to be under bad ones than none at all and more eligible to bear the Corruptions of Men who are at present in place of Power than to attempt a Change of the Constitution or to go about to alter the Government it self Thirdly The Archives and Records of this Society which are contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament which indeed it is possible a Man may have that is not of this Society but by his being of it he is entitled to this Privilege he now hath free access to them And how much these Divine Records tend to enlighten Mens Minds and to purify their Hearts only they know who have used them There we have upon Record the first Original of this excellent Society the gradual Dispensations of God to his Church of all Ages the Examples and Lives of many of the Members of it but especially the Holy Jesus the Acts of Government and Discipline which have been in the first Age after Christ Fourthly The Publick Assemblies for the Exercise of Religion to which they are admitted Where 1. They pray to God publickly for and with each other 2. The Scriptures are read 3. They receive the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper and Infants are baptized Fifthly The Conversation the Counsels and Exhortations and Reproofs and Examples of their Fellow-Members All these tend to make Men vertuous and that brings with it present Peace and future Happiness for God loves and will reward Vertue c. OF LOVING OUR ENEMIES MATTH 5. 44. But I say unto you Love your Enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you c. THese Words are enforced by a very great Authority and it was necessary in the Opinion of some that they should be born up by the Credit of the Law-giver that the repute of his Wisdom and Goodness might take off the Scandal of Folly and Evil in the Command For with many this Text and divers others are contradictory to Reason and opposite to the Nature of Man than which Opinion I know nothing more prejudicial to Christian Religion For if this be granted it is then confess'd that our Religion is false and evil that whosoever believes it believes in Opposition to his Mind and he that obeys
it doth it to his own Hurt that he ruines himself and depraves his Nature This Error tends to the utter Subversion of Christianity For it makes it impossible to be either believed or practis'd For no Man can give Credit to that which contradicts what he cannot doubt and no Man can do that which he is assured tends to his Destruction as all Actions do which are repugnant to his Nature No Man can believe what he cannot conceive nor can he conceive a Contradiction not apprehend what is impossible nor can he do that which he thinks so evil as that is which is intrinsecally repugnant to his Nature He that hath entertain'd this Conceit must also assert that he who will believe the Articles of our Faith must lay aside his Reason and he who will obey the Precepts of Christ must put off his Nature and cease to be a Man if he will be a Christian But how unworthily doth this reflect upon God by making him thus at odds with himself that what he made at first he after destroys that his Works of Creation and Redemption clash It argues him to have forgot the Capacities of his Creatures when he makes a Revelation of that which is unconceivable by them or hath required them to do what is not possible they should do and doth all this for their Advantage which will infallibly ruine them Besides What a disparagement is this to Religion How justly is that suspected for a Cheat where to the belief of its Articles and practice of its Duties Men must be Unreasonable and Unnatural And how doth this open a door to Error and evil Practice by deposing Reason and casting off Nature For he that doth this in any Case may for ought I know do it in every one and then he must believe all that is told and do all that is bid him and then he will believe Lies and practise Wickedness In short This Opinion takes away from Christians all means of distinguishing Truth from Falshood it subverts the Foundations of all Discourse it leaves no differences of Good and Evil. All this is most true if Man must believe what is contrary to the undoubted Principles and the truest Discourses of his Reason or do what is repugnant to his Nature He that is thus perswaded hath cast off his sure and faithful Guide and now must wander after Fancy and be at the Mercy of every one who will pretend Inspiration This evil and false Opinion 〈…〉 by some Mens Mistake of 〈◊〉 some few other Texts which yet to them that have well consider'd appear both consonant to Reason and agreeable to Nature The Design of this Discourse is to remove that Prejudice which many have entertained against this Precept of our Saviour and to shew that it is not unreasonable as many whose Mistake and Passion make them unwilling to practise it pretend it to be This will be very evident to them that consider I. The true Sense and Import of the Words II. The Reasonableness of that Practice which they direct to and the Arguments which perswade to it And III. The Falseness of those Objections that are against it I. The true meaning of the Words will be apparent if we consider 1. The common Acception of them 2. How they were understood of old for they are here brought in in opposition to what was then spoke and so the Words must have the same Sense they then had 3. The Relation and Order they have to other Precepts for without this Comparative Knowledg of the Law it cannot be understood 1. As to the common Acception of the Words there can be no Controversy because the Philosophers who have frequently taken to themselves a Liberty of imposing their Sense upon Words yet in this agree with the Vulgar both of them understanding these two things by Love 1. To wish and desire well to any 2. To do well to them 1. To think well of and towards another to wish and desire their Welfare that is the Soul to do them that Good which is wished them that is the Body of Love both are essential and necessary to the being of a real Love This Love will express it self variously according to the different Conditions of its Object and the divers Degrees of its own Power If the thing loved be very good then Love puts on the Garment of Gladness and is delighted in it If it be in very bad State and destitute of Good then Love turns into Pity and commiserates If it be unable to help it stays in Desires and good Wishes but if it have any Power it exerts it and goes forth into Action All agree that to love is according to St. James not only to speak good Words but to have good Thoughts and Desires not only to wish well but also to do well where we can To speak well is but the Picture of Love to think well is Love in the Womb but to do well also is Love brought forth and perfect now it is finished Our Enemies are those that hate us that is who both think and do us evil who both desire and do us Mischief Neither of these alone are sufficient to denominate Men our Enemies All grant our Friends may do us ill Offices and they that heartily wish us well may do that which they desire to do who intend to ruin us and yet we call them not Enemies Nor on the other part can we justly call any Man so who hath Power to hurt us and doth not for we have no other way to know his Thoughts but by his Works and if they do not yet come to these it is an Argument they are not the setled Judgment of a Man's Mind that they are not consented to and no Man is to be censur'd for that which is a matter of Practice and is not his practical Judgment No Man can be said to be or to do any thing that merits Praise or Blame where he hath not given his Consent and where the Action is within his Power and follows not there he doth not consent 2. These Words were so understood by them of old as they generally are This appears sufficiently by both the Doctrines and Practices of those Jews who were phariseiz'd and wholly adhered to the Traditions of the Elders and the Opinions of their Doctors and Rabbies Their Carriage was such as shewed they thought themselves not only permitted but commanded to desire and do Evil to their Enemies and all were such in their Esteem who were not Jews or Proselites And therefore they denied them common Offices of Civility would not Monstrare vias eadem nisi sacra colenti so much as direct a Stranger in his way if he were not of their Religion And besides call'd them by most uncivil Names as Dogs c. and would injure them by Fraud or Violence and did all that which I before said of Love to those of their own Nation So then the Words of the Text being spoken
Title affected a greater Authority then is competible to Men. 2. Their wretched Covetousness which shewed it self in the Instances of devouring Widows Houses of esteeming the Gifts and the Gold above the Altar and the Temple 3. Their abominable Hypocrisy which appeared in their teaching others to do what themselves would not do in serving a carnal Interest by a Religious Carriage making long Prayers in pretence and wearing broader Phylacteries that so under these Vizards they might pass more unsuspected and have a better Opportunity to seize on their prey This further appeared in their partial Obedience chusing to obey those Commands that were least considerable but yet make the greatest appearance of an extraordinary Holiness whilst they omitted the weightier and more necessary but which have less of Pomp and Ostentation They were much in external Washings and Purifications neglecting to wash their Hearts from Wickedness They 〈◊〉 Mint and Anise and Cummin in which they would seem to supererrogate their Goodness transcending the too narrow Bounds of the Law whilst they omitted Faith and Judgment and Meroy They would build the Sepulchres of the Prophets whom their Fathers had slain whilst themselves persecuted and at last murdered the greatest Prophet that ever the World had Who could have believed that they who pretended to such as honourable Esteem of the Dead should have so little Affection for the Living The fairest account of this Carriage is this Nos mericles ca qua per didimus bona magni facimus qua habimus nihili But perhaps the truest is mortui non â—â—rdent The Prophets that were dead could not be Witnesses of their Wickedness nor rebuke them otherwise than by their Writings which themselves having both the keeping and the interpreting of would be sure to make them speak nothing to their Disparagement But tho they could either conceal or put a false gloss on the Writings of dead Men yet they could not either silence our Saviour or by any Arts of interpreting clude the sense of his Words No he would speak and tell them their Faults truly and plainly These and such like were those great Crimes in these Enemies of our Religion which our Blessed Saviour so severely taxed and threatned Whereupon it might have been supposed that his Disciples had been out of danger of these Evils that they would not have come near the place where their Pilot had set a Sea-mark But not to go further back whose takes a view of the Christian Church at least a great part of it in these Western Parts as Erasmus hath represented it he 'll say that Pharisaism then lived and râ—â—gned as much as ever Our Saviour had not it 〈◊〉 by all those terrible Denunciations afrighted this unchristian Temper out of the World but it appeared rather to have gotten ground and to have prevailed against the true Christian Spirit Now as Erasmus complains the Disciples of Christ are more truly Pharisees than the Pharisees themselves and Christians are become more ceremonious than Jews How every where doth so far this in the Romish Church even in those that should have been Examples of good Works And what Reformation hath since been made let every Man judg who doth not only judg of Things by Names and of Men by Professions There hath indeed been a very great and good Change made for which thousands of Souls must bless God but that much of this Leaven of the Pharisees still remains is too notorious that this Proteus who can change himself into any Shape or Colour who is of all Sects and Professions who can be Pagan or Jew or Mahometan or Christian Papist or Protestant a Member of the Church of Rome or Geneva Scotland or England a Teacher or a Learner That he is under these several Forms that this Pharisee is to be found in the Christian Church as well as the Jewish Synagogues that he is both of 〈◊〉 and Bellarmine's Persuasion a Follower of Calvin and of Arminius In brief I know no Way no Sect but this Serpent insinuates it self amongst them That I be not mistaken I understand by all this what our Saviour plainly taxes viz. a Spirit of Pride that affects and arrogates undeserved Titles and a Power which no Man can reasonably challenge of Covetousness or an Humour of monopolizing all the World a neglect of the greatest Commands with endeavours to make amends by a Zeal in the lesser matters An exact Observance of Externals with a Supine Omission of the Intrinsicks and Essentials of Religion such are Truth and Justice Love to God and Men. This is what I understand by a Pharisee Whilst I am on this Argument I must insert this necessary Caution that all I aim at is to tax the Vices of some Men in our Church not to disparage all Let none therefore take occasion from what I say to wrest my Words and think me an Enemy to the Church who if I had been so I should then have been silent or flatter'd and said all is well Let none be so unreasonably suspicious of my honest Intentions as to think me to be undermining whilst I am really using the best Method I know to build and settle That I take to be a free and plain censuring a publick Notice-taking of those Sins that are done openly in the Face of the Sun such we are guilty of and these are the Disturbers of our Peace these shake our Foundations These are they that cause Earthquakes and raise those Tempests that threaten our Subversion Whilst we pretend to instruct others who are grosly ignorant our selves to exhort them to a diligent Observance of those Commands which we neglect and so pull down what we would seem to build Whilst we are frequently guilty of profane Swearing Intemperance and other Immoralities we open other Mens Mouths but stop our own for we cannot condemn that in them which we allow in our selves nor can they approve that in us which we have taught to condemn in them Whilst we live in the neglect of God are really without any Sense of or Love to him in our Minds have not Faith and Hope in him Whilst we are void of true Love to Men are so far from Charity from Bounty and Kindness that we are not Just Whilst we omit Judgment Mercy and Faith tho we be very punctual in all lesser Observances both of God's and the Churches Commands we are no better than they who tithed Mint and Anise and Cummin and made long Prayers And if we be such our Saviour threatens us and Men not only threaten us but our way too by such Practices a good way is evil spoken of Assuredly those are the things that have given Men that Advantage against us which else they could never have had for Who shall harm us if we do well No certainly if we lived in the Love of God and of all Men in Humility and meekness in Temperance in Justice and Truth in Mercy and Goodness tho our Church-Constitutions were
is the Way walk in it The Sum of these Arguments is That if we will not transgress the express Law of God if we think our selves bound to follow the Examples of good Men if we will obey God in an Instance where Obedience has procured most singular Blessing if either the Sense of what 's just and fit or the Desire of Benefit and Advantage will prevail with us if we either love God or our selves or our Children if we either follow the Inclinations of Nature or the Directions of Reason if we will be concluded either by the common Sense of Mankind or the Divine Oracles if we would secure our Souls from the Guilt of inhuman unnatural Cruelty and our Children from the greatest Misery We must take care to train them up betimes in the Way in which they should go OF HOSPITALITY Preach'd to the Company of Inn-holders ROM 13. 12. latter part Given to Hospitality THE Occasion of our present Assembly as I am informed is to fulfill the Will of Mrs. Anne Astel who having bequeath'd a yearly Revenue toward the Maintenance of a Lecturer in the Parish of St. Lawrence Jury out of good respect she had to the Worshipful Company of Inn. holders obliged that her Lecturer once a Year to preach a Sermon to them In which she shewed her self a prudently pious and charitable Person that when she had taken care for the good Instruction of her own Parish she would improve and extend her Charity to others and make it as diffusive as she could that others and particularly You to whom she seems to have had particular Good-will might partake of her Bounty That we might perform the Will of this religious and good Person we are here assembled and that you may receive that Benefit which she piously design'd I have chosen to discourse of a Text of Scripture the Consideration of which will set before you a great part of the particular Duty of Inn-holders whose Name this Company bears And that I look on as the main Business of Sermons and such Exercises as these to put Men in mind of and persuade them to the faithful discharge of their respective Duties which when in all our several Places Stations and Employments we shall faithfully do then and not till then shall we all be happy and Glory shall dwell in our Land To make way for what I intend The Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Translators here render Hospitality is compounded of two Words which signify Love of Strangers and in its common use it doth not much depart from this Signification that 's imported in the Original The more simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath the same Sense only leaves us to guess what Affection or Deportment we should have to Sttangers which is exprest in the Compound The other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we here translate given to more properly signifies and in other places is rendred following It denotes the study of and earnest pursuit after a thing So that the Sense of the Apostle's Exhortatio◠to the Romans and to us and all Men as well as to them is that they and we should diligently and studiously with Care and Pains Earnestness and Industry set our selves to exercise Hospitality Concerning which I shall endeavour to shew three things in general First What that is which is here signified to us by Hospitality Secondly How good and necessary it is From whence it will appear that there is an Obligation on all Christians nay on all Men to practise it And having done this I shall proceed to shew that you especially of all Men are most peculiarly and most strictly bound to be hospitable And here I shall discourse of the Benefits that will redound to those that carefully and conscionably practise this Duty likewise I will mention some of those Practices which are notorious Violations of the Laws of Hospitality And shall also offer some Directions which may help to the better Performance of it First In general To have such Affections such inward Dispositions toward Strangers as are fit for us to have is to be hospitable and to carry and demean our selves toward them in a becoming manner is to exercise Hospitality This is all that 's imported by the word Hospitality which is originally Latin or by the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which denotes that inward Affection or outward Deportment that should be towards Strangers And if the generality of Mankind were asked what that is they would answer that it is to be just and honest faithful and true in our Dealings with them 'T is to be civil courteous humane loving kind in our Disposition and Carriage 'T is to be inclin'd and ready to do all Good Offices for them that are in our Power which their Condition calls for and which they either do or if they understood would desire That is to inform them when they are ignorant to rectify their Mistake to assist them in the Government of their Passions about those matters with which they are unacquainted To withhold them what in us lies from doing any foolish evil Actions to which their Unexperience might betray them To supply them with those things of which by reason of their Absence from their Acquaintance they are destitute In short It is to bail and screen them from that Evil and those Mischiefs and Dangers to which by being Strangers they are exposed to secure them from all that Harm to which their Condition makes them liable and to do all that Good to and confer those Benefits on them which if they were where they are known they might expect and would have It is to be their Friends to do them any good Office that they want and we can do civilly to converse with them to advise and counsel to relieve with Money or any other way to entertain them at our Tables to lodg them and to do this with a willing Mind and a chearful Countenance which is more than a Circumstance in this matter for this hospitable Look if I may so call it is no small part of the Behavior that 's intended in Hospitality And tho in our modern use of it the Word imports no more than an entertaining a Person with whom I have no great Acquaintance at my Table and lodging him yet anciently it signified all sorts of Civility and Kindness which is shewn to Stangers So that this is the Sum of vvhat I mean by Hospitality to be kind and friendly to Strangers I proceed Secondly To make it appear that this is very good That is 1st It 's fit and becoming 2dly It 's profitable and advantageous 1st It 's a piece of that good Nature which so well becomes Man that it is called Humanity and therefore the Ancients call our Kindness to Strangers by this Name Humanity and the defect of this is ever censured by them with this Expression of Barbarous and Inhumane And we have further Reason to think this good
to your Guest Let your Servants also bo diligent and faithful in their Ministrie◠Let your Kindness also extend to the Servants of your Guests if they be attended Nay let it come out of the Chamber and visit the Stable that the poor weary Horse be not neglected And when you are to receive the Recompence which the Law allows for all this Care do not take the Advantage you have of hoisting up the Prices of things to the utmost but according to a moderate Estimate of matters deal with him and give him occasion to say that you have not only been just but fair that you have used him kindly as well as honestly that you have not been an Host but a Friend Use your Guest so that he may not miss his other Acquaintance and Friends nor have occasion to complain that he is from home If any one should demand of me for what reason he should do this I think I might give him full Satisfaction For 1. I would tell him that this will be the best and surest way to bring Guests to his House and thereby promote his Secular Interest Men will themselves go and invite their Friends to the House where they have been well used But this is a small matter For 2. This is a necessary Exercise of that universal Love and Benevolence which is found in every good Man Where-ever Love is it will be working as it has opportunity And I am sure those of your Prosession have great and frequent Opportunities of expressing their Humanity and Goodness This then is my Plea You have a fair Opportunity of doing much Good neglect it not Above all I beseech you take heed lest you turn that into an occasion of Evil and Mischief which was intended for Beneficence and good Offices 3. Your very Calling and the Nature of your Employment requires you to be good to Strangers so that if you be not kind you are not honest you are not what you profess to be 1. Out of an Inclination to this way of Life 't is to be supposed you have taken it up or at least you have been bred to it and profess it and will you not do what you seem and pretend and bear the World in hand you do this cannot confist with Justice 2. You are they who are trusted by the Government to entertain Strangers and how can you break this Trust This is a Trust publickly committed to you which therefore you must by no means break The Essenes as Josephus tells us who were so famous for Hospitality chose some excellent Persons to take care of Strangers You are those choice Persons upon whom by our Constitution this great Care is left You are by Publick Authority set in this Station see therefore that you maintain it that you discharge so publick a Trust 3. Strangers themselves put a Confidence in you they expect you should have a care of them they look for not only just but fair Dealing they hope to be treated friendly and civilly as well as honestly And if you do not thus you disappoint and deceive them and so cannot be honest 4. You are publickly allowed some Recompence for this And since the Law doth not forbid and your Guests are content to make fair Allowance for what you do in this kind it is great Injustice not to deserve it of them 4. Let me desire you to consider what place you fill up in the World Now I look on your Employment thus to have begun In the first Ages of the World when Men were fewer and better than now they are I suppose the best and richest to have entertained Strangers freely and that they received no Requital but only some Expressions of Gratitude Afterward when the World was more peopled as in the days of Abraham as I know not but this was become a Trade by that time so I am sure that those that were both good and rich would still continue the ancient free Hospitality they would not be deprived of the Pleasure and other Advantages they had by Converse with Strangers In these latter days when Men are more numerous and travel more frequently and do not carry their Houses with them as they did at first and when Money that common Measure of the worth of all things is so easily carried and for these and some such Reasons it is thought best by all there should be such Houses as yours of publick Reception So that now the Care of Strangers by the confent of Mankind is even wholly devolv'd upon you others in a manner discharging themselves of it tho' all ought not for some in these days are as Rich as they were in old times and if they were but as kind too they would entertain strangers still But however they all casting this on you this Consideration must carry great force in it to engage you to Hospitableness As the Hospitals are Places appointed for the Sick and the Lame and the Poor so your Houses are Hospitals for the Stranger the Traveller to come into yours are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as theirs are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You seem to be risen up in the Room and to fill the places of those antient Hosts Abraham and Lot and such other great and good Men whose Houses were open to all Strangers Be you therefore Imitators of them I do not mean that you should entertain all on free-cost as they did that your Conditions will not suffer nor would this according to the best estimate of things I can make be for the good of the World that is it would be no way to maintain that Equality by which Societies subsist But this is that I would perswade you to to be as kind to Strangers as they were to do them all the good and friendly Offices within your Power that any of them did Let your Hearts be as large tho' your hands cannot be so open and by this means you will be the Children of Abraham if you thus walk in the Steps of the Faith of Abraham Now that the Love more than the Wealth of Men is decreased and we are grown more selfish and contracted in our Spirits now that there 's less Generosity in the World than there was let me call upon you to emulate the Goodness of old Times and to retrieve that ancient Hospitality which is almost lost Be so kind and good to your Guests that they may have no occasion to complain of these Days that they are ill for Strangers nor wish they had lived in those former Times 5. And let me also speak to you as English-Men and desire you that you would use your Guests well and kindly for the honour of your Nation which by a French Libeller was censured for Incivility to Foreigners But I think his Animadverter observ'd that it was only a Remark upon Boys who being surpriz'd with some odd uncouth Garb or ridiculous Carriage might laugh at it Or else perhaps there was not so much Talk and
will be done with least pains and difficulty And 3dly with most certainty wen our Endeavours will be most effectual A Time when any Action is the best or as good as any that can be done is the season of that Action that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Opportunity simply so called And when that action is not only the best that can be done but can also be best done at that time this is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a good Opportunity The former we find Heb. 11. 15. the latter in St. Mat. 26. 16. All our Actions depend 1st on our own Power the inward Principle from whence they proceed 2dly on the Concurrence of Divers External Causes which make us act with more ease and in less time and more surely to effect what we endeavour According to this we may be said to have an Opportunity of doing good to Men whenever we can do it and when we have so much assistance from External Causes as that we can best i. e. with most ease and quickness and certainly do what we intend As i. e. When and whilst as soon and as oft as we have Opportunity Do not over-run do not stay behind but accompany the Season take the Tide set up your Sails when the Wind is with you lose no time slip no opportunity and whilst that lasts let us continue up and be doing with the first Light and hold on till the Night come when no Man can Work Let us do Let us not only think of doing good and talk but do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let it be our Work our Business our Trade that in which we employ our selves the word implies Care and Diligence and perhaps Pains in acting The thing to be done Good requires more Power to effect it than Evil does Very impotent things can do great Mischiefs but they must be Powerful that do any great Good Besides We had need thus to work in this Business of doing Good because we shall find Difficulty and meet with Opposition in it Our corrupted Natures are very backward to it it is contrary to the Practice of this degenerate World Let us use our Endeavour to do what we can And let none reflect on the Wisdom of that Divine Spirit by which St. Paul writ nor so deny their own Sense as to say they can do nothing this is but a Plea for Idleness and Unwillingness to do good by the same reason they may also say they cannot walk nor speak For all our Power both for the one and the other is from God originally But what is that which we are to do Let us do Good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that which is profitable behooveful beneficial and advantagious By this Word we are here and every where when it is used of Creatures to understand that which conduces to the Preservation and Perfection of their Beings and Powers When we call any thing good we refer it always to something or other Here it is applied to Men and we understand by it particularly Wisdom and Vertue inward Quiet and Pleasure Life and Health and all those Circumstances which contribute towards the getting and securing of these Perfections Briefly that which has a tendency to Man's attaining his End his Perfection and Happiness that we call Good To do Good to Men is to do those Actions which tend to make them as perfect as is possible for them and to bring them into the happiest Circumstances they can be in Vnto all Men i. e. not to our selves only but to them that partake of our Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Aâ—â— This doubtless means Men. But yet our Kindness to them is not exclusive of other inferior Animals The good Mom is merciful to his Beast And as the Ointment poured on Aaron ' s Head ran down to the lowest â—â—m of his Garinent so the Beneficence of a good Man is so diffusive that it reaches the lowest parts of the Creations of God of which according to Philo the High-Priest's Vestment was an Emblem Indeed our Goodness as the Psalmist speaks extends not unto God and very little to Angels farther than it excites and occasions their greater Joy But it may to the Saints that are on Earth and to all our Brethren the Sons of Adam and to the Croâ—tures of a lower kind which God has made to serve us But our Apostle here means Men all that have rational Souls and Bodies of the same Make with our selves and capable of as great Happiness or Misery He requires us to do Good to all these to exclude none whether they be Acquaintance or Strangers our Countrey-men or Foreigners Friends or Enemies all tho of contrary Persuasions or of bad Practices all and every one We are to aim at the Happiness of every Man to endeavour the Perfection and good State of All. An unlimited Love an unconsined Charity is here required and a selfish or a contracted Affection are here excluded where-ever Man is Love is to be But is there no difference to be made Yes in case of a Competition of opposite Interests some are to be preferred above and before others So the Apostle directs in the following Words Especially to them who are of the Houshold of Faith i. e. who are of the Houshold or Family of God by Faith as Grotius expounds it i. e. the Children and Servants of God which they are in an especial manner who believe and obey the Gospel the Disciples and Followers of Christ Jesus whose Life was in nothing more remarkable in nothing so imitable by us as in Benignity and Kindness and universal Charity They who by Faith obey him are of the Family of God God takes especial care and provides for them he takes them as it were under his Roof and Harbour They profess and practise the best Religion in the World And altho they may be ignorant of or mistaken in some Matters yet they believe and understand so much as makes them deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World to love other Men so as they do to them as themselves would be dont â—o by them and to love and trust in their God who made and redeem'd and sanctifies and will eternally save them Let them be of the Eastern or Western Church let them dwell in the North or South let their Differences be what they will if they be as I have described they are the chief Objects of our Care and Benevollence We are to do good to them chiefly tho not only Having thus briefly gloss'd on all the Words I shall treat chiefly of that Clause Let us do Good into All i. e. to the Community of Mankind and to all Particulars A Man may be deceived whilst he is contemplating Generals only unless he descend to Particulars An Idea of Human Nature is a lovely thing no Man thinks of it but is pleased with it
which Charity hath set that is to do nothing inconsistent with the Goodness of any Man at present nor consequently with his everlasting Happiness We must not punish Body and Soul too that belongs only to him that is the Judg of Souls We must not do any thing but what may be and what we intend to be serviceable to their Happiness And not to mention lower and lesser Penalties even the Punishment of Death it self has many times had this good Effect on them who have suffered it Many Criminals by being sentenc'd to Death have been brought to a true Remorse for their Sins who probably had they escaped the Condemnation of the Judg had fallen under the Condemnation of God So that this Doctrine only tends to moderate our Anger to direct and restrain our Hatred and to set Bounds to our worser Passions not to extirpate but to prune and rectify them to bring them under the Government of Charity Secondly The other Objection proceeds on a great Mistake that he that doth Good to All whose Temper and Principles engage him to such a large Beneficence will neglect himself Whereas 1. It no way interferes with that natural Principle but on the contrary strengthens it as will appear if we consider 1. That he that doth Good to all doth Good to himself for he is one of that Number and he has a greater Opportunity of doing Good to himself than any other because he is alway with himself so that a Man's self is not excluded from his Care If it be objected That himself is not the only Object of his Care and Kindness I answer Nor is this either fit or just or reasonable or natural No Man can be the sole and adequate Object of his own Love he cannot circle in himself be his own both Center and Circumference If he should force himself to such an unnatural use of himself he would be very unhappy if he take himself off from his Relations to others he must be miserable 2. Every Man must be first good to himself that he may be more good to others He that would be a Benefactor to other Men must first be kind to himself 3. He that is good to others is best to himself For First He engages them to make him Returns of Kindness and these Vicissitudes of Benefits preserve the Societies of Men as the natural Life of Man is preserved by the Circulation of the Blood to and from the Heart And 2dly If they fail to recompence yet the great God will not but whatsoever Good any Man doth he shall receive of the Lord his Prayers and all his Labour of Love shall return into his own Bosom And besides all this 3dly The very doing Good it self is a Work that is an abundant Recompence to it self To do Good is certainly the highest Pleasure of which the Soul of Man is capable as will appear further when I shew the Advantages which will accrue to us by such an universal Goodness So then notwithstanding this Exception from self-Self-love we may love universally and do Good to all for these are two natural Principles that agree well together which seems to be well represented in the natural World For as the Astronomers tell us the Earth at the same time moves round its own Axis and yet makes a Progression in the Ecliptick Circle in which it always keeps the same steady Position in reference to all the circumambient Bodies This doth represent the Man of a regular Self-love and an universal Charity He moves about his own Center but yet retains his Relation to the rest of Mankind and keeps his Parallelism to the Axe of the Universe as I may say Or to use a more familiar instance The Systole and Diastole of the Heart are very fit resemblances of a Man's doing good to himself and to others The Blood 's coming into the Heart is the motion of self-Self-love the flowing of it out from thence into all the extream parts of the Body is his Love and Beneficence to others to all Men. This is the motion that keeps Life in the Body and the doing Good to a Man's self and to the rest of the World preserves Society and tends to the Perfection of the Souls of Men. I have said enough to clear this difficulty and shewn that to do good to all is no prejudice to any Man 's particular Interests To sum up then what has been said by way of Explication Because of the great advantages that will certainly accrue to us by such a practice let us lay out our selves to procure the greatest good and happiness of every Man in the World Not of our selves only or our Kindred our particular Acquaintance and Friends or of good Men but of all and every one of those that are and those that are not of our Blood of Country-men and Foreigners of such as think as we do and of those that differ from us of Friends and Enemies of good Men and bad I intend the Perfection and Happiness and in order to that the Vertue and Goodness of all Men Do this absolutely this is to be universally indispensibly observed and do them all other Good with reference and in order to this Inform Advise Exhort Rebuke Comfort Please them in your Discourses where it will be for their advantage or where it will not hinder or obstruct it Thus do to all in general and to every one in particular And as in case of Competition ever the greatest Good is to be preferr'd so if a Competition of Persons be we are caeteris paribus to prefer the most or if you say the best that is true but that is also because the most are concern'd in them For a good and a wise Man is a publick Benefit and of more value than numbers of others that are not so Doing Good to the most is also the greatest Good Lastly In all the ways of imparting our Aid towards this let us ever observe the Seasons when any Actions will probably contribute most to this Effect and when they can best be done by us This I would have especially observ'd because Actions that are materially good and where we mean well are often spoil'd by being mis-timed As when Men are discoursing of their lawful secular Occasions or entertaining each other with pleasant Diversions then for any to make mention of things most Sacred and Venerable this is importune and impertitent and here is a good meaning lost by an in observance of Opportunity IV. I now proceed to the Arguments which perswade us thus as we have opportunity to do good unto all Men. First To do thus is very agreeable to Nature I am of their mind who think Nature a trusty Guide and make this the first and Sum of all their Precepts and Advices to follow Nature I do believe there is not one Command in the Gospel which is not a Branch from this Root a Particular under this General I need not say that we are not
Plants tho' they move not from yet in their place they do as we understand by their growth Animals their very Life and Sense is Motion their very make and nature inclines them to Action Particularly Man is endued with so many instruments of Action and such a Power and Principle of Motion that it is very much against his natural Propension if he be not in Action We neither should nor can be idle and unactive Whosoever considers the many active Powers in Man will be of this Opinion It 's also agreeable to Reason that we should use Diligence take pains have a business because no great thing can be done without difficulty without diligence nothing considerable is ever done and every thing is done with it Besides We cannot expect to do well without Pains and Care For tho' Evil may come through an Omission and Negligence yet an Intension of all our Powers a vigilance and industry is necessary to our doing Good Our observation of our selves will assure us of this because all Beginnings are difficult and the greater any Actions are the more attention and diligence they require 2. It 's no less natural for a Man to do Good for he can do nothing but that which he thinks so If it be objected that it 's also natural to do Evil. I would answer that we do not terminate there it 's only in order to do some Good and then that Evil is truly good doth induere rationem boni Indeed if Man should do Evil universally he must destroy himself but that 's unnatural 3. But is it natural also to do Good to others to Men I answer If it be natural to do Good to our selves it is natural also to do so to others because we depend on them We stand in need of others to do us Good and cannot live without them We also wish that all other Men would do us Good and must imagine that every other Man desires the same Besides we know Men best and can therefore do them most Good They also are of our kind and are most like to us of all other Animals and therefore if we love our selves we must love them Add to all this that all other Beings within our Compass they are capable of greatest Happiness and Misery and therefore it s very reasonable we should do Good to them since they may be exalted so high or depressed so low be in so very good or so very ill a Condition Inferiour Beings deserve not our Pains to do them Good since they can neither be happy or unhappy as Man can be 4. And on the same account we must do Good to all Men without Exception For 1. Some of the Reasons mention'd hold for all as well as for any 2. We may do some Good in some kind to all tho it be only in hearty Wishes and Desires and we should do all the Good we can And 3. All the Exceptions that can be made against this are Arguments for it the most material are that many Men are useless or evil or Enemies to us and this gives us a further Reason to do Good because there is greater want of it 5. To Christians It 's natural to love those best that are best and such are Professors and Practicers of the best Religion in the World Now that this is natural and reasonable appears 1. Because they are publick Goods The World is the better for every honest Man his Prayer his Example his Counsel are full of Advantages They therefore being better than others ought principally to be regarded To do Good to one Good Man is a compendious way to do Good to many 2. They will not fail to make Retribution The Law of Gratitude is deeply engraven in the Heart of every honest Man What we do to them therefore will return into our own Bosom we shall be the better for the Good we do to them 3. They have many Enemies Thus it was when this Epistle was writ and thus it is to this day The World hates you saith our Saviour The Reason is clear If honest Men have many Enemies that they should be Friends to one another 4. We have better Opportunities of doing Good to them than to others They are more capable of Counsel and Advice more likely to be inclined and perswaded to Vertue more to be influenced by good Example so our Endeavours are likely to be more effectual with them therefore especially we are to do Good to them But 6. Why as we have Opportunity 1. We are weak and insufficient of our selves and have need of Assistance from abroad we shall do well to take in all Aids to observe the fittest Season that what we do may be to purpose For as I have said we shall do more and with less Trouble and surer Success when we strike in with Opportunity 2. Opportunity is both short and uncertain therefore by no means neglect it Our Time is very short but the time of doing Good is much shorter Thus I have summarily represented the Reasonableness and Naturalness of our doing Good c. I shall also shew that Secondly This is very ageeable to all true Religion that ever has been and is manifestly the great Design of the Christian in particular As for Religion in general It is not as too many mistake it merely a System of Opinions or a Company of Articles which stay us in Theory and Contemplation nor is it a Ritual of Formalities and Ceremonies It 's no empty Name nor useless thing but that which is really Good and makes us so it makes every one better that has it better in and to himself and to his Relations better Governours and better Subjects better Fathers and better Children better Masters and better Servants It makes every one better both to himself and to the World The Religion of the Jews however mistaken by themselves yet made good Provision for an universal Love when it so often and expresly required a great Kindness to Strangers and puts them in mind of their own Condition in Egypt and the hard Usage they met with there Exod. 22. 21. The very Sabbath which was for a Sign and a Distinction between the Jews and other Nations yet provided also for the Rest of the Strangers And Exod. 23. 4 5. they are commanded to do good Offices to their Enemy in bringing back his strayed Ox and in helping his over-burdened Ass And certainly whoever considers that Religion will say that it was never intended by the wise Author of it to be such an Hedg and Fence of Separation as the Pride and ill Nature of its Professors had made it Do not their holy Prophets every where recommended unto them Charity and Beneficence Was not this ever of more account with God than all Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices How did this procure Acceptance for those Offerings Insomuch that when they were separated from this they could not be accepted Isa 1. 11 12 13 c. To what purpose is
the Multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord c. Chap. 58. 6. Is not this the Fast that I have chosen to loose the Bands of Wickedness to undo the heavy Burdens and to let the Oppressed go free c. Mich. 6. 6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings c. He has shewed thee O Man what is Good But for our Christian Religion its manifest Design is that we should do Good to all St. James 1. 27. Pure Religion and undefiled before God is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Afflictions 1 Tim. 1. 5. The End of the Commandment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Charity out of a pure Heart and a good Conscience and Faith unfeigned So that God esteems himself most honoured and Men to be religious in the highest degree when they are beneficent More particularly 1. Christianity takes away all separating and dividing Ceremonies that were as Walls of Partition and so intends the proselyting of all Men without Distinction And does not this tend to lay on them the greatest Engagements to an universal Good-will 2. It has taken great care to remove all Obstacles of this and has made it the necessary Condition of being happy We must love all Men and do them good tho they be wicked tho they be our Enemies Love your Enemies c. says our Saviour And if ye forgive not Men their Trespasses neither will your Heavenly Father forgive yours 3. The Representations the Gospel has made of God and our Saviour whom we are instructed and obliged to follow will engage us to do Good universally Our Saviour went about doing Good He loved his Enemies to Death he laid down his Life for them he requited the greatest Malice with the greatest Love God is described as loving the World and that with the greatest truest heartiest Love that can be He does Good unto all his Sun rises upon the Wicked as well as the Good If then it be our Duty our Perfection and Happiness to conform to our Saviour's Example if by this we come to the utmost that our Natures can reach to to be like God whose Mercy extends to all things Let us also love and do Good to Enemies to Strangers to all Men. Were there those among the Heathens that had only the Light of Nature and yet both taught and practised this Duty of Beneficence in so high a degree and shall not we Christians who have the Revelation of the Gospel we who read of the eternal Son of God devesting himself of the Glory he had with God before the World was and taking our frail Nature into Union with himself learn and practise iâ— much more Are we not told what the Blessed Jesus did and how much he suffered in Life and Death and all this that he might redeem Mankind from Sin and Death and Hell and make us happy Was this the Design and Business of his Life and Death to do the greatest Good to all Men Let us make it appear that we are indeed his Disciples in that we carry on the same Design which he did and follow his Example in doing Good This is so necessary a part of Christianity that if I were to give a Character of a Christian in short it should be this He is one that designs and doth Good unto all Men. Catholick Charity makes a Man a Member of the Catholick Church Holding of the Catholick Faith is not so sure a Mark of a Christian as living in Universal Love whosoever doth so is a Christian he that doth not is none no tho he can repeat his Creed and think he believes every Article of it it is not so material as this universal Inclination of doing Good it is not so material in order to our Acceptance with God what our Opinions are as what our Affections and Lives are This is final and ultimate in Religion that which God design'd to bring Men unto by all the Revelations which he has made and by all his Institutions All true Religion that has ever been in the World has aim'd at this to make Men better wiser and more vertuous And why is this but in order to Action And do we or can we act only about our selves If we be better shall it not be better for other Men Can a Man be good to himself singly and not to Society Or does Religion intend the Good of private Persons and not of Communities Assuredly that which designs to make Men good to themselves designs to make them good to others That Man is most truly Religious who gives most Honour to God and he does that who makes the most true and worthy Representation of him to the World and he does that who is universally good and kind Not he who macerates his Flesh with Fasting or wears out his Knees with long and frequent Praying or spends the greatest part of his time in Hearing or Reading or denies himself the useful and innocent Pleasures of Life and Conversation that turns Recluse or Hermite that goes a long Pilgrimage bare-foot that exposes himself to pinching Cold or scoâ—â—hing Heat that calls for Fire from Heaven upon the wicked Transgressors of the Law Not any of these or others that pass for the only Religious Men in the World make so clear and true and becoming a Representation of God to the World as that poor Man does whose only Design it is to do Good unto all who makes it his great Business to be innocent and useful to every one in the World This Man's Life shall do more to make other Men entertain true and honourable Thoughts of God than all the Devotions and Fervors of them who confine their Religion to such Passions and Exercises Nor can all Faith and Knowledg have such an effect upon others to make them glorify God as the Life of this good Man who does Good Lastly Nothing can make us more sure of and fit for the Happiness of Heaven than this As nothing can make us more like to God and Christ and the good Angels than this Divine Temper of Love to Mankind so nothing more fits us for nor more assures of their Converse in Heaven Indeed this seems not so much a necessary Condition of the Happiness of that State as an essential Ingredient in it and a great part of it The great Change which I apprehend will be in Heaven from what is here on Earth is this That our selfish contracted Love will be enlarged and extended and that there we shall every one love all By what has been hitherto said it may appear sufficiently that nothing better becomes or is more worthy of us either as Men following the Principles of Nature or as Christians enlightned by revealed Religion than to be universally good But I shall argue this further by shewing that 3. To do Good to all Men c. is one of those means which
that But I will shew what Influence a Life of universal Love and Goodness must have to make us think well and truly of God and live in a due regard to him In general therefore this Life of Benevolence and universal Good-will helps us to a better that is a clearer and more certain and sensible Knowledg of the Goodness of God and thereby engages us to love him and trust in him The Man who in his Disposition and Practice is beneficent he feels this to be the best State of all others and consequently will attribute it to him who is the best and happiest of all Beings He who lays the Foundation of what he believes concerning God in Testimony only his Soul may be filled with Doubts he may question whether he rightly understands what he reads or hears at least he cannot be so sensibly and fully assured of it as he that builds upon his own Sense and Feeling Some say and not without very good Reason that none can know what God is who are not themselves Partakers of the Divine Nature And the Scripture gives Countenance to this Opinion in such Passages as these Blessed are the pure in Heart for they shall see God Without Holiness no Man shall see God Which places imply that Purity and Holiness which is a Participation of the Divine Nature are the necessary Qualifications of those that shall know God A Divine Life is a Prerequisite a Preparative to Divine Knowledg And our Saviour tells them if they will do God's Will they shall know his Doctrine A vertuous good Life is certainly the best Preparation and doth most dispose the Soul to the Reception of all Truths but more particularly of that which concerns God and spiritual Matters This also gives further Credit to that Assertion That most or all Mens Opinions of God are founded in their own Life and Temper And there 's good reason it should be so For generally Men like themselves and approve of what they do and all in their Reasonings attribute that which they think good to God who is absolutely so Hence it is that the wicked profane Man thinks God like himself and that he doth not detest nor will punish Sin any more than he Or if he cannot think thus of God as it 's strange a Man should then he thinks there is no God And indeed Observation as well as Reason will teach us that a wicked Life is the compendious way to Atheism He that lives ill either thinks there is no God or thinks falsly of him for true Knowledg of God and a vicious Life cannot consist any more than Light and Darkness Again Others Men of severe austere Humours and of angry and malicious Tempers conceive God to be as they are And the Man of a benign Mind he accounts Love and Goodness the most essential Property of God which he therefore does because his own Sense and Experience in Conjunction with Reason and Scripture and the Consent of other Men assure him past all doubt that this is the best Temper and that no Life can be so good as that of Love and Benignity and thence he firmly concludes this must be the Nature the Life of God himself This Sense as I said takes away all that Obscurity and those Doubts which might remain notwithstanding all that is revealed in Scripture or discoursed by Reason or reported by other Men. For we might suspect that we misunderstood the Text or that our Reason were short being conversant in Divine Matters and the Testimony of Men leaves room for doubting but what we feel we cannot doubt But the Man of Good-will he cannot in the least question whether the Life of Benevolence be not the best and consequently the Divine Life And this will engage him to give God the Worship that 's due to him that is to love and trust him He that knows and feels the Goodness of God he must love him and trust in him and then and not till then is God worshipped in the Soul when he is loved and trusted in Particularly this Man of universal Good-will when he views the Creation of God and beholds how good he made all Things and with how great Wisdom he conducts them all to the end of their Beings their utmost Perfection and chief Excellence More especially when he considers in what Condition and Place God hath set Man to be Lord of this inferior World how he hath given him an Understanding in the use of which he may enjoy God and himself and all things and may make his Abode here easie and delightful to him and may by the use of his Reason and the Government of himself according to the Rules of Vertue raise himself above the Calamities of this State and may serve himself and his Happiness of all that befals him may make the most unhappy Circumstances he can be in serviceable to his best Interests When he considers all these Wonders of Goodness that appear in the Creation and Providence of God he adores this great Benefactor and praises the great Creator and Preserver and Governour of the World And when he further considers those astonishing Passages of Divine Goodness in the Redemption of the World by Christ and sees the Good that hath come to Men by that miraculous Incarnation of the Son of God by his Life and Death his Doctrine and his Works and the great Good that was design'd and how God is never wanting to do all that on his part is to be done for the attaining it this fills him with Love and Wonder and makes him break forth in Praises of the Divine Philanthropy And when this good Man is endeavouring the Good and Welfare of others but finds his Attempts unsuccessful and his Power too short that he cannot do the Good he desires then doth he send out his earnest Longings to Heaven that Almighty Power would supply his Defects and do that Good to the World which he would but cannot God is not by such an one call'd upon to destroy but mend the World He doth not pray for Fire from Heaven to consume them that oppose him but for the good Spirit of God to convince and change them God is not then worshipped when he is invoked to assist bitter Zeal and Anger and to execute the Designs of Malice and Cruelty No then God is worshipped and truly represented when we seek to him and depend on him for help in carrying on good and charitable Designs in being universally useful and beneficial For then we shew that we think him benign and kind and we do profess by this our Perswasion that 't is his Design and great Work to do Good to the World And this is the truest and most honourable Representation of God and the best Worship we can give him No Fear or Horrour is such an Acknowledgment of God as he will accept and own or look on himself as honoured and worthily represented by No the Devils believe and tremble but they
that believe and love are the true Worshippers such as God is pleased with In short Nothing makes a Man so truly Religious as a through Belief and Sense of the Goodness of God and nothing so fully assures him that God is good in general and will be so to him in particular as being himself good and loving For this assures him it is the best Life that can be lived and must therefore be the Life of God And it is natural for all Men to expect to be dealt with themselves as they deal with others and that if they be merciful they shall obtain Mercy I have shewn that to do Good to all Men is the way to make Men themselves Religigious I add it is the way to make others so too This is the way to adorn the Doctrine of our Saviour to honour our Profession to make Men entertain the Gospel heartily when the Professors of it are universally beneficent and good when they see them just and charitable hospitable and liberal and communicative in all good things Prayers and Praises Retirement and Devotion then are reverenced when they go attended with a great retinue of good Works but when Piety appears alone it 's no other than a Ghost and Specter that affrights and amazes and when it is accompanied with Injustice and Uncharitableness with Inhumanity and sordid filthy Avarice then is it blasphem'd and evil spoken of And Men are afraid to entertain that Religion which keeps so ill Company And if these be the Effects of Praying and Fasting of Solitariness and Reading to make Men morose and ill-natur'd and rigorous Exactors of all Punctilio's of Duty and severe Punishers of every little Offence and stingy selfish and inconversible they will â—lee from it If they that worship God have no regard for Men if that Zeal which flames up to Heaven set this lower World on fire and fill it with Smoak all Men will be afraid of it and use all Arts to quench it But on the other hand when we see Piety toward God and Charity toward Men go hand in hand when they that say they love God love Man also and they that live in Communion with the Father and the Son live also in Fellowship with their Brethren when they that ask Pardon of God for their own Faults forgive other Mens toward them and are condescending and meek and patient and communicative to their Fellow-Creatures as they desire God should be to them and because they pray he would be thus to them are therefore more so to others then do they win others to their Profession by their good Conversation and bring in many Proselytes to their Religion For it is not Names and Professions not Formalities and Shews not Opinions and Phrases not singular Conceits and uncommon Practices that will commend us to God or our Religion to Men but Good Works and Kindness to be communicative and loving these things will beget in them an Esteem of our Profession and give a Lustre to the Religion we own In this case Religion is like an excellent Diamond well set but in the other it is a Diamond in a Dunghil When Men see and feel our good Works then do they glorify our Father which is in Heaven Thus we see how Religion and a due regard to God is promoted by this Temper of Universal Love and Charity Thirdly To be good to all hath a great Influence on us to make us Vertuous An universal Benevolence is a Spring from whence all the Streams of Vertue run forth which gives them both beginning and continuance and increase In general this will make us both active and moderate It will both engage us to action and keep us within due Bounds that we shall neither do too little nor too much Some of the Principal Causes why Men do not practise Vertue are 1. That they are sluggish and unactive not quickned by any Affection Or 2. They are overborn with the violent assaults of evil Passions not governed by Love as Anger c. Or 3. Their Love is particular and confined Now where an universal Good-will obtains it removes all these Obstacles and 1. Makes us active and diligent in all ways of doing Good 2. It regulates all the other Passions and suffers them not to exceed their Bounds that is they are always made to serve its designs Both Anger and Hatred it self are in order to doing Good And Men that live by this Principle do not do any Evil for it self but as it conduces to some greater Good And 3. It sets Love at liberty from those restraints which by being too particular it was under before And so prevents those numberless Vices and Immoralities which arise from a selfish and too contracted Love I think most of our Miscarriages in Life proceed from an undue Preference of our selves and an unequal considering other Men's Interests and the way to rid our selves of them is to follow the Apostle's Counsel not only to mind our own things but also the things of others and here to do good to all Men. This gives that greatness and largeness of Mind in which true Generosity and bravery of Spirit does consist This Lover of the World goes on steadily in his way of well-doing and is not stopp'd by Injuries or Affronts nor reduced by particular Respects His mind is not only taken up with his own particular Concerns but he has regard to his Brethren and his Affection makes him call not only the Disciples of Christ but all the Sons of Adam by this Name And this is Generosity and Nobleness indeed to pass by Offences and pardon Injuries and to requite Evil with Good And is not that a great Mind which embraces the World in its Arms and takes the Universe into its Bosom This is Divine and God-like Particularly There is scarce any Vertue but universal Beneficence doth one way or other beget or increase it 1. No Man can be wise and prudent who doth not take into his Consideration the Community and he that does and intends the Good of Mankind steers a Course directly betwixt Folly and Mischievous Cunning. He is neither amongst those that have none or Evil or but little petty Designs No this Man hath proposed to himself one and that an excellent good and great end the Good of Mankind and he takes the proper fit means for the attaining it to do as much as he can Thus available is doing Good to all to Prudence Besides this Practice will give a Man a great insight into particular Mens affairs and an understanding of many things and circumstances which is necessary and will much contribute to Discretion and prudent Determination And 2. Justice is no less beholden to it It 's impossible that Man should be Just who doth not intend other Mens Good as well as his own and all Mens as well as some and most to those that are best But where the Hand that 's stretch'd out to all holds the Ballance there
others will make us desire their Honour as well as our own And where we love all and have an Affection for the Publick we shall desire no more than we deserve we shall be unwilling that other Men should be so far imposed on as to think us better than indeed we are We cannot be so unjust as to expect Reward without Merit and Praise where it is not due Charity is not puffed up 1 Cor. 13. 4. and therefore frees a Man's Mind from all the Tortures that ambitious Spirits lie under This makes a Man not displeas'd that other Men are prais'd and himself not nay tho they have more and he less than deserved yet he is very well satisfied because his own and the Approbation of a few competent Judges is sufficient to support him whereas Men of less Worth have need of greater Applause to bear up their Minds and to bring them into Request and enable them to do Good And how perfectly doth this Principle subdue and regulate all the Appetites of corporeal Pleasure He that is acted by universal Love cannot go to a forbidden Bed for he will not draw one whom he loves into Sin he will not deprive them of the lasting Pleasures of Innocence and Chastity He will not violate the Orders of all the Civilized World which have been from the beginning of Time which for the sake of the Publick for Posterity as well as the present Generation ought to be inviolably observed He will not eat nor drink more than is good for him as for other Reasons so lest others should want that which is good for them Again This universal Love by engaging us to do all the Good we can takes away all inordinate Love of Money We shall not now desire more than we can and will use for the advantage of others as well as our selves And when it is thus with us we shall not grasp at all we could get and we shall use what we do get And where we are thus minded we have freed our selves from that infinite Carking and Anxiety which an inordinate Desire of Riches causes Lastly This will in many cases prevent the bitterest Remorse for Sins by preventing the Sins themselves as I have shewed For the good Man will not be unjust or unfaithful he cannot oppress or cozen falsly or needlessly accuse will not violate the Chastity prejudice the Health much less take away the Life of any and thus secures himself from those Terrors of Conscience which follow such Wickednesses And where we are surprized and do unwillingly mis-behave our selves towards God if we be indeed charitable and loving towards Men we can then pray that God would and hope that he will forgive us as we do them Thus I have shewn how this universal Beneficence frees us from Trouble and Unquietness And now I will briefly shew how it brings us Pleasure as well as Quiet By Pleasure I here understand that Joy which is caus'd in the Soul by an Apprehension or Sense of Good Now where this Principle is become natural to us and we act from it and according to it it must necessarily be a Spring of Delight to us How pleasant and joyful must the Mind of that Man be which is govern'd by an universal Love As much Good as there is in the World so much cause of Pleasure is there to them For 1. He is set at Liberty from contracted Selfishness every Man is now to him as he is to himself and other Mens Concerns are as his own so that he now rejoyces in their Welfare and is heartily glad at the Good which befals them So much is his Joy greater now than it was when he liv'd to himself for then he was pleas'd with his own private Advantages but perhaps repin'd or at least was unconcern'd at other Mens whereas now he is delighted to see it go well with any Man in the World Thus he honestly and innocently enjoys the Good of others without depriving them of any gathers of the Honey-dew without robbing the Flower of its own Sweetness As much Good then as there is and as he can see in the World and there is very much for the Mercy of God is over all his Works and he that will consider things may discover it so much cause of Gladness hath this good Man And then 2. The infinite Love and Goodness of God is an inexhaustible Fountain of Joy to the good Man For tho he sees many things much amiss and a great deal of Evil in the World tho he sees poor Man at a great distance from his Happiness and the whole World lying in Wickedness yet he also sees infinite Goodness at work and that it has done very much in order to Man's Happiness and doubts not but in some ways which he is ignorant of all the ends of Divine Goodness will be accomplish'd at last I have shewed before that this Goodness of Temper helps us to an assured Knowledg of the Goodness of God We may also refer the two fore-going Particulars to the Object of Benevolence If there be so great Pleasure in loving one or two or a few how great is that which arises from an universal Good-will a Love to all Men Thirdly The good Man hath Pleasure as concerning himself from his Beneficence to others and it is such a Pleasure as hath many Advantages above most others For 1. As to its degree it is both intense and exquisite 2. As to its kinds it is both of Memory Sense and Hope as it refers to Good past present and to come 3. It s Original is from Man himself in concurrence with God and Nature and therefore it is both certain and near 4. As to its Duration it is both continued and lasting 5. As to its Quality and Effects it is absolutely Good 6. In respect of its Objects it is largely extended and manifold 1. The Pleasure that arises from a Sense of our Beneficence is without any allay or mixture of Pain and that which is so is pure and in the highest degree This cannot be said of most other Pleasures the Price of them is much abated by the Pains that accompany them The more corporeal and gross they are the more they have of this Dress This is a Commendation that almost only belongs to the Pleasure that arises from vertuous Practices and yet not any not all of the other Vertues can afford so great a Delight as this which is both a Complex of most of them and the End and Consummation of all The rest are but mediate and subordinate Vertues this is ultimate and final When a Man is in the exercise of universal Love of Charity and Good-will he is as good and as great and happy as he can be then is all finished The greatest Pleasure is in Love Now when Love is universal and in exercise Pleasure keeps proportion with it and is as great as it can be for it is as large as its Object and therefore
this I dare encounter the Sensualist who seeks for Delight from brutish Gratifications or the malicious angry Man who expects to have it from Revenge or the selfish and contracted Man who pursues it in ways of Self-love and all the Pleasure he hath is in doing Good to himself To all these I can shew greater and better purer and more lasting Pleasures in the Exercise of an universal Love Here 's Pleasure that will be constantly fresh and new no satiety no clogging The Sensualist hath the pleasure of a Brute in his Enjoyments the malicious Man hath the pleasure of Divels the selfish of the Sons of Earth but the Man of Benignity and unbounded Love hath the delight of those that are Heaven-born the Joys of Angels and partakes of the greatest Pleasure of God himself for that undoubtedly is to do good I have now shewn how much the temper and practice of universal Goodness tends to make us Knowing Religious Vertuous Quiet and Joyful which are the greatest and most desirable Perfections of the Soul of Man But perhaps some may set a greater value on things less excellent and will be more sensible of what concerns their Body than their Mind and of that which is without than that which is within them Now therefore that I may engage such Men also if it be possible to a Life of Beneficence and that I may fully discover the manifold Vertues of a benign Nature and Life I will consider those also that are of less Importance which relate to our Body and Good-name and Estate but yet ought to have some place in our account And lastly how Instrumental this must be to begin and continue and confirm Friendships which in all these and the other respects before-mentioned are hugely serviceable to us 1. Universal Beneficence conduces to long Life Psal 34. 12. David asks this Question What Man is he that desires Life and loves Days that he may see Good Not that he thought there were any that did not but therefore he proposes this in form of Question the better to excite their attention and to make us all regard what he would say which is to direct us what Course to take that we may attain our desire and that is 1. Keep thy Tongue from Evil and thy Lips from speaking Guile 2. Depart from Evil and do Good seek Peace and pursue it This is the Direction the Scripture gives to preserve Life and we find this very passage cited in 1 Pet. 3. 10. And that we may be assured that by doing Good is meant Beneficence see how it is brought in there as an Argument against rendring Evil for Evil at the 9th Verse Not rendring Evil for Evil nor Railing for Railing but contrariwise Blessing c. and then follows at the tenth Verse For he that will love Life and see good Days c. Reason and Experience will say the same There are we all know two sorts of Enemies to Mans Life one is within the other without him Those within are the Diseases which as they arise from other causes so very often I know not whether I should say for the most part arise from disorderly Passions I know not any better general Prescription for the preventing or curing those Diseases that arise from ill temper of the Blood and other Humours than to keep the Mind in a benign disposition and willingness to do good Offices For there is a great Sympathy betwixt Soul and Body and experience and observation shews us that when the Soul is thus affected it gives and continues alacrity and briskness to those motions in which both Life and Health consist And for those that arise from Passions which are contrary to this universal good Affection or proceed from want of it such as Anger Malice Envy great Sorrow and excess of self-Self-love or a too particular and contracted Affection what ill effects these have on our Bodies and what Distempers they cause I leave it to Observation and Sense to testifie But we are sure that those sudden changes of Colour trembling of the Flesh palpitation of the Heart stopping of the Breath Sighing Inflaming our Heaviness distorting of the Face and Eyes which are so often consequent on those are very ill Symptoms And the best way to prevent them and all the dangers they threaten us with is to preserve in our Minds an Inclination to do good universally For this will extirpate Malice and destroy Envy it will moderate Anger and not suffer us to be Peevish it will set us at liberty from a too particular Affection and ease our Griefs and thus prevent very many of those Diseases which we lie under for want of due regulating our Passions Nor will this seem strange if we consider that Physicians when they advise a Method for preserving Health caution us about our Passions that they be kept in order I have before shewn that to be universally Benevolent is the best and perhaps only way to govern them and if so 't is evident that it must have a great Influence on Life and that which is the Life of Life without which Death would be more eligible Health The causes of Man's Death that are without him are Men or other things such as infectious Vapours in the Air Famines the ill Qualities of his Food or other such like As for Men Tully tells us it was the Opinion of one Dicaearchus that many more were slain by Men than died by Diseases or any other way The truth of my Discourse depends not on the certainty of his Conjecture all that I shall infer is that those great numbers that die by the hands of Men and before their time come by this means might have had their Lives lengthened For if the Law of Universal Love were observed by all then Quarrels and Contentions War and Fighting Stabbing and Poyson would have no place But there is no better Preservative against infectious Diseases than the Vertue and good Disposition of the Mind of which the Sum is Benignity Therefore Histories tell us that in that lamentable Plague at Athens which was so contagious and mortal yet Socrates escaped and this was ascribed to his Vertue and excellent Disposition in general particularly to his Temperance which I have shewn how it as well as all other Vertues derives from Universal Love One observation will very much assure us of the Truth of what I have said wherein I will appeal to the experience of every one it is this That an unwillingness to be doing Good is for the most part if not always accompanied with indisposition of Body and that when we enjoy the best Health we commonly feel our selves in the greatest disposition to Beneficence For the Soul and Body as in other matters so here mutually operate on each other Whence I infer That as Benignity and Goodness in the Mind contribute to the Health of the Body so the good plight of the Body inclines the Soul to Good-will And for the other Perfections
benign Disposition which will use them well and to good purposes that makes them commendable and the Objects of our Praise Proceed we farther to a Devotional Temper that ingageth us to be strict in Religious Performances And that hugely becomes Man to be hearty and solemn and constant in the Worship of God Yet even this will not procure us Honour if not accompanied with Beneficence and attended by good Works For tho' a Man sequester hours and days for Praying and Fasting tho' he spend much time in Reading and Contemplation tho' he be constant at Church and much in his Closet tho' he miss not Prayers twice a day nor Fasting twice a week tho he fast as often and pray as long as the devout Pharisees yet if like them he devour Widows Houses and cat the Bread of Orphans tho' he tithe Mint and Cummin yet if he pass over Truth and Judgment and Mercy if he that is thus devout towards God be unjust or but unkind and uncharitable to Men we look on him as an Impostor and a Cheat we conclude his Devotions to be animal and formal and his Religion false the Religion of the Pharisees but not that which he taught who as he went up into the Mountain to pray so he went about doing Good We read of Moses when he came down from the Presence of God his Face shone And we all expect that Humility and Modesty that Benignity and Goodness should appear in the looks and carriages of those that have been in Converse with God That they who have beheld the Glory of God and confess'd their own Vileness who have praised and sought his Goodness and Mercy should themselves be meek and lowly compassionate and forbearing to their Fellow-Creatures If they be otherwise if merciless and cruel if peevish and froward if clamorous and unquiet if revengeful and malicious if inhumane and uncivil we then think that they do not in good earnest praise that in God which themselves do not imitate nor that they think themselves to need Mercy who will not shew it to others For it is the Sence of all Men that he who is truly Religious who worships God as he ought will also do good to Men. Therefore let all shew the Truth of their Devotion by the benignity of their Temper and the goodness of their Lives Thus we see Religion will not avail to Honour if separate from Benesicence and doing Good Nay even Justice it self tho' nothing can be commendable without it tho' it lay the Foundation of Praise yet if not in conjunction with Benignity it is not sufficient to entitle a Man to the name of Just He doth Good as far as the Law requires but no further And so we know not whether his Good Works proceed from Nature and Temper or from external Motives whether from Love and a benign disposition or from Fear and because he dares not disobey publick Sanction For many Mens Justice is to be resolved into their Fear and neither their Wisdom nor their Choice Besides if Justice be not directed and regulated by Goodness there is no place for Equity and that is Justice in name only but not in reality which is parted from Equity In sum It is Benignity and Godness that keeps Justice from degenerating into Sowrness and Severity into an inflexible Obstinacy a rigid adherence to Letters and Apexes to Punctilio's and Forms and Rules indeed from becoming the highest Injustice Thus that Justice which is so essential to all honourable Actions is beholden to Benignity both for its being and for its name And now I have shewed that those qualities which when they are instrumental to Benisicence so much commend a Man when they are either not used or to ill purposes they are either matter of Reproach or add nothing to his Honour I will conclude this Particular with this short Appeal Suppose on the other side a good-natur'd beneficent Man stript of most of those natural and acquired Perfections and Endowments he hath little but uses and doth good with that he hath his Understanding is not encreased by Learning nor hath he had much opportunity to improve it by general Observations but the Knowledge he hath he impart and will not fail where he can to counsel those that want it he can give little Alms but he throws in his Mites all he can spare and such as he hath his Pains he will freely bestow His Devotions are not pompous nor solemn nor long he cannot set apart hours for Prayer but all his time is spent in doing the Good that is within his Sphere Tho' his Goodness reach not to God in Heaven yet it doth to his Creatures He is poor in Estate but rich in good works is in low place and hath small Power but great Good-will is ignorant in many and mistakes in divers matters but is malicious to none for tho his Knowledg is bounded his Charity is unconfined His Addresses to God are not taken notice of but his Visits to his poor Neighbours cannot be hid In short he that hurts none and does Good to all and if he do not do Good it is for want of Power and Skill not of Inclination this Man is lov'd and valued honoured whilst he lives and after death is remembred and praised Whereas the proud and useless Pedant the Rich but Covetous Miser the Man of great place that used his Power to do Evil or did not use it in doing good Offices their names shall be forgot or remembred with scorn and infamy Here then is the only way to Honour to be Beneficent Would we be esteem'd whilst we live and paised when we dye let us do Good Let our own Works praise us and then Men will not be silent The Universal Benefactor as his name is written in Heaven so it shall be registred in the Rolls of Fame here on Earth and both the present and future Ages will call him Blessed 3. I will endeavour to shew that to do Good is the way to make us Rich. There are too many in the World who think that Man's Life consists in the abundance of the things he possesses To be Rich is in their account the chief Good and the greatest if not only Happiness The Objection which they have against doing Good is yet unremoved This they fear is an expensive practice and will waste their Estate for Beneficence cannot consist with Injustice with Fraud or Oppression with pinching and scraping and all the sinful little sordid Arts they have used to make themselves Rich. I do not now go about to shew them the unreasonableness of their desires but supposing Riches to be as good as they imagine I will endeavour to make it out that to do Good is the wisest and likeliest means to attain them it is a very probable way to thrive This is a Paradox and therefore I will make it out 1. by the best Testimony 2. by Observation 3. by Argument 1. By Testimony Prov. 19. 17. He
that giveth to the Poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he giveth will he pay him again God is a sure Pay-master but perhaps he may not pay in kind tho' the words seem to import that he will Ch. 11. Vers 24 25. speak this more clearly and are full to our Purpose There is that scatters and yet encreases and there is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to Poverty The liberal Soul shall be made fat and be that watereth shall be watered also himself In the 24th verse is a double Paradox wholly contrary to the Sence of these Men. He tells them that some scattering is the way to encrease and some sparing the means to be Poor And then in the 25th he asserts that Liberality or a cheerful free Communicativeness of what we have shall be blest with Plenty 2. By Observation Psal 37. 25 26. I have been young and now am old yet did I never see the Righteous forsaken nor his Seed begging Bread c. Both he and his Children have been kept from Poverty and Want they have not been reduced to extremity The words seem spoken by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it follows his Children are Blest Another Observation is Tullies He tells us that the Roman Empire flourished and was great whilst they obliged their Associates by Benefits and their Senate was a Haven and Refuge to their Provincials but when they became Injurious and Cruel and had no regard to Strangers they were quickly ruin'd In has clades incidimus saies he dum metui quam chari esse diligi maluimus Quae si popula Romano injusté imperanti accidere potuerunt quid debent putare singuli This is the Observation of this wise Man that when they were good and beneficent to other Nations they were prserved when cruel unequal and injurious their Empire was destroyed Lastly I appeal to your own Observation Call to mind how many we have known who have been Just and Charitable Merciful and Liberal and Hospitable who have by these very means both got and secured their Estates and how many Men have we known undone by their Malice and Anger and Envy Nay their very closeness and pinching have been the causes why they have not got more or kept what they had And 3. The reason of this is plain For 1. By the good Offices we do to others we engage them to Returns Few Men are so depraved but they are grateful and will study retribution and gratitude will not only pay back the Principal but give us it with advantage It constrains the Debtor to pay greater Use than the Law will force from him Whatsoever you would that Men should do to you do you do to them is a truth that 's written in Nature as well as Scripture Here 's a Direction to us in our Converse whatever dealing we desire from others we must use to them and it supposes that as we do to them they will do to us which is for the most part true for they lie under the double Obligation of Justice and an Example and without great violence to themselves cannot shake it off And therefore there is no such sign of a desperate Wickedness as Ingratitude If then we do good to others we probably shall not fail of a return from them and such a return ordinarily as the Husband-man hath of his Seed Thirty Sixty or an Hundred fold 2. All Men will love us they will wish us well and do us Good The good the beneficent Man hath every ones Prayers and good Desires and every ones Endeavours for his Welfare they all desire that he should be happy No Man envies his good Fortune who will use what he hath for the Good of others None are afraid that he should grow Rich who will not abuse his Wealth to crush and oppress but uses it to relieve his poor Neighbours He is not the Object of any ones Indignation for we all esteem the Man that doth Good with it worthy of what he hath Men only grudge them their Wealth who have no Knowledge nor Will to use it Lastly none will ordinarily hate or be malicious against the Good-man Who will who can harm you if you be doers of that which is Good By this means we are more secured from Enemies than by Bars and Locks and Iron Doors and Chests Take away Envy and Malice Fears and Jealousies and we may dwell safely Men can have little Temptation to rob us when they and others are the better for what we have No it 's the selfish Man that catches what he can from others and will part with nothing to them that must fear that will be taken from him which himself cannot find in his Heart to give or lend or lay out for a publick benefit Whereas the liberal Man may lie down and sleep without fear He needs not he cannot much fear the Combinations of crafty Men or the Assaults of the Violent But that 's not all that doing Good contributes to an Estate it doth not only keep what we have but get more It doth as well make Men that they shall be our Friends as that they shall not be our Enemies Our Neighbours will be ready to do us all kind Offices and help our Business with Counsel or Labour or Money And the good Man's Servants on whose Trust and Diligence Estates much depend will not work out of Fear nor only out of Conscience but out of Love and this will make them more constant and chearful and careful in their Master's Business than any other Principle Neither he that works for Hire or because he dare do no other will be so diligent as he that loves his Master And if he be good and kind and equal liberal and charitable he will he must love him I conclude this Particular with that of Tally Rerum omnium nec aptius est quicquam ad opes tuendas ac tenendas quam diligi nec alienius quam timeri Quem metuunt oderunt quem quisqut odit periisse expetit Multorum odiis nullae opes obsistere possunt There is nothing more fit and suitable to the keeping and securing of Riches than to be lov'd and nothing more strange and opposite than to be fear'd He that is fear'd is hated withal and every one desires the Ruine of him he hates The greatest Wealth is not sufficient to give check to the Hatred of many 3. This Beneficence of Temper will keep us from those Ways whereby Estates are usually wasted There are five Ways that lead Men to Poverty 1. Idleness 2. Prodigality 3. A Sensual Course 4. Gaming 5. Law-Suits 1. When Men will not be diligent If their Business will do it self it may but by them it shall not be done Now the Sluggard that neglects his Field suffers it to be overgrown with Thorns and Briars what Crop what Harvest can he expect None at all but as Solomon saith Waâ—â— shall come on him suddenly and
for all he ever meets with the Objects that please him tho not all alike and when Necessity parts him from his dearest Friend yet he fails not of those on whom he does exercise Benevolence and so hath both a pleasant and profitable Diversion And it will prove the best Remedy against the Trouble of parting with Friends when we are so affected as to do to others for substance as we have done to our Friends 5. This will also make Friendships profitable When they grow on this Root they will bring forth Fruit when they derive from a Principle of Beneficence they will not end in a fruitless Passion But he that is upon doing Good to all Men will certainly not fail to do it to his Friend it will be his business to serve him in some or other of his Interests 6. This is the only probable way to make Friendships lasting This is a firm Foundation and that Friendship which is built on it shall stand fast tho the Winds blow and Storms fall and Waves beat upon it When all others that are founded only on particular Humors or Likeness of bodily Temper nay on expectation of Advantages either Pleasure or Profit shall fall this that is set on the Rock of universal Beneficence shall continue for ever He that loves his Friend in prosecution of and consistently with that great Principle of Love to All he will love him to the end Whereas he that is a Friend meerly from Humor or Temper or sense of present Pleasure or hope of some future Advantage will cease to be a Friend perhaps become an Enemy when these change Tempers alter and Humors come and go and whatever is corporeal is mutable Nay Vice and Mistake are so too so that we can be sure of nothing so much as of Vertue and Knowledg Nothing that is unaccountable or that is founded in Mistake or Ignorance can probably continue long and such is that Friendship which is inconsistent not in conjunction with nor deriving from universal Good-will Thus I have shewn generally what Advantages accrue to the Friendships of those Men that live in the observance of this great Law of doing Good to All Men for by this means they are many and hearty vertuous and much more easy and profitable and lasting than otherwise I proceed lastly to shew how much the Temper and Practice of Vniversal Beneficence tends to Publick Peace and Tranquillity How would most of the Quarrels in the World cease if this once obtained Men would quickly beat their Swords into Plowâ—â—ares and their Spears into Pruning-hooks they would unlearn War and betake themselves to the useful Arts of Peace if they lov'd all Men they would not then study how to hurt and destroy but how to help and serve and be beneficial to each other Let us imagine an Vtopia on this Earth where it is natural to the Inhabitants to obey this Law of Love to Mankind how hardly do any Controversies arise amongst them And how easily and quickly are they decided by the Parties themselves For they are not more their own than they are one anothers Advocates They consider not their own particular Interests in opposition to the Publick and the Rules of Justice and Order wherein the Community is so much concerned out of their good-will to the World they will not violate If any Case be so difficult that they cannot fathom it or their own Modesty make them think they do not or that they may have more considered their own Cause than the opposite how calmly and with what quiet and composure do they submit to a Determination by some other with what indifferency do they hear it judged against them Nay they do not think that is against them which is for Justice and other Men. All their Contentions are friendly and they are all in a way of Reason for they are all of the mind that of the two ways in which Men contend one by Reason the other by Force the first only becomes Men the latter belongs properly to Brutes And for a further Eviction of this I do appeal to and dare be concluded by almost any the most injudicious Men whether it every Man were upon design of doing Good to others to all there would not be a perfect Peace over the whole Earth and Nation would not rise against Nation much less would the same People fall out with each other If any doubt let him search the Records of Antiquity and look back to the Histories of ancient Times or let him inform himself of his own and he will very soon be satisfied that Want of a regard to the Concerns of other Men hath and ever had the greatest hand in the Breach of Peace The great Disturbers of the Quiet of the World have been either acted by Malice and Hatred or by a selfish and contracted Affection but have ever been destitute of Good-will to the Generality of Men. By all that we have recorded of the great Conquerors of the World we find they were instigated to such Undertakings more by a desire of Empire and Greatness and to enthrone themselves than to be Benefactors to others Certainly if they had had a tenderness to the Welfare of other Men they would never have ransack'd the Goods and razed the Dwellings and shed the Blood of so many But enough in a Case so plain I will only add and with that will conclude this Particular That the due Observance of this excellent Rule is necessary to the right discharge of those Employments on which the Publick Peace so much depends I mean the Magistracy and the Ministry For the Magistrate it is a necessary and excellent Qualification of him both in his Legislative and Judicative Capacity How can he make Laws that intends not the Good of all them that are Subjects since this is essential to a Law that it aim at the Publick Good And how unfit is he to judg according to the Laws who himself hath not the same design with them He that is acted by Malice and bitter Anger or that hath Love but it is confined to a Number to a Party how ill is he qualified to be either a Lawgiver or a Judg Plate and Tully from him tell us That all Governors ought to observe two Precepts 1. To intend and refer all to the Publick Good subordinating all private Respects and particular Interests to that 2. To have a regard of the whole Community not of a part only If we add to these two 3. To take most care of the best most vertuous and useful Men we have comprized all that is in my Text which whosoever observes can scarce fail of being an excellent Magistrate a wise and a good Law-giver a just and an equal Judg. I say he that constantly designs and prosecutes not his own private Advantages but the Publick Good nor takes care of only one Party but of all the Community and lastly makes best Provision for the best Men and doth most
are as well necessary as available to the attaining of all those Ends which Wisdom can design It will much conduce to their Accomplishment and they cannot be obtained without it The Ends which Wisdom aims at are the good State of a Man's self in particular and of the World in general That 's ill Nature misguided by Folly which intends more Evil than Good or Evil not in order to Good That which only designs a particular Good without regard to the more common is Subtilty Craft and Selfishness but only that is Wisdom which designs the Welfare of particulars and the Community too It is said of Solomon that he was a Man of a large Heart as the Sand on the Sea And Wisdom is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a loving Spirit and is said to have his Delights with the Sons of Men Prov. 8. 31. It gives a Man an Aptitude a Largeness of Heart and Greatness of Mind Now where there is Love and that not contracted and pent up in a narrow Soul it will desire the Welfare of all This then being supposed that Wisdom aims at the good Estate of the Man himself and of others as it is certainly true and therefore we never say any Man designs wisely who intends Mischief but only he who designs Good or a particular and less Evil in order to a common and greater Good These being the Ends which Wisdom proposes what more accommodate means can be chosen for attaining this End than to do the Good that is within our Power Nothing more natural than to be doing that which we wish should be and that our Endeavours accompany our Wishes And tho I cannot say that every particular Man's Endeavours are necessary to the Welfare of the Publick because the All-wise Providence hath taken care that the Publick Good shall not depend on so great an Uncertainty as is every single Man's Goodness of himself yet whosoever doth not cast in his Mite into the publick Treasury he so far diminishes and takes off from the Publick Good And however doing Good to others is absolutely necessary to his own Good State Tho my Endeavours may not be necessary for the Good of others they are for my own It remains then that I shew in particular that this is one of those means which are both effectual and necessary to the attaining of whatever Wisdom can aim at either as to a Man 's own particular or the World in general When a Man considers himself throughly he considers both his Reference to this and to the future Life And he that intends wisely for himself he principally intends the Welfare of his Soul the good State of his Mind and that his Body may be in a Condition to serve that and all other things contributing to the Welfare of both Particularly he proposes to his aim Knowledg Religion and Vertue Tranquillity and Pleasure Life and Health a good Name and a competent Estate And true Wisdom that loving Spirit will design for others as for it self Now to do good universally is the best and a very sure plain and short way both to get and to keep these things both for our selves and others First It is the way to the best Knowledg For 1. He that 's bent to do all the Good he can to Men will be diligent to get Knowledg that he may be able to inform others None that considers but knows thiâ— to be one of the great Excellencies of Man and that we cannot be more uâ—eful to each other than by communicating useful Truths For by this means we direct the Ignorant and perhaps erring Travellers nay we open the Eyes of the Blind we give Light to them that sit in Darkness In short by this we lay the Foundation of Vertue and Peace and there 's no Man but knows this that Knowledg is one of the best Gifts that one Man can give or communicate to another He therefore that 's resolved to do all the Good he can will earnestly seek after that Knowledg which will be so benesicial to others as well as himself and he doth not only seek it for the Improvement of his own Mind but hath this further Inducement to search after it that he may be more beneficial to other Men. He doth now not only study as Seneca saith Vt proficiat sed ut prosit not only to better himself but others also Nor is he only ingaged to study but 2. Is also determin'd to seek after that Knowledg which is best which is most useful and brings the greatest Benefits with it He that steers the Course of his Studies by a design of doing Good will not spend his time in Trifles and Curiosities in idle and empty Speculations in groundless Conjectures and endless Disquisitions His pursuit is not after any piece of useless Learning and all that he counts such which doth not make him wiser or better which doth not help him to direct his Life to govern his Passions by Reason and Vertue to quiet his Mind to preserve his Health and rid him of ill Circumstances and be some way useful to other Men. And then 3. He will be very communicative of what he knows and there is no better way to get to keep to improve Knowledg than to communicate it The liberal Soul will not Usurer-like hoard up Knowledg and applaud himself that he knows such and such matters of which others are ignorant No but he takes a Pleasure in the Information of others and heartily endeavours to make them as wise as himself and whilst he instructs them he refreshes his own Notions and preserves a Memory of them And indeed this Furniture of Souls i like that of Houses if it be kept close and unused it grows mouldy and Moth or Rust corrupt it whereas if commonly used and open to common sight it 's preserv'd This is the Sum An earnest design of doing the Good we can to other Men will engage us to seek after Knowledg after the best and most useful and when we have got it to communicate it to others and in all these ways increases it in our selves Secondly To do Good unto all Men is the way to be truly religious Religion or to have a due regard to God this is certainly one of the greatest Perfections of Man's Mind It 's that wherein we manifestly excel all the Creatures of this lower World and is the most spiritual divine Quality in the Soul of Man Besides it is impossible we should be happy without it for if it be necessary to our Happiness that we think truly of and be rightly affected to things in which we are less concern'd 't is absolutely necessary that we have right Apprehensions of and beâ—itting Affections to God who is offered to our Thoughts so often and with whom we always are the Knowledg of whom is Eternal Life For the clearing of this I will not now shew how great a part of Religion doing Good is because I have already discours'd