the Righteous Lot from that dire Conflagration alarmed the World with a new Declaration of the wide Distinction he makes between Vertue and Vice And lastly when the Vertue of these great Examples was almost spent God raised up the People of Israel and by the miraculous Blessings he bestowed on them when they did well and the stupendous Judgments he inflicted when they did wickedly exposed them to all the Nations round about for a standing Demonstration of the vast Difference he makes between Good and Evil. For so the Psalmist tells us Psalm 98. verse 2. compared with Psalm 102. verse 15. The Lord hath made known his Salvation his Righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen that the Heathen might fear the Name of the Lord and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory Thus by frequent Examples of supernatural Rewards and Punishments God hath been always instructing the degenerate World in the essential Differences between Good and Evil. VI. AND lastly To inforce all this God hath made sundry supernatural Revelations wherein he hath plainly instructed us what Actions are good and what evil That he hath made sundry Revelations to the World is evident in Fact because there are sundry Revelations extant which by those many miraculous Effects of the Divine Power that attended the Ministration of them have been sufficiently demonstrated to be of a divine Original And such are those contained in the five Books of Moses and the Prophets which have been all most amply confirmed both by the Miracles which were wrought by their inspired Authors and the exact Accomplishment of the several Predictions contained in them And such is also the last and best Revelation contained in the New Testament which both by the Types and Predictions of the Law and Prophets and the infinite Miracles wrought by Jesus and his Followers together with its own inherent Wisdom and Goodness hath been so effectually proved a divine Revelation that nothing but Ignorance or inveterate Prejudice can cause any man to disbelieve or suspect it NOW if you consult these several Revelations you will find that the main Drift and Design of them is to detect and expose what is morally evil and explain and recommend to us what is morally good For thus the several Revelations made to Abraham and his Children were only so many Repetitions of that Covenant of Righteousness which God had struck with them to encourage them to persevere in Well-doing Thus the Law of Moses consisted partly of Ceremonial Rites which were either intended for Divine Hieroglyphics to instruct that dull and stupid People in the Principles of inward Purity and Goodness or else for Types and Figures of the holy Mysteries of the Gospel and partly of Precepts of Morality together with some few of Policy suited to the Genius of that People and partly of such Promises and Threats as were judged most apt to oblige them to the Practice of Piety And as for the Prophets the substance of their Revelations was either Reprehensions of Sin together with severe Denunciations against it or Invitations to Vertue and Piety together with gracious Promises to encourage them to practise it or Predictions of the Messias and of that everlasting Righteousness which was to be introduced by him And then as for the Gospel all the Duty of it consists either in Instances or Means and Instruments of Moral Goodness and all the Doctrins of it are nothing but powerful Arguments to oblige us to the Practice of those Duties Thus the great Intendment of all Gods Revelations is to explain and enforce the Duties of Morality to discover the Nature and lead us on to the Practice of them by the most powerful Obligations And in this most perfect Map of the Road to Happiness all the Tracts of Piety and Vertue are so plainly described and delineated to us that no man can possibly miss his Way that sincerely inquires after it For tho in matters of Opinion men may be innocently mislead and deceived yet there is no Article either of Doctine or Duty upon which our Happiness necessarily depends wherein it is possible for an honest and diligent Mind to be mistaken And thus you see by how many excellent Ways God hath discovered to us which of our Actions are good and which evil So that if after all this we proceed in any sinful and immoral Courses we are utterly inexcusable For if after God hath thus plainly made known his Will to us we still persist to contradict it in our Practice we do thereby in effect declare that we regard not the Almighty and that we will do what we list let him will what he pleases And what an unpardonable Insolence is it for us who depend upon his Breath and hang upon his Providence every moment to treat him as if he had nothing to do with us and were the merest Cypher and most insignificant Being in the World For though 't is true he hath not made so full a Discovery of his Will to some as to others yet he hath so sufficiently discovered it to all that none can pretend to the Excuse either of invincible or unaffected Ignorance For as for the Heathen though they have no Revelation of Gods Will without them yet they have the Bible of Conscience within them and the large and legible Bible of Nature that lies continually open before them in which they may easily read the principal Differences between Good and Evil and all the great Principles of Morality And if notwithstanding this they will be so regardless of God as not to attend to and comply with those natural Discoveries of his Will what Pretence can be made for them why they should not perish for ever in their Obstinacy For as the Apostle tells us though they had not the Law that is the revealed Law yet they did or at least might have done by nature the things contained in the Law and therefore as many of them saith he as sinned without this revealed Law shall perish without the Law that is by the Sentence of the Law of Nature Rom. 2.12 14. And then as for the Jews besides those natural Indications of Gods Will which they had in common with the Heathen they had sundry supernatural ones they had sundry great and notorious Examples of Gods rewarding good men and punishing bad and besides they had the Law of Moses the Moral part of which was but a new Edition of the Law of Nature as for the Ceremonial Part of it it was though an obscure yet an intelligible Representation of all those sublime Motives to Piety and Vertue which the Gospel more plainly proposes So that would the Jews but have heedfully attended either to the spiritual Sense of their Law or to the Sermons of their Prophets which very much cleared and explained it they could not have been ignorant either of any material Part of their Duty or of any considerable Motive by which it is pressed and
Principles of all Religious Obligations are deduced p. 202. Which are reduced to five Heads p. 102 103. CHAP. III. OF the necessity of believing the existence of God in order to our being truly Religious p. 104 105. Atheism resolved into the corruption of mens Wills and Imaginations Sect. 1. p. 106 107 108 109. The particular causes of it reduced to nine Heads and of the folly and unreasonableness of them p. 109 to p. 157. Of the great folly and madness of Atheism in its self p. 157 158. This shewn at large in six particulars p. 158 to p. 196. CHAP. IV. THat to the founding the Obligations of Religion it is necessary we should acknowledge the divine Providence p. 196 197 198 199. What are the particular Acts of Providence which we are to acknowledg shewn in five Particulars p. 200 to 244. The Divine Providence proved first à Priori by Arguments drawn from the nature of God which are reduced to four Heads p. 245 to 256. secondly à Posteriori by Arguments drawn from sensible effects of God in the World of which six instances are given p. 256 to p. 310. The most considerable Objections against a Divine Providence reduced to five Heads and particularly answered p. 310 to p. 354. CHAP. V. THe necessity of acknowledging divine Rewards and Punishments to oblige us to be truly Religious p. 355 356 357 358. How far it is necessary we should believe them shewn in four particulars p. 358 to 369. Of the Universal acknowledgment of future Rewards and Punishments p. 370 371 372 373. The reality of these future Rewards and Punishments proved by six Arguments p. 373 to 399. By what means our belief of future Rewards and Punishments is to be acquired and confirmed shewn in four particulars p. 399 to 410. Of the force and power of this belief to oblige us to be truly Religious p. 410 to 417. CHAP. VI. THe necessity of Right Notions of God to oblige us to be truly Religious p. 417 418. In what respects they are necessary to oblige us to be truly Religious shewn in four particulars p. 419 to p. 444. Of the way of forming right Notions of God in general p. 445 to 449. Si◠general Rules laid down for the framing right Notions of God p. 449 to 484. Of the common causes of mens misapprehensions of God in si◠particular instances p. 485 to 513. OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE PART II. CHAP. I. Concerning the Being and Nature of Moral Goodness ALL Humane Actions are either Necessary or Sinfull or Indifferent The Necessary are such as are commanded the Sinful such as are forbidden by God the Indifferent such as are neither commanded nor forbidden but left entirely free to our Choice and Discretion Again the necessary and the sinful actions are either such as are necessary and sinfull in themselves and are commanded and forbidden upon the account of some Good and Evil that is inseparable to their Natures or such as are indifferent in their own Natures as to any good or evil inherent in them but are made necessary or sinful by some positive Command or Prohibition superinduced upon them Of the first sort are those which we call Moral Actions as being the subject matter of the Moral Law which commands and forbids nothing but what is essentially and immutably good and evil and whilst there was no other Law but this every Action which did not oblige by some eternal Reason or which is the same by some inseparable good or evil was left free and indifferent But in process of time God superadded to this Moral Law a great many Positive ones whereby he obliged men to do and forbear sundry of those indifferent things which were left to their liberty by the Law of Nature For such we call the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law all which were indifferent before they were imposed and as soon as ever the Imposition was taken off from them did immediately return to their Primitive Indifferency so that by the abolition of their Ceremonial Law the Jews were restored to all the Liberties of the Moral excepting only the matter of the two Sacraments and of maintaining a visible Communion with the Church which are determined by positive Laws of Christianity And of this later sort of necessary and sinful Actions are not only all those indifferent ones which God himself has commanded and forbidden immediately but also all those which he commands and forbids by his Vice-roys and Representatives in this World For whatsoever he hath not commanded or forbidden by his own immediate Dictate and Authority he hath Authorized his Vicegerents to command or forbid as they shall judge it most expedient for the Publick So that when they command what God hath not forbidden or forbid what he hath not commanded their will is God's who commands us by their Mouths and stamps their Injunctions with his own Authority And of this distinction between actions that are morally and positively Necessary the Scripture frequently takes notice and particularly Mich. vi 6.7 8. Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings with Calves of a year old c. No these are not the things that will render me acceptable in his eyes and procure me a welcome Admission into his Presence and yet it is certain that these things were then required and commanded and therefore were positively necessary but that they were not necessary in themselves upon the account of any intrinsick Goodness that was in them is evident from what follows He hath shewed thee O man what is good as much as if he should have said the things above named are in their own nature indifferent having neither good nor evil in themselves and are made necessary meerly by positive Command upon which account they are insufficient to recommend you to God but there are other things that carry an intrinsick Beauty and Goodness in their Nature by which they strictly oblige you to imbrace and practise them and do thereupon recommend you by their own native Charms to the Love and Favour of God and what these good things are he hath sufficiently shewn or discovered to you viz. To do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God which are the main and principal Duties that he requires of you Which plainly implies that there are some Actions which are morally that is in their own Natures eternally good and therefore eternally necessary and some that are necessary only because for some present Reason God Wills and Commands them For no account can be given why he should be more pleased with Justice and Mercy and Humility than with Sacrifice unless we suppose the former to be good and therefore necessary upon immutable Reasons and upon that account to be immutably pleasing to him and the latter to be necessary only upon mutable reasons which therefore were to lose their Necessity as soon as those reasons
did alter or cease For had Sacrifices been good in their own Natures their goodness had been as unalterable as their Nature whereas on the contrary we find that whereas their Nature neither is nor can be altered yet their Goodness or Necessity is For as before God adopted them into the Rubrick of Religion by his own positive Institution they were indifferent things so after this Institution was repealed by a contrary Command they became unlawful So that it is now as necessary that we should not Offer them in the Worship of God as it was before that we should And the same may be said of all the other Rites of the Mosaick Law which being in their own Nature Indifferent could no otherewise be converted either into Necessary or Sinful but by God's express Command or Prohibition Whereas Justice and Mercy c. are good in themselves abstractly considered from all Will and Command and are not good meerly because they are Commanded but are commanded because they are good because they carry with them such unalterable Reasons as do in themselves render the practice of them eternally necessary For tho there be very good reason why men should not offer material Sacrifices notwithstanding they were once injoyned yet it can never be reasonable for them to be unjust or cruel or proud because the contrary vertues carry such fixed and immutable Reasons with them as will bind and oblige us to eternity insomuch that tho we had a Dispensation to be proud under the Broad-Seal of Heaven yet 't would still be very absurd and unreasonable to be so And as things that are only positively necessary or sinful derive all their necessity and sinfulness from God's direct or express Command and Prohibition so they cannot be commanded or forbidden by Consequence For if the Matter of them be antecedently Lawful or Indifferent it must necessarily remain so till it is directly commanded or forbidden there being no other Reason to bound and limit it but only the Will of the Law-giver in whose disposal it is and therefore till he directly signifies his Will either for or against it it must remain as it is i. e. Free and Indifferent But you will say Suppose God hath commanded such an indifferent thing for such a Reason doth it not thence follow that he thereby commands every other indifferent thing that hath the same reason for it I answer No for if the Reason why he commands it be necessary and eternal it is not a thing indifferent but morally necessary and so is every thing else that hath the same Reason for it and consequently the reason of the Law tho it be applyed but to one thing extends to every thing of the same Nature because in all moral Cases the Reason of the Law is the Law But if the thing commanded be in it self indifferent the Reason why it is commanded cannot be necessary and therefore tho there be the same Reason why another thing of the same Nature should be commanded yet it doth not necessarily oblige unless it be commanded actually because in such Cases it is not the Reason but the Authority of the Law that obliges and therefore where there is only the Reason and not the Law it lays no obligation on the Conscience From the whole therefore it is evident what is the difference between things that are positively and morally Necessary and Sinful which I thought very necessary to explain at large for the giving a fuller light to the ensuing Discourse in which I shall endeavor to shew First THAT there is such an intrinsick Goodness in some Humane Actions as renders them for ever necessary and obliging to us Secondly THAT God hath sufficiently discovered to us what those Humane Actions are which carry with them this perpetual obligation Thirdly THAT these Actions which carry with them this perpetual obligation are the main and principal parts of Religion SECT I. That there is such an Intrinsick Good in some Humane Actions as render them for ever Necessary and obliging to us GOOD is twofold Absolute or Respective or the Good of the End and the Good of the Means The good of the End is that which is the Perfection and Happiness of any Being the good of the Means is that which tends and conduces thereunto As for Instance the absolute Good of a Brute Animal consists in the Perfection and Satisfaction of its Sense or in having perfect Feeling and Sensation of such things as are most grateful to its Appetite and Senses It s respective Good is the Means by which its Senses are perfected or rendred lively and vigorous and by which it 's provided for with such things as are grateful and pleasing to them For there being in every animate nature a Principle whereby it 's necessarily inclined to promote its own Preservation and Well-being that which hath in it a fitness to promote this End is called Good as on the contrary that which is apt to hinder it Evil. Now Man being not only a sensitive but a rational Creature hath a twofold Good belonging to his Nature the first Sensitive which is the same with that of brute Animals consisting in the Perfection and Satisfaction of his bodily Senses and Appetites and in those means which conduce thereunto and this for distinction sake is called his Natural Good the second Rational which consists in the Perfection and Satisfaction of his Rational Faculties and in those means which tend thereunto and this is stiled his Moral Good though in reality 't is as much Natural as the former For Man being naturally as well Rational as Sensitive that which promotes his Rational Perfection and Happiness is no less naturally good for him than that which promotes his Sensitive Nay his Rational Nature being the much more noble and excellent part of him that which naturally promotes the Perfection and Happiness of it is in it self a much greater good to his Nature and ought to be preferred by him before any of those Natural goods which conduce only to the happiness of his sensitive Nature and he who indulges his sensitive Part in any Pleasure which his Rational disallows doth thereby create a torment to himself and raise a Devil in his own mind For tho Reason and Religion doth allow that the Sensitive nature should be gratified in all its natural Appetites and Desires yet neither allow that it should be pampered and indulged in any such Excsses as are prejudicial either to it self or to that Rational Nature whereunto it is joyned and he who indulges his Sense in any such Excesses renders himself obnoxious to his own Reason and to gratifie the Brute in him displeases the Man and sets his two Natures at variance So that there is nothing can be naturally good for us that is any way inconsistent with what is morally so i. e. with what conduces to the Perfection and Happiness of our rational Nature and tho this Natural and Moral Good are no way
not to live like Hogs that wallow in the Mire while they are full and whine and clamor when they are empty which forbid them to feed on Eagles and other Birds of Prey to instruct them to live by honest Industry and not by Rapine which prohibits Fish without Scales that generally live in the Mud to teach the evil of Sensuality and earthly-mindedness c. From all which it is evident that Moral Goodness was the constant Mark at which all the positive Precepts of their Law were levelled AND then as for the Christian Religion all the positive Precepts it contains are directed to the same End It requires us to believe in Jesus Christ and in his Mediation to draw near unto God the Design of which Faith it expresly tells us is to Sanctifie our natures Acts 26.18 and to purifie our hearts Acts 15.9 It enjoyns us to be Baptized into the name of Jesus and for what purpose but to oblige us thereby to die to sin and to walk in newness of life Rom. 6.4 It requires us to commemorate our Saviour's Passion in a Sacramental Communion of his Body and Blood and to what End but only to excite us to Love and Thankfulness to God and Charity towards one another 1 Cor. 5.7 8. In a word it requires us to live in Vnity with the Church and not to separate our selves from her sacred Assemblies and for what other reason but that we might become an holy Temple and an habitation of God by being compacted together into an uniform and regular Society Eph. 2.21 22. Since therefore all the Precepts both of the Old and New Testament which are purely positive do bear a Respect to Moral Goodness and were imposed by God in subserviency thereunto it is evident that that is the principal Mark which he designs and aims at III. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of our Duty is the great Contempt which God expresses of the positive Duties of Religion when ever they are separated from moral Goodness For thus concerning the Positives of the Jewish Religion we are told that the Sacrifice of the wicked is an Abomination to the Lord. Prov. 15.8 And concerning the Whole of their positive Religion the Prophet thus pronounces in the Name of God to what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt-Offerings of Rams and of the fat of fed Beasts i. e so full as that I loath them and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-Goats When ye come to appear before me who hath required these things at your hands to tread my Courts bring no more vain Oblations Incense is Abomination to me the new Moons and Sabbaths the calling of Assâ—emblies I cannot away with it is Iniquity even the Solemn meetings Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth they are a trouble to me I am weary to bear them And when you spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes yea when ye make many Prayers I will not hear And what I beseech you is the reason that God should thus dislike his own Institutions why he plainly tells you your hands are full of blood your Cruelty and Oppression doth prophane your Worship and turn it all into Impiety Isai. 1.11 to the 16th For so Isai. 66.3 he plainly tells them he that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a Man he that Sacrificeth a Lamb as if he cut off a Dogs neck he that offereth an Oblation as if he offered Swines blood he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol and why so why they have chosen their own ways i. e. of Impiety and Wickedness and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations Nor doth God express a less Contempt of the Positives of Christianity when separated from Moral Goodness For thus St. James tells us even of our Faith or Belief in Jesus that without Works it is dead that is a sensless squalid thing that hath neither Life nor Beauty in it James 2.17 And S. Peter compares Baptism to the washing of a Swine when it is separated from Purity of Life and Manners 2 Pet. 2.22 And our receiving the Lords Supper without Charity and Devotion is by St. Paul stiled coming together to Condemnation 1 Cor. 11.34 All which is a plain Demonstration that moral Goodness is the principal matter that God insists on since 't was this that sanctified the Sacrifices of the Jews and crowned all their Ceremonial Observances with the divine Acceptation and without this all their other Services were noisom and offensive to him and it is this that perfumes our Faith and our Sacraments our Prayers and Religious Assemblies and renders them a grateful and sweet smelling savor in the Nostrils of God and without this they are all a hateful stench and Annoyance to him Doubtless therefore the principal Matter of Duty which God requires of us is that which he esteems the Grace and Fragrancy of all our other Duties IV. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal matter that God requires of us is that where ever we find the Whole of Religion summed up in a few Particulars they are always such as are Parts and Instances of moral Goodness Thus in the above cited Mic. 6. what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Thus also the Prophet Isaiah giving an account to his People what they were to do in order to their Reconciliation with God thus directs them wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judg the Fatherless plead for the Widow come now and let us reason together saith the Lord Isai 1.16.17 18. So also our blessed Saviour sums up the Whole Duty of Man into two Particulars and what are they why thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy mind this is the first and great Commandment And the second is like unto it thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self on these two Commandments hang the Law and the Prophets Mat. 22.37 38 39 40. Thus St. James True Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the Word James 1.27 And elsewhere the Apostle sums up the whole Law into one leading Head of Morality and that is Love for love saith he is the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.10 So this Observation generally holds true that in all those Summaries of Duty mentioned in the holy Scripture only such Duties are taken Notice of as are Parts and Instances of Morality Which is a plain Demonstration that 't is this which God principally requires since 't is this which he most takes notice
Nature we do in obeying them take Impression from him and stamp his blessed Nature on our own For all those virtuous Dispositions of mind which we acquire by the Practice of Virtue are so many genuine Signatures of God taken from the Seal of his Law and Participations of his Nature For so Holiness which consists in a Conformity of Soul with the eternal Laws of Goodness is in Scripture called the Signature or impression of the Spirit of God whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 and such as do righteousness are said to be born of God 1 John 2.29 which implies their deriving from him who is their divine Parent a divine and Godlike Nature even as Children do their humane Nature from their humane Parents So that by the Practice of moral Goodness we receive from God the best thing he can bestow viz. a divine and Godlike Nature and consequently by so doing we render him the highest Honour and Glory For since we can no otherwise honour him but by receiving from him we doubtless do him the greatest honour when we receive Himself by partaking of the Perfections of his Nature which are the greatest Gift he can communicate to us Herein saith our Saviour is my Father Glorified that ye bear much fruit John 15.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the aforenamed Philosopher i. e. he only knows how to honour God who presenrs himself a Sacrifice to him carves his own Soul into a divine Image and composes his Mind into a Temple for the Entertainment of God and the Reception of the divine Light and Glory 'T is then therefore that we best honour God when by the Practice of true Godliness we conform our Wills and Affections to him and derive into our selves his Nature and Perfections and should you erect to him a Temple more magnificent than Solomons and load its Altars with Hecatombs of Sacrifices and make it perpetually ring with Psalms and resounding Choirs of Halelujahs it would not be comparably so great an Honour to him as to convert your own Souls into living Temples and make them the Habitations of his Glory and Perfections For he values no Sacrifice like that of an obedient Will delights in no Choir like that of pure and heavenly Affections nor hath he in all his Creation an Ensign of Honour so truly worthy of him as that of a divine and God-like Soul a Soul that reflects his Image and shines back his own Glory upon him Wherefore since 't is by the Practice of moral Goodness that we receive God and copie his Nature into our own it is no wonder he should make it the principal Part of our Duty For how can it be otherwise expected but that he should exact that chiefly of us which most conduces to his own glory Since then nothing we can do can conduce to his Glory but only our receiving Benefits from him and since no Benefit we receive from him can so much conduce to it as our receiving Himself and since we can no otherwise receive himself but by practising that Goodness which is the Perfection of his Nature we must hereby doubtless render him the greatest Honour and Glory II. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Duty because 't is by this that we do most truely imitate him For so you find in Scripture that wherever God is proposed to us for a Pattern of Action it is by some Act or other of Morality that we are required to transcribe and imitate him So 1 Pet. 1.16 be ye holy for I am holy and Luke 6.36 be ye merciful as your Father is merciful and Mat. 5.48 be you perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect And indeed 't is only in Moral Goodness that God can be the Pattern of our Imitation as for those Perfections of his which for Distinction-sake we call natural viz. his Omniscience and Omnipresence Omnipotence and Eternity they are all beyond the Sphere of our Imitation and therefore were never proposed to us as the Copies of our Action But as for his moral Perfections viz. his Goodness and Righteousness and Purity and Mercy they are the Fundamental Rules and Standards of all moral Action For the Nature of God as it is infinitely good and righteous is the eternal Fountain whence all the Laws of Morality are derived and all those moral Precepts by which he governs his rational Creation are only so many Exemplifications of the moral Perfections of his own Nature For the Holiness of God which comprehends all his moral Perfections consists in that essential Rectitude of Nature whereby he always chooses and acts conformably to the Dictates of his own infallible Reason and 't is to this Rectitude of choosing and acting that all his moral Laws do oblige us For moral Laws are only the Dictates of right Reason prescribing us what to do and what to avoid so that in our Complyance with them we follow the Rule of Gods own Will and Actions and thereby imitate the eternal Rectitude of his Nature For tho in those different States and Relations of God and Creature right Reason cannot be supposed to oblige him and us to all the same particular Choices and Actions yet it obliges us both to act reasonably in our respective States and Relations it obliges God to act reasonably and as it becomes the State and Relation of a God and Creator and it obliges us to act reasonably and as it becomes the State and Relation of men and Creatures And as for God He is invariably inclined to do all that right Reason obliges him to by the essential Rectitude of his own Nature and herein consists all his moral Perfection which is nothing else but the immutable Inclination of his Nature to do whatever is just and good and reasonable So that while we live according to the Dictates of Reason or which is the same thing the eternal Laws of Morality we trace and imitate the moral Perfections of God and in our Place and Station live at the same Rate and by the same Rule that He doth in his We do what God himself would do if he were in our Place and what the Son of God did do when he was in our Nature and there is no other Difference between his Life and ours but what necessarily arises out of our different States and Relations Since therefore Moral Goodness is an Imitation of God 't is no wonder that he so much prefers it before all other matter of Duty For he must needs be supposed to love that above all things which is the true Copie and Image of those Perfections of his Nature for the sake of which he loves Himself above all For he loves himself not merely because he is Himself but because he is in all respects morally Good and his Will and Power are perfectly compliant with the infallible Dictates of his own Reason and hence arises his infinite Complacency in himself that there is
For whether we bow to God or to an Idol is all one to the Devil so long as our souls remain Profane and indevout whether we Communicate in the holy Sacrament of Christ's Death or in the impure Rights of Venus and Priapus is indifferent to him so long as our Hearts continue putrid and corrupt steaming with unchast Desires and Affections whether we Celebrate the Christian Festivals or the bloody Saturnals or Barbarous Bacchanalia is no great matter to him provided our Minds be but canker'd with Wrath and Malice and Cruelty and Revenge These are the Sinews of his Goverment and the Bands of our Allegiance to his Throne and whilst they are preserved he knows his Kingdom is safe and so long he doth not much regard what our outward Religion is Nay there is nothing can be a higher Gratification to his Ambition than to behold Himself served in Christs own Livery and Worship'd in a Form of Godliness by which he hath the Pleasure of dividing Empires with God and ravishing the better share from him of beholding his hated Creator mockt with the Shell and Outside of a Worshiper whilst himself is treated with the Kernol and Inside For whilst we continue wicked under an outward Form of Religion we do in Effect Sacrifice our Beast to God and our selves to the Devil who above all things loves those unnatural Commixtures of Hearer and Slanderer Worshiper and Deceiver Communicant and Drunkard Sacrificer and Oppressor by which we only exalt and sublimate Impiety which never looks so Glorious as when 't is Gilded with Fasts and long Prayers Wherefore as you will answer it at your eternal Peril do not Cheat and abuse your selves with the Name and Shadow of Religion lest when you have superstructed your Hopes of Happiness on a rotten Foundation it should finally miscarry and sink underneath you into everlasting Wretchedness and Despair CHAP. II. Concerning Religion What it is and what things are Necessary for the founding and securing its Obligations HAVING in the foregoing Chapter briefly discoursed concerning the Nature of Moral Goodness and shewn that it is the principal Part of Religion it will be requisite in the next place to explain what Religion is that so from thence we may collect what things are necessary to the founding and securing its Obligations which will be the Subject of the ensuing Chapters RELIGION in the General respects God as the Object and Centre of all its Acts and Offices For upon Supposition that there is such a Being as a God and that there are such Beings as reasonable Creatures or capable Subjects of Religion it will necessarily follow that there must be some Religion or other to tie and oblige these Creatures to that God For by God we mean a Being that hath all possible Perfection in him and is the supreme Cause and Fountain of all other Being and Perfection and such a Being we must needs acknowledge doth not only deserve the worthiest Acts of Religion that reasonable Creatures who alone are capable of understanding his Worth can render to him but hath also an unalienable Right to exact and require them and that not only upon the Account of his own essential Desert for whatever he deserves he hath a right to demand but also upon Account of the Right he hath to reasonable Creatures who owe their Beings to him and all their Capacities of serving him and so cannot dispose of themselves without manifest Injury to him contrary to his Will and Orders By reasonable Creatures we mean Beings that are derived from God and are indowed by him with a Capacity of understanding him and themselves and such Creatures must necessarily stand obliged to render him such Acts as are sutable to and due Acknowledgments of the Perfections of his Nature and their own Dependence upon him and this Obligation is that which we call Religion Which word according to Lactantius lib. 4. Divin Institut c. 28. is derived a religando from binding or obliging us to God So that true Religion in the general is the Obligation of Reasonable Creatures to render such Acts of Worship to God as are sutable to the Excellency of his Nature and their Dependence upon him Which Definition includes both the Doctrines and Dutuies of Religion For the Doctrines are the Reasons by which it obliges us to the Duties and as there is no Duty in Religion but what derives its Tie and Obligation from some Doctrine contained in it so there is no Doctrine in Religion but what ties and obliges us to some Duty that is enjoyned in it When therefore I call Religion an Obligation I include in that term all those Doctrines of it concerning God his Nature and his transactions with his Creatures which are the reasons by which we stand obliged to render all acts of Worship to him But for the better understanding of the nature of true Religion it is necessary we should distinguish it into natural and revealed By natural Religion I mean the Obligation which natural Reason lays upon us to render to God all that Worship and Obedience which upon the consideration of his Nature and our dependence upon him it discovers to be due to him For God having planted in us a rational Faculty by the due exercise of which we are naturally lead into the belief of his Being the sense of his Perfections and the acknowledgment of his Providence he expects we should follow it as the Guide and Directory of our lives and actions and whatsoever this Faculty doth naturally and in its due exercise dictate to us is as much the voice of God as any revelation For whatever it naturally dictates it must dictate by his direction who is the Author of its Nature and who having framed it to speak such a sense and pronounce such a judgment of things hath thereby put his word into its mouth and doth himself speak through it as through a standing Oracle which he hath erected in our breasts on purpose to convey and deliver his own Mind and Will to us So that whatsoever natural Reason rightly exercised teaches us concerning God and our Duty towards him is true Religion and doth as effectually bind and oblige us to him as if it had been immediately revealed by him It teaches us that God is infinitely wise and just and powerful and good that he is the Fountain of our Beings the disposer of our Affairs and the Arbitrator of our Fate both here and hereafter and by these Doctrines it obliges us to admire and adore him to fear and love him to trust and obey him And this is natural Religion which consists of such Doctrines as natural Reason teaches us concerning God and his Nature and Providence and of such Duties as it infers from those Doctrines and inforces by them and all the Doctrines of this Religion upon which it founds its Duties being eternal verities as they must necessarily be being all deduced from the immutable Natures of God and things
Doctrines which have been handled at large in other English Treatises of the Christian Faith and especially in that incomparable one of our most learned Bishop of Chester on the Creed a Book which next to the Bible I thankfully acknowledg my self more beholden to for my instruction in the Doctrines of Religion than to any one I ever read I have contracted my self into as narrow a compass as the barely necessary explication of them would permit me but where that renowned Pen hath insisted more Cursorily as for instance on the particular Offices of our blessed Mediator I have most enlarged my self though even there I have for brevity sake pretermitted some things I intended less immediate and necessary appertaining to the Argument UPON the whole I can truly say that to the best of my understanding I have herein delivered nothing but what is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Primitive Church which as the most faithful Comment on the holy Writings of our Saviour and his Apostles I have all along carefully consulted in doubtful and difficult cases and this is the reason why it hath stuck so long in hand the pains I have taken in consulting the ancient Monuments of Christianity about it being as I may truly say at least double to that of composing it and in following the Primitive Doctrine I have followed the Doctrine of the Church of England which in its Faith Government and Discipline I believe in my conscience is the most Primitive Church in the World As for the Method I have chosen which is to deduce all the Doctrines of Christianity from one general Head viz. the Doctrine of the Mediator it is the most convenient I could think of for my purpose which was to represent at once to the Readers view all the parts of our holy Religion in their natural connexion with and dependence on one another that so he might be the better able to judge of the beautiful contexture and admirable contrivance of the whole and that by seeing how regularly all the parts of it proceed out of one common Principle and conspire in one common end he may be the better satisfied that Christianity is so far from being a heap of incoherencies as some have injuriously represented it that considering it merely as an Hypothesis abstracted from all that external evidence that accompanies it the very Art and contrivance of it the proportion symetry and correspondence of its parts their subserviency to each other and the concurrence and tendency of them all together to the common ends of Religion are such as do apparently exceed all humane Invention and argue it to be the product of a divine mind For as he who would form a true Idea of the beauty of a Picture must not contemplate the parts of it separately but survey them all together and consider them in their proportions and correspondencies with each other so he who would frame a right Notion of Religion must not look upon it as it lies scattered and divided into single parts and propositions but consider them in contexture and as they are connected all together into one body or hypothesis For it is in their apt Junctures their mutual dependencies and admirable coherencies with one another that the beauty and harmony of the whole consists And therefore to do right to Christianity and enable the Reader to contemplate it with the greatest advantage I have endeavoured to represent to him the whole in a view and to give him a prospect of all the parts of it together in an harmonious union and connexion with each other For I verily believe that the mean opinion which some witty men have entertained of Christianity proceeds in a great measure from their broken and imperfect apprehensions of it they understand it piecemeal and take it asunder into single propositions which they consider separately and apart by themselves without ever putting them together into one regular System and presenting them to their thoughts in that orderly connexion wherein the holy Oracles have delivered them to us For I can scarce imagine how any man of sense should contemplate Christianity all together and throughly consider the harmonious coherence of all its parts and the wonderful contrivance of the whole without being captivated with the beauty and elegancy of it AND now I have nothing further to add concerning this Treatise but only to intreat the Reader not to be too severe in the perusal of it For though as for the Doctrine of it I see no reason at all to Apologize for it because I am fully persuaded of the truth of it yet being forced as I was to compose it by snatches and in the more quiet intervals of a busie and uneasie life I very much suspect the exactness both of the Stile and Method of it and therefore all the favour I desire is this that where I have improperly or obscurely express'd my self I may be construed in the most favourable sense and that wherever I may seem to be confused or immethodical it may be attributed to those frequent interruptions which the disorders of my body have given to my thoughts And these are requests so very just and reasonable that I am confident none will be so peevish as to deny me but they who read Books only to carp and find fault and without any design to Edifie their own understandings But I hope the Reader will consider that the Argument here treated of is of too great moment to him to be so wretchedly trifled with and that therefore he will not be either so disingenuous to me or uncharitable to himself as to peruse with such a spiteful design that which I sincerely intended for his good and which he I am sure if he pleases may be the better for for ever THE CONTENTS CHAPTER I. HUmane Actions of three sorts page 1. Necessary and sinful Actions are either such as are good or evil in themselves which are those we call Moral Actions or such as are commanded and forbid by positive Law p. 2 3 4 5 6 7. The Nature of Moral Good explained Sect. 1. p. 8 9 10 11. That there is such a thing as Moral Good in humane Actions proved in five Propositions p. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27. The various ways by which God hath discovered to us what is Morally Good in six particulars Sect. 2. p. 28 to p. 53. Actions Morally Good are the principal parts of Religion Sect. 3. p. 53 54 55. This demonstrated by six Arguments from Scripture p. 55 to p. 71. Four Reasons why God principally requires what is Morally Good p. 71 to p. 91. CHAP. II. OF the nature of Religion in General and of natural Religion what it is p. 92 93 94 95 96. And of Revealed Religion p. 97 98 99 100. A definition of natural and revealed Religion considered as they are now in conjunction p. 101 102. From the nature of Religion thus defined the
inconsistent with one another yet it is the Moral that is the Supreme Good of a Man because it is the good of his most excellent Nature Having thus premised what I mean by Good in general and particularly by Moral Good I proceed to shew that in some Humane actions there is such an intrinsick moral Good as renders 'em for ever obliging to us And this I shall endeavour in these following Propositions First THAT the Happiness of Humane Nature is founded in its Perfection Secondly THAT the Perfection of Humane Nature consists in acting suitably to the most perfect Reason Thirdly THAT the most perfect Reason is that wherein all reasonable Beings do consent and agree Fourthly THAT there are certain Rules of Moral Good wherein all Reasonable Beings are agreed Fifthly THAT to act suitably to those Rules hath been always found by universal experience conducible to the Happiness of Humane Nature and the contrary mischievous thereunto I. THAT the Happiness of Humane Nature is founded in its Perfection For the Perfection of Beings consists in their being compleatly disposed and adapted for the End whereunto they are designed Now the End of all Beings that have Life and Sense is that sort of Happiness that is sutable to their Natures for 't is thither that they all of them naturally tend and therein that their Faculties do all concenter When therefore their Faculties or Powers of Action are compleatly disposed to enjoy the proper Happiness of their Natures then are they perfect in their Kind Thus for instance the End of Brutes which have only Bodily Sense is Sensitive and corporeal Happiness and thererefore then is the Brute Creature perfect in its kind when it hath not only all the Parts and Senses that are necessary to procure and enjoy its Happiness but hath them also perfectly sitted tempered and qualified to pursue and relish it And supposing that all the pleasure or happiness of a Beast consisted in the Taste and Smell of its Pasture it could never be compleatly happy so long as the Organs of its Smell or Taste were imperfect So that the perfection of every Sensible Nature consists in being perfely disposed to enjoy its Natural Happiness And accordingly herein consists the Perfection of Humane Nature in being perfectly fitted and disposed to enjoy and relish Humane Happiness For this being its proper End it is impossible it should ever be perfect in its Kind till 't is compleatly contempered and adapted thereunto So that our Happiness must necessarily be founded in our Perfection which is nothing else but the perfect Disposition of our Natures to relish and enjoy those Goods wherein the Happiness of our Nature consists and till our Nature is perfectly disposed to enjoy them all the good things of Heaven and Earth will be insufficient to render us perfectly happy II. THAT the Perfection of Humane Nature consists in acting sutably to the most Perfect Reason For Reason being the top and Crown of Humane Nature hath a natural Right to Command and Dispose of its Motions to be the Eye of its Will and the Guide of its Affections and the Law of all its Powers of Action And indeed for what other use serves the Reason of a Man but to prescribe Rules to his unreasonable Affections to light and direct them to their proper Objects and as they are moving towards them to moderate their Excesses and to quicken their Defects and to lead them on to true Happiness in an even Course through all the wild Mazes of popular Mistakes And unless it be thus imployed the man is Reasonable in vain and his light like a Candle inclosed in a Dark-Lanthorn burns out in wast and spends it self in an useless and unprofitable blaze And whilst to please our Appetites and Passions we run counter to the advice of our Reason we forsake the rule of our Natures and act like Beasts and not like Men in which course of Action if we persist we must necessarily degenerate from our selves and sink by degrees into the most sordid Brutality For when once our Appetites have gotten the Command of our Reason and not only dethroned but inslaved it the very Order of our Nature is transposed and we are become our own Reverse and Antipodes If therefore we would arrive at our own Perfection it must be by following our Reason and submitting all our Affections and Appetites to its Government For what else can be the Perfection of a Rational Nature but to be perfectly Rational and what is it to be perfectly Rational but to have our Minds throughly instructed with the Principles of Right Reason and our Will and Affections intirely regulated by them For herein consists the Supream Perfection not only of Men but of Angels yea and of God Himself the Crown and Glory of whose Nature it is that he always knows and chuses and acts what is fittest and best and most reasonable And when once our Understanding is so far inlightned as that it always dictates right Reason to us and our Will and Affections are so far subdued as that they always freely and chearfully comply with it we have arrived to the very top of our Nature and are Commenced perfect Men in Christ Jesus III. THAT the most perfect Reason is that wherein all Reasonable Beings do consent and agree For if there be any such matter as True and False Reasonable and Vnreasonable in the Nature of things and if there be any such thing as Vnderstanding among Beings whereby they are capable of distinguishing between the one and the other either that must be True and Reasonable which all Understandings do consent and agree in or all the Understandings that are in the World must be under a fatal Cheat and Delusion Which later being supposed inevitably destroys all Knowledge and Certainty and lays a foundation for the wildest Scepticism For supposing all Understandings to be deceived and imposed on it is impossible for us to be certain of any thing and for all we know a Part may be bigger than the Whole two and two may make twenty and both parts of a Contradiction may be true Nay we can never be certain whether we are not Dreaming when we think we are Awake and whether we are not Awake when we think we are Dreaming Either therefore we must renounce all Certainty whatsoever and fluctuate in eternal Scepticism or allow that to be True and Reasonable which all Understandings do unanimously vote so IV. THAT there are certain Rules of Moral Goodness concerning the immutable Reason whereof all Understandings are agreed For such are all those which prescribe the Dueness of Worship and Veneration to God of Obedience and Loyalty to our Parents and Superiours of Temperance and Fortitude to our selves and of Justice and Charity to one another to the Goodness and Reasonableness of which Rules all Understandings do as unanimously consent as to the truth of any Proposition in the Mathematicks Now of all the orders of Reasonable Beings
Direction to Vertue antecedent to all our Reasoning and Discourse Which Theages the Pythagorean stiles a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a certain natural Impetus or Enthusiasme by which without any previous Discourse or Deliberation we are forcibly carried on towards vertuous Actions For some Affections there are in our Nature which do in the general plainly signifie to us that there is such a thing as Moral Good and Evil in Humane Actions and others that do as plainly point out what those Actions are wherein this moral good and evil is subjected Of the first sort are the Affections of Love and Hatred Complacency and Horror Glory and Shame Repentance and Self-satisfaction which plainly declare that there are answerable Objects in the Nature of Things and Actions that there is a Good to be beloved and an Evil to be hated a Deformity to be abhorred and a Beauty to be delighted in an Excellency to be gloried in and a Filthiness to be ashamed of a Well-doing to be satisfied 〈…〉 an Ill doing to be repented of For 〈◊〉 theâ—e were no such real Distinctions in the Nature of Things and Actions all these Affections in us would be utterly vain and impertinent And as these Affections of our Nature do signifie in the general that there is a moral Good and Evil in our Actions so there are others which do particularly point out what Actions are morally Good and what Evil. Thus for Instance the Passions of Veneration and Disdain do plainly direct us to Honour God and our Superiors and to be constant in good Courses out of a generous Scorn of all Temptations to the contrary Thus Commiseration and Envy direct us to Charity and Justice to lament and assist those who are undeservedly unfortunate and to be displeased with the Advancement of base and undeserving People and consequently to be just and equal in our Distributions and to proportion them to mens Merit and Desert For by this Passion of Envy Nature teaches us that there is such a thing as just and unjust equal and unequal and that the former is to be embraced and the latter to be shunned And to name no more thus Sorrow and Joy doth by a silent Language disswade us from injuring and perswade us to benefit one another For so by the mournful Voice the dejected Eyes and Countenance the Sighs and Groans and Tears of the sorrowful and opprest all which are the powerful Rhetorick of Nature we are importuned not only to forbear heaping any further Injuries upon them but also to commiserate their Griefs and by our timely Aids to succour and relieve them As on the contrary the florid and chearful Looks the pleasant and grateful Air which we behold in those that rejoyce are so many Charms and Attractives by which Nature allures us to mutual Vrbanity and Sweetness of Behaviour and a continual Study to please and gratifie one another By these and many other Instances I might give it is evident that tho by our own ill Government we too often deprave our Affections and corrupt them into Vices yet their natural Drift and tendency lies towards Vertue Thus by their own natural Light which they carry before us they direct our steps to the Way we are to walk in and point out all those Tracts of eternal Goodness that lead to our Happiness For since these Affections are in us antecedently to all our Deliberations and Choices it is evident they were placed there by the Author of our Natures and therefore since 't is He who hath inclined them to all that they naturally incline to He doth in Effect direct and guide us by their Inclinations So that their natural Tendencies and Directions are the Voice of God in our Natures which murmurs and whispers to us that natural Law which our Reason indeed doth more plainly and articulately promulge And from this natural Tendency of our Affections to Good proceeds that pleasant and painful Sense of good and bad Actions which we experience in our selves before ever we can discourse For thus before we are capable of reasoning our selves into any Pleasure or Displeasure our Nature is rejoyced in a kind or just Action either in our selves or others and we are sensibly pleased when we have pleasured those that oblige us and as sensibly grieved when we are conscious of having grieved and offended them We love to see those fare well who we imagine have deserved well and when any unjust Violence is offered them our Nature shrinks at and abhors it We pity and compassionate the miserable when we know not why and are ready to offer at their Relief when we can give no Reason for it which shews that these things proceed not either from our Education or deliberate Choice but from the Nature of our Affections which have a Sympathy with Vertue and an Antipathy to Vice implanted in their very Constitution And hence it is that in the Beginnings of Sin our Nature is commonly so shy of an evil Action that it approaches it with such a modest Coyness and goes blushing to it like a bashful Virgin to an Adulterers Bed that it passes into it with such Regret and Reluctancy and looks back upon it with such Shame and Confusion which in our tender years when as yet we are not arrived to the Exercise of our Understandings cannot be supposed to proceed from Reason and Conscience and therefore must be from the natural Sense of our Affections which by these and such like Indications do signifie that they are violated and offended Now this natural Sense of Good and Evil which springs from the Frame and Nature of our Affections was doubtless intended by God to be the 〈◊〉 guide of Humane Nature that so when as yet 't is not capable of following Reason and Conscience it might be directed to what is Good and be preserved from wicked Habits and Prejudices by its own Sense and Feeling till such time as it 's capable of the Conduct of Reason that so when this leading Faculty undertakes the Charge of it it may find it 〈…〉 to its 〈◊〉 and be able to manage it with more Ease and Facility And thus by the natural Drift and Tendency of our Affections God hath plainly revealed to us what is good and what not IV. GOD hath also entailed upon our Actions natural Rewards and Punishments and thereby plainly declared which are good and which evil For it is easily demonstrable by an Induction of Particulars that every Vertue hath some natural Efficacy in it to advance both our publick Good and our private Interest That Temperance and Charity Righteousness and Fidelity Gratitude and Humility are not only convenient but absolutely necessary to our Joy and Comfort our Peace and Quietness our Safety and Contentment to the Health of our Body and the Satisfaction of our Mind and the Security and Happiness of our Society with one another Whereas on the contrary Vice naturally teems with mischievous Effects and is ever productive
of and it may be reasonably supposed that in those Summaries of our Duty wherein but a few Parts are enumerated they are such as are the Chief and principal it being contrary to all Rules of Language to express the Whole of any thing by the meanest and most inconsiderable Parts of it V. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of Duty that God requires of us is that wheresoever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described their Character is always made up of Instances of Morality Thus the Description of Job is that he was a man perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1 And in the 15th Psalm the Description which David gives of the man who should abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord is this that he walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart that he backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour c. he that doth these things saith he shall never be moved And the greatest Character that is given of Moses the Darling and Favorite of God is that he was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth Numb 12.3 Thus also the Character of Cornelius by which he was so indeared to God is that he was a just and devout man one that feared God with all his house who gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God always Acts 10.2 And in a word the general Character of those whom God accepts is in every Nation he who doth righteousness is accepted of God Acts 10.35 Thus moral Goodness is the great Stamp and Impress that renders men current in the Esteem of God whereas on the contrary the common Brand by which Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion are stigmatized is their being zealous for the Positives and cold and indifferent as to the Morals of Religion For so our Saviour Characters the Pharisees woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tyth of Mint Annis and Cummin which yet was a positive Duty and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faithfulness these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind Guides ye strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Math. 23.23.24 plainly implying the Morals of Religion to be as much greater than the Positives in weight and moment as a Camel is than a Gnat in bulk Since therefore Moral Goodness is always mentioned as the great Character of Gods Favourites and the Neglect of it out of a pretended zeal to the positive Duties of Religion is always recorded as a Mark of the most odious Hypocrites this is a sufficient Argument how high a Value God sets upon the Moralities of Religion VI. and Lastly ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal Part of Religion is that at the great Account between God and us his main Inquisition will be concerning such Actions as are morally good or evil For so Rom. 2.6 we are told that God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life But to them who are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness tribulation and wrath indignation and anguish And accordingly Enoch as he is quoted by St. Jude verses 14.15 declares this to be the Occasion of the Lords coming with thousands of his Saints viz. to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him all which are matters of Fact against the eternal Rules of Morality And our Saviour himself in that Popular Scheme and Description he gives of the Proceedings of the Day of Judgment plainly declares that one of the principal Matters he will then inquire into will be our Neglect or Observance of that great moral Duty of Charity towards the poor and needy Mat. 25.32 46. Which is a plain Evidence that our obeying or disobeying the eternal Laws of Morality is that by which we do most please or displease God since 't is upon this that he will most insist in his final Arbitration of our eternal Fate For since his last Judgment is only the final Execution of his Laws we may be sure that whatsoever it is that he will principally insist on in his Judgment that is the principal matter of his Laws And now having sufficiently proved the Truth of the Proposition I proceed to the Reasons of it upon what Accounts it is that God hath made moral Goodness the main and principal Part of our Religion The chief Reasons of which are these four First BECAUSE 't is by moral Goodness that we do most honor him Secondly BECAUSE 't is by this that we do most imitate him Thirdly BECAUSE 't is by this that we advance to our own Happiness Fourthly WHEN all our positive Duty is ceast this is to be the eternal Work and Business of our Nature I. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Religion because 't is by this that we do him the greatest Honour It is an excellent saying of Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the best honour we can do to a self sufficient being is to receive the good things he holds forth unto us and therefore 't is not by giving to God that you honour him but by rendring your selves worthy to receive of him for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. whosoever gives honour to God as to one that wants doth not consider that he thereby sets himself above God For by his own self-sufficiency he is infinitely removed above all Capacity of Want and so can never need any additional Contributions of Glory and Happiness from his Creatures For Glory being nothing else but the Resplendency of Perfection which always reflects its own Beams upon it self where ever there is infinite perfection as to be sure there is in the Nature of God there must an infinite Glory proceed from it and therefore being infinitely glorious in himself it is impossible that any thing we do should add any further Glory to him So that if we would truly honour and glorify him it must not be by giving to but by receiving from him Now the best thing we can receive from God is Himself and Himself we do receive in our strict compliance with the eternal Laws of Goodness Which Laws being transcribed from the Nature of God from his own eternal Righteousness and Goodness we do by obeying them derive Gods Nature into ours So that while we write after the Copie of his Laws we write out the Perfections of his Being and his Laws being the Seal upon which he hath ingraven his
nothing in him but what his own Reason perfectly approves no Inclination in his Will or Nature but what is exactly agreeable to the fairest Ideas of his own Mind And since it is for his own Goodness-sake that he loves himself as he doth we may be sure that there is nothing without him can be so dear to him as that in us which is the Image of his Goodness Every like we say loves its like and the righteous Lord saith the Psalmist loveth Righteousness Psal. 11.7 i. e. being righteous himself he loves Righteousness in others by an invincible sympathy of Nature His greatest Heaven and Delight is in his own most righteous Nature and next to that in righteous Souls that imitate and resemble him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath not a more grateful Habitation upon Earth than in a pure and vertuous Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Apollo that Mimick of God by his Pythian Oracle i. e. I rejoyce as much in pious Souls as in my own Heaven Which is much what the same with that gracious Declaration that God himself makes by the Prophet Isaiah 57.15 thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Since therefore moral Duties are all but so many Copies and Exemplifications of Gods Nature this is a sufficient Reason why he should prefer them before all the Positives of Religion III. GOD principally requires moral Goodness because 't is by the Practice of this that we advance to our own natural Happiness For the natural Happiness of reasonable Creatures consists in being entirely governed by right Reason i. e. in having our Minds perfectly informed what it is that right Reason requires of us and our Wills and Affections reduced to an entire Conformity thereunto And this is the Perfection of moral Goodness which consists in behaving our selves towards God and our selves and all the World as right Reason advises or as it becomes rational Creatures placed in our Circumstances and Relations And when by practising all that true Piety and Vertue which moral Goodness implies we are perfectly accomplished in our Behaviour towards God our selves and all the World so as to render to each without any Reserve or Reluctancy what is fit and due in the Judgment of right Reason we are arrived to the most happy State that a reasonable Nature can aspire to 'T is true in this Life we cannot be perfectly happy and that not only because we live in wretched Bodies that are continually liable to Pain and Sickness but also because we are imperfect our selves and have none to converse with but imperfect Creatures But were we once stript of these natural and moral Imperfections wheresoever we lived we should necessarily be happy Were I to live all alone without this painful Body I should necessarily be in a great measure happy while I followed right Reason tho I lived in the darkest Nook of the Creation For there I should still contemplate God and while I did so my mind would be always ravish'd with his Beauty and Perfections there I should most ardently love him and while I did so I should sympathise and share with him in his Happiness there I should still adore and praise him and while I did so I should feel my self continually drawn up to him and wrapt into a real Injoyment of him there I should be imitating his Perfections and while I did so I should enjoy an unspeakable Self-satisfaction perceiving how every Moment I grew a more Divine and Godlike Creature there I should intirely resign up my self to his heavenly Will and Disposal and while I did so I should be perpetually exulting under a joyous Assurance of his Love and Favour in a word there I should firmly depend upon his Truth and Goodness and while I did so I should be always triumphing in a sure and certain Hope of a happy Being for ever Thus were I shut up all alone in an unbodied State and had none but God to converse with by behaving my self towards him as right Reason directs me I should always enjoy him and in that Injoyment should be always Happy And if while I thus behaved my self towards God I took care at the same time to demean my self towards my self with that exact Prudence and Temperance and Fortitude and Humility which right Reason requires I should hereby create another Heaven within me a Heaven of calm Thoughts quiet and uniform Desires serene and placid Affections which would be so many everflowing Springs of Pleasure Tranquillity and Contentment within me But if while I thus enjoyed God and my self by behaving my self as right Reason directs I might be admitted to live and converse among perfect Spirits and to demean my self towards them with that exact Charity and Justice and Peaceableness and Modesty which right Reason requires the Wit of man could not conceive a true Pleasure beyond what I should now enjoy For now I should be possest of every thing my utmost Wishes could propose of a good God a Godlike joyful and contented Soul a peaceable kind and righteous Neighbourhood and so all above within and without me would be a pure and perfect Heaven And indeed when I have thrown off this Body and am stript into a naked Ghost the only or at least the greatest goods my Nature will be capable of enjoying are God my self and blessed Spirits and these are no otherwise injoyable but only by Acts of Piety and Vertue without which there is no good thing beyond the Grave that a Soul can tast or relish So that if when I go to seek my Fortune in the World of Spirits God should thus bespeak me O man now thou art leaving all these Injoyments of Sence consult with thy self what will do thee good and thou shalt have whatsoever thou wilt ask to carry with thee into that spiritual State I am sure the utmost I should crave would be this Lord give me a heart inflamed with Love and winged with Duty to thee that thereby I may but enjoy thee give me a sober and a temperate mind that thereby I may but enjoy my self give me a kind a peaceable and a righteous Temper that thereby I may but enjoy the sweet Society of blessed Spirits O give me but these blessed things and thou hast crowned all my wishes and to Eternity I will never crave any other Favour for my self but only this that I may continue a pious and a vertuous Soul for ever for while I continue so I am sure I shall enjoy all spiritual Good and be as happy as Heaven can make me So that the main Happiness you see of Humane Nature consists in the Perfection of moral Goodness and it being so it is no wonder that the good God who above all things desires the
Happiness of his Creatures should above all things exact of us the Duties of Morality He knows that our supreme Beatitude is founded in our Piety and Vertue and that out of our free and constant sprightly and vivacious Exercise of these arises all our Heaven both here and hereafter and knowing this that tender Love which he bears us that mighty Concern which he hath for our Welfare makes him thus urgent and importunate with us For he regards our Duty no farther than it tends to our Good and values each Act of our Obedience by what it contributes to our Happiness and 't is therefore that he prefers moral Duties above positive because they are more essential to our eternal Welfare IV. and Lastly GOD principally requires of us moral Goodness because when all positive Duty is ceast this is to be the eternal Work and Exercise of our Natures For Moral Good is from everlasting to everlasting its Birth was elder than the World and its Life and Duration runs parallel with Eternity before ever the Mountains were brought forth 't was founded in the Nature of God and as an inseparable Beam of his all-comprehending Reason it shines from one end of the World to the other For as soon as ever there was a rational Creature in being the obligations of Morality laid hold on him before ever any positive Duty was imposed and as long as ever there remains a rational Creature the Obligations of Morality will abide on him when all positive Duty is expired For moral Obligations are not founded like positive ones upon mutable Circumstances but upon firm and everlasting Reasons upon Reasons that to all Eternity will carry with them the same force and necessity For as long as we are the Creatures of an infinitely perfect Creator 't will be as much our Duty as 't is now to love and adore him as long as we are reasonable Creatures 't will be as much our Duty as 't is now to submit our Will and Affections to our Reason and as long as we are related to other reasonable Creatures 't will be as much our Duty as 't is now to be kind and just and peaceable in all our Intercourses with them So that these are such Duties as no Will can dispense with no Reasons abrogate no Circumstances disanul or make void but as long as God is what he is and we are what we are they must and will oblige us So that what the Psalmist saith of God may be truly applied to moral Goodness the Heavens shall perish but thou shalt remain they all shall wax old as doth a garment and be folded up and Changed but thou art the same yesterday to day and for ever and thy years shall have no end But as long since the positive Parts of the Jewish Religion were cancell'd and repealed the Vail of the Temple rent in twain the Temple it self buried in Ruins and all its Altars thrown down and their Sacrifices abolished whilst the moral Parts of that Religion still stand firm as the everlasting Mountains about Jerusalem so the time will come whem the positive Parts of Christianity it self must cease when Faith must be swallowed up in Visâ—on and Sacraments be made void by Perfection and all the stated times and outward Solemnities of our Worship expire into an everlasting Sabbath but then when all this Scene of things is quite vanished away Piety and Virtue will still keep the Stage and be the everlasting Exercise of our glorified Natures For as I shewed before all positive Duty is instituted in subserviency to moral and like a Scaffold to a House is only erected for the Convenience of Building up this everlasting Structure of Morality and when this is once finished must be all taken down again as an unnecessary Incumbrance that now only hides and obscures the Beauty of that Heavenly Building that was raised on it and shall abide without it for ever to entertain our Faculties through all the future Ages of our Being and to be the everlasting Mansion of our Natures Wherefore since positive Duties must all cease and expire and only moral Goodness is to be our Business for ever 't is no wonder that God who is so good a Master takes so much Care in ths short Apprentiship of our Life to train us up in that which is to be our Trade for ever He knows it is upon Piety and Vertue that we must live to Eternity and maintain our selves in all our Glory and Happiness and that if when we come into the invisible World we have not this blessed Trade to subsist by we are undone for ever and therefore out of a tender Regard to our Welfare he makes it his principal Care to train us up in this everlasting Business of our Natures WHAT then remains but that above all things we take care to apply our selves to the Practice of moral Goodness to contemplate and love and adore and imitate God to depend upon him and resign up our selves to his Disposal and Government to be sober and temperate in our Affections and Appetites and just and Charitable and modest and peaceable towards one another These are the great things which God requires at our hands and without these all our Religion is a fulsome Cheat. 'T is true the positive Parts of Religion are our Duty as well as these and God by his Sovereign Authority exacts them at our hands and unless when Jesus Christ hath been sufficiently proposed to us we do sincerely believe in him unless we strike Covenant with him by Baptism and frequently renew that Covenant in the Lords Supper unless we diligently attend on the Publick Assemblies of his Worship and use an honest Care to avoid Schism and to persist in Vnity with his true Catholick Church there is no Pretence of Morality will bear us out when we appear before his dread Tribunal But then we are to consider that the proper Use of all these positive Duties is to improve and perfect us in moral Goodness and unless we use them to this Effect we shall render them altogether void and insignificant Wherefore as we would not lose all the Fruits of our positive Duties let us take care to extend them to their utmost Design to improve our Sacrifice to Obedience our Sacraments to Gratitude and Love our Hearing to Practice our Praying to Devotion and our Fasting to Humility and Repentance For if we rest in these Duties and go no farther thinking by such short Payments to Compound with God for all those Debts we owe to the eternal Laws of Morality we miserably cheat and befool our own Souls which notwithstanding all this Exactness about the Positives of Religion are by their own immoral Affections still enslaved to the Devil to whom it is much one what our outward Form of Religion is whether it be Christian or Heathen or Mahometan provided it doth not operate on our minds or give any Check to the Current of our depraved Natures
When therefore we conceive of the perfections of God we must so conceive of them as that there may be no manner of inconsistency or disagreement between them otherwise we must admit into our conceptions of them something or other that is defective or imperfect As for instance in God there is infinite Wisdom and infinite Justice infinite Goodness and infinite Mercy wherefore if we would conceive aright of these his glorious perfections we must take care not to admit any Notion of any one of them that renders it repugnant to any other but so to conceive of them altogether as that they may mutually accord and agree with each other For while we apprehend his Goodness to be such as that it will not accord with his Wisdom we must either suppose his Wisdom to be Craft or his Goodness to be Folly and whilst we apprehend his Mercy to be such as that it will not agree with his Justice we must either suppose his Justice to be Cruelty or his Mercy to be blind Pity and Fondness and it is certain that that goodness cannot be a perfection which exceeds the measures of Wisdom nor that Mercy neither which transgresses the bounds of Justice and so on the contrary For if either Gods goodness excludes his wisdom or his wisdom his goodness if either his Mercy swallow up his Justice or his Justice his Mercy there is an apparent repugnance and contrariety between them and where there is a contrariety there must be imperfection in one or t'other or both WHEREFORE if we would apprehend them altogether as they truly are in God that is under the notion of perfections we must so conceive of them as that in all respects they may be perfectly consistent and harmonious as that his Wisdom may not clash with his Goodness nor his Goodness with his Wisdom as that his Mercy may not justle with his Justice nor his Justice with his Mercy that is we must conceive him to be as wise as he can be with infinite goodness as good as he can be with infinite wisdom as just as he can be with infinite mercy and as merciful as he can be with infinite justice which is to be wise and good and just and merciful so far as it is a perfection to be so For to be wise beyond what is good is Craft to be good beyond what is wise is Dotage to be just beyond what is merciful is Rigour to be merciful beyond what is just is Easiness that is they are all imperfection so far as they are beyond what is perfect Wherefore we ought to be very careful not to represent these his Moral perfections as running a tilt at one another but to conceive of them all together as one intire perfection which though like the Center of a Circle it hath many Lines drawn from it round about and so is looked upon sometimes as the term of this Line and sometimes of that yet is but one common and undivided term to them all or to speak more plainly though it exerts it self in different ways and actions and operates diversly according to the diversities of its Objects and accordingly admits of divers Names such as Wisdom Goodness Justice and Mercy yet is in it self but one simple and indivisible principle of action all whose operations how diverse soever are such as perfectly accord with each other whose acts of Wisdom are all infinitely good whose acts of goodness are all infinitely wise whose acts of justice are infinitely merciful and whose acts of mercy are infinitely just so that in this as well as in their extension and degrees they are all most perfect viz. that they always operate with mutual consent and in perfect harmony And while we thus conceive of the divine perfections our minds will be mightily secured against all those false apprehensions of God which lead to superstition and presumption for we shall so apprehend his wisdom and justice as not to be superstitiously afraid and so apprehend his goodness and mercy as not to be presumptuously secure and as on the one hand his Justice will protect his Mercy from being abused by our wanton security so on the other hand his goodness will protect his wisdom from being misrepresented by our anxious suspition For while we consider his mercy thus tempered with his justice and his wisdom with his goodness we can neither expect impunity from the one if we continue wicked nor yet suspect any ill design against us in the other if we return from our evil ways and persevere in well doing SECT III. Of the causes of our mis-apprehensions of God I Now proceed to the last thing I proposed which was to assign and remove the causes of mens misapprehensions of God many of which are so secret and obscure so peculiar to the frame and temper of mens brains so interwoven with the infinite varieties of humane Constitutions that it is very difficult if not impossible to trace them so as to make an exact enumeration of them all and therefore I shall only assign the most common and visible causes by which the generality of men are mislead in their Apprehensions of the divine Nature whinh are reducible to these six Heads First Ignorance of what is the true perfection of our own Nature Secondly Framing our Notions of God according to the model of our own humour and temper Thirdly Obstinate partiality to our own sinful lusts and affections Fourthly Measuring Gods Nature by particular Providences Fifthly Taking up our Notions of God from obscure and particular passages and not from the plain and general current of Scripture Sixthly Indevotion I. ONE great cause of our misapprehensions of God is Ignorance of what is the true perfection of our own Natures For as I shewed before in conceiving of the perfections of God we must take our rise from those perfections we behold in his Creatures and particularly in our own Natures wherein there is a composition of all created perfections so that while we are ignorant of what is the true perfection of our own Natures our thoughts can have no rule or aim whereby to judg of God's That he hath all those perfections in himself which he hath derived to us is the Fundamental Maxim upon which we are to erect our Notions of him and therefore unless we know what those perfections are which he hath derived to us and wherein they consist our mind hath no footing or foundation whereon to raise any certain Idea of him For since we have no other way to conceive of his perfections but by our own how is it possible that while we are ignorant of our own we should ever conceive aright of his This therefore is one great reason why men do so grosly misconceive of God because they have no true Notion of their own perfection by which they are to form their conceptions of his FOR whereas the true perfection of humane nature consists In Moral goodness or an universal compliance of
light of an infallible experience he knows what God is not so much by reasoning and discourse as by a quick and lively sense of the divine perfections which he hath copied and transcribed into his own temper and which like the beams of the Sun light up his thoughts to that Fountain of light from whence they were derived And he who hath Gods Picture in his own breast and can see his perfections in the Graces and Vertues of his own mind knows him by his Sense as well as by his Reason he sees and feels God in the Godlike temper of his own Soul the Graces whereof are so many living Images of God and sensible Comments on his nature which render the mans Notions of him not only as clear and distinct but also as certain and indubitable as any demonstration in Geometry For there is no evidence will give us so full a certainty of things as that of our own senses it was by sensible evidence that our Saviour demonstrated himself to be the Messias and confuted the Infidelity of his Apostle St. Thomas and it is certain that our bodily senses are not more infallible than is the purified sense of our minds When therefore we are transformed into the likeness of God and made partakers of his Nature we shall have a vital sense and feeling of his perfections within us by which the true Notions of him will be more confirmed and ascertained to us than by all the reasons and demonstrations in the World For now we shall behold the beauties of Gods Nature in the God-like dispositions of our own and beholding his Face in the Glass of our natures whensoever we reflect on it his perfections will be as intimate and familiar to us as the Graces of our own minds which will not only awaken our thoughts into frequent meditations of him but also heighten and improve our Meditations into the most glorious Ideas of him For when all is done there is no man can think so well of God as he who hath a Godlike nature because the resemblance he bears to him will not only frequently raise up his thoughts to God but also shape them into a conformity with his nature whereas whilst we are unlike to God we are not only devoid of all that evidence of his perfections which the purified sense of our nature would give us and consequently our Notions of him for want of that evidence will be only superficial and uncertain but through our partiality to our own ungodlike dispositions we shall be apt to entertain such Notions of him as are as unlike him as our selves For either out of fondness to our selves we shall look upon our ill dispositions as perfections and so attribute them to God or out of fondness to those ill dispositions we shall be tempted to admit such opinions of God as will license and indulge them WHEREFORE if we would secure our minds against all false apprehensions of God we must above all things endeavour to purifie our hearts from those evil dispositions which render us unlike him from sensuality and injustice from pride and discontent from envy hatred and all uncharitableness which are the great corrupters of our minds the bosom Hereticks that seduce and pervert us and as much as in us lies to conform our selves to the nature of God by practising the contrary Vertues and when once by imitating the perfections of his nature we have transcribed them into our own we shall see and feel him in our selves and our Sense of him will conduct our Reason our Experience of him wil correct our Knowledg and our Vision of him consummate our Faith and we shall be more enlightened in our knowledg of him by beholding his face in the sanctity of our own minds than by a thousand Volumes of curious Speculations And now having seen what the true causes of all our misapprehensions of God are let us from henceforth beware of them and so far as in us lies labour to avoid them and considering of what vast advantage to our Religion right and true Notions of God are let us diligently apply our selves to the above-named Rules for the regulating our apprehensions concerning him that so having throughly purged our thoughts of all erroneous opinions we may see God truly as he is arrayed in all the genuine perfections of his nature And then we shall find our lives and affections under the Influence of the most powerful reasons in the World For every thing of God is full of persuasion all his perfections have a constraining Rhetorick in them that by a kind of Moral violence conquers all that attend to it and seises and captivates their Wills in despight of all the reluctances of their natures So that when once our minds are throughly instructed with the true Notions of God we shall not need to seek abroad for Motives and Arguments for we shall have a Fountain of divine Oratory within our own Bosoms from whence our Wills and Affections will be continually watered with the most fruitful inducements to Piety and Vertue insomuch that which way soever we turn our selves we shall see our selves surrounded with such invincible reasons to trust in God and to fear him to admire and love him to obey and worship him as will animate our faculties wing and inspire our drooping indeavours and carry us on with unspeakable Chearfulness and Alacrity through all the weary stages of Religion and we shall no longer look upon Religion as the burthen and oppression of our nature but readily embrace it as our Ornament and Crown our Glory and Happiness as being fully convinced that in serving of God we serve not only the greatest but the best Master in the World FINIS Vide Lessius de Prov.
its Will Affections and Actions with those everlasting Laws of righteousness which right reason prescribes how many are there that look upon this as a very mean and carnal accomplishment and place all their perfection in things of a quite different nature viz. in the Ebbs and Flows of their sensitive passion and the extraordinary Fermentations of their bloud and spirits that is to say in unaccountable dejections and exaltations of mind in vehement impressions of fancy and Mechanical movements of affection in Raptures and Ecstacies and Hypocondriacal incomes and manifestations that have nothing of substantial Vertue or Piety in them nor commonly any other effect but to cause men to renounce that Righteousness which they never had and rely upon that which they have no Title to and to sooth and tickle their fancies and blow them up into glorious opinions of themselves and Triumphant assurances of their being the Darlings and Favourites of God whilst poor Moral men that make conscience of regulating their affections and actions by the eternal Laws of Righteousness are look'd upon by them with a scornful compassion and placed in the lowermost form of sinners at the greatest distance from the Kingdom of God Now when men take such false measures of their own perfection how is it possible they should conceive aright of the perfections of God which they have no other way to conceive of but only by arguing from their own Wherefore in order to the forming our Ideas of Gods perfections it is necessary we should first fix the true Notion of our own which is no hard matter for us to do For our Nature being reasonable to be sure its perfection must consist in willing affecting and acting reasonably or which is the same thing in Governing it self in all its relations and circumstances by those immutable Laws of goodness which right reason prescribes and which are exemplified to us in the holy Scripture and when we have fixt in our minds this Notion of our own perfection it will naturally conduct our thoughts to God's and let us see that his perfection consists not in a lawless and boundless Will that decrees without foresight resolves without reason and Wills because it will and then executes its own blind and unaccountable purposes by dint of irresistible power without any regard to right or wrong For if we rightly understand our own perfection we cannot but discern that such a Will as this is one of the most monstrous deformities in nature because it is the most Diametrically opposite to the true Idea of our own Perfection which while we attentively fix our eyes on we cannot but infer from it that the true perfection of God consists in the unvariable determination of his Will by the all-comprehending reason of his Mind or in chusing and refusing decreeing and executing upon such reasons as best becomes a God to will and act on i. e. upon such as are infinitely wise and good and just and merciful For if to Will and Act upon such reasons as these be the perfection of our nature we cannot but conclude that it is the perfection of Gods too but if we are ignorant of our own perfection we must necessarily think of God at Rovers without any certain aim or rule to square and direct our apprehensions II. ANOTHER cause of our misapprehension of God is our framing our Notions of him according to the Model of our own particular humour and temper For self-love being the most vehement affection of Humane Nature and that upon which all it s other affections are founded there is no one Vice to which we are more universally obnoxious than that of excessive fondness and partiality to our selves which makes us too often dote upon the deformities and even Idolize the Vices of our own temper So that whether our nature be stern sour and imperious or fond easie and indulgent we are apt to admire it as a great perfection merely because it is Ours without measuring it by those eternal reasons which are the Rules of Good and Evil Perfection and Imperfection and then whatever we look upon as a perfection in our selves we naturally attribute to God who is the cause and fountain of all perfection And hence it comes to pass that mens minds have been always tinctured with such false and repugnant opinions of God because they frame their judgments of him not so much by their reason as by their temper and humour and so their different humours being not only unreasonable in themselves but repugnant and contrary to one another produce in them not only false and unreasonable but contrary and repugnant opinions of God Thus for instance the Epicureans who were a soft and voluptuous Sect intirely addicted to ease and pleasure fancied God to be such a one as themselves a Being that was wholly sequestred from action and confined to an Extra-mundane Paradise where he lived in perfect ease and was entertained with infinite Luxuries without ever concerning his thoughts with any thing abroad for this they thought was the top of all perfection and therefore thus they would have chosen to live had they been Gods themselves Thus the Stoicks who were a sort of very morose and inflexible people copied their Notions of God from their own complexion supposing him to be an inflexible Being that was utterly incapable of being moved and affected by the reasons of things but was wholly governed by a stern and inexorable Fate And accordingly the Scythians and Thracians the Gaules and Carthaginians who were a people of a bloudy and Barbarous nature Pictured their Gods from their own temper imagining them to be of a bloud-thirsty nature that delighted to feed their hungry Nostrils with the Nidorous reeks and steams of humane gore Whereas on the contrary the Platonists who were generally of a very soft and amorous nature took their measure of God thereby and so framed an Idea of him that was as soft and amorous as their own complexion composed altogether of loves and smiles and indearments without the least intermixture of vengeance and severity how just soever in it self or necessary to the well-government of the World Thus as the Ethiopians pictured their Gods black because they were black themselves so generally men have been always prone to represent God in the colour of their own complexions which is the cause that they many times represent him so utterly unlike to himself because out of an unreasonable partiality to themselves they first mistake the deformities of their own natures for perfections and then Deifie them them into Divine Attributes Thou thoughtest saith God that I was altogether such a one as thy self Psal. 50.21 that is thou didst frame thy conceptions of me according to the Pattern of thy own ill-nature and so thoughtest basely and unworthily of me And hence I doubt not spring most of those misapprehensions of God which have been received among Christians For how is it possible for any man that is not of