which God hath allowed him and so under a Vizard of Right and Possession we are no better than Robbers in the Account of God when by refusing to relieve our Brothers necessities we spoil him of his Goods his Goods I say by the very same Title that any thing is ours even by the free Donation of God 'T is the hungry Man's Bread which we hoard up in our Barns his Meat that we glut and his Drink that we guzzle 't is the naked Man's Apparel that we shut up in our Presses and do so exorbitantly ruffle and flaunt in and what we deny out of our Abundance to an Object of real Pity and Charity is in the account of God an unjust Usurpation of his Right For by the Institution of God I owe every man this Right not to see him pine and perish for want whilst I surfeit and swim in Plenty And thus you see what Rights appertain to a Man in his first Capacity viz. as inhabiting a Mortal Body CHAP. II. Of Justice in preserving the Rights of Men consider'd as Rational Creatures II. I Proceed in the second place to observe That there are other Rights accruing to Men as they are Rational Creatures for it is this indeed that giveth a Right to common Justice to be governed by Laws and by Rewards and Punishments that we are free and Rational Agents who can chuse or refuse and determine our selves which way soever we think fit or reasonable For without Reason and Free Will we could no more be capable of Laws nor subject to Rewards and Punishments than Stones or Trees are For no Law can oblige a Being that hath no Power over his own Actions nor can he deserve to be rewarded when he doth well nor punished when he doth evil if it be not in his Power to do otherwise and therefore Beasts cannot be said to do either justly or unjustly towards one another because whatsoever good or evil they do one another they do it necessarily and it was not in their power to do otherwise But because Men are free Agents and have power to determine themselves either to do good or evil to one another therefore of right they claim of each other the mutual Performance of such Goods and Forbearance of such Evils as agree or disagree with the State and Condition of their Natures And hence every Rational Creature hath a Right to be used and treated by those of his own Kind agreeably to the state of his Rational Nature and for one Man to treat another otherwise is not only hurtful but also injurious Now the Rights which one Rational Creature may by the condition of his Nature claim of another may be reduced to these four particulars First Every Man has a Right to an equitable Treatment from every man Secondly Every Man hath a Right to judge for himself so far as he is capable Thirdly Every Man hath a Right not to be forced or impelled to act contrary to the Judgment of right Reason Fourthly Every Man hath a Right to be respected by every man according to the dignity of his Nature I. EVERY Man hath a Right to an equitable Treatment from every man that is to be treated according to the measures of that Golden Rule of Equity prescribed by our Saviour Matth. vii 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets i. e. in all your Intercourses with men suppose you had exchanged conditions with them and that you were in theirs and they in yours and be sure you do them all that good which upon a due consideration of the case you could reasonably expect or desire of them if you were in their persons and circumstances And this Right of being treated by others as they would expect to be treated by us supposing they were in our Circumstances ariseth from that equality of Nature that is between us which giveth every one a right to be equally treated by every one and to claim all those good Offices from others which they might reasonably claim of him if they were in his state and circumstances For we being all propagated from the same Loins and partakers of the same Nature every Man in the world is by cognation of blood and agreement of nature every man's Brother and Kinsman We are all but so many several Streams issuing from one common Source but so many several Twigs sprouting from the same Stock we are all of us but one Blood derived through several Channels but one Substance multiplyed and dilated into several Times and Places by the miraculous Efficacy of the divine Benediction We are all fashioned according to the same Original Idea resembling God our common Father we are all endowed with the same Faculties Inclinations and Affections and do all conspire in the same essential Ingredients of our Nature and there is nothing doth distinguish or diversifie us but what is accidental to our Being such as Age and Place Figure and Stature Colour and Garb so that every man is not only our most lively Image but in a manner our very Substance or another Our Self under a small Variation of present Circumstances which Circumstances are to be considered in every application of the above-named Rule of Equality to our Actions If I am superior to another either in my place or Relation or in the Goods of my Mind or Fortune I am only obliged by this Rule to do that by him which I might reasonably desire he should do by me were he as much my Superior as I am his But when all Men naturally as such are equal and do stand upon even terms and level ground there ought to be no other Inequality in their mutual Treatment of one another but what is owing to the Inequality of their Circumstances and he who doth that to another man which upon good Reason he would not have another do to him in the same Circumstances doth unjustly usurp a Superiority over him which neither Nature nor Providence alloweth of For there is no Proposition in the Mathematicks more self-evident than this Paria paribus conveniunt equal Things agree to equal Persons and therefore since we are all equal by Nature whatsoever things are due to me must by the same reason be due to another in the same Circumstances and therefore he that denieth to another Man that which he conceiveth he might justly claim of him in the same condition unjustly with-holds from him a Right that is due to him as he is his Equal in Nature II. EVERY Man hath a Right to judge for himself so far as he is capable for we must either suppose that every Being hath a Right to use its own Faculties or else that it hath its Faculties in vain for to what purpose serve its Faculties if it hath no Right to make use of them And to what purpose serveth our Faculty of Reason but only to judge for
by their Pastor to be taught and instructed by him with wholsome Doctrine and Example to be prudently admonished of their Faults and Dangers and counselled and advised by him in all their spiritual Straits and Exigencies and he who is wilfully failing in the faithful discharge and payment of these Dues is a Thief and a Robber of his Peoples Souls that so far as in him lyeth rifleth them of that which ought to be dearer to them than their Estates or Lives even the Bread of Life without which they cannot live but must starve and perish for ever and if they do it is by his unjust Neglect to render them their Dues and their Blood will be required at his hands IV. THERE is the Relation of Husband and Wife who having mutually bestowed themselves upon each other and sealed the Deed by Matrimonial Vow are thereby interwoven into one another and morally compounded into one Person For Marriage is an Union of Persons an Incorporation of two into one by moral Ties and Ligaments so that between Husband and Wife there is the nearest and dearest Union that can be between two natural Persons they are each others Property and Inclosure having by mutual Vows made over and exchanged themselves for one another by vertue of which they have a mutual Right in each others Person and cannot bestow themselves away from one another without being guilty of the most outragious Injustice For the Husband is one half of the Wife and the Wife of the Husband and therefore whenever they alienate themselves from each other they rob one another of one half of themselves And it is this that doth so much inhance the sin of Adultery beyond that of simple Fornication because when the Husband disposeth his Body to another Woman or contrariwise he is not only guilty of an unbounded rambling Lust which is the proper malignity of simple Fornication but also of a foul and monstrous Injustice For he having made himself his Wife's by Promise and Vow cannot give away himself from her without being impiously injurious without robbing God of his Vow and robbing her of himself for whom she exchanged her self And consequently they who endeavour to seduce the Wife from the Husband or the Husband from the Wife are guilty of a horrid Injustice in attempting to rob God and Man of that which is most dear and pretious to them and to break through Vows and Sacred Fences to Trespass on their Neighbour's Inclosure which how common soever it may be in this degenerate Age is certainly one of the blackest Villanies in Nature And as Husband and Wife have a mutual Right to each other's Persons so they have also to each other 's dearest Love and Affection for there is no Relation doth so nearly intitle and interest Persons in one another as that of Marriage nor consequently that giveth them so great a Right and Title to each other's Hearts and Affections Mat. xix 5. For this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh and then no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it saith the Apostle exhorting to Matrimonial Love Eph. v. 29. Husband and Wife are one by a moral Union of Persons and therefore for them to hate and abuse one another would be as unnatural as for a Man to hate and tear his own flesh Again as they have a mutual Right to each others Persons and Affections so they have also to each others Help and Assistance hence the Apostle calleth them Yoak-fellows implying that they ought to draw together and mutually assist one another in their common Concerns and Interests For in the union of their Persons their Interest is combined and united so that that which is the one's is the other's their Meums and Tuums are confounded together and their Fortunes make a common Stock wherein they are Partners with one another and are intitled to the promiscuous use and enjoyment of it And being Sharers in the same Interest they ought to be mutually helpful and bear a part of each others Cares and Burdens for when they are both intitled to the same Fortunes and Interests it is by no means just that the one like a slothful Drone should dwell at ease in the Hive and devour the Hony whilst the other like a laborious Bee goeth forth and toileth to gather it These are the common Rights and Dues which Husband and Wife owe to one another but then the Husband having the Superiority hath a Right to be reverenced and obeyed by his Wife in all things that are fair and honest to be entertained with a gentle Behaviour addressed to with soft Entreaties and treated with a sweet Complyance and therefore for a Woman to behave her self perversly towards her Husband to controul his will in indifferent matters and if he will not yield to teaze and weary him with her sour Looks or clamorous Words or provoking Deportment is not only a great Dishonour to her own Head but a high and shameful Injustice for which she must one day account to God as well as for other Iniquities And then on the other hand the Wife being no otherwise inferior to the Husband than the Body is to the Soul or the Bosom to the Head ought not to be treated by him as his Slave and Servant but as a part of Himself i. e. with all lenity and forbearance tenderness and complaisance and as Plutarch saith the Husband's Empire over the Wife ought to be soft and chearful to be allayed and sweetned with the greatest Condescension and Officiousness and that Soul is not more unrighteous to its Body that starveth or macerateth or evil intreateth it than the Husband is to his Wife who behaveth himself churlishly sourly or imperiously towards her Col. iii. 19. Husbands love your Wives saith the Apostle and be not bitter against them i. e. be not morose and rough stern and severe in your Carriage towards them but be sure you use them with all that honourable Regard prudent Compliance and indearing Familiarity that is due to them as they are parts of Your Selves V. THERE is the Relation of Friend and Friend which I put next to that of Husband and Wife because it is next to it in respect of Nearness and Affinity For Friendship is the Marriage of Souls and Interests and Counsels the Union or Exchange of Hearts the Clasp of mutual Affections or true Love-knot that tyeth Mens Hearts and Minds together for as for the Matter of Friendship it is Love and Charity but as for the Form of it it is Charity appropriated to such particular Persons so that Charity is Friendship in common and Friendship is Charity inclosed In a word Charity is Friendship expanded like the force of the Sun when he riseth above the Horizon and shineth upon all the World but Charity is Friendship contracted like the Rays of that glorious Light drawn into the Center
beyond the Guilt and Demerit of our Fault and whatsoever else is just from a God to a Creature he is unchangeably determined to choose and act by the Law of Righteousness in his own Nature Since therefore the Nature of God is the great Exemplar and Pattern of all Reasonable Natures as being it self the most perfectly reasonable whatsoever is imitable in it we are eternally obliged to copy and transcribe into our own and consequently since he is eternally just that is an eternal Reason why we should be so By dealing justly with one another we act like God whose Nature is the Standard of ours and 't is certainly fit that all Reasonable Beings should deal by one another as God who is the most reasonable dealeth by them that they should choose and act in conformity to him who is the Pattern of Goodness and the Rule of Perfection And herein consisteth our Conformity to him that we live by the Law of his Nature and therefore so long as that Law determineth him to deal justly by us it ought to determine us to deal justly by one another So that the Obligations of Iustice are as eternal as the Nature of God for so long as he is righteous we are bound to be righteous in conformity to him and therefore since he cannot cease to be righteous without ceasing to be happy and good or which is all one to be God We can never cease being obliged to be righteous so long as God is III. ANOTHER eternal Reason by which we are obliged to do justly is the Agreement and Correspondency of it with the Divine Providence and Disposals For God being the supreme Lord and Proprietor of Beings all those Rights and Properties which we claim of one another must be originally derived from him even as the claims of the under-Tenants are from the Head-Landlord All those Natural Rights we are invested with we derive from him who is the Author of our Nature who by creating us what we are and uniting us by Natural Ligaments to one another hath endowed us with all those Rights which we claim as Rational Creatures dwelling in Mortal Bodies and joyned together by Natural Relations and Society So that to deal justly by one another or with respect to our Natural Rights is only to allow one another what God hath entailed upon our Natures and mutually to render those Dues to each other which he hath intitled us to by the very Frame and Condition of our Beings and for us to with-hold from one another those Rights which God hath consigned to us by the State and Formation of our Natures is to quarrel with his Workmanship and declare our selves disatisfied with the State of his Creation For whatsoever I have a Right to as I am a Man I have a Right to by the state and condition of my Nature and therefore he who alloweth me not that alloweth me not to be what God hath made me permitteth me not to enjoy that State and Condition of Nature wherein God hath created and placed me For whatsoever I have Right to as I am a Man I have a Right to from God who made me a Man and therefore he who denyeth me the Right of my Nature thrusteth me down from the Form wherein God hath placed me and useth me as if I were not what God hath made me whereby he doth in effect fly in the Face of my Creatour and quarrel with God for making me what I am In a word it is eternally reasonable that I who am the Creature of God should pay so much Reverence to his all-creating Wisdom and Power as to treat every Creature suitably to the State and Condition of its Creation and consequently to treat Men as Men that is as Beings endowed by God with the common Rights of Humane Nature which if I do not I alienate from my own Kind what God hath endowed it with and so in effect do disallow of his Endowments and impiously call in question the Rights of his Creation For either I must own that God ought not to have constituted Humane Nature with such Rights which would be to impeach his Creation or that I ought to render it those Rights which result from its Frame and Constitution and therefore when by my Actions I disown that I ought to render them I do in effect quarrel with God's Creation for entailing such Rights upon Humane Nature and declare that I am resolved not to be concluded by it but that I will for ever defie the Laws of the Creation and will not abide by that Rule and Order which it hath established in the Nature of Things If therefore it be reasonable eternally reasonable for Creatures to act agreeably to the Order of their Creation this is an eternal Reason why we should render to one another those Rights which God hath bequeathed to us by the Constitution of our Natures AND as our natural Rights are derived to us from God by his Creation so are our acquired also derived from him by his Providence who having reserved to himself the Sovereign Disposal of all our Affairs is our Founder and Benefactor upon whom we all depend for every Right and Property we acquire by our Conversation and Intercourse with one another and that this is mine and that yours is owing to the Providence of God which carves out to every one his Portion of Right and divides as he sees fit his World among his Creatures So that Justice as it refers to acquired Rights consists in allowing every Man to enjoy what God hath given him by his all-disposing Providence and if God hath an eternal Right to share his own Goods among his own Creatures as he pleases then that is an eternal Reason why we should allow one another to enjoy those Portions which he hath shared and divided to us For by depriving another Man of what God's Providence hath given him I do not only rob him of his Right to enjoy it but I also rob God of his Right to dispose it Fore while I with-hold or take away what God hath given to another I take his Goods against his leave and impiously invade his Province of bestowing his own where he pleaseth and whilst I thus carve for my self out of those Allowances which he hath carved to others I live in open Rebellion against his Providence and am an Out-law to his Government For this in effect is the Sense and Meaning of my wrongful Incroachments upon other Mens Rights that I will not be concluded by that Division and Allotment of Things which God hath made but that I will divide and carve for my self and live at my own Allowance that I will not suffer him to share his own World nor endure him to reign Lord and Master in his own Family of Beings but e'en live as I list and take what I can catch without asking God's leave who is the supreme Proprietor and Disposer So that to deal unjustly by Men
then with our Reproofs we ought to take care that we do not intermingle Lightness or Drollery on the one hand nor Passion or sharp Invectives on the other but that we perform this merciful Office with the greatest Modesty Seriousness and Compassion first endeavouring to anticipate the Offender's Displeasure with kind and gentle Insinuations of our unfeigned Respect and Benevolence towards him then representing his Crime to him with such a compassionate sense of the Evil and Danger of it as may convince him that that which renders us so severe to his Sin is nothing but mere Mercy and Charity to his Soul for to reprove a Man lightly or passionately looks more like a design to deride or reproach him for his Sin than to reclaim him from it Lastly we ought to take great care that the Matter we reprove him for be really culpable that we do not reprehend him for any innocent Freedom no nor for every trifling Indecency but only for plain and unquestionable Trespasses upon Religion lest he should look upon our Reproofs as the language of a supercilious and morose Spirit that affects to domineer and find fault and as such should despise and reject them To avoid which it is highly adviseable that while we reprove what is evil in him we should commend what is good that so our bitter Pill being sweetened with a due Commendation may be rendered more palatable and so go down with less Difficulty But if the Offender whom we reprove be under our Power and Government to our Reproofs and Admonitions we are obliged in Mercy to add Correction if Necessity requires for when it is come to that pass that our Child or Servant must smart or be damned 't is a cruel Softness and Indulgence not to chastize him Were your House on fire you would think it a Mercy to be rescued from the Flames though you were dragged out by the Hair of the Head And when the Flames of Hell are kindling about your Child or your Servant would it not be much more merciful to snatch him away though with Smart and Violence than to stand still and let him perish for fear of hurting him 'T is true Correction ought not to be used till gentler Means have been tried and found ineffectual For Blows are Arguments for Beasts and for beastly Natures fit only to be applied to stubborn and obstinate Tempers that are insensible of Reason and Persuasion But when they are applied it ought to be done with the greatest Tenderness and Compassion when our Minds are calm and our Passion allayed that so the Offender may be sensible we do it not to wreak our Spleen or vent and ease our Fury but meerly to reclaim and amend him The Sense of which will cause the Correction to operate more kindly in him to affect his Ingenuity as well as his Fear and to melt him with the Mercy whilst it breaks him with the Severity of it This therefore is the Mercy which we are obliged to exercise towards obstinate and stubborn Offenders Fifthly and Lastly ANOTHER of the Miseries which affect Mens Souls is Impotency or Want of Power to recover themselves out of their vicious Courses for a vicious State doth so miserably weaken and disable Mens Faculties so impair the health and vigour of their Minds that it is not in their Power to help and recover themselves out of it For to their Recovery it is necessary first that their Thoughts should be determined to a fixed and exact Consideration of the Evil and Danger of their Sins and of the blessed Hopes which God hath set before them to tempt them to renounce and forsake them And then that these Considerations should so prevail upon and influence their Wills as to captivate them into a thorough Resolution of Amendment both which Effects are out of the reach of the Sinners Power considered singly and without the concurrence of the Divine Grace For his Mind is so depressed and bowed down towards these earthly and sensible Objects which have been hitherto the sole Companions of his Thoughts that it is not able to raise up it self to the Consideration of Divine Things And though now and then a good Meditation may break in upon him and seize upon his Thoughts yet it cannot hold them a quarter of an hour together they are so roving and slippery so backward and averse to any thing that is serious and divine So that unless the Divine Spirit lays hold upon them and by his powerful and importunate Inspirations confines and fixes them the Man will never be able to reduce them to any fast and steady Consideration And when with the Holy Spirit 's Assistance he hath effected this he hath a perverse and obstinate Will to deal with which no Considerations will be able to determin to a fixed Resolution of Amendment but what are set home upon his Mind and continually actuated and enlivened with the vigorous Influence of the Spirit of God So that of himself every habitual Sinner is a most weak and impotent Creature that with all the Powers of his Mind and Will the utmost Efforts and Struglings of his own Faculties is not able without a supernatural Aid to rescue himself from Sin and Misery For how many sorrowful Instances do we every day converse with of Men who in their sober Thoughts will sadly lament their own Follies and blush in the morning when they remember how their Brains were set a float by their last Night's Intemperance who yet when the next Temptation beckoneth them to their Lust again return as greedily to it as ever and though when they have repeated their Sin they curse it and resolve against it yet when they are tempted sin again and then weep and call themselves miserable But still alas the same Inchantment confineth them to the same Circle Now in this Philosophy is at a stand nor can there any other rational account be given of it but only the miserable Frailty and Impotence which Men contract by vicious Courses What then is to be done for these miserable Persons in this their forlorn and helpless Condition Why besides all the above-named Instances of Mercy which we are obliged even for Pity 's sake to apply to them we are also bound in Mercy earnestly to recommend their woful Condition to the God of all Grace and Compassion to beseech him to commiserate their Impotence and with the out-stretched Arm of his Grace to touch their dead Souls and raise them up into Newness of Life For though in all Cases of Misery Prayer is a proper Act of Mercy yet there is none that doth so much need and call for our Prayers as this For in all other Cases either it is in the Power of the Miserable to help themselves or it is in the Power of the Merciful to rescue and relieve them or the Miseries are such as will quickly end and expire into Eternal Ease but as for thâ— Misery of the obstinate Sinner it is
devouring Vermin whose business it is to croak about the Streets and wander from Door to Door whilst many a poor industrious Family that hath more Mouths to feed than Hands to Work lies drooping under its Wants and Necessities Wherefore though the former are not to be altogether neglected when their Needs are real and urgent yet certainly Prudence will direct our Charity to such persons as have either fallen from Riches to Poverty and consequently are less able to Toil and Drudge for Bread or else to such as are either worn out by Labour or disabled from it by Sickness or oppressed with such a numerous Charge of Children as do exceed their utmost Industry to maintain In such good Grounds as these Prudence will advise us to sow the main of our Charities and not to throw it away with a careless Hand upon the barren Rocks and High-ways to be devoured by Vermin and Birds and Prey III. WE ought to exercise our Prudence in determining the Nature and Quality of our Alms. And herein Prudence will direct us to prefer those Alms which may serve a poor Man for a constant Provision and put him in a fixed way of living before those which are transient and do only help in a Pang of Need which do just hold him up from perishing for an Hour but do not take him out of the deep Waters Wherefore if the Person to whom we design a Relief be fit and able to work or hath been bred up in any honest Occupation 't is a much wiser Charity to provide him an Employment or to contribute towards the Setting him up in his Trade than barely to relieve his present Necessity because by this means we relieve him both for the present and the future and convert our Alms into a standing Maintenance Upon which Account 't is doubtless a very prudent Charity to contribute to the Erection and Maintenance of Publick Work-houses for the Poor where they and their Children may be provided with such Work as they are capable of and thereby be inured to Industry and enabled to support themselves And as prudent Charity prefers such Alms as do draw after them a lasting Effect and Benefit before such as do only supply a transient Necessity so it also chuses if it be consistent with Convenience to gives its Alms in Kind rather than in Value to give Cloaths to the Naked and Food to the Hungry Physick to the Sick and Books to the Uninstructed for though Mony indeed will answer all these Needs yet we are not sure it will be always laid out upon them IV. WE ought to exercise our Prudence also in sttating the Proportions of our Charity that is what Proportion of our Income or Increase we ought to devote to Charitable Uses and in what Proportion we ought to distribute For as for the first of these when all is done every Man must be his own Casuist the Iews indeed had a Proportion fixed and stated to their Hands for there was a double Tithing prescribed to them by the Law of Moses viz. the every years Tithing which was an annual tenth part of their Increase for the Maintenance of their Priests and Sacred Officers and then there was a third years Tithing which amounted to the thirtieth part of their Increase and that was devoted for the Supply and Maintenance of the Poor and if such a Proportion were required of the Iews we may besure a greater is required of us whose Righteousness must exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees if ever we mean to enter into the Kingdom of God But since God hath not determined the exact Proportions of our Charity it is impossible for us to do it where there are such different Circumstances and Abilities in this matter therefore we must have Men who best understand their own Condition to the Guidance of their own Conscience and Discretion who are in the first place to consider what is requisite to support them in the condition of their Birth their Place or Office or Family and to the Discharge of their several Obligations For Prudence doth not require of all the same Proportions of Charity some may afford a twentieth others a thirtieth and to others whose Children and Dependents are numerous or whose Fortunes are clogged and entangled the hundreth part may be over-measure Wherefore according as the Heap is the wise Man is to sow and distribute substracting not only what will support his Life but also what will maintain the Decency of his Estate and Person and that not only as to present Needs but also as to future Necessities and very probable Contingencies But yet in the stating of this matter it is doubtless much safer to exceed than to fall short of our due Proportions for as for exceeding we have many holy Persons for our Precedents we have Christ himself for our Voucher in the forenamed Case of the poor Widow and a vast Treasure in Heaven for our Reward Wherefore in the determination of this Case Christian Prudence will direct us not to be too nice and curious too fond and partial to our selves in stretching our Needs and Conveniences beyond their just Dimensions but to take easie and moderate Measures of them and to spare what may be decently spared from superfluous Servants idle Meetings unnecessary Feasts and chargeable Garments and Diversions and if we thus pare off our needless Expence and lay aside the Surplusage for Charity the Consequence will be this the Poor will be more plentifully relieved and our selves will be more able to do it and we shall reap more Pleasure and Profit from laying out upon the Backs and Bellies of the Poor than from wasting it on our own Vanity And now having fixed the Proportion of your Estates for Charity you ought in the next place to advise with your Prudence in what Proportions to distribute it and here Prudence will direct you to differ in your Distributions according to the different Circumstances of those whom you design to relieve by them To such as are of a lower Rank Prudence directs to give by little and little according to their emergent Necessities yet so as not always to limit your Alms to their bare Necessities but sometimes to extend them even to their Refreshment and Recreation that so together with their Toil and Drudgery they may now and then enjoy some Sabbath for the Ease of Humane Nature but to such whose Fortunes are by Loss and Accident sunk and declined both Decency and Mercy requires us to enlarge the Proportion of our Alms considering how great a Fall it is from Plenty to Necessity and consequently how much more is necessary to raise up such dejected Creatures who are so unexperienced to misery into any degree of Comfort or Self-enjoyment Fifthly and Lastly WE ought to exercise our Prudence also in the Manner of bestowing and conveying our Alms so as that we may oblige both by what we give and by the way of our giving
Being stands inclined to beget and propagate its own Likeness and consequently every Being that is happy cannot but be inclined to make others so so far as it consists with its own Interest Since therefore God is not only happy in himself but so securely happy as that he can contribute what he pleases to the Happiness of others without any Prejudice to his own his own Self-Love must nesarily incline him to beget his own Likeness on his Creatures and so propagate his Happiness through the World And being thus inclined by his own Self-Love to transform all other Beings into his Likeness that is to make them happy as he is happy he must needs be tenderly affected with the Miseries of his Creatures and immutably inclined so far as it is just and wise to succour and relieve and render them happy Thus Mercy you see which is a Good Will to the Miserable doth most necessarily result from God's own Self-Love and consequently is an inseparable Principle of his Nature And accordingly God proclaims himself to Moses Exod. xxxiv 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious longsuffering abuddant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgressions And hence his Mercy is said to be everlasting Psal. c. 5. and to be from everlasting Psal ciii 17. and to endure for ever Psal. cvi 1. and he is said to be rich in mercy Ephes. ii 4. and is stiled the God of all grace 1 Pet. v. 10. and the Father of mercies 2 Cor. i. 3. Now the Nature of God is the supream Example and Pattern of all Rational Natures and so far forth as ours do swerve and deflect from his they are maimed and imperfect For his Will is our Law not meerly because 't is his Will but because it is over-ruled by the infinite Perfections of his Nature by his Wisdom and Justice his Mercy and Goodness which if upon an impossible Supposition he should will contrary to that Will would be no Law i. e. it would have no force upon our Consciences to oblige us to obey it So that the supream Law is the Nature of God by which his Will is and all other Wills ought to be concluded and determined and whatsoever we discover in his Nature either by Reason or Revelation that is communicable to ours we ought to follow and imitate it as our Soveraign Pattern and Exemplar Since therefore both Reason and Revelation do so plainly discover a most merciful Inclination in the Nature of God this is an everlasting Reason why we should be merciful And this is the Reason our Saviour urges Luk. vi 36. be ye merciful as your Father also is merciful that is Let it be seen that you are the Children of God by your participation of his Nature which is infinitely benevolent to the Miserable for there is nothing sinks you farther from God or renders you more unlike him than a cruel and unmerciful Temper 'T is this that blackens and deforms your Souls that wreaths and distorts them into a contrary Figure to the most amiable Nature of the Father of Spirits For as the highest Perfection is the Nature of God and that is a most merciful one so the lowest Imperfection is the Nature of Devils and that is a most cruel one And therefore as by Mercy we incline towards the Nature of God which is the Land-mark we ought to follow so by Cruelty we decline towards the Nature of Devils which is the Sea-mark we ought to avoid II. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Convenience of it with the Frame and Constitution of Humane Nature in which the wise Author of Nature hath implanted a natural Sympathy between those that partake of it in each others Pains and Pleasures So that though the Humane Nature be largely diffused and spread through infinite Numbers of Individuals which by vast distances of Time and Place are separated from one another yet as if it were but all one common Soul operating in several Bodies in several Times and Places it feels almost in every one Body what it enjoys or suffers in every other and whether it be pleased or offended in one Individual is pleased or offended in them all And though the Sense be quickest in that Individual Part or Member of Humane Nature upon which the Pain or Pleasure strikes immediately yet all the rest how distant soever in Time or Place as soon as they have notice of it are sensibly touched and affected with it For thus when we read or hear of the Calamities of other Men our Bowels yern by a natural Sympathy though they are never so distant from us and are no otherwise related to us than as they partake of our Natures and though they are long since dead and out of the reach of any Assistance yet their Miseries without any Motives of Reason or Discourse strike us into a soft Compassion yea though we know the Calamities which we read or hear of to be nothing but Romantick Fictions yet the very Imagination of them is ready to melt us into Tears in despight of our Will and our Reason Nor is this visible only in Persons that are adult but even in little Children who as soon as they are capable of taking notice of things do without any Reason express themselves pained and afflicted with the dissembled Griefs and Sufferings of those that attend them All which are most evident Instances of that general Sympathy which naturally intercedes between all Men since we can neither see nor hear of nor imagine anothers Miseries without being touched with a sensible Pain and Affliction AGAINST which I know no other Objection can be urged but this that there are sundry Instances of Men who seem to have arrived to that degree of Cruelty as to take Pleasure in afflicting others and are so far from Sympathizing with their Pains that they rather seem to be recreated with them To which I shall only answer these two things First That that Delight which some Men take in plaguing and afflicting others proceeds not from their natural Temper but is rather to be attributed to some violent Effervency and Transport of their Natures such as are outragious Anger or deep and inveterate Revenge under both which Nature is discomposed and disordered and chafed into a preternatural Ferment And accordingly when it is cooled again and reduced to a composed Temper instead of rejoycing in the Mischiefs it hath done it usually bewails and laments them and reflects upon them with a great deal of Horror and Remorse Which is a plain Argument that Humane Nature in it self is very tender and compassionate how much soever it may be accidentally transported by unnatural Passion superinduced upon it Secondly Suppose what is objected be true that there are some Natures so cankered and Diaboliz'd as to be really pleased with the Pains and Miseries of others the Instances of this kind are so few
that they are only so many Exceptions to a General Rule and therefore ought rather to be looked upon as so many Monsters of Men than as the Standards of Humane Nature For as we do not look upon it as natural to Men to be born without Hands or Feet though there have been Instances of such monstrous and unnatural Births so neither ought we to think it natural to Men to be cruel and unmerciful because of a few Devils in Humane Shape that have pulled out their own Bowels of Compassion If we would understand what is humane and natural we must take our Measures from those who in all other cases do live most conformably to the Laws of Nature and to be sure the more regular Mens Natures are the more you will find them abounding with Pity and Compassion For hence it is that Mercy and Compassion are called Good Nature and Humanity and their contraries Ill Nature and Inhumanity because as the former are inseparable Properties of well-formed and regulated Natures so the latter are such hideous Deformities of Nature as do in effect devest us of our Manhood and render us a kind of Monsters among Men. By all which it is evident that the great Creator hath framed and composed our Nature to Mercy and implanted in it a tender Sympathy and fellow-feelling of each others Miseries by which as by a Voice from Heaven he doth eternally call upon us to let out these our natural Compassions into Acts of Mercy towards one another For the Voice of Nature is a genuine Eccho and Repetition of the Voice of God who by creating in us such a tender Sympathy with one another doth most expresly signifie that it is his Will that we should mutually succour and relieve each other For to what other end should he create in me such a Feeling of my Brother's miseries but only to provoke me by it to ease and succour him why should he cause me to partake as I do of other Mens Pains and Pleasures but to excite me thereby to use my best endeavour to asswage their Pains and advance their Pleasures Since therefore the God of Nature hath made my Neighbour's Misery my Pain and his Content my Pleasure and by the indissoluble Bands of mutual Sympathy hath linked our Fortunes and Affections together so that 't is for my own Ease to ease him and for my own Pleasure to please him this is an eternal and immutable Reason why I should be merciful to him III. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and by which it is constituted morally Good is the near and intimate Relation of those Persons to us upon whom our Mercy is to be exercised For there is between Men and Men a most intimate Kindred and Relation as being all derived from one common Root whose prolifick Sap hath sprouted into infinite Branches which like the Boughs of Nebuchadnezzar's Tree have spread themselves to all the ends of the Earth And as we are all Children of the same Parents and consequently Brethren by Nature so we do all Communicate of the same Nature as being compounded of the same Materials and animated with the same Forms having all the same Faculties Inclinations Appetites and Affections and being only so many several Copies transcribed from the same Original and there is no other Difference between us but what is made by things that are extrinsick and accidental to our Natures So that in short we are all but one and the same Substance attired in a diverse Garb of Circumstances divided into several Times and Places and diversify'd by the little Accidents of Colour and Stature Figure and Proportions in all which perhaps within a little while we shall differ as much from our selves as we do now from other Men. For do but compare your selves in your Youth or in your Health or in your Prosperity with your selves in your Age or in your Sickness or in your Adversity and you will find as much Difference between your selves and your selves as you do now between your selves and others so that in reality other Men are as much you now as you are your selves in other Circumstances we being all the same in every stable essential Ingredient of our Natures and being only diversified by such Accidents from one another as will in a little time diversifie us from our selves Thus the Apostle saith Acts xvii 26. He hath made of one blood that is of one Nature all nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth There being therefore such a close Conjunction such a strict Union of Natures between Men and Men so that every other Man is every other Man's self a few trifling Circumstances excepted this is an everlasting Reason why we should treat them as we do our selves with all Compassion and Humanity For to commiserate one who is my other self is that which I am obliged to by own Self-Love which God hath made an eternal Law to my Nature 't is to feed a Member of my own Body and nourish a Branch of my own Root yea 't is to feed and succour my own Nature that is only individuate from mine by I know not what Metaphysical Principle and cloathed in different Accidents and Circumstances So that now the very same Self-Love which doth so importunately instigate us upon all occasions to redress our own miseries ought in all reason to provoke us to relieve and succour other Men since all the Miseries they endure are the Miseries of our own Nature insomuch that we run their Fortunes and by a natural Communion are Partakers of their Pains and Pleasures For the Humane Nature which is common to us and them endures the smart of their afflictions and bleeds through every wound that is given them so that by pouring into those Wounds the Balsam of our Mercy we do an Act of kindness to our selves and wisely consult our own Preservation As on the contrary by dealing cruelly and unmercifully by other Men we do affront and violate our own Natures and most unnaturally thwart that Principle of self-love which God hath implanted in us for our own Preservation For he whom thou treatest with so much Contempt and Cruelty is thy own self individuated into another Person and wears thy Nature under other Circumstances he is Man of thy Manhood Flesh of thy Flesh and Bone of thy Bone and no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it Eph. v. 29. Wherefore thou canst not deal cruelly by him without wounding thy self through his sides and committing an unnatural Outrage upon the Humane Nature whereof he is equally Partaker with thee IV. ANOTHER eternal Reason upon which Mercy is founded and rendered morally Good is the Equitableness of it to our own State and Circumstances for no Man ever was or ever can be so happy as not to have need of Mercy for himself The best of Men are Sinners before God and for that are liable
'T is no piece of Mortification for a Man to abstain only from the outward Acts of Sin if in the mean time his Will is so far consenting to it as that he would practise it were it not for some intervening hindrances or for want of a fair Opportunity For in the Eye of God to which our inmost Thoughts and Purposes are all open and unmasked the Will to Sin is the Sin that is willed though it should never proceed into Action With Him it is acted as soon as it is conceived and it is conceived as soon as ever it is thought of with Consent It grows in the Delight we take in the Speculation of it but is ripened in the Resolution of committing it For when once we are resolved upon it our Heart hath done its utmost towards it and so our consenting to it makes it perfect Sin though it should never break out into Action So that 't is Nonsense to talk of mortifying our Sin while it hath the Consent of our Wills for though it is more dangerous in the Action and approaches nearer to a Habit because the Consent continues all the while we commit it and is confirmed by the Pleasure we reap in the Commission yet still it is Sin though it is only consented to and it lives in the Purpose though it breaths not out into the Practice Our Enemy is not conquered when it is only shut up within its Holds and it doth but fortify it self within while it wants Opportunities to sally out into Action If we do not sin only because we cannot or because we want Opportunity we are but Devils in Chains and are never the less guilty because we cannot do as much Mischief as we would For he that would sin if he could hath sinned already as far as he is able and so is every whit as criminal in the Account of God as he that doth sin when he can The Mortification of our Lusts therefore doth necessarily imply the withdrawing the Consent of our Wills from them and the final divorcing them from the Embraces of our Choice for while they enjoy our Consent they live in us and rule us though they should never have the Opportunity to come abroad into our Practice III. MORTIFICATION consists in a constant Endeavour to subdue our involuntary Appetites and Inclinations to sin It is not sufficient that we do not practise sin nor consent to the Practice of it but we must make it our constant Endeavour to wean and abstract ourselves from those evil Tendencies and Inclinations which we have contracted by our former Sins For though these Inclinations remaining in us are no farther our Sin than we do yield and consent to them yet while we patiently harbour them within our Bosoms and do not honestly endeavour to smother and extinguish them they are chosen and voluntary and have the very Bane and Formality of Sin in them Though we should be disabled from Acts of Adultery yet while we retain with Delight our Inclinations towards it and quietly please our selves in the fantastick Joys of it whilst we freely entertain its lewd and filthy Ideas and suffer them to walk to and fro upon the Stage of our Fancies without Check or Controul we are still adulterous in the sight of God to whom our Lust is as obvious within the Closet of our Minds as upon the Theatre of our Practice We must not think therefore that our Sin is mortified because we neither practise nor consent to the Practice of it for while we have any Inclinations to sin remaining in us we must endeavour to subdue and conquer them If we do not we have only forced our Enemy into his last Retreat where by our own Neglect we give him Opportunity to rally and reinforce himself against us For our Sin still lives in our Inclination to sin and will soon if it be not beaten thence recover its broken Forces and grow as formidable as ever 'T is true he that doth not consent to his own evil Appetites but constantly denies them those vicious Gratifications which they crave taketh an infallible Course to starve and destroy them For as these were first raised in us and afterwards nourished into Nature by our vicious Practices so by refusing to practise those Sins which they incline us to and by practising the contrary Virtues we shall by degrees abate the Strength and Vigour of them And as they decay so holy Inclinations will spring up in their room which being heightened and made intense by a constant Practice of Holiness will by degrees expel these our vicious Inclinations and grow into Nature and Habit. But meerly to abstain from the outward Acts of Sin is a tedious way of mortifying our inward Inclinations towards it for vicious Appetites will live a great while even upon innocent Gratifications Though we should be drunk no more yet if we indulge our selves the utmost Liberties of Sobriety that will continue our Appetite to Intemperance Though we should abstain from all outward Acts of Lasciviousness yet unless we deny our selves some of the lawful Pleasures of the Body these will foment our wanton Inclinations Though we should not suffer our Rage and Spight and Malice to express themselves in any prohibited Actions yet if we allow our selves even in lawful Anger and just Resentments of Injuries this will for a great while preserve and keep alive our most black and devilish Propensions And besides that this way of abstaining meerly from Sin will make the business of Mortification tedious it is also full of Hazard and Difficulty For he that only abstains from Sin and gratifies his Inclinations as far as lawfully he may is every moment in danger of exceeding the Line that parts the utmost of what is lawful from the nearmost of what is sinful For Inclination like all other Motions is always swiftest when it is nearest its Center and when once it is within the Reach and Attraction of its beloved Vice then it hurries towards it with Fury and Impatience insomuch that many times our Conscience proves too weak to stop the course of its impetuous Motions And then when once it hath tasted the forbidden Pleasure of its Sin it immediately recovers all its impaired Strength and many times grows more fell and outragious than ever and so the Ground we got in a Month's Abstinence from our Sin we lose again in a Moment's Enjoying it by which means the Work of Mortification becometh extreamly difficult and hazardous Wherefore if ever we mean to conquer our bad Inclinations we must not only abstain from the Sins we are inclined to but also from the Occasions of them If it be Sensuality we must starve it out by prudent Fasting and Abstinence if Devilishness we must force it out by thwarting and contradicting it in the course of our Practice and keep it at the greatest distance from it For evil Inclinations are not to be mortifyed without Force and Violence and like crooked
which arise from the Consideration of the future State because these will fall in hereafter when I come to discourse upon it All the Arguments that I shall here urge therefore to press you to mortify your Sins shall be drawn from the Consideration of those present Miseries and Inconveniences which they bring you into And these I shall rank under two general Heads First SUCH as are outward and Bodily Secondly SUCH as are inward and Spiritual I. THE outward and Bodily Inconveniences which our Sins bring upon us are chiefly these Four First THEY destroy our Health and shorten our Lives Secondly THEY stain our Reputation Thirdly THEY waste our Estates Fourthly THEY disturb even our sensual Pleasures and Delights I. CONSIDER how your Sins destroy your Health and shorten your Lives And to convince you of this I need do no more than only to lead you into the Slaughter-houses of Death and to shew you how thick they are hung round about with the numerous Trophies of Lust and Intemperance Behold there lieth an Adulterer choaked with the stench of his own Rottenness there a Drunkard fettered with Gouts and drowned in Catarrhs and Dropsies there a Glutton stifled with the Loads of his own undigested Meals loe there lye the dismembred Martyrs of Revenge and Insolence that have lost their Limbs upon the Field in a foolish Quarrel for Vanity and Mistresses and there the Envoys of Rapine and Murder whose infamous Carkasses have furnished the Scaffolds and the Gallows These and such like woful Examples almost every day's Experience presents to our View which one would think were sufficient to warn Men of those Vices which they so commonly find attended with such tragical Effects And indeed there is no Vice whatsoever but does one way or other undermine our Health and impair the Strengths of Nature For all Viciousness consists in an Excess either of our Passions or our Appetites and it is plain and obvious how destructive to our Health the wild Excesses of our Appetites are how naturally Wantonness doth melt our Strength consume our Spirits and rot our Bones how Gluttony obstructs our Breath oppresses our Stomachs and drowns our Bodies in unwholsome Crudities how Drunkenness inflames our Livers corrupts our Blood dilutes our Brains and converts us into walking Hospitals of Diseases And as for the Excesses of our Passion it is no less apparent how much they disturb and discompose our Natures Thus Anger we see fires the Spirits and inflames the Blood and makes the Humors sharp and corroding Thus immoderate Sorrow oppresses the Heart dries the Bones shrivels the Skin and overcasts the Spirits with Clouds of Melancholy Thus Envy swells the Hypocondries which by drinking up the Nourishment of the neighbouring Parts makes the whole Body lean and meager And in a word thus excessive Fear stagnates the flowing Spirits and turns the Blood into a trembling Ielly And such Disorders as these when they are frequent must needs gradually undermine the Forts of Life and hasten them into an untimely Ruin Now is it not very strange that those Men who are commonly so over-tender of their Lives should be fond of Diseases and court their own Executioners That they should choose to swallow Sicknesses to drink dead Palsies and foaming Epilepsies and to pass through so severe a Discipline of Torments only to get an Habit of destroying themselves 'T is true indeed some there are that have been so naturaliz'd to their Vices that they cannot live nor be well without them that are sick while they are temperate and are not able to sleep but in a Sea of Liquor and are fain to put themselves into Excesses of Passion to ferment their Blood and rouse their drousy Spirits But then it is to be considered that generally they bring themselves to this sad pass by their own evil Habits and Customs which they acquire by doing great Violence to themselves and committing forcible Outrages on their own Natures There is no unreasonable Passion or Appetite can be necessary to our Health or Ease till we are first habituated to them and before we can be habituated we must undergo a tedious Course of Pain and Uneasiness many a Fit of tormenting Rage must be endured many an uneasy Draught and sickly Qualm and fainting Sweat must be undergone before Wrath and Intemperance can be made easy and pleasant to us and much more before they become necessary Remedies And it is rare if ever we have need of these Excesses till by a long Course of Violence upon our selves we have first over-turned our natural Temper and Constitution And what Man in his Wits would ever swallow Poyson meerly to force his Nature into a Reconciliation with it when he is sure before hand that if he doth not die in the Experiment as 't is a great Chance but he doth yet that he must undergo many a Sickness and bitter Agony before his Nature is so accustomed to it as to be preserved and nourished by it But alas by that time we are arrived to that Pitch of Intemperance as to be drunk without the Penance of a Surfeit or a Fever the Heat and Vigour of our Nature is usually so quenched with crude Humors our Spirits so drowned in Rheums and Dropsies and our Brains so drenched in Clouds of unwholsome Moisture that all our Life after we are but so many walking Statues of Earth and Flegme and having washed away all the Principles of Reason and Discretion in us we grow old in Folly and Sottishness and at the last die Changelings Thus Sin you see is a Disease to the Body it wasts our Strength and either makes the Candle of our Life to burn dim or blazes it out into an untimely Period Why then should we not be as earnest in the Cure of this as we are of our other Diseases For doubtless would we but as carefully apply the Means and Instruments of Mortification as we do when we are sick of a Feaver or an Ague the proper Remedies against them we should quickly cure those Excesses of our Passions and Appetites which do so disease our Bodies and disturb our Natures II. CONSIDER how your Sins do stain and blemish your Reputation For there is nothing in the whole World more natural to Men than to admire Virtue and disesteem Vice wheresoever they find it This we seem to do by a Natural Instinct antecedently to all our Reasoning and Discourse and it is no more in our Power not to do it than it is to chuse whether our Pulse shall beat or our Blood circulate For that Virtue is an Ornament and Vice a Deformity to humane Nature is a Proposition so self-evident that at the first Proposal it commands the Assent of all Rational Beings nor is it in any Man's Power so far to offer Violence to his own Faculties as to believe Vice praise-worthy or commendable any more than it is to believe that to be white and strait which he sees to be black and
Creatures and this Reason of ours is implanted in us by the great Author of our Beings for no other End but only to steer and direct us to be an Eye to our blind and brutish Affections to correct the Errors of our Imaginations and bound the Extravagances of our Passions and Appetites and to regulate the whole Course of our Actions so as that we may demean our selves as becomes such Beings as we are and placed in such Relations and Circumstances God therefore having compounded us of contrary Natures viz. Rational and Sensual which are pregnant with contrary Inclinations and Affections from hence arises the Necessity of all those Heroic Virtues which consist in the Dominion of our Reason over our Sensitive Affections and Appetites such as Chastity and Sobriety Meekness and Equanimity and the like all which are proper to us as Beings made up of contrary Principles from whence spring those contrary Inclinations in the good or bad Government whereof consists the Nature of Virtue and Vice Whilst therefore we keep our Brutal Passions and Appetites in Subjection to our Reason we follow the genuine Current of Humane Nature in which our best and noblest Principle rules and all our inferiour Powers are regularly subordinate to it But when we degenerate into a State of Sin we thereby discompose the Harmony of our Natures and put all our well-ranked Faculties into a strange Disorder and Confusion For every Sin is a Rebellion either of our Passions or Appetites against our Reason and we never commit any known Evil but we wilfully affront our own Understandings and offer open Violence to those superiour Faculties that should rule and govern us So that when by a Custom of sinning our Passions and Appetites have been train'd up for a while in Disobedience to our Reason they will by degrees grow so head-strong and ungovernable that it will be a hard matter to restrain them within any Compass of Reason and Sobriety and unless we take a world of pains to suppress them they will never leave rioting and tumultuating within us till they have broke through all their natural Confinements into a licentious wild and boundless Anarchy and having thus got head within us and beaten our Reason from its native Throne they will hurry us headlong into all manner of Follies and Extravagances For now we shall act no longer from Reason but from Sense our Nature being turn'd upside-down and the Cardinal Points of our Motion chang'd into quite contrary Positions so that our Reason will stand us in no other stead but only to cater for our Flesh and sensitive Affections and to make us Brutes with greater Luxury and Relish And being thus wholly acted by our brutish Sense and led only by the blind Instincts of the Flesh our Reason will have no hand in the Government of our Lives but like the Beasts of the Field we shall live at random and do things not because they are reasonable in themselves but because they are pleasing to our unreasonable Affections and Appetites Such a strange Disorder doth Sin bring upon our Natures so miserably doth it blend and confound our Faculties that were it not for our Speech and Shape it would scarce leave us any remaining Character of Distinction from the Beasts that perish For it dissolves our Reason into a meer sensual Sagacity and enslaves that high-born Power to every base Passion and Appetite and so reduces our well-formed Natures into an undistinguish'd Chaos where Sense and Reason Brute and Man are shuffled together in a heap of rude and undigested Ruins So that methinks had we any Reverence for that excellent Nature that we carry about with us that Nature by which we are allied to Angels and do border upon God himself we should never endure to harbour those inhumane Lusts that do so disorder and confound it that make such Spoils and Devastations within us that do so disturb the Harmony of our Faculties and disjoint the very Frame of our Beings III. SIN disturbs the Tranquillity of our Minds and this naturally follows from the former For the Mind of Man can never be at Ease so long as its Bones are out of joint and all its Faculties so wofully disorder'd For thus every thing is at Ease so long as it is in its own natural State and Condition but when once its Parts are displaced or put into a Disorder or distorted into an unnatural Figure it is in restless Motion till it returns again to the specifick State and Posture of its own Nature And so it is with the Mind of Man which while it preserves its own natural Station and Superiority over our Affections and Appetites is calm and quiet and serene and enjoys within it self perpetual Ease and Tranquility But being thrown out of its native Throne and led into Captivity by its own Vassals it can find no Rest in this preternatural State but like a disjointed Member is in perpetual Anguish and Anxiety and having like all other Things an inward strong Propension to its own natural State and Condition it will be perpetually struggling and contending towards it till it hath quite wearied and tired out it self with its own vain and ineffectual Efforts and then it will sit down and bemoan it self and pine away with Grief and Diffatisfaction And hence it is that in the Course of a wicked Life we feel such Contentions between the Flesh and the Spirit such perpetual Broils between the Law in our Minds and the Law in our Members which proceeds from this natural Struggling and Conatus of the Mind to recover its native Empire over our Affections and Appetites From which it will never wholly surcease till it is wholly subdu'd to the Will of the Flesh and when it is so it will be perpetually torn and distracted by those various wild and inconsistent Affections whereunto it will be subjected For so long as our Passions are subject to our Reason there can be no Division among them because nothing can divide our Passions but only our proposing to our selves different and contrary Ends But the Ends of Reason are all consistent with and subordinate to one another it s lesser and inferiour Ends being only the Inns at which it baits upon the Road towards its superiour ones and whilst we are under the Power and Conduct of one Sovereign End our Passions must necessarily joyn hand in hand and walk together like Brethren in Unity But when once they have shaken off the Yoke of Reason and submitted themselves to the Dominion of Sense among that great Variety of Ends and Objects which Sense proposes to them they must needs be torn and divided one from another For such is the Scantiness of Sensual Goods that we not being able to content our selves with any one of them are fain to walk the Rounds in a constant Succession and Circle of Varieties and then every one of these various Goods will create within us a various Desire And so as
works were done woe unto thee Corazin woe unto thee Bethsaida for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes From whence I argue that that Grace which would have converted Tyre and Sidon was not irresistible for if it had it would have converted Corazin and Bethsaida too For how could they have resisted irresistible Grace And why should it not have had the same Effect on the one which it would have had on the other had there not been something in the one which was not in the other which did actually resist and vanquish it And so likewise in the Parable of the Seed sown in the High-way the stony thorny and good Ground Matth. xiii the Reason why the Seed prospered in some and not in others is plainly resolved into the different Condition of the Soil for as for those that either considered not at all or not enough the Seed of the Divine Grace proved altogether ineffectual to them but as for those who had so throughly consider'd its Proposals as to form in their Minds a firm and settled Judgment of them it produced in them a most fruitful Spring of Virtues and good Works Which is a plain Argument that the Successes of God's Grace depend upon the Concurrence of our Endeavours with it for had it wrought irresistibly upon these different Soils it must have had the same Success in all And indeed it is infinitely unreasonable to expect that God should make us good irresistibly without the free Concurrence of our own Will and Endeavours since by so doing he must offer Violence to the Frame of our Beings and alter the established Course of our Natures which consists in a free Determination of our selves according to the Dictates of our own Reason For that which is irresistible must necessitate the Subject upon which it acts and therefore if we are impell'd to be good by a Power which we cannot resist it is not in our Power to choose whether we will be good or no. Wherefore though God be infinitely desirous of our Happiness and ready to contribute whatsoever is necessary to promote it yet he will not effect it by necessary Means and Causes but in such a way only as is fairly consistent with the Liberty of our Wills that is he will not save us without our selves whether we will or no but take our free Consent and Endeavour along with him And having done all that is necessary to persuade us he expects that we should consider what he saith and upon that consent to his gracious Proposals and express this Consent in a constant Course of holy and vertuous Endeavours and if we will not do this we cannot be sav'd unless God work a Miracle for us and alters the Course of Nature which is the great Law by which his Providence doth govern all the Beings in the World And this we have no Reason to expect either from the Goodness of God's Nature or from any Revelation he hath made to us not from the Goodness of his Nature for why is it not as consistent with that to govern us as free Agents as to make us such Not from any Revelation of his Will for that indispensably exacts our free Concurrence with his Grace and Assistance and requires us to make our selves a new Heart to cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling 'T is true God is also said to work in us to will and to do to create in us a new heart and to create us in Iesus Christ unto good works Which seemingly repugnant expressions can be no otherwise reconciled but by supposing God and Man to be Ioint-Causes contributing to the same Effect so that where God speaks as if He did all we must suppose the Concurrence of our Endeavours and where he speaks as if We were to do all we must suppose the Concurrence of his own Grace III. WE may be assur'd from hence of the Certainty of Success upon such a Concurrence of our Endeavours with the Spirit of God which plainly implies the Assistances of the Spirit to Be within our Power as being in an inseparable Conjunction with our sincere and faithful Endeavours And that they are so is apparent for as for the outward Assistances of the Spirit which are the powerful Arguments and Motives of the Gospel we have them always at hand and may make use of them when we please we have a free Access to this divine Armoury and may at any time furnish our selves with sufficient Weapons to assoil the most formidable Temptations And as for the inward Aids of the blessed Spirit God by his own free Promise hath inseparably entailed them upon our honest and pious Endeavours Thus he hath promised to give his grace to those who humble themselves and to draw nigh unto them who submit themselves to him Iam. iv 6 7 8. and unto every one that hath that is improveth what he hath he hath promised it shall be given and that he shall have abundance xxv Matth. 29. and to every one that asketh sincerely and honestly he hath promised to give his Holy Spirit Luk. xi 13. And thus by his own free Promise he hath tied his Spirit to our Endeavours so that we may have his Assistance when we please he being confined by his own Promise to be ready at our Call and to come in to the Aid of our Endeavours whensoever we shall need and ask his Assistance And having such a powerful Second engaged in our Quarrel what Reason have we to doubt of Success and Victory For what Lust is there so strong that we may not subdue What Habit so inveterate that we may not conquer What Temptation so powerful that we may not repulse whose endeavours are thus seconded with Almighty Aids from above For now whatsoever the Divine Spirit can do in us we can do because we can do that which being done will infallibly oblige him to concur with us And though we cannot conquer our Lusts in our own single Strength yet we can by our Endeavours engage him on our side who is both able and willing to enable us to conquer them So that if we will we may be invincible and there is no Temptation can be too strong for us if we do not by our own Sloth and Cowardice disingage the Almighty Spirit from assisting us IV. FROM hence we may perceive how much Reason there is for our continual Prayers and Supplications to God since it is so apparent that our Victory over Sin and consequently our eternal Welfare doth so much depend upon the Aids and Assistances of the Spirit of God and since God is so ready to give his holy Spirit to us whensoever we sincerely ask and desire it Now the great Reason of Prayer is Want and the greatest Encouragement to it is Assurance of
no such thing as future Rewards and Punishments it is a Folly for any Man to concern himself about any thing but his present Interest and in reason we ought to judge things to be good or evil only as they promote or obstruct our temporal Happiness and Welfare Now though it is certain that in the general there is a natural Good accruing to us from all vertuous Actions as on the contrary a natural Evil from all vicious ones and it is ordinarily more conducive for our temporal Interests to obey than to disobey the great Law of our Natures Yet there are a world of Instances wherein Vice may be more advantageous to us than Virtue abstracting from the Rewards and Punishments of another World It is ordinarily better for me to be an honest Man than a Knave it is more for my Reputation yea and usually for my Profit too and it is more for the publick Good in which my own is involved But yet pro hic nunc it may be better for me with respect only to this World to be a Knave than an honest man For whensoever I can but cheat so secretly and securely as not to fall under the publick Lash nor to impair my Reputation and I can but gain more by the Cheat than I shall lose in the Damage of the Publick it will be doubtless more advantageous for me as to my worldly Interest to cheat than to be honest And how often such fair Opportunities of Couzenage do occur no Man can be insensible that hath but the least Insight into the Affairs of the World So that if God had not reserved Rewards and Punishments for us in another World we should not have sufficient Motives universally to observe that great Law of Righteousness which he hath given us For whensoever we could cheat or steal securely it would be highly reasonable for us to do it because thereby we might promote our own temporal Happiness which would be the only End we should have to pursue And the same may be said of all other Laws of Nature which without the great Motives of a future Happiness and Misery could no longer induce any reasonable Man to obey them than it is for his temporal Interest to do so For suppose I can secretly stab or poison a Man whom I hate or dread or from whose Death I may reap any considerable Advantage What should restrain me from such a barbarous Fact If you say the Law of Nature pray what Reward doth the Law of Nature propose sufficient to compensate the Dissatisfaction of my Revenge or the Danger I run in suffering my Enemy to live Or what Punishment doth the Law of Nature denounce that is sufficient to balance the Advantage of a thousand or ten thousand Pounds a year that may accrue to me by his Death If you say the Law of Nature proposeth to me the Reward of a quiet and satisfied Mind if I forbear and denounces the Punishment of a guilty and amazed Conscience if I commit the Murder I easily answer that this Peace or Horror which is consequent to the Forbearance or Commission of Murder arises from the Hope and Dread of future Rewards and Punishments which being taken away to murder or not murder will be indifferent as to any Peace or Horror that will follow upon it And this being removed what Consideration will there be left sufficient to restrain me from the bloody Fact when I have an Opportunity to act it securely and am furiously spurred on to it by my own Revenge and Covetousness So that if there be no Rewards and Punishments in another Life to enforce the Commands of the Law of Nature it is apparent that no such Rewards or Punishments are annexed to it in this Life as are universally sufficient to oblige Men to observe it And is it likely that the All-wise Governour of the World would ever impose a Law under an insufficient Sanction That he would ever give out his Commands to his Creatures and then leave it indifferent to them whether they will obey him or no As he must needs have done if in all circumstances it be not far better for us to obey him than to disobey him And if our Nature is so framed as not to be effectually persuaded to Obedience without the Motives of everlasting Rewards and Punishments it is at least highly credible that there are such Because it would be unworthy of God so to frame the Nature of one of his noblest Creatures as to render it incapable of being governed by him without Falshood and Deceit II. THAT there is a future Happiness reserved for Good Men in the other World is highly probable from those Desires and Expectations of it which do so generally and naturally arise in pure and vertuous Minds We rarely if ever read of any vertuous Man of whatsoever Nation or Religion or Sect of Philosophers whose Mind hath not been wing'd with earnest Hopes and Desires of future Happiness and I know none that have ever denied or despaired of it but only such as have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and vitiated the Principles of their own Nature Such were the Sadducees and Epicureans Sects that had drowned all that was humane in them in Sensuality and Voluptuousness and are branded upon Record for their shameful Indulgence to their own brutish Genius And such are no Standards of Humane Nature but ought rather to be looked upon as Monsters of Men and therefore as we do not think it natural to Men to be born with six Fingers upon one Hand though there have been many such monstrous and unnatural Births so neither ought we to judge either of what is natural or unnatural to Men by those humane Brutes who by their perpetual wallowing in the Pleasures of the Body have monstrously disfigured their own Natures and dissolved all that Reason by which they are constituted Men into a mere sensual Sagacity of catering for the Appetites of the Flesh. If we would know therefore what is humane and natural to us we must take our Measures from those who are least depraved and are most conformable to the Laws of a Rational Nature who have preserved the natural Subordination of their Faculties and reduced their Passions and Appetites under the Empire of their Reason And these are the Men whom we call vertuous and who because they live in the Exercise of those noble Virtues which are proper to us Men are to be looked upon as the Standards of Humane Nature by whom alone we can judge of what is natural and unnatural to us Now Virtue and the Desires and Hopes of Immortality are so near allyed that like Hippocrates's Twins they live and die together For though while Men live a brutish and sensual Life their future Hopes are usually drowned in their present Enjoyments yet when once they recover out of this unnatural State and begin to live vertuously like reasonable Beings immediately they feel great Desires and Expectations of a future Happiness
terrifie than to please and delight us for what Pleasure could a Soul take in the Vision of that God whom She always hated and could never endure to think of Doubtless She would be so far from being pleased with the Sight of him that it would be her Grief and Torment to behold him The Sight of his Purity and Holiness would be so far from delighting her that it would but reproach her lewd and sordid Degeneracy from the Temper of a pure and immortal Spirit the Vision of his Mercy and Goodness would be so far from pleasing her that it would but upbraid the horrid devilishness of her own disposition and which way soever She turned her Eyes She would see nothing in God but what did libel and condemn her own Impurity and Wickedness And how is it possible that such a Sight should ever be pleasing unto such a Spectator Doubtless the Vision of God which is the Heaven of Godlike Souls would be a Hell to wicked Ones it would chase them out of Heaven if they were in it and cause them to fly away from before the Glory of it as Bats and Owls do from the Light of the Sun and of their own accords to wrap their guilty Heads in the Shades of eternal Darkness and Despair For how could they endure the Sight of that God in whom while they continue so infinitely unlike him it is impossible they should see any thing but Causes of Horror and Confusion For there must be in us some Likeness and Resemblance of God to dispose us to behold him with Pleasure and Delight For as Maximus Tyrius hath well observed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Divine Nature which is not visible to the eye of Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diss I. Is yet visible to that in the Soul which is most pure and beautiful and sublime and noble in respect of a certain similitude and cognation that is between them But where this similitude is wanting the Vision of God will be rather a Hell than a Heaven if there be no Correspondence between what we see in God and what we are in our selves his Glory may confound and dazzle us but it is impossible it should please us for what Pleasure can we take in seeing that which is so infinitely disagreeable to our Natures II. IN every sensual and devilish Mind there is an utter Indisposition and Contrariety to the Love of God for all Love is founded in Likeness and doth result out of some Harmony and Resemblance that there is between the Lover and the Beloved But what Resemblance can there be between a devilish and carnalized Soul and a good and holy God And if there be none Light and Darkness or Heaven and Hell may as soon agree as They. For how can a Soul whose Affections are drenched in Matter and wedded to the Flesh love the holy God who is a pure and spotless Spirit What Amity can there be in a black and devilish Nature towards the most kind and benign Being in the World Doubtless from such a Contrariety of Natures there must necessarily spring mutual Antipathies and Aversations So that could such a Soul be admitted to the Vision of God she would see nothing in him but what would enrage and canker her with Malice against him the Sight of those glorious Perfections in him which are so repugnant to her own Nature instead of enamouring her would but boil up her Hatred into an higher degree of Aversation to him For even here we see it is natural to lewd and wicked Men to picture God by the foul and monstrous Original of their own Tempers and generally the Notion which they have of him is nothing but the Image of themselves which Narcissus-like they fall in love with because it represents what they most delight in even their own darling and beloved Lusts. Which is a plain Argument that they cannot love God till they have deformed him into their own likeness and with the Aethiopians copyed him out in the Resemblance of their own black and devilish Tempers When therefore they shall see Him as He is encircled about with his own Rays of unstained and immaculate Glory the vast Unlikeness they will then discern between Him and themselves will doubtless enrage and sowr their Spirits against him and convert all their fondness towards him into an utter Antipathy and Aversation for so long as He continues what He is and they what they are there will be such an irreconcileable Contrariety between them that they must hate either God or themselves or else love Contraries at the same time which is impossible III. IN every sensual and devilish mind there is a strong Indisposition to their being made like unto God i. e. there is the same Indisposition in them to their receiving the Likeness and Image of God as there is in one Contrary to admit of another Their sensual and devilish Dispositions will as naturally resist the transforming Impressions of the divine Purity and Goodness as Fire doth Water or Moisture Drought for the Image of God being a moral Perfection must be impressed on us by the intervening Ministry of our Understandings that is by our Sight and Vision of him and hence the Apostle gives this Reason why we shall be like him when he doth appear because we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. iii. 2. But the Sight of God which assimilates us to him must be accompanied with the Love of him for it is Love that provokes to Imitation and Imitation that transforms the Lover into the Image of the Beloved For though doubtless the beatifick Vision doth work far more effectually upon prepared Souls in the other Life than the knowledg of God doth in this because here we see but in a glass darkly whereas there our Vision will be unspeakably more clear intense and vigorous yet I doubt not but in assimilating us to God it works in a moral and rational way that is by vigorously affecting our Wills with the Perfections of God so as to stir us up to an active Imitation of them and efficaciously to excite us to transcribe them into our own Natures which it cannot be supposed to do unless our Souls be in some measure predisposed by Holiness and Purity to the Love of God and of those glorious Perfections we shall then behold in him For if we do not love God the Sight of him will be so far from provoking us to imitate him that it will avert us from him and render us more unimpressive to the transforming Power of his glory 'T is true this Vision of God will perfect our Likeness to him if it be begun because then it will have a prepared Subject to act upon a Soul that is temper'd and dispos'd to the Power of it and to take Impression from it but yet it will not create a Likeness where it never was but will leave him that is wicked to be wicked still he being an incapable Subject
concluded that doubtless he was employed upon some great Design of Love to communicate from the Almighty Father some mighty Blessing to the World and accordingly we find that though the holy Angels did not comprehend the particular Intention and Mystery of Christ's Incarnation yet they concluded in the general that it was intended for some great Good to the World as is apparent by the Anthem they sung at his Nativity Glory be to God on high on Earth peace good will towards Men. Now the greatest Expression of God's good Will towards Men is to rescue them from all Iniquity and restore them to the Purity and Perfection of their Natures for without this all the Blessings of Heaven and Earth are not sufficient to make us happy While our Nature is debauch'd and overgrown with unreasonable Lusts and Passions we must be miserable notwithstanding all that an Omnipotent Goodness can do for us for Misery is so essential to Sin that we may as well be Men without being reasonable as sinful Men without being miserable Since therefore the End of Christ's coming into the World was to dispense God's greatest Blessings to Mankind and since the greatest Blessing that we can receive from God is to be redeemed by his Grace from our Iniquities and to be made Partakers of the Divine Nature we may reasonably conclude that this was his main Design in the World and the great End of that everlasting Gospel which he revealed to it And hence the name Iesus was given him by the Direction of an Angel because he should save his people from their Sins Matth. i. 21. and indeed I cannot imagine any Design whatsoever excepting this that could be worthy the Son of God's coming down into the World to live such a miserable Life and die such a shameful Death Had it been only to save us from a Plague or War or Famine it had been an Undertaking fit for the lowest Angel in the heavenly Hierarchy but to save us from our sins was an Enterprize so great and good as none in Heaven or Earth but the Son of God himself was thought worthy to be employed in This therefore was the Mark of all his Aims while he was upon Earth the Center in which all his Actions and Sufferings met to save us from our Sins and to inspire us with a divine Life and God-like Nature that thereby we might be disposed for the Enjoyment of Heaven and made to be meet Partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light 'T is true he died to procure our Pardon too but it was with respect to a farther End namely that we might not grow desperate with the Sense of our Guilts but that by the Promise of Pardon which he hath purchased for us we might be encouraged to repent and amend But should he have procured a Pardon for our Sin whether we had repented of it or no he would have only skinned over a Wound which if it be not perfectly cured will rankle of its own accord into an incurable Gangrene Christ therefore by the offering of himself is said to purge our consciences from dead works that we might serve the living God Heb. ix 14. and the great Apostle makes the ultimate Intention of his giving himself for us to be this that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. ii 14. And until his Death hath had this Effect upon us it is not all the Merit of his Blood and Vertue of his Sacrifice that can release us from the direful Punishments of the other Life For unless he by his Death had so altered the Nature of Sin as that it might be in us without being a Plague to us it must necessarily if we carry it with us into the other World prove a perpetual Hell and Torment to us So that it is apparent that the great and ultimate Design of Christ was not to hide our filthy sores but to heal and cure them and for this End it was that he revealed to us the grace of God from Heaven to teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world Tit. ii 12. Let us not therefore cheat our own Souls by thinking that the Gospel requires nothing of us but only to be holy by Proxy righteous by being cloathed in the Garments of another's Righteousness as if its Design was not so much to cure as cover our filthy Sores not to make us whole but to make us accounted so For can any Man imagin that Christ would ever have undertaken such a mighty Design and made so great a noise of doing something which when it is all summed up is nothing but a Notion and doth not at last amount unto a Reality As if the great Design of his coming down from Heaven to live and die for us was only to make a Cloak for our sins wherein we might appear righteous before God without being so But do not deceive your selves it is not all the Innocence and Obedience of Christ's Life nor all the Virtue and Merit of his Death that can render you pure and holy in God's eyes unless you really are so and you may as well be Well with another's Health or wise with another's Wisdom as righteous before God with the Righteousness of Christ while you abide in your Sins For God sees you as you are and the most glorious Disguise you can appear in before him will never be able to delude his all-seeing Eye so as to make him account you righteous when you are not and if it were possible for you to impose upon God yet unless you could also impose upon the Nature of Things and by fancying them to be otherwise than they are make them to be what they are not it will be to no purpose For if you could be cloathed in Christ's Righteousness while you continue wicked it would signifie no more to your Happiness than it would to be cloathed in a most splendid Garment while you were pining with Famine or tortured with the Gout or Strangury Wherefore as we love our own Souls and would not betray our selves into an irrecoverable Ruin let us firmly conclude with our selves that the great Design of our Religion is internal Holiness and Righteousness and that without this all that Christ hath done and suffered for us will be so far from contributing to our Happiness that it will prove an eternal Aggravation to our Misery and that all that precious Blood which he shed in our behalf will be so far from obtaining Pardon and eternal Happiness for us that it will arise in Iudgment against us and like the innocent blood of Abel instead of interceeding for us will cry down Vengance from Heaven upon us For how can we imagine that the pure and holy Iesus who hated our Sins more than all the Pangs and Horrors of a woful Death should all of a
our Minds and render them unfit especially for the most perfect Exercise of our Reason Thus Drunkenness dilutes the Brain which is the Mint of the Understanding and drowns those Images which are stamp'd upon it in a Deluge of unwholsome Moistures Thus Gluttony cloggs the Animal Spirits which are as it were the Wings of the Mind and renders them incapable of performing the noblest and sublimest Flights of Reason Thus Anger and Wantonness force up the boiling Blood into the Brain and by that disorders the Motions of the Spirits there confounds the Fantasms and disturbs the Conceptions and shuffles the Ideas of the Imagination into an heap of inarticulate and disorderly Fancies And how is it possible our Minds should strike true Harmony when its Instrument is thus disorder'd and all the Strings of it are so out of Tune How should we understand well while our Brains are overcast with the thick Fumes of sensual Lusts and those Spirits which should wing our minds are grown so listless and unactive that they rather hamper and entangle them For what Clearness is to the Eye that Purity is to the Mind As Clearness doth dispose the Eye to a quick and distinct Perception of Material Objects so Purity from Lust and Passion disposes the Mind to a more clear Apprehension of Intellectual ones and the more any Man's Soul is cleansed from the Filth and Dregs of Sensuality the brighter it will be in its Conceptions and the more nimble and expedite in its Operations For Purity doth naturally fit the Body to the Mind it puts its Organs all in Tune and renders its spirits fine and agil and fit for the noblest Exercises of Reason which they can never be whilst they are subject to disorderly Passions and drenched in the unwholsome Reeks of Sensuality and Voluptuousness But besides this Mischief which Sin doth to our Understandings by rendering our Bodies unapt to all Intellectual Purposes it also dyes the mind with false Colours and fills it with Prejudice and undue Apprehensions of Things For while our Souls are under the sway of any disorderly Passion or Appetite they will naturally warp our Iudgments into a Compliance with their own Interest and bribe us to judge of things not according to what they are but according to what we would have them And when our Iudgments are thus bribed by our Interest and swayed by our Passions it is impossible we should judge truly of Things For our Passions will discolour the Objects of our Understandings and disguise them into such Shapes as are most agreeable to our Humor and Interest and so our Opinions of Things will alter upon every Variation of our Humours and our Thoughts like Weather-cocks will be wheeling about upon every Change of Wind. So that while we are encompassed with the Mists of sinful Prejudice they will necessarily hinder the Prospect of our Reason and obscure the Brightness of our Understandings and the Clearness of our discerning Faculties And thus you see how natural it is to Vice to spoil and wast our Understandings and to choke up those Fountains of Light within us with Clouds and Darkness And that it doth so is very apparent in Fact for how much wicked Men have lost their Reason is apparent by the ridiculous Principles upon which they generally act which generally are so very weak and absurd that it would be impossible for Men to assent to them were not their Understandings perished and the Reason of their minds wofully impaired and wasted As for instance the desperate Atheist wishes that there were no God upon this Principle that it is better for Men to be without a God than to be without their Lusts then which there can be nothing more wild or extravagant For it is plain that without our Lusts we can be happier than with them whereas it is the common Interest of Mankind that the World should be governed by infinite Goodness conducted by infinite Power and Wisdom and no Man or Society of Men can be happy without it For take God out of the World and you take away all Hope from the miserable all Comfort from the sorrowful and all Support from the dejected and calamitous and at one blow cut in sunder all the Bands of Society rase the Foundations of Virtue and confound all Distinction between Good and Evil. And yet the besotted Wretch for the sake of a paltry Lust that betrays him with a Kiss and stings him in the Enjoyment would fain banish God out of the World though it is apparent that in so doing he would do Mankind more Mischief than if he should blow out all the Lights of Heaven or pull down the Sun from the Firmament And in the general what more ridiculous Principles can there be thought than such as these That Sense is to be preferred before Reason Earth before Heaven Moments before Eternity that the short-liv'd pleasures of sin which expire in the fruition are sufficient to ballance the loss of an immortal Heaven and the sense of an eternal Hell that 't is time enough to repent when we can sin no more and that God is so fond a Being as that rather than ruin those that wilfully spurn at his Authority and trample upon his Laws he will accept a few Tears and Promises to live well when we can live no longer in exchange for all the Duty we owe him and that we may sit all the day in the lap of our Lusts and enjoy them without controul and then at night when we can enjoy them no longer fly up to Heaven upon the Wings of a Lord have mercy upon us And yet a wicked Life is either built upon no Principles at all or upon such as these which are ridiculous beyond all the extravagant Conceits of Fools or Madmen 'T is no wonder therefore that the Scripture so frequently brands the Sinner with the infamous Character of a Fool for if you measure him by the Principles he acts upon there is not a greater Fool in Nature which is a plain Evidence how much Vice doth besot the Understandings of Men and like those Barbarous Philistines puts out their Eyes only to sport it self with their Follies and Extravagances So that methinks had we any Reverence for our own Reason by which we are constituted Men and distinguish'd from the Beasts that perish we should never endure those Lusts within our Bosoms that do so much impair and wast it II. SIN subverts the natural Subordination of our Faculties For the natural Order and Politie of our Natures consists in the Dominion of our Rational Faculties over our sensitive Passions and Appetites so that then only we live according to the Law of our Nature when we eat and drink and love and hate and fear and hope and desire and delight according as right Reason prescribes For the noblest Principle of Humane Nature is Reason by which it is that we are constituted Men and advanced into a Form of Beings above all sublunary