dissembled what he thought of the best Form of Government for fear of offending Aristotle I am willing to ascribe my self into the number of them who believe that there is greater apparance that Aristotle was of the Opinion that affirms the Souls immortality and I know many excellent passages may be produc'd out of his Writings which favor it But yet so it is that in other places he seems to lay down principles which are incompatible with the same and some of his most famous disciples have believ'd that he held the contrary Socrates as we find in Plato knows not how to be confident of it and perswades himself by reasons which for the most part are but of slender moment and always speaks of it as of other things with doubting and not determining any thing although through the desire he had that his Soul were immortal he inclined more willingly to this opinion and accounted it of most probability which is Cicero's judgement in his Tusculan Questions And truly I conceive that in all things of this Nature the vulgar had better apprehensions then the Philosophers yea that the Philosophers corrupted the sentiments of Nature which remain'd more lively and genuine in the breasts of the people For they had wit and knowledge enough to frame objections against the common conceptions of men but yet they had not sufficient to resolve them whence their minds became unsetled and wavering Whereas the people who understood not so much subtilty held themselves more firmely to that which was taught them by nature it self and they had received from her though doubtingly in regard of the weakness and ignorance of humane reason As it often falls out that a man that knows nothing in Civil Law and yet hath some natural faculty of understanding better discerns the right of a certain Case then knowing Professors who have their heads full of Statutes and Paragraphs great skill rather perplexing and confounding then resolving them in the knowledge of things But Philosophical disputes being spread from the Scholes into Towns among the people have obscured and disorder'd such natural notions much more then the people by their own ignorance and negligence could have depraved and embroiled the same of themselves However were they much better assured then they are that their Souls do not perish with their bodies yet they must necessarily be extremely ignorant of the estate of them after their separation For how blind so ever the reason of man be in that which concerns the Deity his Nature Perfections and Providence yet the arguments which satisfie us of them are so clear and resplendent in the World that in spight of all the darkness of the humane Intellect there is always some beam that breaks through affording that dubious and confused knowledge we mentioned was found amongst the Nations of the World And how intangled soever the disputes of Philosophers were the rational soul of Man gives always so many proofs of its incorruptibility that the knowledge thereof cannot be totally extinguish'd But as to its estate after this Life it is not onely impossible for men to divine of themselves what it will be by reason of the corruption and irregularity which is befallen their faculties but though the eye of their reason were as clear and luminous as could be desir'd yet they were hardly able to make the least probable conjecture concerning it because God hath written nothing of it in the book of Nature from which we draw all our knowledge But they which are instructed by Religion in the History of the Worlds Original can very easily give account thereof For God having produc'd Man in the Nature of things in such an estate that if he had persisted in it he should not have feared death the revelation of that estate which must follow this Life would have been unprofitable to him who was made in case that the design of his creation had been pursued to live perpetually in the World and never to undergo the separation of his Soul from his Body For that Truth teaches us and likewise reason being informed in this particular either consents to or is convinced of it that it was the Offence which the First Man committed which introduced death into the World To what purpose therefore should God have imprinted in Nature any evidence or token of the estate of man after death since in that first integrity of nature there was no suspition nor shadow of Death it self It is true indeed that God denounced to man that if he degenerated from his integrity he should dye which might have occasion'd some thought in him of the pains which follow death being he knew that his Soul was immortal But the apprehension of punishment after sin and also of that which follows death do's not infer any other of remuneration unless God reveal mercy and hope of pardon after the transgression Which God had not as yet done in the integrity of Nature So that man having from God neither hope of pardon in case he should sin nor any cause to think of death in case he should not sin he had no occasion to raise his mind higher towards a better life But if any one conceives some scruple touching the perpetuity of the life of man upon the Earth if he had not fallen into sin and imagines rather that God after he had lest him for some Ages in the World to practice obedience and virtue would have at last taken him to himself and given a greater recompense then that which he could have injoy'd in a terrestrial felicity he must also confess that to instate man in the injoyment of such remuneration there would have been no need of Death and so that it was not necessarily for him to know what the estate of his Soul after separation from his body should be Moreover whatsoever that compensation would have been which man should have received for his Obedience and Virtue insomuch as it would have been a condition and a glory supernatural some revelation of it must necessarily have been made by another way then nature namely then by the evidences which may be had from consideration of the Works of God and the Government of the World And in truth to hear the Poets and Philosophers speak of it sufficiently evinces that such as have had no other light to guid them in search of these things but that of Nature and Reason have onely groped in the dark For how ridiculous is the description which they make of the Infernal Regions and Elysian Fields Is it not pleasant to behold the Landskip which Virgil hath drawn of them in the sixth Book of his Aeneids where he speaks of Rhadamanthus and the severity of his sentences and forgets not to paint out Tysiphone with her scourges and serpents together with the Furies He also places there hideous Hydra's and I know not what kind of other vile beasts at the gates of Hell and in that horrible prison which he represents twice
of it is accompanied with an evitable curse conscience which checks all men for sin suggests to them that either there must be some change in Religion as to this regard to become capable of salvation or that Religion was instituted not out of a designe to save but to curse and destroy They will say perhaps that there are promises of mercy mingled here and there in this Law for those that shall repent of their sins whereof their conscience convinces them And I grant it Miserable had they been if it had not been so For how could they have appeased the disquiets of their conscience But I say the promises of mercy to penitents do not belong to the Contract establish'd between God and them according to which he promised life to those that kept it and denounced a curse to those that should transgress it in the least clause For how can one and the same Covenant be capable of two such contrary clauses Cursed is whosoever shall not observe this Law in all points and Mercy it promised to those that repent of the transgressions which they commit What is repenting but returning to be a good man And what is to be a good man but to observe this Law Therefore Repentance is an observing the Law after a transgression I say an observing it inasmuch as the Repentance be good and durable Whence these two propositions will be found contradictory in one and the same Contract Cursed is whosoever abideth not in all the things of this Law to do them and Whosoever does not abide in all things of this Law is not therefore accursed provided he does not alwayes persevere in his transgression but at length repent of it Now it is not consentaneous to the Wisdom of God to contract an alliance of so repugnant parts But further There will not be onely a contradiction in the denouncing of the Curse but also in the promise of reward For observe how the Law speaks Do these things and thou shalt live that is Observe this Law in all points and thou shalt have life for thy salary of observing it So that he that obtains Life by the Law obtains it by virtue of his observation thereof as a recompense Now Life and the Curse are so oppos'd that he that ha's not life falls into the curse and on the contrary he that is delivered from the curse is instated in the injoyment of life As he that is in health or in the light is thereby exempt from diseases and darkness and contrarily he that is sick or in darkness is necessarily depriv'd of health and light The injoyment or sense of the one consisting in the privation of the other If therefore the same Law says Repent and thou shalt obtain mercy seeing mercy implyes deliverance from the Curse deserved and deliverance from the curse is nothing but the injoyment of life it will follow that by the same contract life will be obtain'd as a recompense of the observation of the Law and nevertheless be a favour too in regard of mercy Which are things directly repugnant and cannot be reconcil'd together These promises therefore belong to another Covenant different from that which saies Do these things and Cursed is he c. and they were the seeds of that other Law which was to succeed in the place of the ancient one and sufficient to bring penitents to salvation in that time and intitle them to Life not by virtue of observation of the Law but through pure mercy yet such as were to be more clearly and abundantly revealed And let them but remark a little what their own Prophet David saies in the 32 Psalme Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guilt When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long Because day and night thy hand was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of Summer I have acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and thou forgavest the punishment of my sin I appeal to themselves whether this be the language of a man that seeks the quiet of his conscience in those words of the Law Do these things and thou shalt live For the peace of conscience ariseth from the hope of life But when he looks towards the Law he is desperate and hath no peace in his soul His satisfaction is in the forgiveness of his sins and therefore in the assurance of mercy And yet this was David a man according to God's own heart that spoke thus If therefore such a man as he did not obtain life by virtue of this contract Do these things what other dares claim a right upon such terms If no man obtaines the same upon that account is it not necessary that some other Covenant succeed namely that of mercy and grace in the room of that which was ineffectual But we prosecute this too far Let them hear God himself in the 31. Chapter of Jeremy vers 31. Behold the days come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah Not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband to them saith the Lord. But this shall be the Covenant which I will make with the house of Israel After those days saith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more Who sees not that he distinguishes the Covenants by these two things First that he will give them the grace to violate the New no more which he did not under the Old And secondly that he will pardon under the New the transgressions of the Old which under it he did not nor could the denunciation of the curse annexed thereunto being irrevocable And what can be said more Does not God in promising a New Law foretell the abrogation of the first And why should he term this Old if it ought to be perpetual since perpetual things never wax old age being a tendency to an end till the thing growing old comes to be to tally extinguish'd But whereunto then serv'd this Law if none could obtain salvation by it Truely as Ceremony was a preparation to that which was to succeed and to give the Israelites some taste and knowledge of it as in
upon him But of this more at lage hereafter But in the next place there is discover'd in the Gospel an incomparably greater depth of Mercy For it is evident he obliges less by pardoning that conceives himself less offended and he conceives himself less offended that apprehends he may pardon without doing himself any injury or diminishing the reputation of his virtue or his courage On the contrary he obliges more that forgives an offense so sensible and atrocious that to make expiation of it there needs a great preceding satisfaction Since therefore the Christian Religion represents the justice of God inexorable and nevertheless tenders absolute remission to men by his mercy of necessity this mercy must be of a more transcendent benignity that swallows up an implacable fury And lastly his Wisdom is admirably resplendent in the Christian Religion whereas in the Jewish as the Jews understand it there is scarce a glimpse of it in all that mystery For if he punish according to the curse dâ—nounced in the Law 't is an act of pure Justice not of Wisdom If he pardon without other satisfactiâ—◠〈◊〉 then the death of beasts 't is a work of pure Mercy and not at all of Wisdom But to finde an expedâ—ent to punish and pardon both together to display his Mercy without derogation from his Justice this is it which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of man was unable to penetrate into and wherein now it is revealed appears an admirable design of Wisdom And now what more natural conclusion can there be then that the Christian-Religion is incomparably more proper to induce men to Piety and Virtue then the Jewish For as we have intimated elsewhere there are three motives alone that incite us thereunto Fear of Punishment Hope of Reward and the Admiration of the excellence of the Nature of God in it self and of the beauty of piety and virtue in which his image is resplendent Now as for the Fear of punishment it is always so much the greater as â—ustice is vigorous and inflexible And therefore the more implacable Religion represents the Justice of God the more powerful is it to reclaim and keep men from vice by the terror of punishment In like maner the Hope of reward ought to be greater where Mercy is greater too For our Conscience bears us witness that 't is on this score we are to expect it And if Admiration of the Perfections which are in God can be to us an efficacious attractive to goodness as indeed there is no true and sincere Piety which is not principally rooted and fixed on this foundation besides the great and incomprehensible Wisdom that is eminent in him the immense depths of his Mercy ought to ingulf all our thoughts and inflame all the affections of our souls with a holy devotion For ever since the time of the first sin all our piety is nothing but a gratitude towards his mercy And lastly for that Contraries mutually illustrate one another the Beauty of Piety and Virtue will be more resplendant by the opposition of Sin the horror of which appears so much the greater as the punishment that attended it is more terrible Now how much this consideration that God hath discharged the vengeance due to the sins of men on the person of his own Son exalts the lustre of all the precedent doctrine we shall not now insist upon for we have not yet consider'd the qualifications of his Person who hath made this satisfaction for our offenses But truely every one may of himself readily judge Lastly The Christian Religion infinitely excels the Jewish in the understanding of the Promises which concern the Messias For what Messias is that which the Jews expect A Triumphant King who by force of arms may subdue the Nations and bring Emperors under his yoak and break Empires in pieces may extend his conquests from East to West and from North to South and fill the whole Earth with the terror of his Legions and advance the Jewish Nation as high as it is now miserably abased For as for many more impertinences which they are otherwise guilty of in this matter I shall forbear to mention them as less intending their shame then their conviction And I cannot but pity them when I observe the race of Israel the Posterity of Abraham and the people once beloved of the Lord to equal and surpass in this all the extravagances of the Mahometans and the Pagan fopperies In that which I have propos'd which is the most tolerable of all their imaginations they sufficiently manifest that they are of the flesh and the world since they apprehend nothing but carnal and mundane things For if their remain'd in them any spark of spiritual Light they would acknowledge that they are compos'd of two Parts Body and Soul and that the body being earthly and material and endued with organs and faculties like to those of beasts do's not come neer the dignity of the nature of the soul which is spiritual inmaterial intelligent next the Nature of Angels and as it were a beam of the very Deity If therefore they expect glory and advantage from the appearance of their Messias it ought to be chiefly in reference to the soul and not for the body saving so far as it is the servant and dependant of the mind Now as we have shewn above in what can the glory of the soul consist but in Wisdom and Virtue And wherein do's wisdom lye but in the knowledge of him who is the Author and Fountain of all Virtue Prudence and Understanding Should he have turned the rocks into Diamonds and the flints trampled on at each step into Gold and Jewels the Snow of the Alpes into Butter and the rivers into milk the Wine of Judah into Nectar and the bread of Asher into Ambrosia and driven all the Kings of the earth fetter'd before his triumphant Chariot into Jerusalem yet all this terrene pompe and magnificence had not been comparable to his lively illumination of minds by the knowledge of the Most-high and to his victory over hearts their passions and appetites For there is so little proportion between the mind and the body that the greatest and most triumphant Emperor of the Earth if vicious and ignorant of things worthy the excellence of man is to be contemn'd in comparison of the most miserable slave that in the servile condition of his body excells him as to the understanding in Virtue and Prudence And I think there is not any so unworthy the being of man that would not choose rather to loose all the Kingdoms of the Earth if he possess'd them and after that even the limbes of his body then the use of Reason which advances him above the equality of beasts Moreover let them speak in conscience whether it be not the sense of their present calamitie and the miserable estate they are reduc'd into by their dispersion throughout the whole world that makes them breath after a Deliverer powerful
that all devotion of the Pagans was a service performed to Divels And as for the number of benefits which the Pagans received from Heaven they were not conferr'd on them upon the account of their ceremonies which were rather impieties and detestable abominations then Devotions but proceeded meerly from the consideration of God's being God namely as he is good and do's not cease notwithstanding any ingratitude of men towards him to do good to them as being naturally inclinable so to do and a lover of the race of mankind But whereas his purpose was to invite them to him by his benedictions as soon as they had received them they went to return thanks to Devils or certain Chimera's of Deities which themselves had invested with Divinity But if he seems to have gratified some few more particularly among whom there appear'd a greater measure of devotion as he favoured the Romans with numerous victories and other great advantages which rais'd their Empire to so renown'd a grandeur they were ordinarily rather judgements executed upon other Nations then testimonies of the favour of God towards the Republick of Rome For it is certain and the Prophets themselves foretold the same that God expresly purposed to render that State potent and terrible as if he would give a fierce and voracious beast teeth of Iron to destroy all that came in its way to the end that by devouring other Nations as it did it might execute the divine vengeance upon them yet without understanding the secret end such actions tended to And truely I know not how the Roman Armes could be acceptable to him by reason of their devotions which were all abominations since there is no appearance they could be so for their justice For as the Pirate of old said to Alexander the Great that himself was called a Pirate because he rob'd on the sea with a Shallop but Alexander was styled a Great King though he practis'd the same trade because he had a Fleet of five hundred sail the same reproach may with good reason be applyed to the Romans What difference was there between them and Theeves or Ravishers saving that these cannot pillage but some few persons they meet with travelling in Woods or some remote houses in Forrests and they plundred Kings and Kingdoms Who sold that vagabond Romulus the jurisdictions of the Potentates of all the world to transmit the same to his Descendants There is then less reason to think that God took pleasure in their superstitions which were inept and ridiculous though they had had no reference to Devils Can it be believed for example that God punish'd a Roman Consul with an overthrow of his Army because he had despised the Augury they us'd to take from young chickens who did not devour the food cast to them greedily enough Or that Marcus Crassus was defeated and slain by the Parthians because he had made light account of I know not what imprecations or cursings which had been made for him by Caius Atteius Certainly there was never in the world a greater contemner of Auguries and Presages and other such fopperies then Julius Caesar nor yet any Warrier that ever succeeded so fortunately and gloriously in so many Battels For he seem'd to have took up a resolution of trampling upon those superstitions and braving his own Gods and nevertheless all this hindred him not from atchieving his Enterprises It were to have an ill opinion of the Wisdome of God to imagine he was pleased with the devotions and ceremonies which the Roman Priests themselves despised in so high a degree that One saith in Cicero they had much ado to contain from smiling when they met one another in the streets But if God sometimes heaped some particular favors upon Nations whose Justice and Virtue were more commendable then their devotions it was to shew how grateful true Virtue is to him since he regarded so graciously that which was no more then a shadow of it Which tended to the incitement of other people to the imitation of those whom he favoured so because as I said above he loves the Society of mankind and such Society cannot subsist without men bear at least some kind of affection to that which hath the appearance of Virtue and Justice But as for their pretended Religions he was ever so far from having any esteem of them that he always had an implacable aversion against them It is not my intention here to judge of the favour which he may have shewn towards some in his great mercies For it is in truth most certain that upon judgement of things not according to appearance onely but by the Rules we have in the Word of God and by the Oeconomy he hath follow'd toward all Nations besides the people of Israel all the Gentiles were subject to a dreadful Curse But it suffices that it is not my design at present to insist further upon this point besides that it would be a great temerity to limit God in the dispensation either of his Wisdom or his other Perfections or to pronounce determinately of things which are not revealed to us I shall onely say that it is a thing directly repugnant to truth reason and Nature that the Religions of the Ethnicks should have been grateful to him For it cannot be concluded that for that many amongst them were lead with a good zeal to such devotions by a good zeal I mean the desire of being well-pleasing to the Deity therein they therefore performed an acceptable or so much as excusable service to him The aim and design of an action does not render the same good or praise-worthy unless it be so in effect of it self otherwise all things considered apart by themselves would be in a manner of the same value and it would be onely the End that made the difference between them And because that opinion That the intention alone is capable to denominate and put a price upon actions is a Rock on which I observe many fall foul upon I esteem it not impertinent to spend a few pages in explication of the matter There are generally two sorts of things in which men are deficient either toward God or towards one another The first are those in which men offend when they are transported by the violence of their Passions although reason either by its own natural instinct or advertisement by some express command of God makes them hold out for a while For where Vice ha's not wholly clouded and subverted reason which happens onely to such as God abandons in an extraordinary manner men do not commit many considerable crimes without reluctancy of conscience but at length after some contest and encounter Reason becomes captiv'd by the violence of Passion Now no person can on any grounds account these kind of actions excusable For since the private conscience of those which perpetrate the same do's not acquit them how can they be excus'd thereof by others No question every one is the most favourable
he with his posterity lost the knowledge by Sin it would be requisite sutable to that opinion to presuppose that Adam in his first creation was not indued with all moral perfection required in humane nature Which indeed would be an affront to him that formed him But I beseech you do not the praises wherewith David extolls the Law of God constrain us to have a more advantageous esteem of it The Law of the Lord is perfect saith he in the 19. Psalm converting the soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the heart the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes And in the 119. Psalm he prayes for nothing else but that God â—ould illuminate him in the knowledge of the Law that he might walk in his Commandments as being the rule of all perfection desireable which is also extreme frequent throughout the whole book of his sacreâ— Hymnes But if the Law contains the measure of the most exquisite and accomplisht perfection that can be in humane nature then since the denunciation is express that Cursed is he who abideth not stedfast in all the things of this Law to do them he is undoubtedly subject to the malediction that deviates from this Law and omits or commits the least thing forbidden or commanded by it But a curse denounced by the mouth of God himself cannot but be unconceivably dreadful and hideous In the next place the Gospel teaches that the Law is so inflexible in its rights that 't is impossible after having transgress'd it whether in a small or great matter to be acquitted from punishment so as not to suffer the same either in proper person or in that of some other Which to an intelligent considerer even the Law it self sufficiently testifies For it denounces on the one side an inevitable curse to them that transgress it God himself pronouncing the same from the mountain of Sinai with lightnings and thunders smoke and flashes of Fire and earthquakes On the other side gratuitous remission of offenses is promised to them that have violated it Now what expedient is there to fill up the abysse which is between these extremes Shall that pardon be granted without preceding punishment If so what need was there of such terror at the promulgation of this Law and after to suffâ—â— all those horrible menaces of malediction vanish away thus in smoke Perhaps God powers all the Curse upon the victimes instituted upon himself to be sacrifices of propitiation and 't is true they are termed expiatory a hundred and a hundred times But what a kind of Comedy would it be if God after himself had publish'd his Law with such dreadful majesty should be contented for satisfaction of the transgressing of it with the death of a poor beast Might not that Adage be here applyed Parturiunt montes c. It remaines therefore that those terrible threatnings must either fall upon them that violate the Law or upon some other capable to bear the same substitute in their room that so they may be secur'd from them And the glory of the Law remains hereby more full and intire For Reward being a sequel not more natural to Virtue then Punishment is to Vice the Law which denounces a Curse for transgression and yet does not really inflict the same is as imperfect as that which should promise a reward to its observers and afterwards when it came to the effect frustrate all their expectations As he that should have fulfilled the Law in every point would have cause to complain of it if in case he reaped not the recompense of his piety and virtue so would the Law have cause of complaint if he that violated it did not undergo the penalty of his offence the natural order of things alike requiring both the one and the other And from hence results a thing which turns marvellously to the advantage of the Christian Religion above the Jewish Namely that it represents to us the principal Attributes of God in which his usual wayes consist as his Justice Mercy and Wisdome in a much more eminent degree of excellence For as for his Justice it is nothing but a natural repugnanee that is between him and sin by reason his Nature is good and holy and the essence of sin as they speak consists in iniquity and pollution a repugnance I say which necessarily inclines him to the hatred and abhorrence of sin For he were not God unless he hated Evill Now all Hatred is a vehement desire of revenge and hence it is that in their books this Justice is termed Wrath and Fury and even an ardent Fury Whence we infer that accordingly as God is perfect in himself so he abhors Evil and as he perfectly abhors it so he is equally inclin'd to execute vengeance upon it Wherfore the Christian Religion which teaches that God ha's not saved the World without being revenged I say not without taking satisfaction convenient to his Justice exhibits the same to be consider'd in a more eminent degree then that which holds forth remission without inflicting deserved vengeance For since the hatred of sin is a virtue in God the more implacable this hatred is the greater is the virtue There are indeed three sorts of satisfactions First such as is made to repaire a dammage received as if one should give a Statuary money for having broken an Image in his shop Secondly such as is in order to contenting an incensed Passion as when we strike one by whom we have been offended For though no good accrue to us by his harm yet the passion is contented by being revenged Thirdly a satisfaction of Justice when without regard either to dammage or indignation a crime is expiated by punishment for the sole love of righteousness and the natural order which ought to be in things Now the first hath no place in God for what dammage can arise to him from our offenses Nor the second For he is not subject to our Passions choler and animosity do not discompose his serenity nor agitate him in any manner And if these Passions are oftimes attributed to him in the books of the Prophets 't is by way of similitude with the humane mind as well as repentance or rather according to the similitude which seems to be between the actions us which men do out of choler and those which God does out of justice inasmuch as both the one and thâ—â—ther cause grief or pain to those on whom they are exercised 'T is therefore the third sort of satisfaction or revenge which is competent to God after so peculiar a manner that the more perfect his nature is it must of necessity be equally inexorable And no man can imagine a justice in God capable of leaving the sins of men unpunish'd but he must with all fancy him little abhorring sin and too negligent of the natural order of things Which would be a very unbefitting reflexion