our human Nature is deprav'd our Faculties are corrupted and we have an inward proclivity to what is vicious so that it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do any Good that can be acceptable to God yet there are remaining in us as we are Human Creatures and Rational Agents Natural Principles and Sentiments of Morality And therefore we may observe that One who is an unquestionable Asserter of the original depravity of Mankind is yet very positive in this that there is in the Souls of Men a Sense of Divinity and Religion and that even by a Natural Instinct and accordingly he spends a whole Chapter to prove the existence of this Inbred Principle in the Minds of all Men. And truly every Man alive that is attentive and unprejudiced may feel this in him as soon as he is arrived to the use of Reason for he can't exspect it should actually display it self till then or whenever he hath occasion given him to exercise his thoughts concerning Moral and Divine things To this the Great Apostle refers in Rom. 2. 14 15. when he tells us that the Gentiles who have not the Law i. e. the written Law do by nature i. e. by vertue of these radical notions of Moral Goodness in their minds the things contain'd in the Law they are push'd on to it by this Natural Principle within them Hence it is that tho' they have not the Law yet they are a Law unto themselves because they have this inward Law in their own minds which instructs them what to do as to the great duties of Natural Religion Therefore he adds that they shew the work of the Law written in their hearts namely in these Original Characters by God's own hand So that nothing could be said more plainly to Establish these inward Signatures and Impresses of Goodness on the Soul And they were Engraven there for Great and Excellent Purposes in the life of Man whence we may further evince that there are indeed such Inbred Principles and Notions There being so many waies of Delusion and Error in the World such a diversity of avocations from Religion and Goodness and the Worship of the Divine Being and such Charming Temptations every where to a vitious Life it was requisite there should be such Inward Directors as these in Mens breasts There being such Impediments to Truth and Goodness as Passion Prejudice Interest Pleasures and these continually operating upon us it was necessary there should be something within us to remind us of what is True and what is Good something within us that opposes it self to all the foresaid obstacles and hindrances There was a necessity that there should be a Divine Principle in our Souls which should be as it were a continual Fund to our Consciences alwaies to supply and furnish them with Virtuous dictates Amongst the most rude and barbarous People it is This that keeps up some kind of Notion of Honesty and Goodness Yea and among those that are Civiliz'd these would be in danger of being lost if there were not this Principle rooted in their minds All that is Just and Right would have been banish'd out of the World unless this prevalent Inmate had acted its part and kept us from being wholly bereft of them We had long since been absorpt of Atheism and Profaness if this had not powerfully secur'd us Were it not for this active Spark the Fire of Virtue would have been extinguish'd and it would have been impossible to preserve it in the midst of that Deluge of Vice which hath broken in upon us God took care therefore that there should be ingrafted in the heart of every Man learned or illiterate these Moral Impressions which I am speaking of which will not suffer Mankind to be wholy alienated from a sense of what is Good and Virtuous It may be attributed to this that notwithstanding the General Depravation and Corruption there is yet a Face of Religion in the World For it is an undoubted Truth that This buoys up Goodness when it is sinking this supports it when it is falling this keeps it alive when it is even exspiring So absolutely necessary was the implanting of these Notions in Mens minds from their very birth And then which is the thing I have been proving these Innate Principles of Good and Evil thus implanted in us are a certain and unquestionable eviction of the Intrinsick Excellency of Moral Religion and of all Virtuous and Just Actions which are but Transcripts and Exemplifications of those Original Conceptions placed by God in the minds of Men. 3. As the real and unchangeable nature of Moral Righteousness is proved from its conformity to the Supreme and Eternal Good and from the Images of Good which our minds are furnish'd with from our birth so it may be evidenc'd from the constant Behaviour and Practice of Mankind afterwards This I will make appear from these following particulars 1. From Mens excusing their sins 2. From their desiring Secrecy when they commit them 3. From the Regrets and Remorses which they feel afterwards 4. From the Fear of Punishment which haunts them 5. From that Dislike and Hatred which even Bad men themselves have of Vice First the Intrinsick Excellency of Vertue is manifested from mens Excusing their sins and vitious practises and devolving them upon others This was in the World as soon as Sin it self Adam would needs cast his Transgression and Guilt upon his Relative and she put it off to the Serpent This hath been the practice of sinners ever since tho' they know themselves to be really Criminal yet they endeavour to throw off their faults and they use all sorts of palliations and pretences to clear themselves and particularly they are wont to usurp the Names and Titles of Virtue to conceal their evil deeds â—ondly disguising these latter under a shew and resemblance of the former But whilst they do so they confess that Virtue is Excellent and Laudable otherwise they would not emulate the likeness of it and they acknowledge that Vice is in it self base and reproachful and that the rational nature of Man is averse to it else they would not excuse it and shift it off nay 't is certain they would own it if it were Good and praise worthy But they have natural convictions of the contrary which makes them strive to clear themselves of it and these evasions are a palpable proof that Vice is a thing opposite to the reasonable frame of their Souls and is of its own nature Evil and that there is a distinction between Just and Unjust Right and Wrong founded in the nature of things Again this also appears from men's desiring of Secrecy when they commit sins and after they have committed them For though one reason of their sculking and absconding is because they would not be defeated in what they undertake or be detected when it is performed yet this is another reason of their affecting of privacy namely
D r. EDWARDS's SERMON AT THE Commencement AT CAMBRIDGE THE Eternal and Intrinsick Reasons OF GOOD and EVIL A SERMON PREACH'D at the COMMENCEMENT AT CAMBRIDGE On SUNDAY the 2d Day of Iuly 1699. By IOHN EDWARDS D. D. CAMBRIDGE Printed at the University Press for Edmund Ieffery Bookseller in Cambridge 1699. Imprimatur GUL. DAWES Procan JO. BEAUMONT S. Theol. Profes REGIUS HUMP GOWER D. Margaretae Professor JO. BALDERSTON Coll. Emman Praefect PSALM cxix cxlij Thy Righteousness is an Everlasting Righteousness and thy Law is the Truth IT is not to be doubted that the Subject of this Psalm is the Moral Law or the Precepts of Just and Righteous Living which are contain'd in the Ten Commandments and which we find interspersed in Moses's Writings especially in the Book of Deuteronomy The Royal Prophet directing here his words to God calls these his Righteousness and his Law and he adds that this Righteousness is Everlasting and that this Law is the Truth The most easy and obvious meaning of the former clause of which words is this that this Divine Law which he is speaking of had its Existence from Everlasting it was alwaies what it is now Which is of the same import of what he saith in the 160. v. of this Psalm Thy Word is True from the beginning i. e. from Everlasting for these two are synonymous as appears from Prov. 8. 23. The Rules and Measures of what is Just and Right were determin'd and fix'd from Eternity And besides they are of Perpetual and Eternal Obligation they are such Laws as shall never be repeal'd whence our Psalmist saith in another place All God's Commandments are sure they stand fast for ever and ever Ps. 111. 7 8. For what is Good or Evil in its own nature can at no time or upon any account be alter'd Which brings me to the Interpretation of the latter Clause of the Words Thy Law is the Truth i. e. these Rules of Moral Righteousness must needs be Immutable and Perpetual because they are no imaginary and precarious things nor do they depend upon humane Institution and Arbitrement but they are Real and True in themselves they are Solid and Substantial there being an Intrinsick Goodness and Excellency in them On this account they have Subsistence and Reality and therefore may properly and strictly be said to be and to be True Which is a Notion that a Profound Man among the Gentiles had long since attain'd to for he tells us that the Law of Nature or True Morality is the finding of being This then is the Proposition that I will Entertain you with at present that the Reasons of Good and Evil are Eternal and Unchangeable that there are such things as Right and Wrong without any Positive Law or Constitution that these had the start of all human Contracts and Customs and in short that Religion and Virtue are ingrafted in our very Nature and are every waies suited to the frame of Rational Creatures This I will evince 1. From the Nature of God 2. From what we find in the Mind of Man 3. From the Behaviour and Actions of Mankind 4. From the Universal Consent of the World 1. God's Nature or Mind is the Eternal Foundation of Goodness and Righteousness and therefore these cannot but be Real and Eternal It is certain that the Essential Bonity which is in Mens Actions is grounded on the Chief Good that which Plato frequently calls Goodness it self and the Idea and Pattern of all Goodness For whence could Goodness be fetch'd but from this Divine Source It could neither be deriv'd from Angels nor Men and we can't think of any rank of Beings else whence there is a probability of its being deriv'd because they themselves are from God and therefore it would be unreasonable to think that that which is Best in them was not from Him Yea from Him alone it must necessarily be in whose Perfect Nature the Ideas and Platforms of it were from Eternal Ages for as the Ideas of Truth were eternally Existent in God's Understanding so his Will was pregnant and replenish'd with Goodness and Holiness Which is a Notion that we cannot but form of the Divine Being because he being most Perfect we can't possibly conceive of him without apprehensions of both these viz. his Understanding fraught with Truth and his Will with Goodness Now from this Eternal Fountain the Goodness and Righteousness of Men have their Original and consequently they can't but be Real and True and have an inward worth in them because whatever partakes of the Divine Nature and Perfection is really worthy and excellent It is then the holy Nature of the Divine Being that is the prime Source as well as Rule of human sanctity and righteousness It is this on which they depend for it is the Pattern of them Goodness in us is but a Copy of that Original that Essential and Immutable Goodness which is in the Supreme Good This is the true Root of all Rectitude Justice and Righteousness The Eternal Laws of Just and Good which are in the Divine Mind are the Pillars on which the Moral Goodness of Rational Beings is founded Hence it is that the Laws of Good and Evil of Just and Unjust among Men are in their own nature firm and solid and never to be abolish'd for they are eternally Good and grounded on the unchangeableness of the Supreme Being The Reasons of them did exist from Eternity in the Divine Nature and they were ever conformable to the upright Will of God and for that Reason cannot be otherwise Thus it appears that Moral Righteousness being originally founded in the Being and Nature of God must consequently be Immutable 2. The Intrinsick and unchangeable Nature of it is demonstrated not only from our tracing it up to its First Head but from its being seated by God in the Mind of Man For this is the very Image and Pourtraiture of God himself and consequently seeing Truth and Goodness are Essential to the Divine Nature as was said before these Excellencies are also inseparable from the Soul of Man And therefore from the Nature of human Souls as such it were easy to prove that there were Innate Notions not only of True and False but of Good and Evil imprinted on them at their first make And tho' we have not the use of these Original Notions presently or in our Infancy and Childhood as some urge yet it is ridiculous to infer thence that they are not in the Soul for on the same ground it might be prov'd that a Man hath no Rational Soul for several years because the Faculties of it do not actually exert themselves But we are sure that those Mental Impressions were in all Men from the beginning because they are the First Emanations of their natural frame as they are Reasonable Beings and as their Souls resemble the Divinity Hence it follows as a clear and incontestible Truth that tho' by the early Apostacy of the First Man
because they are ashamed to act those vile things in the Eyes of the World Vice is so ugly and deformed that they would not have it seen and when it is they blush and are confounded at their own evil doings Which is signify'd to us in that Expostulation Rom. 6. 21. What profit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed This blushing argues an inward turpitude in vitious actions whereas Virtue which is Good in it self is daring and carries Confidence with it If there were not a real blemish and stain in unjust and lewd practises why should men be ashamed of them Why should they be put out of countenance and look like Malefactors Why should they fly to their Coverts and run into corners and fear a discovery There was an early Example of this in the first Sinners they retired and hid themselves Gen. 3. 8. On which an Antient and Pious Father of the Christian Church hath these remarkable words Why did Adam after he had sinned hide himself seeing at that time there was no written Law The Reason was because he had a natural inbred knowledge that he had done ill he being self-instructed in the knowledge of Virtue And thence arose in him that inward bashfulness and dejection of Soul after the commission of Sin and thence he fondly attempted to hide not only himself but his Crime from God And it is observable that Cain refus'd to discover his murdering of his Brother when God demanded of him where he was his surly reply was he knew not Gen. 4. 9. Which concealing of Vice argues the intrinsick Evil of it for why else is it mask'd with privacy and retirement and kept from the knowledge of others as much as it is possible yea even of those sometimes that can't hurt us This is an argument that Virtue is good and lovely and that the contrary is vile and detestable and that the mind of Man naturally approves of Moral Goodness and dislikes Vice and Immorality Further the Regrets and Remorses of Sinners for their acting contrary to the Divine Laws are certain Testimonies of this Truth Why do they call themselves to an account and arraign and pass Sentence upon themselves for what they have done Why are they uneasy and dissatisfy'd and find an unspeakable Trouble in their minds Is not this from Natural Conscience and those inbred impressions which are in the Soul of every Man Yes without doubt these cause them to rebuke and chastise themselves and that very severely when they offend against these inward dictates Thence come those Vexations and Torments which willful Transgressors feel in their breasts yea tho' their faults be kept secret and none knows them but themselves Notwithstanding this they are troubled and disquieted and as the Satyrist well remarks of such men Tacitâ sudant praecordia culpâ But especially the more open and profligate Sinners have frequent experience of these inward Inquietudes Sweatings and Agonies which render them a Plague and Torment to themselves Cain complain'd that his iniquity for so the original word should be rendred was greater than he could bear Gen. 4. 13. That is the guilt of his heinous Sin became an insupportable burden to him So Iudas from the horror of his guilt sunk into despair And who sees not that the usual effects of great and flagitious enormities are Pain and Torture of mind Deliquiums of Soul and Body and the wasting and macerating of the flesh and spirits by continual restlesness and disturbance The ground of it is obvious for Sin is a violent distorting of the natural and primitive temper of Man and therefore it cannot but create extreme anguish and perturbation One reason why men are displeas'd with themselves after the commission of what is Immoral is because they find they have acted contrary to their Native Principle because they have done something that is unsuitable to the rational nature which they are endued with It appears hence that Sin is naturally Evil and that it is an affront to our Reasons and Understandings to transgress the Laws of Morality Thus a Man 's own mind establishes the Equity and Goodness of these Laws and convinces him that the Foundations of Moral Righteousness are sure and stable Moreover this may be made evident from the Fear of Punishment which haunts and possesses the minds of Evil men Thus Cain the first Murderer was afraid that every one that found him would slay him he had a perpetual dread of the fatal recompence which was the merit of his villany And Natural Conscience tells all other Sinners that they deserve Punishment they know the Iudgment of God that they who commit such things are worthy of death as the Apostle speaks and this knowledge unavoidably breeds Fear and Dread Some would needs persuade us that this Passion is rais'd by Politick Heads by Wise Rulers and Governours merely to aw their dastard Subjects but it is evident that this is a falsity because Princes and Rulers themselves are liable to these impressions nay we know they actually have been under the force and prevalency of such Principles Belshazar the Great Babylonian Monarch fell into fits of shaking and trembling when the Hand-writing on the Wall put him in mind of his Profaness and Debauchery and the just Deserts of both King Herod after the murder of Iohn Baptist was restless in his mind and had the terrible sight of that Holy Man continually represented to his fancy and he thought he was risen from the dead and was come to Torment him Tiberius the Emperour was not able to conceal the terrors and affrightments of his Conscience after all his unnatural Lusts and Cruelties Nero after all his prodigious villanies could not dissemble his horrors and his being haunted with Spirits and tormented with Furies and Flames Which plainly shews that this dread of mind is no Politick Invention no Feigned Passion and Representation no idle Phantom or Mormo but that it is a real thing and flows from the natural dictates of the Mind and not these from Fear as some would suggest Why should Men be affraid of the Divine Being if they deserv'd not his Displeasure And how can they deserve it unless they have done something amiss i. e. broken some Law which they were oblig'd to keep There must then be some obligation on Man from Nature to observe such and such Laws for I speak even of those who have thrown off all Obligations but this Their being conscious to themselves that they have not acted as they ought and that thereby they are become guilty creates this Timerousness and Dread in them and gives them an apprehension of the great Day of Doom In the next place I argue from that dislike and hatred which even Bad men themselves have of some Vices and from that great Esteem which they have of some Virtues Pride is universally disrelish'd and the very Persons who cherish it in themselves abhor it in others Nothing is
more generally abominated than a Proud and Arrogant Man and on the contrary nothing is more valu'd lov'd and caress'd than one that is Humble and Meek Even those very Persons whose practice is a remonstrance against Humility have at the same time an inward liking of this Virtue yea and outwardly express their approbation of it The Avaritious and Sordid Niggard is scorn'd and laught at by every one but the Liberal and Generous are applauded by all Clean and Chast Discourse meets with an universal acceptance but Obscenity and Ribaldry tho' dress'd in the Garb of Wit are generally nauseous and offensive and the Organ of Hearing is as 't were disoblig'd and even hurt by them and oftentimes the Hearer blushes because the Speaker doth not A Lyar is a Title of the greatest reproach and infamy among men a lying Tongue is not only one of those things which the Lord hateth but 't is as odious to all Men whereas a Plain and Open Speaking without any dissimulation or reserve is a very graceful and amiable thing and nothing is more valu'd and commended in the World Again Oppression Violence Rapine Persecution and especially if these proceed to Bloodshed and Slaughter are hated of all Persons yea of those who practice these Vices most of all Iulius Caesar had ever in his mouth that of Euripides If Right at all may be violated it must be for the sake of a Crown but in other matters let us be exactly just The greatest Invaders acknowledge Justice to be good and it is Interest only that warps their judgment The Banditi and Rapparees rob for mere Gain and even Assassines and Ruffians must be well paid to do their work which shews there is no temptation in the Thing it self A Common Thief had rather find than take away another Man's goods and whilst he doth the latter he disapproves of it Or say that he approves of it in himself yet he detesteth it in all others So Perfidiousness and Treachery meet with a Catholick abhorrence and those who reward these practises yet hate the things themselves and the Actors of them are alwaies odious in the World and sometimes signally punish'd by them who set them on work But Faithfulness Sincerity Honesty Frankness and True-heartedness are belov'd by all Men. And it were easy to shew in other Instances that Vicious and Immoral Actions are loathed even by Sinners themselves and that they who dare not practice Wisdom and Virtue yet praise and commend it and are willing to see it thrive in the world Thus from the Behaviour and deportment of Men even those who are of the worst sort it is evident that Virtue is praise-worthy in its own Nature and that there is an inward Principle in all Men that makes them pay respect to Goodness and Honesty and to disparage what is vicious and unlawful In the last place I will prove the Laws of Moral Goodness to be Intrinsick and Natural from their being universally receiv'd For that of Tully is an unquestionable Maxim When all People agree in a thing we are to look upon it as the Law of Nature Now it is evident that there is among all Men an Agreement as to the main about the Notion of Good and Evil. Just and Right are every where and among all Persons the same as Fire burns here and in Persia to use the words of the famous Stagyrite We are told by Valerius Maximus that the very Barbarous Scythians took care of their Fathers Tombs and religiously preserv'd them whereupon he makes this seasonable Remark Nature the first and the best of things is the Mistress of Piety so that we need not be taught and instructed in it And again in the â—â—ne place Solid Virtue is born with us rather than made and fashion'd And indeed it must needs be so because the notices and impressions of Good and Evil on Mens minds are Universal and it is impossible they should be otherwise because they are Natural for Nature universally spreads it self in every individual Hence is that Common Consent in all Men concerning the grand Points of Morality they are voted to be Reasonable and Just by the whole Assembly of mankind throughout the World I know this is oppos'd by the Learned Mr Selden and some others especially of late who hold that Universal Consent is no argument to prove the Law of Nature Or rather they say there is no such thing as Universal Consent there being so many various Opinions and Practices in Morality and Religion But I desire these following things may be consider'd which will fully answer the suggestions of those who oppose this doctrine First I grant that God hath judicially given over some People to a reprobate sense and that because they have given themselves over first to their Lusts and have willfully shut their Eyes against the light Hence it is that they have in many things corrupted and distorted the Law of Nature and then it is no wonder that they have been permitted to fall into the most irrational practises as that of Idolatry and the like But I add next that this Corruption is not in the First and General Principles of Nature but in some undue Inferences and Deductions thence Thus in the case of Polytheism or Idolatry which is the adoring of False Gods and was ever a Catholick crime among the common sort of Heathens there is the General dictate of Natural Religion kept up viz. the worshipping of a Deity though they are so ignorant and corrupted as to conclude this and the other thing to be a God tho' they are not So there is no Man or Nation extant who think it lawfull to hurt or injure any one but there is some disagreement as to the Particular Inferences which may arise from these Premises and in some particular Instances that may be thought by some to be hurtful and injurious which is not deemed so by others And thus those Usages among Barbarous Nations which are so far different from ours may be reconcil'd as namely their eating the dead in stead of burying them and their dispatching their old sick Parents out of the World which they look upon as a Courtesy done to them and several the like practises In which the first and general Principles of Morality are not violated but only some false Conclusions are drawn from them Notwithstanding which the main and essential Laws of Good and Evil are the same and are own'd to be so Again with particular relation to Mr Selden's Objection which a late Writer hath borrow'd from him and makes great use of viz. That there is no Natural and Universal Law of Morality because the Gentiles are so vicious and act so contrary to the light of Reason I answer that when I assert the Law of Nature to be Universal I mean that it prevails among all Men in the World that are of sound minds and who carefully attend to the dictates
of Natural Conscience and who use their Understandings and make Reflections and exercise their Faculties But if there be some and too many there are who are stupid and sottish and attend not to the Inbred Notions of their minds whereby these Notions are in a manner defaced and almost extinguish'd I am not to answer for these When I speak of Universal Consent I understand it of those that think and consider and are not wont to debauch and distemper their Reasons as those Rude and Savage Gentiles do Wherefore we are not at all concern'd for the Brasilians or Caribes no nor for the Soldanians and Hotentots with the noise of whom our Ears are mightily grated of late The strange behaviour of these People is no real reproach to Human Nature nor any impeachment of the General Laws of Morality which all People agree in who rouze their inward Principle and give heed to it And thence I gather that the Precepts of Virtue are immovable and unalterable for they are fix'd and riveted into the very Nature of mankind or else there would not be an Universal Agreement about them I might go on to farther Proofs of the Intrinsick Nature of Good and Evil from those Absurd Consequences which would follow from the contrary First if there be no such thing and if notwitstanding what hath been alledged Virtue and Vice are casual and contingent then our Faculties were given us to cheat and abuse us and they are continually impos'd upon and that about their proper Objects which is a doctrine that would destroy even a Deity and we could say nothing to prove there is such a Being Or allowing a God it would be a reproach to his Goodness and Wisdom to bestow such mental Powers upon us as are constantly deceiv'd and to implant such Notions in the Souls of all Men as are false and erroneous and which have nothing real and solid in them Secondly this also would be a Consequence from the premises that we may live and act as we please for if there be no fix'd Laws and Rules of Goodness and Righteousness then nothing can be said to be Lawful and consequently nothing can be said to be Unlawful or what is Lawful to day may be Unlawful to morrow For if there be not any Inward Reason of the Moral Laws enjoin'd us by God if they be not in themselves and in their abstract nature Good he may prescribe us other Laws and those contrary to these which we now have and so God may command us to hate him and to hurt and mischief our neighbours If these things are not intrinsically evil so that they can never be Good they may in time become our Duty Thirdly this is another Consequence that our Happiness would be precarious and uncertain for the Happiness of Rational Creatures depends on the Goodness of their Actions And by this means we should be wholly unacquainted with the Great End of our lives which is the thing that is to steer us in this World and to direct us in all we undertake These are some of the egregious Blunders and monstrous Absurdities which attend the contrary Opinion and may serve to confirm us in this weighty Point that there is an Intrinsick Goodness in Virtuous actions and an Intrinsick Evil in Vitious ones and that the Reasons of both are congenite to our Rational Nature and flow from it and are ever agreeable to it Thus I have Establish'd the Doctrine which I undertook to discourse of And it was necessary to do it because tho' the generality of mankind as was said before do unanimously averr that Goodness is not plac'd in the arbitrary opinions of Men but in nature it self yet there have been of old and are at this day those who contradict and oppose it The Antient Scepticks were infamous for this who had learnt of their Master Pyrrho that there is no difference between Good and Evil by Nature but only by Laws and Custom Laertius acquaints us that it was the positive opinion of one of that sort of Men that a Wise Man will not stick to commit Sacriledge or Adultery or to Steal whenever he hath a fit opportunity for none of these saith he have any Turpitude in them in their own nature if we can but lay aside the vulgar apprehension concerning them which the rabble of Fools and Ignorant People have taken up Tully testifies concerning the Epicureans that they held Honest and Iust to be cassum quiddam inani vocis sono decoratum a vain and frivolous thing set forth and commended to the World by a mere empty sound of words This also was the Sentiment of some that pretended to be Christians as the Gnosticks and especially Carpocrates who was a Great Man with that party he with much earnestness avow'd that all Moral actions are indifferent and that all the Good or Evil that is said to be in them is founded not on truth but fancy as Theodoret bears witness concerning him and quotes Irenaeus for it But to come down lower they have it seems a power in the Church of Rome to change the nature of Vice and Virtue It is agreed on by the the chiefest Writers of that Communion that the Pope hath such a Plenitude of Power that he can dispense with Just and Right and any Law of God excepting only the Articles of Faith So saith the Glosse upon the Canon Law and Panormitan approves of it Bellarmine their Great Champion speaks home to the business If the Pope saith he could erre so far as to command the practice of Vice and to forbid the practice of Virtue the Church in that case is oblig'd unless it would sin against Conscience to believe Vice to be Good and Virtue to be Evil. Judge now whether the Reasons of Good and Evil be not taken away by the Church of Rome when it can alter the property of Virtue and Vice and when their People are bound in Conscience to take one for the other Judge whether they do not ascribe more to their Great Pontif than can be attributed to God himself for certainly it is so far from being in the power of any Man to alter the Natural and Moral Law and to take away the obligation of it that it is not within the verge of Divine Power it self It is the decision of the Famous Grotius who is alwaies very wary when he speaks concerning what God can do as indeed it doth become us yet it is the peremptory decision I say of that Great Man in his Excellent Book of the Rights of Peace and War God himself cannot change this Law of Natural Goodness he cannot make that which is intrinsically evil to be no evil And the Reason is because then he would not be God for his Nature would be chang'd which is a thing utterly impossible and the very supposition of it is to be abhorred The Great Gallick Philosopher who discourses so admirably concerning the Moral
Virtues was enclin'd to think that they were not founded on immoveable Reasons for in some places of his Epistles and in his Answers where he holds that Goodness as well as Truth eternally depended on the Divine Will and its free determination he seems to mean that God could have determin'd them otherwise if he had pleas'd and so that which is now Good might have been Evil. But this mistaken Notion of this Learned Man arose from his not considering and remembring that the Will of God is alwaies the same as to its real intrinsick nature and therefore what it now is it ever was and can never be otherwise and consequently Goodness is unvariable and that which is Good now can't be Evil at another time Which if that Excellent Person had bore in his mind he would not have argu'd from God's Will in that manner which he seems to do But I am sorry to find that in our own Nation likewise there are those who oppose the Intrinsick Nature of Moral Goodness and render it dubious and arbitrary Among these ought to be mention'd in the first place that known Person in whose State of Nature which he laies down as the Foundation of his whole System nothing is virtuous or vitious just or unjust for he holds that these arise only from Compact and Society The Magistrate is Mr. Hobbes's God the Prince is the maker of Good and Evil and he can unmake them when he pleases Which is said well enough for such a Philosopher as holds a Man is nothing else but Body or Carkase Another Learned Writer tho' a professed Enemy to the former resolves all Moral Philosophy into Geometrical and Mechanick Principles which perhaps was design'd on purpose by that profound and sagacious Person to convince some in an Age of Mathematicks He is follow'd and vouch'd by another who undertakes to Improve him and to thrust this Conceit on the World that Experimental Observation is the Standard of all Goodness and Morality but I believe you will agree with me in this that this is spoken rather like a Virtuoso than a Divine There is another who in his Brief Disquisition of the Law of Nature hath refin'd upon both the former Writers and makes it his work to shew that the proof of Natural Laws or Dictates of Reason can be drawn only from the use of our Senses He holds that by the motion impress'd on the Organs of our Senses God delineates the Ideas or Images of all Moral Actions on our minds He thinks there is no Notion of Moral Goodness or Evil but what is communicated to us by these and consequently it is not Innate Tho' by the bye it is well worth our observing that he freely grants that Beasts derive not all their knowledge from their Senses but are born with peculiar appetites and inclinations and have natural Instincts or Impressions stampt by God on their very natures So unkind are these Philosophick Masters to their own Species as to grudge it the Prerogative and Excellency of a Brute They not only degrade mankind but thrust them below the rank of Irrational Beings But if you would know the particular way how Moral Sentiments are derived to us they tell you this is the method and they admit of no other God makes external Causes operate on our bodily Organs and by this operation and motion in a certain and determinate manner we attain to a notion of what is Vitious or Virtuous It is by the influence of outward objects and them only that all Principles of Morality come to be known to us But to disprove this and at the same time to baffle the like Doctrine of another late Author First I ask how can General Notions of Morality be produc'd by the External Senses Is there any cognation at all between Abstract Ideas of Goodness and mere Bodily Objects Can a Man imagine that Universal and Complex Apprehensions can be the off-spring of the particular matters of Corporeal Sense Secondly if this Author and his Friends be in the right then those Beings that are destitute of Bodily Sense can have no Notion of Good and Evil. Supposing Angels to be Incorporeal Morality is a thing not known to them nor is it known to Separate Souls nor Saints in Heaven nay not to God himself because these are exempted from Bodily Senses and consequently they are not capable of understanding any Moral Propositions Thirdly this Opinion that Natural Motion produces Moral Goodness is such a confounding and jumbling together of Physicks and Ethicks that none who have clear and distinct conceptions of things will admit of it Fourthly and lastly this Opinion makes all Morality contingent and uncertain for all Natural and Bodily Motion on which he holds it depends is so at one time or other it varies External and Corporeal Causes are shifting and fickle Objects work on us differently yea the operations of the same Objects are not alwaies the same and therefore Moral Goodness which is founded on these is no fix'd thing but is unsteady and floating we know not where to have it according to this Author These are the Reasons why I cannot approve of this New Method which he hath taken to demonstrate the Truth of Morality or rather to cashier and defeat it Which he chuses rather to do than to acknowledge any Inbred Principle in the Soul of Man I could have wish'd that Mr. Norris had not so contemptibly reflected on the Inbred Notions and Characters of Truth and Goodness on Mens minds as to reproach them with the Title of mere Iargon and unintelligible Cant especially seeing one that hath larded some of his Writings with so many unintelligible high-flown Strains and Platonick Gibberish and even in the present matter which is before us talks of the presentialness of the Ideal World to our Souls which is the Divine Essence wherein we see and understand all things might have been more favourable in his Censure Another late Ingenious Author will by no means hear of Natural and Congenite Principles of Morality but roundly tells us in these express words that Men come to the knowledge of Moral Principles and Duties by Tradition their Fathers taught them them and their Grandfathers their Fathers and so up to Adam the common Parent of all And a little after he uses such language as this Moral Duties are convey'd to all the World as Spinning and Weaving and such like inventions Whereby he confounds the Notions of Natural and Reveal'd Religion and yet it is observable that in those Dialogues he first distinctly Discourses of Natural Religion and then of Reveal'd Whence it is evident that he not only contradicts himself but mightily gratifies the Theist whom he hath to deal with and pretends to confute but he not only baulks one of the greatest and strongest proofs we have of the Truth of Moral Notions and Offices but he ridicules all Morality by setting it on no other bottom than