the Creatour is as visible in the manner of this dispensation as the thing it self And 't is an observable point of Providence in ordering the length and shortness of Days and Nights for the good of the several parts of the World Under the Equinoctial Line the Earth being parcht by the direct beams of the Sun the nights are regularly twelve hours through the Year fresh and moist to remedy that inconvenience On the contrary in the northern parts where there is a fainter reflection of its Beams the Days are very long that the Sun may supply by its continuance what is defective in its vigour to ripen the fruits of the Earth The annual course of the Sun between the North and South discovers also the high and admirable wisdom of God For all the benefits that Nature receives depends on his unerring constant motion through the same Circle declining and oblique with respect to the Poles of the World 'T is not possible that more can be done with less From hence proceeds the difference of Climates the inequality of Days and Nights the variety of Seasons the diverse mixtures of the first qualities the universal Instruments of natural Productions In the Spring 't is in conjunction with the Pleiades to cause sweet showers that are as milk to nourish the new-born tender plants that hang at the breasts of the Earth In the Summer 't is joyn'd with the Dog-Star to redouble its force for the production of Fruits necessary to the support of living Creatures And Winter that in appearance is the death of Nature yet is of admirable use for the good of the Universe The Earth is clensed moistened and prepar'd so that our hopes of the succeeding Year depends on the Frosts and Snows of Winter If the Sun in its diurnal and annual motion were so swift that the Year were compleated in six Months and the Day and Night in twelve hours the fruits of the Earth would want a necessary space to ripen If on the contrary it were so slow as double the time were spent in its return the Harvest but once gather'd in the twenty four Months could not suffice for the nourishment of living Creatures 'T is also a considerable effect of Providence that the sensible World do's not suddenly pass from the highest degrees of heat to the extremity of cold nor from this to that but so gradually that the passage is not only tolerable but pleasant Immediate extreams are very dangerous to Nature To prevent that inconvenience the Spring interposes between the Winter and Summer by its gentle heat disposing living bodies for the excess of Summer And Autumn of a middle quality prepares them for the rigour of Winter that they may pass from one to another without violent alteration To attribute these revolutions so just and uniform to Chance is the perfection of folly for Chance as a cause that works without design has no constancy nor order in its effects If a Dy be thrown a hundred times the fall is contingent and rarely happens to be twice together on the same square Now the Alternate returns of Day and Night are perpetual in all the Regions of the Universe And though neither the one nor the other begin nor end their course twice together in the same Point so that their motion appears confused yet t is so just that at the finishing of the Year they are found to have taken precisely as many paces the one as the other In the amiable Warr beween them though one of the two always gets and the other loses the hours yet in the end they retire equal And the vicissitudes of Seasons with an inviolable tenor succeed one another Who ever saw the various Scenes of a Theater move by hazard in those just spaces of time as to represent Palaces or Woods Rocks and Seas as the subject of the Actors requir'd And can the lower World four times in the circle of the Year change appearance and alter the Seasons so conveniently to the use of Nature and no powerful Mind direct that great work frequent discoveries of an end orderly pursued must be attributed to a judicious Agent The Psalmist guided not only by Inspiration but Reason declares The Day is thine the Night also is thine thou madest the Summer and Winter But this I shall have occasion to touch on afterward CHAP. II. The Air a fit medium to convey the Light and influences of the Heavens to the lower World T is the repository of Vapours that are drawn up by the Sun and descend in fruitful Showers The Winds of great benefit The separation of the Sea from the Land the effect of great Wisdom and Power That the Earth is not an equal Globe is both pleasant and useful The League of the Elements considered Excellent Wisdom visible in Plants and Fruits The shapes of Animals are answerable to their properties They regularly act to preserve themselves The Bees Swallows Ants directed by an excellent mind THe Expension of the Air from the Etherial Heavens to the Earth is another testimony of Divine Providence For 't is transparent and of a subtle Nature and thereby a fit medium to convey Light and Celestial Influences to the lower World It receives the first impressions of the Heavens and insinuating without resistance conveys them to the most distant things By it the greatest numbers of useful objects that cannot by immediate application to our faculties be known are transmitted in their images and representations All colours and figures to the Eye sounds to the Ear. T is necessary for the subsistence of Animals that live by respiration It mixes with their nourishment cools the inward heat and tempers its violence Besides In the Air Vapors are attracted by the Sun till they ascend to that height to which its reflection does not arrive and there losing the soul of heat that was only borrowed by degrees return to their native coldness and are gathered into Clouds which do not break in a deluge of waters that would wash away the seed but dissolving into fruitful showers fall in millions of drops to refresh the Earth so that what is taken from it without loss is restor'd with immense profit The Air is the field of the Winds an invisible generation of Spirits whose life consists in motion These are of divers qualities and effects for the advantage of the World Some are turbid others serene and chearful some warm and refreshing others cold and sharp some are placid and gentle others furious and stormy some moist others dry They cleanse and purifie the Air that otherwise would corrupt by the setling of vapors be destructive to the lives of Animals They convey the Clouds for the universal benefit of the Earth for if the Clouds had no motion but directly upwards they must only fall on those parts from whence they ascended to the great damage of the Earth For moist places that send up plenty of Vapours would be overflowed and
it would be greater folly to believe that the natural course of things should be the same this Year as in former times than to assert that a Gamester should to day throw the Dice in the same order and with the same points uppermost as he did yesterday 'T is evident therefore that the Epicurean Doctrine having not the least shadow of Reason had never been receiv'd with applause but as 't is joyn'd with impiety 2. Some attribute the rise and course of things in the World to the sole necessity of Nature To this it may be replied 1. 'T is true there is an evident connexion of Causes and Effects in the Celestial and Elementary World whereby times and seasons are continued and the succession of mutable things is preserv'd so that Nature always consuming remains intire Though all vegetive and sensitive beings dye yet the species are immortal For the living are brought forth to succeed in the place of the dead But the inquiring mind cannot rest here for 't is impossible to conceive a train of Effects one caused by another without ascending to the first Efficient that is not an Effect For nothing can act before it exists The order of Causes requires that we ascend to the Supream which derives being and vertue to all the intermediate Thus Nature produces things from seminal Causes that depend on things already in being The Seed of Flowers and Trees suppose the Fruits of the Earth before growing but the first Tree could not be so produc'd To fancy an infinite succession of Causes depending one upon another without arriving to a first can only fall into the thoughts of a disordered mind How came this Horse that Lion in Nature 'T is by generation from another and that from another and so infinitely How came this Man into the World 'T is because he was begotten by such a Father and he by another and so infinitely Thus Atheism that rejects one truly Infinite Cause is obliged to admit an Infinity in all things an Incomprehensibility in all things 'T is therefore evident the efficient principles in Nature are from the sole power of the first and independent cause They could not proceed from themselves and that a most wise and powerfull Being is the original of all things is as evident Is it conceivable that the insensible Mass that is called Matter should have had an eternal being without original whereas there is not the least imaginable repugnance in the Attributes of the first and highest Being in whom all those Perfections concur which as proper to the Deity are form'd in the mind in the idea of it as his spiritual Nature Eternity Immensity Wisdom Omnipotence c. of which 't is equally true that no one either absolutely or relatively considered involve a contradiction that make it impossible for the Supream Being to possess it Is it not perfectly inconsistent to attribute to Matter the lowest and most contemptible of all Beings the highest and most noble Perfection an Independent Existence One may assert it in words but not seriously without the utter deserting of Reason Man incomparably excels this Matter he understands it and that understands not him yet he has a derived being in time 'T is therefore necessary that that should have some cause of its being But supposing the self subsistence of Matter from Eternity could the World full of innumerable Forms spring by an Impetus from a dead formless Principle T is equally impossible that a blind Cause casual or fatal should give being and order to the Universe Besides all subordinate Causes are sustained in their Beings and Powers by fresh influences from the first and directed in their operations To attribute the manifold Effects in the World to Second Causes working in a blind manner without an Universal Intellectual Mover that disposes tempers and governs them is as unreasonable as to attribute humane Works to the common Instruments of Art without the direction of the Understanding that uses them The Hand or Pencil has not skill to do any thing but as it obeys the Mind that gives it the impression of Art and regulates its Motion The Earth knows not the various Fruits that spring from it nor the Sea its living Productions And the Sun though a more specious is not a more intelligent and artificial Agent Nature under another name is the ordinary Power of God that by its intimate concourse with Second-Causes produces and supports things And 't is one of the considerable Wonders of his Providence that the stream of perishing things always emptying is always full there being a supply from the Fountains of continual Productions of what is lost in the dead Sea so that the World is always the same and always new And from what hath been argued we may judge how unreasonable it is to doubt whether there be a Principle in Nature of excellent Wisdome because not seen in his own Essence for if Reason compel us to acknowledg that the works of Art wrought by manual Instruments proceed from an unseen mind that directed their motions according to the idea framd in it self we ought more strongly to conclude there is a Divine Mind though invisible to mortal eyes that contriv'd at first and with knowledg performs all the works of Nature To deny the Existence of a Being not subjected to our outward Senses is equally of no force in both the instances By the same Reason St. Austin confounds the Atheist objecting that he could not see the Deity To whom he propounds this question That since his Body was only visible and not his Soul why should it not be buried And upon the reply That the quickning presence of the Soul was evident in the actions of Life perform'd by the Body he truly infers if a vital principle imperceptible in its self is discover'd by vital actions the Deity though by the perfection of his Nature undiscernable to our senses is clearly seen by the light of his effects And those who are wilfully blind if God should by any new sensible effects make a discovery of himself yet would remain inconvincible For the arguments of his presence from extraordinary effects are liable to the same exceptions pretended against the ordinary CHAP. V. The beginning of the World proved from the uninterrupted tradition of it through all ages The invention of Arts and bringing them to perfection an argument of the Worlds beginning The weakness of that fancy that the World is in a perpetual Circulation from Infancy to Youth and to full Age and a decrepit state and back again so that Arts are lost and recovered in that change The consent of Nations a clear Argument that there is a God The impressions of Nature are infallible That the most Men are practical Atheists that some doubt and deny God in words is of no force to disprove his Existence There are no absolute Atheists Nature in extremities has an irresistible force and compels the most obdurate to
understanding conceives spiritual Objects is not confin'd to singular and present things Reflects upon it self Corrects the errors of the sense Does not suffer from the excellence of the Object Is vigorous in its operations when the body is decay'd which proves it to be an immaterial faculty An answer to objections against the Souls spiritual Nature That the first notices of things are conveyed through the senses does not argue it to be a material faculty That it depends on the temper of the Body in its superior operations is no prejudice to its spiritual Nature HAving dispatch'd the consideration of the prime fundamental Truth that there is a most Wise and Powerful Creator of all things I shall next discourse of the Immortality of the humane Soul and the Eternal recompences in the future State In treating of the Souls Immortality I shall not insist on nice and subtile Speculations that evaporate and leave nothing substantial for conviction or practice but consider those proofs that may induce the mind to assent and work upon the will to make its choice of objects with respect to their endless consequences hereafter And first it must be premised that Immortality is not an inseparable perfection of its nature for 't is capable of annihilation What ever had a beginning may have an end God only hath immortality in an absolute sense and communicates it according to his pleasure The perpetual existence of Souls is a priviledge that depends on his sustaining vertue without which they would relapse into a state of not Being His Will is the measure of their duration I shall therefore consider such things as strongly argue that God will not withdraw his conservative influence that is necessary to their Immortality The Arguments are of two sorts Natural and Moral The first prove that God has made the Soul incapable of Death by any Internal Causes of perishing from its Nature and in that declares not obscurely that he will ever preserve it The second sort are drawn from the Divine Attributes the visible Oeconomy of Providence in the government of the World that are infallible and will produce a sufficient conviction in minds equally inclin'd 1. The Soul is incapable of Death by any Internal Causes of perishing in its Nature The dissolution of things proceeds from the corruptible principles of which they are compounded and the separable parts of which they consist and into which they are resolved Therefore all mixt and material Beings are subject to dissolution But the humane Soul is a spiritual substance simple without any disagreeing qualities as heat and cold moisture and driness the seeds of corruption The essences of things are best discover'd by their peculiar operations that argue a real distinction between them and from whence arise the different notions whereby they are conceived The soul of a Brute performs the same vital acts as the soul of a Plant yet 't is visibly of a more elevated nature because it performs the functions of the sensitive life that are proper to it The rational Soul performs the same sensitive acts as the soul of Brutes but that it is of a higher order of substances appears by its peculiar objects and immediate operations upon them The two principal faculties of the humane Soul are the Understanding and the Will and the Actions flowing from them exceed the power of the most refined matter however modified and transcend any Principle that is only endowed with the powers of sense and imagination confin'd to matter To proceed orderly I will first consider the Mind with respect to the quality of its objects and manner how it is conversant about them 1. The conception of things purely spiritual God Angels separate Souls the Analogies the differences and various respects of things argue it to be of a spiritual nature For 't is and evident principle there must be an Analogy between the Faculty and the Object A material Glass cannot represent a Spirit it has no receptivity to take into it an object without figure colour and diversity of parts the affections of matter A spiritual object can only be apprehended by a spiritual operation and that can only be produced by a spiritual Power The being of things is the root of their working Now rarifie matter to the highest fineness reduce it to imperceptible Atoms 't is as truly Matter as a gross Body For lightness and tenuity are as proper Attributes of matter as weight and density though less sensible If a Beast could apprehend what discourse is it were rational The Soul therefore that understands the Spirituality of things is Spiritual otherwise it should act extra sphaeram The intellectual eye alone sees him that is Invisible understands the reasons of Truth and Justice looks beyond the bright Hills of Time into the Spiritual Eternal World so that 't is evident there is an affinity and likeness in Nature between them 2. Material faculties are confin'd to the narrow compass of singular and present things but the Mind abstracts from all individuals their pure Nature and forms their Universal Species The Eye can only see a colour'd object before it the Mind contemplates the nature of Colours It ascends above all the distinctions of Time recollects what is past foresees what is to come no interval of space or time can hinder its sight Besides the swift flight of the thoughts over Sea and Land the soaring of the Mind in a moment above the Stars as if its essence were all vigour and activity prove that 't is not a material Power 3. Sense only acts in a direct way without reflecting upon its self or its own operations 'T is true there is an experimental perception included in vital and sensible acts but 't is far below proper reflection The Eye doth not see the action by which it sees nor the imagination reflect on it self for that being conversant only about representations transmitted through the senses cannot frame an Image of it self and gaze upon it there being no such resemblance conveyed by the mediation of the outward organs But the rational Soul not only contemplates an object but reflects on its own contemplation and retir'd from all commerce with External things views it self its qualities and state and by this gives testimony of its Spiritual and immortal Nature 4. The Mind rectifies the false reports of the Senses and forms the Judgment of things not according to their impressions but by such rational evidence of which they are not capable When the Object is too distant or the Medium unfit or the Organs distemper'd the Senses are deceived The Stars of the brightest magnitude seem to be trembling sparks of light but the Understanding considers that the representations of things are imperfect and less distinct proportionably to their distance and conceives of their magnitude accordingly A straight Oar appears crooked in the Water but Reason observes the error in the refractions when the Image passes through a double medium of
stood in awe of their own imaginations The Philosophers privatly condemn'd what in a guilty compliance with the Laws of State they publickly own'd Nay even the lowest and dullest among the Gentiles generally acknowledged one Supreme God and Lord of all inferior Deities As Tertullian observes in their great distresses guided by the internal instructions of Nature they invok'd God not the Gods to their help 3. That the belief of one God is a pure emanation from the light of Nature is evident in that since the extinction of Idolatry not a spark remaining in many parts of the World 't is still preserv'd in its vigor and lustre in the breasts of Men. Since the plurality of Gods have been degraded of their Honour and their Worships chased out of many Countries and the ideas of various ancient superstitions are lost the only true God is served with more solemn veneration Time the wise discerner of Truth from Falshood abolishes the fictions of fancy but confirms the uncorrupted sentiments of Nature To conclude this Discourse what rational doubt can remain after so strong a witness of the Deity External from the Universe Internal from the frame of the humane Soul If we look through the whole compass of natural Beings there is not one separately taken but has some signature of wisdom upon it As a beam of light passing through a chink in Wall of what figure soever always forms a circle on the place where 't is reflected and by that describes the image of its original the Sun Thus God in every one of his Works represents himself tanquam Solis radio scriptum But the union of all the parts by such strong and sweet bands is a more pregnant proof of his omnipotent mind Is it a testimony of great military skill in a General to range an Army compos'd of divers Nations that have grat antipathies between them in that Order as renders it victorious in Battel And is it not a testimony of infinite Providence to dispose all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth so as they joyn successfully for the preservation of Nature 'T is astonishing that any should be of such a reprobate mind as not to be convinc'd by the sight of the World a visible Word that more gloriosly illustrates the perfections of the Creator than the sublimest Eloquence that conceals what it designs to represent When Sophocles was accused by his ungrateful Sons that his Understanding being declin'd with his Age he was unfit to manage the affairs of his Family he made no other defence before the Judges but recited part of a Tragedy newly compos'd by him and left it to their decision whether there was a failure in his Intellectuals upon which he was not only absolved but crown'd with Praises What foul ingratitude are those guilty of who deny the Divine Wisdom of which there are such clear and powerful demonstrations in the things that are seen Abhor'd impiety worthy of the most fiery indignation and not to be expiated with a single death None except base stupid spirits that are laps'd and sunk below the rational Nature as a noble Philosopher justly censures them are capable of such prodigious folly and perversness Yet these are the pretenders to free reason and strength of mind and with a contemptuous smile despise the sober World as fetterd with servil Principles and foolishly soften'd by impressions of an unknown uncertain being and value themselves as more knowing than all others because they contradict all Ridiculous vanity as if a blind Man in a crowd sometimes justling one sometimes another should with impatience cry out Do ye not see when he is under a double blindness both in his eyes and understanding not seeing himself and reproaching those that see for not seeing In short this great Truth shines with so bright an evidence that all the sons of darkness can never put out and can only be denied by obstinate Atheism and absurdity CHAP. VII The duties of understanding Creatures to the Maker of all things Admiration of his glorious perfections visible in them This is more particularly the duty of Man the World being made eminently for him The Causes why the Creatour is not honour'd in his Works are mens ignorance and inobservance Things new rather affect us than great An humble fear is a necessary respect from the Creature to the Divine Majesty and Power Love and Obedience in the highest degrees are due from men to God in the quality of Creator Trust and reliance on God is our duty and priviledg LEt us now briefly consider the indispensible Duties of rational Creatures with respect to the Maker of all things And those are 1. To acknowledg and admire the Deity and his perfections that are so visible in his Works For there must be a first Cause from whom that receives being that cannot proceed from it self In all the forms of things there are some Characters stampt of the Divine Wisdom that declare his Glory some footsteps imprest of his Power that discover him some lines drawn of his Goodness that demonstrate him And so much praise is justly due to the Artificer as there is excellence of Art and Perfection of workmanship appearing in the Work This Duty is especially incumbent on Man because the World was made with a more eminent respect for him than for Angels or Animals For if we consider the diversity of its parts the multitude and variety of sensitive Natures of which it consists and the Art whereby 't is fram'd according to the most noble Idea and design of highest Wisdom 't is evident it was principally made for Man there being an adequate correspondence between them with regard to the faculties and the objects 'T is true the Angels understand more perfectly than Man the union order and beauty of the World an incomparable proof of the Makers perfections but they are not capable of knowledg or pleasure by tasts smels sounds which are only proportion'd to make impressions on material Organs And is it agreeable to Wisdom that an Object purely sensible should be chiefly intended for a Power purely Spiritual Neither are the Beasts fit spectators of the Divine Works For the material part to which sense can only reach is the least notable in the frame of Nature and the oeconomy of the World They cannot discover the dependance between Causes and Effects the Means and End nor the Wisdom that ordered all These are only for the vision of the mind which they want The volume of the World to them is like a fair printed Book compos'd of sublime matter and style but opened to one that sees the beauty of the Characters without understanding the Language it speaks and the Wisdom it contains An Eagle by fixing its eyes on the Sun cannot measure its greatness nor understand the ends of its motion The World would be lost if only for them But the wise Creator united these two distinct natures in Man and plac'd him in this
its first Being as Averroes fancied there would be no cause of such a Sympathy but the Soul as intellectual is an informing not assisting form And it is an evident proof of the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator by this strict and sensible union to make the Soul vigilant and active to provide for the convenience and comfort of the Body in the present state and that notwithstanding such a discord in Nature there should be such a concord in inclinations 2. Though the mental operations of the Soul are hindred by the ill habit of the Body yet the mind suffers no hurt but still retains its intellectual power without impairing A skilful Musitian does not lose his Art that plays on an harp when the strings are false though the Musick is not so harmonious as when 't is justly tuned The visive faculty is not weakned when the Air by a collection of gross vapours is so thick that the eye cannot distinctly perceive distant objects When by the heats of Wine or a Disease the Spirits are inflam'd and made fierce and unruly and the Images in the Fancy are put into confusion the mind cannot regularly govern and use them When the fumes are evaporated the Brain is restor'd to its temper and fitness for intellectual operations but the mind is not cur'd that was not hurt by those Distempers Briefly the Deniers of the Souls Immortality resemble in their arguings some who oppos'd the Divinity of our Saviour For as Apollinaris and Eunomius from Christ's sleeping so profoundly in a storm instead of concluding that he was a real Man falsly inferr'd that he was not God Because sleep is not the satisfaction of a Divine appetite the Deity is incapable of it But they consider'd not his more than humane Power in rebuking the Winds and the Sea with that Empire that was felt and obeyed by those insensible creatures so those whose interest inclines them to believe that Man is entirely mortal alledg that he acts as a sensitive Creature for he is so but consider not that he has also more noble faculties to understand objects purely spiritual and God himself the most perfect in that order which no material principle though of the most subtile and finest contexture can reach unto Besides the more 't is disengaged from Matter and retir'd from the senses the more capable it is to perform its most exalted operations and consequently by an absolute separation 't is so far from perishing that it ascends to its perfection For the manner how it acts in the separate state 't is to no purpose to search being most secret and 't will be to no purpose to find as being of no influence to excite us to the constant and diligent performance of our duty 'T is therefore a fruitless curiosity to inquire after it But to imagine that because the Soul in the present state cannot understand clearly without the convenient disposition of the Body therefore it cannot act at all without it is as absur'd as to fancy because a man confin'd to a Chamber cannot see the objects without but through the Windows therefore he cannot see at all but through such a Medium and that when he is out of the Chamber he has totally lost his sight CHAP. IX The acts of the Will consider'd It s choice of things distastful to Sense and sometimes destructive to the Body argue it to be a spiritual principle The difference between Man and Brutes amplified The Spiritual operations of the Soul may be perform'd by it self in a separate state This is a strong proof God will continue it The Platonick argumeut that man unites the two orders of Natures intelligent and sensible Immortal and perishing 2. THe acts of the Will that imperial faculty prove it to be of a higher order of substance than the sensitive Soul The Brutes are acted by pure necessity their powers are moved and determined by the external application of objects 'T is visible that all kinds of sensitive Creatures in all times are carried in the same manner by the potent sway of Nature towards things sutable to their corporeal faculties But the rational Will is a principle of free election that controuls the lower appetite by restraining from the most pleasant and powerful allurements and choosing sometimes the most distastful things to sense Now from whence arises this contention If the rational Will be not of a higher nature than the sensual appetite why does it not consent with its inclinations How comes the Soul to mortifie the most vehement desires of the body a part so near in Nature so dear by Affection and so apt to resent an injury And since 't is most evident that sensitive Creatures always with the utmost of their force defend their Beings from whence is it that the rational Soul in some cases against the strongest recoile and reluctance of Nature exposes the body to Death If it depended on the body for subsistence it would use all means to preserve it Upon the sight of contrary motions in an engine we conclude they are caused by diverse springs and can such opposite desires in Man proceed from the same principle If the rational Soul be not of a sublimer order than the sensitive it follows that Men are Beasts and Beasts are Men. Now 't is as impossible to be what they are not as not to be what they are But do the Beasts reverence a Divine Power and at stated times perform acts of solemn Worship Is Conscience the immediate rule of their Actions will Lectures of temperance chastity justice arrest them in the eager pursute of sensual satisfactions Do they feel remorse in doing ill and pleasure in doing well Do they exercise the Mind in the search of Truth have they desires of a sublime intellectual good that the low sensual part cannot partake of have they a capacity of such an immense Blessedness that no finite Object in its qualities and duration can satisfy Ask the Beasts and they will tell you Their actions declare the contrary But the humane Soul has awful apprehensions of the Deity distinguishes of things by their agreement or disconformity to his Laws It s best and quickest Pleasures and most piercing wounding Troubles are from Moral Causes What colour what taste has Vertue yet the purified Soul is inflam'd by the views of its most amiable thô not sensible beauty and delighted in its sweetness How often is it so ravish'd in contemplation of God the great Object of the rational Powers as to lose the desire and memory of all carnal things What stronger Argument and clearer Proof can there be of its affinity with God than that Divine things are most sutable to it for if the rational Soul were of the same order with the sensitive as it could not possibly conceive any being more excellent than what is corporeal so it could only relish gross things wherein Sense is conversant The Sum of what has been discourst of
and in true comparison infinitely excells all the allurements of Sin 2. 'T is true that as natural actions that are necessary to preserve the Species or the Individuals are mixt with sensible pleasures as an attractive to the performance of them so there is joyn'd to actions of Vertue that are more excellent a present complacency of a superiour Order to all carnal pleasures But 't is a frigid conceit that this is the entire reward For first besides the inward satisfaction that naturally results from the practice of Vertue there is an excellent Good that is properly the reward of the supream Governor of the World We have an Example of this in humane Justice which is an image of the divine For those who have been eminently serviceable to the State besides the joyful sense arising from the performance of Heroick Actions for the Good of their Country are rewarded by the Prince with great Honours and Benefits 2. This inward Joy is not here felt by all Holy Persons In this militant state after vigorous resistance of carnal Lusts they may change their Enemies and be assaulted with violent Fears and instead of a sweet calm and serenity fall into darkness and confusion The Soul and Body in the present conjunction mutually sympathize As two things that are unisons if one be touch't and moves the other untouch't yet moves and trembles The ‖ cause is from the Vibrations the sound makes in the Air and impresses on solid Bodies moving them according to the harmonious proportion between them Thus the Soul and the Body are two strings temper'd to such a correspondence that if one be moved the other resents by an impression from it If the Body be Sanguin or Cholerick or Melancholy the Soul by a strange consent feels the motion of the humors and is altered with their alterations Now some of excellent vertue are opprest with Melancholy Others are under strong pains that disturb the free operations of the mind that it cannot without Supernatural strengih delightfully contemplate what is a just matter of content The Stoical Doctrine that a wise Man rejoyces as well in torments as in the midst of pleasures that 't is not in the power of any external evil to draw a sigh or tear from him that he is sufficient in himself for happiness is a Philosophical Romance of that severe sect an excess unpracticable without Cordials of a higher nature than are compounded by the faint thoughts of having done what is agreable to Reason All their Maxims are weak supports of such triumphant Language 'T is true in a Body disorder'd and broken with Diseases and Pains the mind may be erect and compos'd but 't is by vertue of Divine Comforts from the present sense of Gods favour and the joyful hopes of eternal felicity in his presence hereafter 3. Those who suffer the loss of all that is precious and dear in the World and with a chearful confidence submit to death that singly consider'd is very terrible to nature but attended with torments is doubly terrible and all to advance the Glory of God cannot enjoy the satisfaction of mind that proceeds from the review of worthy actions if their being is determined with their life Now that love to God exprest in the hardest and noblest service should finally destroy a Man is not conceivable To render this Argument more sensible let us consider the vast multitude of the Martyrs in the first times of Christianity more easie to be admir'd than numbred It would be a History to describe the instruments of their cruel sufferings invented by the fierce wit of their persecutors the various torturs to destroy Life with a slow death such as were never before inflicted on the guiltiest Malefactours All which they willingly endured with an invariable serenity of countenance the sign and effect of their inward peace Nay with triumphant expressions of Joy Now to what original shall we attribute this fortitude of Spirit were such numbers of all conditions ages sects induc'd by rash counsel by frenzy of passion by a desire of vain-glory or any like cause to part with all that is precious and amiable in the World for Swords and Fire and Crosses and Wheels and Racks to torment and destroy their Bodies No humane Reasons neither the Vertue nor Vice of Nature Generosity nor Obstinacy could possibly give such strength under such Torments This was so evident that many Heathen Spectators were convinc'd of the Divine Power miraculously supporting them and became Proselytes of Christianity and with admirable chearfulness offered themselves to the same punishments Now this is an extrinsick testimony incomparably more weighty than from a bare affirmation in words or a meer consent of judgment that there is an unseen state infinitely better and more durable than what is present the hopes of which made them esteem the parting with all sensible things measur'd by time not to have the shadow of a loss And this was not a meer naked view of a future blessedness but joyned with an impression of that sweetness and strength that consolation and force of Spirit that it was manifest Heaven descended to them before they ascended to Heaven From hence they were fearless of those who could only kill the Body but not touch the Soul As the breaking a Christal in pieces cannot injure the light that penetrated and filled it but releases it from that confinement So the most violent Death was in their esteem not hurtful to the Soul but the means to give it entrance into a happy immortality Now is it in any degree credible that when no other principle was sufficient to produce such courage in thousands so tender and fearful by nature that the Divine hand did not support them invisible in operation but most clearly discovered in the effects And can it be imagined that God would encourage them to lose the most valuable of all natural things life it self and to their great cost of pains and misery if there were not an estate wherein he would reward their heroick love of himself with a good that unspeakably transcends what ever is desirable here below 2. Though Vice in respect of its turpitude be the truest dishonour of Man and be attended with regret as contrary to his Reason yet there is a further punishment naturally due to it Malefactors besides the infamy that cleaves to their crimes and the secret twinges of Conscience feel the rigour of civil Justice And if no Physical evil be inflicted as the just consequent of Vice the viciously inclin'd would despise the moral evil that is essential to it as an imaginary punishment And when the remembrance of Sin disturbs their rest they would presently by pleasant diversions call off their thoughts from sad objects 2. Supposing no other punishment but what is the immediate effect of Sin the most vicious and guilty would many times suffer the least punishment For the secret Worm of Conscience is most sensible when vice is
first springing up and has tender roots But when vicious habits are confirm'd the Conscience is past feeling the first resentments There are many instances of those who have made the foulest crimes so familiar as to lose the horror that naturally attends them And many that have been prosperous in their villanys dye without tormenting reflections on their guilt So that if there be no further punishments we must deny the Divine Providence of which Justice is an eminent part CHAP. XII Two Arguments more to prove future recompenses T is not possible for civil Justice to dispence rewards aud punishments according to the good and evil actions of Men. All Nations agree in the acknowledgment of a future state The innocent Conscience is supported under an unjust Sentence by looking to the superiour Tribunal The courage of Socrates in dying with the cause of it The guilty Conscience terrifies with the apprehension of judgment to come Tiberius his complaint to the Senate of his inward tortures An answer to the objection that we have not sensible evidence of what is enjoyed and what is sufferd in the next life Why sin a transient act is punished with eternal death 3. 'T Is not possible for humane Justice to distribute recompence exactly according to the moral qualities of actions therefore we may rationally infer there will be a future Judgment This appears by consideriug 1. That many times those crimes are equally punisht here that are not of equal guilt because they proceed from different sources that lye so low as the strictest inquisition cannot discover And many specious actions done for corrupt ends and therefore without moral value are equally rewarded with those wherein is the deepest tincture of virtue The accounts of civil Justice are made by the most visible cause not by the secret and most operative and influential Therefore a superior Tribunal is necessary to which not only sensible actions but their most inward principles are open that will exactly judge of moral evils according to their aggravations and allays and of moral good according to the various degrees that are truly rewardable 2. No temporal benefits are the proper and compleat reward of obedience to God Not the proper for they are common to bad and good but the reward of Holiness must be peculiar to it that an eminent distinction be made between the obedient and rebellious to the Divine Laws otherwise it will not answer the ends of Government And they are not the compleat rewards of obedience For God rewards his Servants according to the infinite treasures of his Goodness The sensible World a Kingdom so vast so rich so delightful is enjoyed by his enemies We may therefore certainly infer he has reserved for his faithful Servants a more excellent felicity as becomes his glorious goodness 3. The extreamest temporal evils that can be inflicted here are not correspondent to the guilt of Sin Men can only torment and kill the Body the instrument and less guilty part but cannot immediately touch the Soul the principal cause by whose influence humane actions are vicious and justly punishable From hence it follows that supposing the Wicked should feel the utmost severity of Civil Laws yet there remains in another World a dreadful arrear of misery to be endured as their just and full recompence 4. In testimony of this Truth that the Souls of Men are immortal to Rewards and Punishments not only the wisest Men but all Nations have subscrib'd The darkest Pagans have acknowledged a Deity and a Providence and consequently a future Judgment Indeed this spark was almost drown'd in an Abyss of Fables for in explicating the process and Recompences of the last Judgment they mixt many absurd fictions with truth but in different manners they acknowledged the same thing that there remains another life and two contrary states according to our actions here Of this we have a perfect conviction from the immortal hopes in good Men and the endless fears in the wicked The directive understanding that tells Man his duty has a reflexive power and approves or condemns with respect to the Supreme Court where it shall give a full testimony Hence it is that Conscience so far as innocent makes an Apology against unjust Charges and sustains a Man under the most cruel Sentence being perswaded of a superiour Tribunal that will rectify the errors of Man's Judgement But when guilty terrifies the Offender with the flashes of Judgment to come though he may escape present sufferings Of this double power of Conscience I shall add some lively Examples Plato represents his admirable Socrates after an unjust Condemnation to Death in the Prison at Athens encompast with a noble circle of Philosophers discoursing of the Souls Immortality and that having finisht his Arguments for it he drank the Cup of Poison with an undisturbed Courage as one that did not lose but exchange this short and wretched life for a blessed and eternal For thus he argued That there are two ways of departing Souls leading to two contrary states of felicity and of misery Those who had defiled themselves with sensual Vices and given full scope to boundless lusts in their private conversation or who by frauds and violence had been injurious to the Common-wealth are drag'd to a place of torment and for ever excluded from the joyful presence of the blessed Society above But those who had preserv'd themselves upright and chaste and at the greatest distance possible from the contagion of the flesh and had during their union with humane bodies imitated the Divine Life by an easie and open way returned to God from whom they came And this was not the sense only of the more vertuous Heathens but even some of those who had done greatest force to the humane Nature yet could not so darken their Minds and corrupt their Wills but there remain'd in them stinging apprehensions of punishment hereafter Histories inform us of many Tyrants that encompast with the strongest Guards have been afrighted with the alarms of an accusing Conscience and seized on by inward terrors the forerunners of Hell and in the midst of their luxurious stupifying pleasures have been haunted with an evil Spirit that all the Musick in the World could not charm The persons executed by their commands were always in their view shewing their wounds reproaching their cruelty and citing them before the High and Everlasting Judg the righteous Avenger of innocent Blood How fain would they have kill'd them once more and deprived them of that life they had in their memories but that was beyond their power Of this we have an eminent instance in Tiberius who in a Letter to the Senate open'd the inward wounds of his Breast with such words of despair as might have moved pity in those who were under the continual fear of his Tyranny No punishment is so cruel as when the Offender and Executioner are the same Person Now that such Peace and Joy are the
right Reason 2. If it be objected that it seems hard that a transient sin should be punish't with Eternal Torments a clear and just answer may be given This conceit in Men proceeds from a superficial deceitful view of sin in the disguises of a temptation as it flatters the senses without a sincere distinct reflection on its essential malignity From hence they judge of their sins as light spots inevitable accidents lapses that cannot be prevented by humane frailty errors excusable by common practice Thus the subtilty of Satan joyned with the folly of Men represents great sins as small and small as none at all to undervalue and extenuate some and to give full license and warrant to others And thus deceived they are ready to think it disagreeing to the Divine Goodness to punish sin so severely as 't is threatned But did they with intent and feeling thoughts look through the pleasing surface into the intrinsick evil of Sin as it is rebellion against God and the progeny of a will corrupted by its own perversness and pernitious habits they would be convinc'd that God acts in a manner worthy of his Nature in the ordaining and inflicting eternal punishment on impenitent sinners And 't is observable that most dangerous effects follow by separating these two in the minds of Men. For if they consider eternal death without respect to the merit of Sin they easily conceive of God as incompassionate an enemy to his Creature that is pleased with its misery And such fearful conceits such black melancholy vapours congeal the heart and stupefy its active powers and cause a desperate neglect of our duties as if God would not accept our sincere endeavours to please him But if on the other side they regard their Sins abstracted from the dreadful punishment that ensues they form the notion of a Deity soft and careless little moved with their faults easie and indulgent to pardon them Thus the sensual presumer becomes secure and incorrigible in his wickedness But we must consider these two Objects as most strictly joyn'd the Judgment of God with respect to Sin that alwayes precedes it and Sin with respect to the punishment that follows it in the infallible order of Divine Justice And thus we shall conceive of God becoming his perfections that he is gratious and merciful and loves the work of his hands but that he is Holy and Just and hates Sin infinitely more than Men love it These are the two principal ideas we should form of God with respect to his moral Government and are mainly influential on his Subject For the correspondent affections in us to those Attributes are a reverent love of his Goodness and a tender apprehension of his displeasure the powerful motives to induce us to the practice of Holiness and avert us from sin Now that the Divine Law is not hard in its Sanction forbidding Sin upon the pain of Eternal Death will appear by a due representation of the essential evil of Sin This is discovered by considering 1. The Glorious Object against whom it is committed 'T is a Rule universally acknowledged that from the quality of the person offended the Measure and Weight is taken of the offence Now as the Nature and Perfections of God so his Dignity and Majesty is Infinite and from hence the transcendent guilt of Sin arises The formalis ratio of Sin is disobedience to the Divine Law and the least breach of it even a vain thought an idle word an unprofitable action is in its proper nature a rebellious contempt of the Authority of the Wise and Holy Law-giver Now that a poor Worm should dare to rebel against the Lord of Heaven and Earth and if it were possible dethrone him what understanding can conceive the vastness of its guilt No finite sufferings in what degrees so ever are equal reparation for the offence After the revolution of millions of years in a state of misery the sinner cannot plead for a release because he has not made full payment for his fault the rights of Justice are not satisfied If it be objected that this will infer an equality between all Sins I answ Though there is a great disparity in Sins with respect to their immediate Causes Circumstances complicated Nature and Quality by which some have a more odious turpitude adhering to them yet they all agree in the general nature of Sin relating to the Law of God and consequently in their order to Eternal Death The least disobedience has as truly the formality of Sin as what is so in the Supreme degree This may be illustrated by a comparison As the Parts of the World compared with one another are of different elevation and greatness the Earth and Water are in the lowest place and but as a point to the Celestial Orbs that are above the highest regions of the Air yet if we compare them with that infinite space that is without the circumference of the Heavens they are equally distant from the utmost extent of it and equally disproportioned to its immensity For greater or less higher or lower are no approaches to what is Infiniter Thus there are several degrees of malignity in sins compar'd one with another but as they are injurious to the infinite and incomprehensible Majesty of God there is the same kind of malignity and so far an equality between them Rebellion in the least instance is as the sin of Witchcraft and stubbornness in the smallest matters is as Idolatry that is the least Sin is as truly repugnant to the Divine Law as those that in the highest manner are opposit to the Truth and Glory of the Deity And from hence their proportion to punishment is not distinguish'd by temporal and eternal but by stronger or remisser degrees of Torment by suffering the Rods or Scorpions of Justice in that endless duration 'T is a vain excuse to say that God can receive no hurt by Sin as will appear in a case of infinitely a lower nature The counterfeiting of the Broad-Seal does no hurt to the Person of the King but 't is injurious to his Honour and Government and the Offender incurs the guilt of High-Treason and is punish'd accordingly 2. Consider Man's relation to God as the Creator and Preserver who gives him life and innumerable benefits who conferrs on him the most shining marks of his favour and this unspeakably inhances the guilt of Sin against God by adding Ingratitude to Rebellion the abuse of his Goodness to the ignominious affront of his Majesty The degrees of Guilt arise in proportion to our Duty and Obligations For Man then to turn Enemy against his Father and Sovereign to deprave and pervert his Gifts to deface his Image to obscure his Glory justly provokes his extream Anger If in the Judgement of Mankind some heinous Offenders as Parricides the Assassinates of Kings the Betrayers of their Countrey contract so great a guilt as exceeds the most exquisite Torments that the Criminal can endure and no