contend as long as they please about the Modes and Circumstances of Religion all these disputes are very insignificant if they do not issue in this a good Mind and a good Life The World was at first governed by the Dictates of Natural Light FOR the first two thousand years of the World God did Govern it only by the Dictates of Natural Light and these were in those days called the Precepts of Noah the Preacher of Righteousness ever since that time to this day God hath Governed the greatest part of the World by those Principles and even since God's voluntary Dispensation and positive Institution which began at Moses and hath continued to this time He hath commanded the observance of these Rules so that He hath never been more provoked as when Moral Duties have been neglected or when an indiscreet Zeal for positive Institutions hath been thought a sufficient recompence for a failure in these FOR in Religion there are things of an alterable Nature and there are things unchangeable and eternal which can never be relaxed or omitted and such are all Moral Vertues therefore to set them at odds with Grace must needs be destructive to all true and real goodness for if we should set aside all manner of Vertue what remains to be called Grace if Grace should not be included in Morality which consists in the right order and government of our Actions in all our Relations it must be a phantasm and an imaginary thing and all that the Scripture intends by the Graces of the Spirit are vertuous qualities derived purely from God's free Grace and Goodness wherewith in the first Ages of Christianity He did in a miraculous manner inspire the Converts of the Gospel and all the practical part of Religion is either Vertue it self or some of its instruments and the whole Duty of Man consists in being Vertuous and all that is enjoyned him beside is in order to it that by the practice thereof he may live happily here and be prepared for Happiness hereafter In what manner the Grace of God begets Vertue NOW the manner wherein the Grace of God begets Vertue in the Minds of Men is suitable to the Rational Nature of Mankind we feel its operations no otherwise than we do our own thoughts neither can we distinguish them by their manner of affecting us from our natural reasonings but when we are bent upon the doing of God's Will when we perform our Duty and govern our Actions by his Word then we may conclude we are acted by the Grace of God but if we forsake the steddy Rules of our Duty we may take every violent impulse for a suggestion of his Spirit therefore unless we would expose our selves to infinite delusions we must try the Nature of all the motions of our Minds by Scripture and Reason For we have no other way of assuring our selves that we follow the guidance of God's Grace but by following the Rules of his Word and we quench the Motions of his Spirit oftentimes when we imagin that we only quarrel with our own thoughts reject the good Counsels of a Friend the exhortations of a Preacher or the rebukes of our own Consciences BESIDES when we are Born again and created New Creatures by this Spirit we have the same Understanding and Will we had before but these are renewed and made better For the Precepts and Motives of the Gospel prevailing in our Minds are properly a Principle of Holiness of Life in us these will produce a proportionable change in our Wills and Affections that from being addicted to evil they may be strongly inclined to what is good and vertuous THUS Grace and Vertue go hand in hand together one being a certain Product of the other Evangelical Graces being the same thing for substance with Evangelical Vertues and these the same with Moral ones hence it is that the Word of God doth more effectually oblige and enable Mankind to an Holy Life than any other Institution could effect or Philosophy pretend for Religion is the same now as it was in the state of Innocence for as then the whole Duty of Man consisted in the Practice of all those Moral Vertues that arose from his Natural Relation to God and Man so all that is superinduced upon us since the Fall is nothing but helps to supply our natural defects and recover our decayed powers and restore us to a better ability to discharge those Duties we stand engaged to by the Law of our Nature and the design of our Creation AND here what terms of wonder or of grief can be significant enough to express or to bewail so strange a decay of Moral Vertue among Men that the Light of the World should be so much darkned as it is that the Salt of the Earth should be corrupted that Men should lose the substance of Religion in the pursuit of its shadows and a general loosness should swallow up all good Manners that Men should make use of Wit to decry sound Reason and to set Vertue at defiance with Grace methinks their doing such acts should strike them out of the list of Rational Beings But Satan is too subtle a mannager to lose this advantage and the event sadly shews he has not neglected to improve it For when once Men can think they may be Religious without Vertue they will be hardly brought to exchange the vicious customs of Life for an habitual course of goodness they will not restrain their Appetites within the limits of Nature nor sacrifice their brutish Pleasures to the interests of Holiness in cases of suffering for the Truth they will never endure any hardship rather than forsake so excellent an Institution as the Gospel they will not believe themselves bound to subdue their Sensual Appetites and Affections to their superior Faculties in the methods of Reason and prudent Discipline no less danger arises to the Souls of Men when they labour after greater Excellencies over and above the common Vertues of Morality in striving to go beyond it they run astray after Chimera's and illusions of Fancy And if they indulge this humour it will betray them to neglect the plain and practical Principles of Reason and Moral Honesty THESE and many more are the Stratagems of the Devil to bubble Men of their Salvation How the increase of Goodness is much hindred to put a stop to the increase of Goodness in the World and to hinder the Reformation of Mankind who will never be at the trouble and pains of acquiring inward Righteousness and Purity when they imagin a few superficial Notions and extatical Whimsies may serve in the room of that industry they should joyn with the Operations of Grace for the getting a blessed Immortality THAT we may countermine these Plots of the evil Spirit against us let us do as God hath commanded which we must think not only possible but easie and pleasant especially when all his Evangelical Methods of Salvation are actuated by a
unalterable Suitableness or Harmony betwixt an indigent Creature and Pity if Goodness and Bounty then there is an everlasting proportion between fulness and its spreading it self abroad for the benefit of the Creation If these things be not Eternal and indispensible Perfections then their Contraries injustice unfaithfulness cruelty malice and whatever goes to the constitution of Hell it self might have been made the highest Perfections of the Divine Nature which is such a Blasphemy as cannot be named without trembling To conclude Should we endeavour to deliver what Aristotle hath left us concerning this Virtue having spent about Justice alone the whole fifth Book of his Ethicks we might prove tedious if not infinite much more should we follow those endless Discourses which men have put together by way of Comment upon the Text of their Civil Law The infinite Comments upon Justice condemned The Wise Emperour who was the founder of their Law as foreseeing the mischiefs that would thence arise strictly commanded that nothing should be written by way of Exposition but only as he called them Paratitla long time was this Charge observed ere there was any line written upon this Subject but as soon as some forward Men had broken up the Banks that were set them there issued forth such a Torrent of Writers as Divinity only excepted have been hardly found in any other Science It is not much more than 400 years since that Irnerius and Accursius began to write but there followed upon them such a Rabble of Scriblers that our whole Libraries have been too little to hold them so fertile have their wits been either in opening the paths of Justice or in contriving by-ways to injustice if therefore you would hear more concerning Justice I must recommend you to Aristotle or to the Interpreters of the Law if at least their multitude do not confound you But this observation we may make in the course of common Justice that the written Law is like to a stiff Rule of Steel or Iron which will not be applied to the fashion of the Stone or Timber whereunto it is laid and Equity as Aristotle saith well is like to the leaden Rule of the Lesbian Artificers which they might at pleasure bend to every Stone of whatsoever figure And that we may conclude this Head in the Language of Aristotle out of an Arithmetical Government as we may call it by rigour of Law and that Geometrical Judgment at the pleasure of a Chancellour well tempered together the sweetest harmony of Justice must needs arise Of Intellectual VIRTUES FROM Virtues of a more troublesom and tumultuous nature for such all Moral Virtues are which consist in the Moderation of our Passions that are nothing else but Winds and Floods troubling our Quiet We come now to a more serene and peaceable Order of Virtues which we call Intellectual and consist in that part of the Soul which hath Reason and Understanding These are in number Five Ars Prudentia Scientia Intellectus Sapientia For all things about which we busie our selves are ranged under these three Heads Profit Peace and Truth Profit Profit the Subject of Art which is the God of the World is the proper Subject of that Virtue we call Art and is nothing else but diligence in geting a livelihood and means to subsist THE Virtue which is employed in managing our Peace we call Prudence Peace the Subject of Prudence for all endeavour for quiet and good order and decent procuring and bringing about our industry for liveliehood for mutual association and all other helps of good order and fair demeanour amongst our selves either in single Life or in Families or in Commonwealths which are nothing else but Collections of Families yea of managing War it self since War is never undertaken but for Peace all these are the offspring and Issue of Prudence THE last thing Truth the Subject of Science c. which we labor about and indeed is most proper and agreeable to the rational Soul is Truth the most excellent of all other things if we know how truly to value it To this belong the other Three Virtues Science Understanding and Wisdom all which spend themselves in the investigation of Truth BY the way I have often wondered how Justice escaped out of the number of Intellectual Virtues for it hath very little in it why we should account it among the Morals since it is not conversant in the moderation of any Passion or in holding a Mediocrity betwixt two extremes which two things formally constitute every Moral Virtue but every Act of it is purely Rational and partakes little with the sensitive Part But thus it hath pleased our great Masters in this Faculty we now speak of to range the Virtues and having Discoursed of Justice among the Morals we will take no farther notice of it but descend forthwith to the explication of the Intellectuals and First Of ART NOW we enter the Work-house of Virtue where Art manages all the Tools and Materials and in Humane Life we are much more beholden to those who invented Plowing and Sowing than we are to the finer Wits The work-house of Virtue who have conveyed to us nothing but the abstracted Ideas of Science and the aiery Notions of Metaphysicks which are like the curious Argumentations concerning quantity and motion in natural Philosophy if they only hover aloof and are not squared to particular Matters they may give an empty satisfaction but no benefit and rather serve to swell than fill the Mind But whatever we see in Cities or Houses above the first Wildness of Fields the Meanness of Cottages and the Nakedness of Men must be ascribed to the Works of Art Therefore we are now to shew how excellent and useful Virtue is in the Established ways of Life For altho the Studyes of Men are various according to the difference of those Callings to which they apply themselves or the tempers of the places wherein they Live yet the whole Trade and Business among them The Business of Life depends upon common Honesty doth depend as much upon Common-honesty as War doth upon Discipline and without which all would break up Merchants would turn Pedlars and Soldiers Thieves But upon the Principles of Honesty we work chearfully our Life is pleasant and we are constant to our Purposes when the following of Profit without regard to these Principles will bring continual vexation upon us Wherefore Tully in his Offices blames the corruption of Time and Custom that the Word Profitable should be perverted insensibly to the signification of somewhat that may be separated from Honesty as if any thing could be profitable that were not honest or any thing honest without being profitable an errour of the most pernicious consequence imaginable to the Life of Man From the not understanding this matter aright it often comes to pass that we have a cunning Artificial sort of People in great admiration mistaking Craft for Wisdom This opinion
of their Sect may be overcome with Wine but can never be drunk though to be overcome with Wine be downright drunkenness in a carnal Epicurean yet it was something else in a great Stoick How Immorality becomes uncurable NOW Immorality under the disguise of piety becomes uncurable Passion and Self-will is made more implacable by pretences to Sanctity and Godliness without Virtue serves only to furnish the Conscience with excuses against Conviction for it is easie to convince a debauched Person of his Distemper from the blemishes that are in all his Actions But Hypocrisie by lodging it self in the Heart and so by being undiscernible becomes fatal and the Man is past Recovery before he feels his Malady THEREFORE of all men He who hath the Form of Godliness only is conceited with it is the most desperate and incorrigible Sinner For he thinks the performance of the outward acts of Devotion will fix him so in a State of Grace that he needs not any Virtue Thus the Supercilious and self-confident Pharisees were at a greater distance from Heaven than Publicans and Harlots For these our Saviour could by his gentle Reproofs soften into a relenting and pliable Temper But as for the Pharisees their mistaken Piety only made 'em more obdurate and obstinate in sin searing their Consciences against the Force of his sharpest Convictions so that He very justly consigned them up to an unrelenting and inflexible stubbornness Secondly MEN deceive their own Souls How Men deceive their own Souls when they think themselves exempt from the Rule and Judgment of natural Conscience which they fansie exercises its binding Power only over those that are in a state of Nature and Unregeneracy but as for them that are enlightened by the Spirit of God they are directed by the Motions thereof not by the Laws and Dictates of Nature Hence the plain and practical Principles of Reason and Honesty come to be neglected and ever after men are led by giddy Enthusiasms and are befooled by the temper of their Complexions they derive all their religious Motions from the present state and constitution of their Humours and according as Sanguine or Melancholy are predominant so the Scene alters BUT the Spirit of true Religion is of a sedate Temper and dwells in the Intellectual part of a Man In what manner the Spirit of Religion works and doth not work out or vent it self in flatulent Passions but all its Motions are gentle composed and grounded upon the Laws of Reason and Sobriety The Impressions of the Divine Spirit are steddy uniform and breath not upon the Passions but the Reasons of mankind all its Assistances work in a calm and rational way they are not such unsetled and unaccountable motions as discompose but enlighten our understandings the Spirit of God only discovers the Excellency and enforces the Obligation of the Laws of God to the Consciences of Men and works in us a reasonable love of our Duty and serious resolutions to discharge it Therefore the Spirit of every good Man is sober discreet and composed such as becomes the gravity and seriousness of Religion which floats not in his blood nor rises and falls with the Ebbs and Tides of his Humours but he maintains a calmness and evenness of Mind in all the various Constitutions of his Body he confines his Piety entirely within his Soul and chearfully keeps it from all mixtures of Imagination as knowing a Religious Fancy to be the greatest Impostor in the World And there is nothing that spoils the Nature of the best Religion more than outragious Zeal which instead of sweetning embitters the minds of Men so that those Vices which Moral Philosophy would banish are often kindled at the Altar of Religion For it abuses the prudence and discretion of good Men abhors a Christ-like meekness and sobriety and fills their Religion with ill Nature and discontent Hence it is that no Quarrels are so implacable as Religious ones Men with great eagerness damn one another for Opinions and Speculative Controversies IF this be Religion farewel all the Principles of Humanity and good Nature farewel that Glory of the Christian Faith an universal Love and kindness for all Men let us bid adieu to all the Practices of Charity and to the Innocence of a Christian Spirit Let the Laws of our Saviour be cancel'd as Precepts of Sedition Let us banish Religion out of Human Converse as the Mother of Rudeness and incivility Let us go to the School of Atheism and Impiety to learn good Manners BUT if nothing bids greater defiance to the true Spirit and Genius of Religion than a Form of Godliness denying the Power thereof then let not the Wisdom of God be charged with the Folly of Men Let then the furious Sons of Zeal without the Power of Godliness tell me the meaning of such Texts as these Learn of me for I am meek and humble I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness long-suffering forbearing one another in Love put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness forgiving one another if any man have a complaint against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye So saith James 3. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledg amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness and wisdom He that can reconcile these holy Precepts with a peevish or Cynical disposition may as well unite Christ and Belial make a Christian and a Pharisee the same WHAT remains then but that we set our selves to a serious minding of true and real Goodness An exhortation to mind true and real Goodness that we trifle not away our Time in pursuing the Shadows of it nor waste our Zeal upon its Forms and Instruments that we cheat not our Souls with a partial Godliness nor damn them with an half-Religion For we must measure our profitableness under the means of Grace by the influences of it upon the obedience of our Lives we must pursue Christianity in its true and proper usefulness give a sincere Obedience to every Law of Righteousness we must not divorce Piety from Justice and Charity but join the love of God with the love of our Brother be impatient against our own Sins and other mens Opinions spend our Zeal in our own and not other men's Business be ever zealous for the prime and most substantial Principles of Religion not for uncertain and unexamined Speculations we must set our selves with all our might against our Lusts and our Passions for all our Devotions without it will never expiate one habitual Sin neither will a maimed or halting Religion ever arrive at Heaven nothing but an entire Obedience to the Laws of Christ will gain admittance there Let us therefore inform our Minds with the Excellency of true Religion and Goodness Let us adorn them with an inward Purity
best and most desirable Doctrine in the World with the vainest Enthusiasm now by the Principles of Reason we are not to understand the Grounds of any Man's Philosophy nor the critical Rules of Syllogism but those fundamental Notices that God hath planted in our Souls whereby we know that every thing is made for an End and every thing is directed to its End by certain Rules these Rules in Creatures of Understanding and Choice are Laws and in Transgressing these is Vice and Sin AS for Arguments from Scripture against the Use of Reason 't is alledged that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise and that the world by wisdom knew not God But by this wisdom is not meant the Reason of Mankind but the Traditions of the Jews the Philosophy of the Disputing Greeks and the Policy of the Romans all which the Apostle sets at naught because they were very contrary to the Simplicity and Holiness to the Self-denyal and Meekness of the Gospel Secondly IT is said that the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned by which Words nothing more is intended than that a Man who is guided purely by natural Reason and is not enlightned by Divine Revelation cannot understand matters of pure Revelation but he thinks them absurd and foolish till they are made known to him by the Revelation of the Spirit of God and when they are so nothing appears in the Mysteries of Religion but what is agreeable to the soundest Reason and Wisdom Thirdly IT is urged that our Reason is very liable to be misled by our Senses and Affections by our Interests and Imaginations so that many times we mingle Errours and false Conceits with the genuine Dictates of our Minds and appeal to them as the Principles of Truth when they are the false Conclusions of Ignorance and Mistake All that can be infer'd from hence is that we ought not to be too bold in defining Speculative and difficult Matters nor set our Reasonings against the Doctrines of Faith But this doth not tend to the Disreputation of Reason in the Object that is those Principles of Truth which are Written upon our Souls for if we may not use our Understandings Scripture it self will signifie either nothing at all or very little to us THEREFORE to decry the Use of Reason is to introduce Atheism The mischiefs of decrying the use of Reason for what greater advantage can the Atheist have against Virtue than that Reason is against the Precepts of it This will make our Religion depend upon a warm Fancy and an ungrounded Belief so that it can stand only till a new Conceit alter the Scene of Imagination Secondly TO decry the Use of Reason is to lay our selves open to infinite Follies and Impostures when every thing that is reasonable is called vain Philosopy and every thing that is sober carnal Reasoning This is the way to make up a Religion without Sense and without Moral Virtue This is to put out our Eyes that we may see and to hoodwink our selves that we may avoid the precipices of Vice Thus have all extravagancies been brought into Religion beyond the imaginations of a Feaver and the conceits of Midnight THE last and greatest obstacle to the Progress of moral Virtue is some Men's making Morality and Grace opposite to one another Grace and Morality are not opposites To divorce Grace from Virtue and to distinguish the spiritual Christian from the Moral Man is a modern invention for not one ancient Author that hath treated of our Religion did ever make any difference between the Nature of Moral Virtue and Evangelical Grace Evangelical Grace being nothing else in their account but Moral Virtue heightned by the Motives of the Gospel and the assistances of the Spirit both which are external Considerations to the Essence of the thing it self so that the Christian Institution does not introduce any new Duties distinct from the Eternal Rules of Morality but strengthens them by new Obligations and improves them by new Principles For THE Power to perform these Duties comes from the internal Operations of the holy Spirit which applies the Motives of Religion to our Minds and by them perswades us to every good Action that we are enlightned with the knowledg of Christ cometh of his Gift who disposeth us to learn the Truth that we attend to the Word of God and are wrought into a serious Temper that we are excited to good Resolutions and confirmed in them cometh of his Grace who putteth good thoughts into our minds thereby moveth our Wills and Affections most powerfully to every good Work or to every Moral Vertue which consists not only in the decency of outward behaviour but is a prevailing inclination of the mind to those Manners or that way of Life which is best for a reasonable Creature or it is an universal goodness of Manners in Mind and in Practice NOW it is named Virtue because the strength and vigour of a reasonable creature consisteth in a temper of Mind and course of Life agreeable to right Reason it is called Moral because it is conversant about the customary dispositions and actions of reasonable Creatures so those Laws that are given with rational inducements to Obedience are said to be Moral Laws as being proper and suitable to the nature of rational Beings to whom they are prescribed and this in opposition to the Laws of Motion and Matter by which God governs the rest of his Works for that Agent which hath no power over it self but acts because it must whatsoever laudable effects it may produce it is as uncapable of Morality as those senseless Machines are that move by the Laws of Matter and Motion NOW the duties required of us in the Covenant of Grace are Moral in the strictest Sense so that Holiness and Moral Vertue are in truth the same things diversly expressed for to do that which is good and to do it well is the sum of both and it is plain that those perfections in God which our Holiness is an imitation of are Justice Faithfulness and Truth his Patience Mercy and Charity his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness all which are Moral Perfections and therefore when in these things we are followers of God our imitation of him does necessarily become Moral Vertue and those Duties which work in us the nearest likeness to Christ Jesus are Meekness Humility Patience Self-denial contempt of the World readiness to pass by Wrongs to forgive Enemies to love and do good to all are all in the most proper sense Moral Vertues indeed to glorifie God in Jesus Christ is an end of Obedience which Nature teacheth not but being made known by Grace we are obliged to regard this end by the Rules of Morality which are derived from Christ and caused by the Spirit so that we have no reason to boast of their
foundation in Reason and Nature these do depend wholly upon instruction and memory and cannot be preserved without them but we see among the Rude and Ignorant upon whom hardly any care or instruction is used men have as lively a sense of the difference between virtue and vice in many particulars as the more learned part of the World which is a plain Argument that these things are not conveyed to us by Tradition Nor can they be applyed to humane Policy for many of these things were never enacted by humane Laws and yet they obtain among Mankind as Gratitude Charity and such like Seneca says that Gratitude was never enjoyned by any Law but that of the Macedonians which plainly shews that these things owe their Original to some other Cause and that they are to be attributed to Nature the Author of which is God and the general Consent of Mankind is an argument of their Truth and Reality HOWEVER it is Objected that several Persons and some whole Nations have differed about some of these things so that this Consent is not so general besides the Consent of the World in Superstition and Idolatry may seem to weaken this Argument from the universal Agreement of Mankind about Good and Evil. WE Answer that it is not denied but that Men may so vitiate their Natures Nature may be so vitiated as to lose the Sense of Virtue and Vice as to lose the sense of Virtue and Vice yet it may remain true that Mankind have a natural Sense and Knowledg of them as some by Lust and Intemperance may so spoil their Palates that they may not taste the difference of Meats and Drinks yet this last is never the less natural to Mankind for there is a great deal of difference between Natural and Moral Agents natural Agents always continue the same but voluntary Agents may vary in some things that are Natural especially where Men have Debauch'd their Natures and have offered great violence to themselves more than this the exceptions are not so general as to infringe the universal Consent of Mankind the difference is but in few things and therefore they are taken notice of and being collected together in History they may seem a great many but that they are particularly noted is a sign they are but few what if one Philosopher mentioned that Snow was Black and Ten more had been of his Mind this would have been no objection against the Sense or Reason of Mankind for all Men agree that Self-preservation is a natural Instinct notwithstanding some particular Persons have offered violence to their own Lives As to Superstition or Idolatry there hath been no such agreement of Mankind in that as to prove it to have a Foundation in Nature for it is confessed that it was not always practised in the World but that it had a Beginning and indeed it grew up by degrees and sprang out of the Corruptions of Mankind and therefore Time was when there was no such thing so that it does not owe its Rise to Nature but to the defection of Mankind For while Idolatry prevailed in the World it was condemned by several Men as a stupid and sottish Thing tho they had not the courage to declare against the Practice of it so that whilst it was used by the generality of the World it was censured as a great Folly by those that were best able to judg Lastly WE know what is Virtue and Vice Good and Evil more distinctly Outward Revelation discovers to us what is Virtue and what is Vice by outward Revelation in former Ages of the World God was pleased to reveal his Will several Ways and more especially to the Nation of the Jews the rest of the World being left solely to the dictates of natural Light But in the latter Ages of the World it pleased God to make a publick and more full Declaration of his Mind by his Son and this Revelation is for Substance the same with the Law of Nature our Saviour comprehended it under these two Heads the Love of God and of our Neighbour the Apostle reduceth it to Sobriety Righteousness and Piety for the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and Worldly Lust and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World so that if we believe the Apostle the Gospel teacheth us the very same things that Nature dictateth to Mankind for these are the very Virtues which natural Light prompt Men unto only we allow a more perfect discovery of them by the Gospel and to convince Men of the Good and Evil that are affixed to Virtue and Vice there are great and eternal Rewards promised to one and endless Punishments threatned to the other so that now Mankind have no cloak for their Sin their Duty being so clearly laid open to them and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life so plainly revealed all the defects of the natural Law and the Corruptions of it through the degeneracy of Mankind being fully supplyed by the Revelation of the Gospel So that we may now much better say than the Prophet could in his days Mich. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God BUT as to external Revelation it is Objected that the Scripture is very obscure and gives us not sufficient direction in Matters of Faith WE Answer that this Objection hath no Colour of Truth in it for if the Church of Rome to whom are beholden for this Objection against the Word of God and who are ready upon all occasions to quarrel with it Yet they do not deny but the Scriptures are plain as to Precepts of Life and Practice but as to matters of Faith they pretend its defection in as if God had not intended to reveal but conceal his Mind in these things Indeed they have some reason to pretend this considering how hard it is to find several of their Doctrines in the Scripture but as to the moral Precepts of a good Life they all grant that they are clearly delivered in the holy Scripture so that this Objection about the obscurity thereof doth not lie against what I have been speaking THEREFORE seeing Moral Virtues may be plainly understood by Natural Instinct Natural Reason the consent of Mankind and outward Revelation we must in the next place see how easie and pleasant they are to be practised First THEY are easie because we are assisted in the practice of them by the Holy Spirit of God against all difficulties whatsoever Secondly THEY are both easie and pleasant because they are profitable for all things improve our Understandings and bring peace to our Minds FOR our Christian Race is a Warfare and we have many Conquests to make over the corruptions of our Natures the influences of Sense and the disorders of Passion Whence the difficulties of a virtuous Life do
pretend it is not their Reason but their Vice that cavils at the Principles of Virtue and they except against it not because it contradicts their Understandings but their Appetites Now to humor or indulge these Appetites in all their Transgressions of the Laws of Nature and Virtue will appear very absurd and unreasonable if we consider 1st That all manner of Vice is so vain 2. Vice is a vain thing as that it cannot be forced to contribute to any wise End at all Shame is the only Fruit of it and all its Pleasures pass away in a moment leaving nothing but Sorrow and Repentance behind them As for Example Revenge is a busie and contriving Vice thrusts it self into all the hardships of War is lost in perpetual Storms and abandons all Peace of mind to its own impatient humour the only Mark it aims at is mere and abstracted Evil Mischief and Bitterness is the fruit of all its toil The same thing may be said of Ambition which is full of mighty Projects stoops not to small and petty Enterprises but spends its time wholly in the quest of Fame and feeds upon Applause vulgar Ignorance 't is true hath made these great and glorious things but take off the Vizard that Opinion hath put upon them and what remains then but Vanity and Emptiness Insomuch that no wise Man would ever hazard the Ease of his Life in the Attempts of vain Glory whereas there is no Glory like that of a generous and honest Mind no Applause like that of a Man's Conscience for good and righteous Actions But he who quits the inward Joy and Content of his own Soul for the great or the glorious things of this World leaves a lasting Happiness to follow a Phantasm or a Dream For all this what Difficulties do Men choose to undergo only to be loaded with heavier Sorrows to be amazed with greater Fears to be wearied out with preventing or encountering more vexatious Disasters In like manner all the Pains and Passions of the proud and covetous are spent upon things that they can neither want when they have them not nor enjoy when they have them for one Man commonly strives to get as much as would suffice ten and the trouble of holding the other nine parts discomposes the enjoyment of his own share for all any Man hath above the natural Capacities of a Man above that little which supplies the Needs and Desires of his Nature ministers no more to his satisfaction than what he has not because Happiness results not from a Man's possessing the Comforts of Life but from his using them therefore unless he could extend his Appetites with his Fortunes he doth but encrease his Troubles with his Plenty and he who amasseth together more than the Needs of his Nature do require doth but burden himself with superfluous Cares for what he can never have For suppose the Palat be entertained with all the Dainties of the most witty and artificial Luxury yet can we taste them but by the measures of a Man and when we have satisfied those slender Desires all that remains becomes as tastless to us as Dirt and Gravel which is more at large demonstrated in the Character of Temperance So idle and so fruitless is all the Industry of Ambition and Covetousness Ad supervacua sudatur is the Motto of the business of human Life and foolish Man is so unlucky as to break his Sleeps consume his Spirits rack his Brains and employ his Skill so to no purpose as to be after all his Sweat not so happy nor so easie as he was before for we should consider 2dly That Vice is an Imposture and Delusion 3. Vice in an Imposture it abuses Men with those very Expectations which it directly opposeth it flatters Men with the fairest Promises of Delight yet produceth nothing but Grief and Vexation it defeats and undermines all its own Projects and ever concludes in Repentance and Disappointment Like the Harlot in the Proverbs it inveigles with the wanton Kisses of her Lips and draws the rash Youth after her as a Fool to the Correction of the Stocks her Bed is deck'd with the Covering of Tapestry and her House is perfumed but all this while it is the Road to Hell and leads to the Chambers of Death So whorish and so impudent is the Face of Vice the Temptations thereof dazzle the Minds of Men with false and counterfeit Gayeties they entice with subtile and wily Glances loose Gestures smooth and amorous Addresses and all this while it is but a painted Snake which is no sooner taken into the Bosom but the fatal Sting appears it strikes and wounds with an everlasting Venom and besides the deadly Gashes it makes in the Consciences of Men it infects all the present Joys of human Life for there is no Vice upon which Nature hath not entailed its proper Curse Intemperance is naturally punished with Diseases Rashness with Mischances Injustice with the Violence of Enemies Pride with Ruine Cowardise with Oppression these and such like are the Punishments consequent to the breach of the Laws of Nature and follow them as their natural not arbitary Effects For all Wickedness is its own Penance it ever contradicts what it seems to aim at if its design be Mirth then it torments with Sorrow and Anguish if Pride and Ambition then it kills with Affronts and Indignities if Lust and Wantonness then it wounds with Shame and Repentance Thus the chiefest good to the voluptuous Man is Pleasure and if this be obtained by a short and healthless Life by Crudities and Inflammations then the Man is happy so all Luxury feels its Gripings and the Glutton more heartily loaths the Joys of his Sin than he ever pursued them his Bed or Couch is fain to give him some repose to the irksomness of his Table he dozes away his Life and seems to live in a continual Lethargy his Organs are so diluted with indigested matter that they have not Sense enough to perceive the briskness of their own Relishes and if he escape the sudden stroke of a Feaver he turns his weak and stokly Body into a Statue of Earth and Flegm fills his Veins with flat and spiritless Humours grows fat with Sloth and Dulness In brief he breaths short Sighs often sleeps seldom till he dyes as sottishly as he lived And the like happens to the Drunkard who cannot endure Solitude because then his Fancy is filled with unwelcome Meditations either of Death the Accounts of Conscience or the Concerns of Eternity and therefore he thinks to wash down all these melancholy Thoughts with Wine or banish them with deep Draughts and loud Laughter but his next Mornings Accompts are a sleepless Night Qualms and fainting Sweat and a dismal Confusion all over his Senses altho Custom may have so naturalized both Gluttony and Drunkenness to some Men that they can follow them without the danger of Sickness yet they quench the Heat and Vigour of their
be reformed before the Corruptions of our Hearts are purged away And when this once comes to pass then shall Christ be set upon his Throne then the Glory of the Lord shall overflow the Land then we shall be a People acceptable to him and as Mount Sion which he dearly loved then by Reflection we shall see our selves as in a Glass and our Faults being discovered we shall readily endeavour to amend them for it is not in this case as in bodily Distempers when the Body is necessitated by connexion of Causes to suffer the Malady upon it Every man is obliged to reform himself but the Soul it in its own power the first step therefore to a Cure is for a Man to convince himself by his own Reason that he hath done evil and the desire to have this Disease removed naturally follows thereupon For it is to no purpose to complain of bad Times or to expect better days so long as Mankind are so averse from cleansing their own Hearts Whereas if the Motions and Inclinations of the Soul within were once set right all things without will go true because they are all moved by those hidden Springs and if every Man would study to do his own business in the ways of a virtuous and good Life all Commotions in the Earth and all Differences would presently cease And Solomon makes this conclusion from all those wise Reflections he made upon things under the Sun Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is a Man's whole business and his whole Excellency So that there is nothing in Religion that I have wondered at more The best way to know what our Condition is must be from keeping God's Commandments than to see many Christians in continual Anxieties about their State complaining much of their want of assurance in this matter when it may be brought to a speedy and plain issue by examining our selves how we have kept God's Commandments the moral Precepts of an holy Life this one Mark of our Sincerity in Religion well attended to would silence all those Suspicions that many Persons are apt to entertain concerning their Condition If it were worth our while to enquire into the reason of these Doubts and Fears they may be truly resolved into a dark and melancholy Humor or into false Conceptions of God and his Affection towards Men or into the Breaches and inequality of our Obedience to his Laws Now the melancholy temper must be left to Physick and Time for the Scripture prescribes nothing at all in this Case any more than it does for a Frenzy or Feaver but that is a very false and dangerous Principle which some have entertained concerning God as if he did notreally desire the Happiness of Man but watched all Advantages to surprize him into Destruction as if his goodness was not a setled and constant Disposition of his Nature but took him at certain Fits as it does the Sons of Men as if we could have no sure Rule to know when we might hope for his Favor as if the Majesty of Heaven were merely arbitrary in dispensing of things as he pleases without considering any Qualification in his Creatures Whereas he who will not believe there is so much goodness in God as that he did not make us for our own Ruin can never have any quiet in his Mind because nothing but the goodness of God can be a reasonable ground of Hope or Security to him Many Mischiefs arise from false Notions of God and Religion The next Mischief to this doth arise from false Notions concerning Religion as if it did wholly consist in the performance of external Duties now we must not take the Measures of our Religion by the ebbings and flowings of our Spirits that depend upon our natural Temper but by a firm Resolution of Soul to keep God's Commandments by the conformity of our Wills to his Another Mischief proceeds from the frequent Interruptions of a holy Life and by the constancy of our Obedience to his Laws Another Mischief proceeds from the frequent Interruptions and great Breaches of a holy Life and this doth much disquiet the Spirits of Men so that usually they betake themselves to false Principles for relief Whereas that Person who rightly understands the Nature of God who hath worthy apprehensions about his Goodness to Mankind hath true Notions about Religion and is free from any melancholy Distemper who doth for the most part continue in an even course of Obedience allowing for human Frailties that befal the best of Men he enjoys a lasting Peace and Serenity of Mind without any considerable Change but such as he can give an account of from his sensible Failings and Variations For I do not believe that Comfort and Peace of Conscience are such arbitrary things as that God gives them to whom and when he pleases without any regard of our Carriage towards him but God hath so ordered Matters that Peace and Comfort shall be the natural result of our Duty and the discharge of a good Conscience towards God and towards man The truth is we do not live according to those Rules of Righteousness that are laid down in his Gospel for the Government of our Lives and so we are affraid to try our selves by this Evidence of our Love to God our Obedience to his Commands but are glad to hearken to any other obscure signs which we cannot be certain of neither will they bring the business to any issue like a Man that hath outrun himself in his Estate he is unwilling to look into his Books but had rather feed himself with some uncertain signs of his good Condition than examin his accounts that he may truly know what it is If we would not deceive our own Souls we must bring our selves to this touchstone Obedience to all the Laws of God by this means we shall take a certain course to understand what state we are in which Laws we are sufficiently enabled to keep by that Grace and Assistance that God offers and is never denied to those that are not wanting to themselves And Man being the only Creature in this visible World that is formed with a Capacity of Worshiping and Enjoying his Maker we have no just pretence to Reason The best way to know what our Condition is must be from keeping God's Commanments unless our Reason be determined to actions of Religion For as Men we are endowed with such a Faculty as is capable of apprehending a Deity and of expecting a future State after this Life whence it follows that our proper Happiness must consist in the perfecting of this Faculty which nothing else but Religion can so much as pretend to it is true indeed Health Riches Reputation Safety are necessary to render our Condition pleasant and comfortable in this World Now herein appears the advantage of Religion that it is not only the Moral but the Natural Cause of all these things because it doth not only
among some Greek Divines and in them nothing more is meant by it than that Power which Man hath over his Moral Actions This is that Spirit of our Minds as the Apostle terms it which makes our Actions virtuous For we are not moved as natural Agents are but it is in our power to leave the things we do undone neither can there be any Choice unless the thing which we take be so in our power that we might have refused it and we must take special care that we distinguish between the Will and the Appetite the Object of the first is whatsoever good we may be lead to by Reason the Object of the latter is The Will and Appetite distinguished whatsoever good may be desired by Sense Now Affections such as Joy and Grief Fear and Anger being as it were the sundry Modes of of Appetite can neither be stirr'd by a thing indifferent nor forbear being moved at the sight of some other things so that it is not altogether in our power so to moderate these Affections as never to be moved by them but we may command the Actions that issue from the Disposition of the Will And to our Wills only our Passions are subject not that it is in our power wholly whether we will be angry or not Passions are subject only to the Will whether we will be moved by Lust or Fear but only when they are up and would hurry us into evil Actions it is in our power to restrain their force and to do 〈…〉 their command For wherein we 〈…〉 hindred there only are we free 〈…〉 whatsoever we may be hindered there we have not this Liberty So small a matter it is called Free-will that hath kindled so much Controversie and raised so great a stir amongst Men. AND here cometh in a third thing which we are to observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Consultation wherein we see the necessity of having Free-will For since in many important Cases of Human Life it doth not appear what is to be done upon the sudden it is necessary to take some time to advise and consult Beasts because they see upon the sudden what they have to do have not this benefit of Advice but as soon as ever they see what to avoid and what to pursue immediatly act accordingly But with Man it is not so many things there are which at first sight seem fair and desireable that upon examination prove otherwise and many things are harsh unpleasant or dangerous at first sight which upon tryal are fitted for our use and therefore ought to be pursued HENCE it is that our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Inclination to act must be frequently suspended and not presently be set on work but upon serious Consideration what is most fit and convenient for us to do And here comes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Election which is as it were the Conclusion from the Premises WHATSOEVER therefore offers its self to us is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for some reason to be desired secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must admit of Consultation and in the third place it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit upon good advice to be chosen This is the just meaning of what Aristotle says of Virtue that it is habitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel electivus The Art oâ—â—iâ—ing wâ—â—â— consists much in the welâ—â—â—dering 〈◊〉 Pa … BEFORE we come to consider further of his Definition wherein the very Form of Virtue doth consist it will not be amiss to speak somewhat of the Passions of the Mind in the due framing of which into order the very Art as it were of living well doth consist NOW the mind of Man from whence they come hath two principal parts the one proper to Man the other common to Him and Beasts the first we call the Intellectual Part or Reason the second is Sense or sensual Appetite Reason is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Guide to Sense whose Virtues are Prudence Science Art and such like which because they are not Moral but Intellectual Vertues we shall not at present speak to For Sense is our Subject as being the proper Object and Matter of Moral Virtue Which inferior part of the Soul is divided by Philosophers into concupiscible and irascible the former tends to that which is good and delightful the latter arms the Soul against whatsoever is disagreeable and difficult BETWIXT these two all the affections are divided and are chiefly employed in their Business Concupiscence Desire Lust Hunger Thirst Hatred and others of the like Nature belong to that which we call the concupiscible part Pride Contempt Impatience Anger Fear Boldness and the like generous and brave Passions belong to what we say is the irascible part of the mind Whatsoever it is that strikes the Soul touches it to the quick The Office of Moral Virtue is to govern the Passions and moves it to Action or Passion must needs proceed from one of these wherefore to give these their just measure and proportion to mould and temper 'em well is the proper Office of Moral Virtue NOW all the Passions of the sensitive Soul are apt to offend in being either too much or too little and the prudent choice of just what is enough is the chief work of Virtue Which Mediocrity is call'd by those who love to talk learnedly or rather obscurely Arithmetical and Geometrical Arithmetical Mediocrity is that which is equally distant from both extremes is ever one and the same as the Mean between Two and Ten is unalterably Six which by Four exceeds Two and by Four fails of Ten For if we add Four to Two it makes Six but if we add Four to Six it makes Ten. Geometrical Mediocrity is so placed betwixt the extremes as the matter requires to which it is refer'd therefore it is sometimes more sometimes less and not always the same Such a medium as the Taylor observes in making your Apparel he requires not the same measure of Cloth for all but only so much as is necessary for your Person For the Physician if Two Drams of Rhubarb will not serve for his Potion What the Mediocrity is in which Virtue is â—aid to be placed doth not forthwith infuse six or ten more but he examines the Niture of the Disease the Strength and Constitution of the Patient and accordingly he makes up his Dose Such a kind of medium is Vertue sometimes inclining to the less sometimes to the more as it is in temperance where the Mediocrity is not still the same but changes according to the variety of Persons A Student who is but of a thin body or a sickly person eats not so much as a Day-Labourer but eats in proportion to the ability of his Stomach the liberal man gives not always the same Alms the wealthy give more men of meaner Estates less So the Widows two Mites were sufficient because she gave according to her Condition
Lust The Ancients for this is no new Device have prosecuted this part of obscene Story under the name of Fabulae Milesiae and lest perchance it might have fallen to the ground some that have born the Christian Name have made themselves Panders to publick Lust and by no meaner Authors than Christian Bishops have continued the course of these Speculative Lusts The first that opened the way to this Wickedness was Heliodorus whom in our time the famous Author of the Arcadia hath fully imitated nay for Wit and Elegancy hath not much failed if he hath not fully equalled him For this reason some Moralists resolve that young Persons must not be suffered to look into lascivious Books and some pieces of Poetry because tho they are fittest to learn Virtue by the Precepts of Morality yet they are most apt by the Arts made use of in these Discourses to be drawn into Vice being set forth in the most charming postures and in the most taking colours THE idle Monks have spent their time in furnishing the World with abundance of this Trash in all Languages I forbear to mention any because I would not serve as an Index to others to make enquiry I wish the Authors of these Books had all acted like him who made Amadis de Gaul for he gave order at his death that his Books should be burnt as being conscious of the mischief they had done upon which our Brittish Martial hath left this Distich Si meruit poenas quod flammam accendat amoris Mergi non uri debuit iste Liber Howsoever it had been whether by Burning or Drowning these Works had been abolish'd it is not of much moment so the World had been fairly rid of them What hath been said of Cavaliero Marini who at his death left all his Bones to be Glyster-pipes that there were more things to be praised and more to be condemned in his Works than in any whatsoever That may be affirmed of many of these Milesian Impurities for smart Wit smooth Elegancy pleasant Conceits and much fair Discourse have served as Salt for this insipid Stuff the better to excuse and draw it on And where we meet with polite Language and quaint Inventions without one good moral Saying those compositions are wholly unprofitable and besides their uncleanness is many times so foul and shameless that no modest Person can look into them whence we may conclude that Feasting and Romances have been the two main Props which have supported Gluttony and Lust the two principal parts of Intemperance THE last of which doth this mischief in the life of Man that it is sometimes like a Syren tempting with amorous Addresses sometimes like a Fury turbulent and ungovernable for many lustful persons are so impatient of any Bridle that they seem to think their Girdles and Garters to be Bonds and Shackles to them The contempt of Marriage most pernicious to Society But among all the Evils which the indulging of Lust doth bring forth the despising of Marriage is the most pernicious to Human Society for certainly Wife and Children are as my Lord Bacon observes a kind of Discipline of Humanity WE might inlarge our selves far more amply should we speak of all those things which by publick warrant plead for the sin of Lust under the soft and specious Name of Love which Passion when once it can take Men off from their serious Affairs and Actions of Life it troubleth their Fortunes and makes them that they can no ways be true to their own ends Something should be said concerning the abuse of Musick and Dancing to the same purpose Musick abused For excepting the practice of the former in our Devotions and religious Assemblies most other uses thereof are merely to be a Bawd to Lust For if we look upon the Subjects of those Lessons that are taught in the ordinary Education of Youth in this Art we shall find that there is scarce any Argument expressed but what plainly tends to the spoiling their Manners for either the Person boasts himself in the good success of his Love or lamentably bewails the Coyness of his Mistress or is profuse in the praises of her Beauty which none commonly sees but himself Love being the Architect of Beauty or he runs out in description of the Symmetry of her parts or despairs of ever enjoying his Wishes These and the like Fancies full of languishing and flattery are the usual entertainments in the practice of Musick AS for Dancing Dancing very Ancient the Antiquity of it may make us think it a branch of the Law of Nature which every Nation both Civil and Barbarous have expressed their mirth by whereof so much may be safely learned as may give a good and graceful motion to the Body But the use now made of it since it is become a difficult Study serves only to chaff the Blood and to set the Mind upon such pleasures as will corrupt the very Being and Essence of all Moral Virtues SHOULD we prosecute farther this and the other like publick provocations unto Lust it would appear unto most Men nothing else but affected Stoicism However ere we take leave of the Virtue of Temperance it will not be amiss to speak something concerning the moderate use of Sleep Somne quies rerum placidissime somne Deorum IF then it be so sweet it must belong to our Sense it were improper to attribute it to the Touch or Taste for no Man could ever tell us of what Taste it is yet certainly it belongs to all the Senses For in the definition thereof we say it is ligatio sensuum externorum a binding of the outward Senses by reason of the ascent of vapours from the Stomack or otherwise by which the passages from the Heart or the Brain are obstructed and cannot give a supply of Spirits to the outward Senses as for the inward Senses of the Mind they suffer not by Sleep which is the privation of the Act of Sense the Power remaining which is evident in the case of Dreams when the Brain is as it were benumm'd and having not its motion in every part alike its Thoughts appear like the Stars between the flying Clouds not in the order which a Man would chuse to observe them but as the uncertain flight of broken Clouds permits NOW the Natural end of Sleep is the refreshing of our strength when it is exhausted we therefore usually say that it is Sleep The end of Sleep which to make one part of our lives profitable makes the other unprofitable wherefore our King Alfred divided the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into three parts eight hours he allotted for Study and Business eight for Eating and Recreations and as many for Sleep So that moderate Sleep takes up one third part of our life which moderation of Sleep can appertain to no other Virtue than to that which is the Moderator of all sensual Pleasures Temperance And we have great reason to follow moderation in
and as we are alone But it is noted by learned Men Virtue is distinguished either as it is our Duty in all our private Capacities or as it is in Relation and carries with it some respect unto others What we have hitherto asserted concerning the Rules and Maxims of Virtue they are all designed for the solitary and retired State of Man and would bind him up to the ways of Goodness if there were none in the World but himself But Virtue as we are now to consider it is of a very large extent and reaches to all the Families and Common-wealths in the World This prescribes 'em their Laws this upholds their Order and their Safety There is an essential Justice in the frame of Human Nature FOR Man by Nature is a Sociable Creature and delights in Company so that in the very frame of Human Nature there is an essential Justice that demands of every man Offices of Love and Kindness to others as well as himself in that without this that common welfare and happiness which the Divine Providence that made Nature designed for all and every individual of mankind must become utterly unattainable Hence it is that few men care to live alone and those that do it are either Savage People or they are discontented and the humorous But men generally are gathered into Commonwealths and the lesser Companies of them are divided into Towns or Cities who are all thus met to comfort one another with mutual Society and mutual Help NOW the Virtue Justice keeps all things even and true which fits and composes us for so excellent an End as is common Society that holds the Scales and keeps the ballances of all things even and true is Justice accordingly it is said by Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a just Man is made for his Neighbours For if Men should promote the good of Society submit to Laws practise Justice and refrain from Cruelty only to secure their own personal safety and interest then whenever this Obligation ceases all the Ties to Justice must cease also and when any single person can hope to advance his own Interest by the ruin of the publick it will be lawful for him to effect it But the just Man that God hath made so is one who thinks himself bound to maintain the common Right of all and to secure his Neighbours happiness as well as his own For if Justice be not supposed to be the Law of our Natures no Covenants can be of power enough to bring us under any Obligation to it But this is a most certain Truth that all men have a natural Right to Happiness from the very design of their Creation that this cannot be acquired without mutual Aids and Friendships and therefore right Reason dictates that every man should have some concern for his Neighbour as well as himself because this is made necessary to the welfare of the World by the natural state of Things and by this mutual Exchange of Love and Kindness men support one another in the comforts of Human Life Vniversal Justice NOW Justice considered thus as it stands in relation to others hath a double signification either it is Universal and contains in it all Uprightness Integrity and obedience to all Laws that are wisely Enacted For sometimes it falls out that even multitudes of men have conspired in making unjust and wicked Laws as might be proved by several Instances in some unfortunate Times OR else Justice is particular Particular Justice and consists in two words Suum cuique in giving every man his Due and this is that Virtue the nature of which we now enquire into For though Justice be a prime and natural Virtue yet its particular cases depend upon human Laws that determine the bounds of Meum and Tuum Indeed the Divine Law restrains Titius from invading Caius his Right and Property but what that is and when it is invaded only the Laws of this Society or Country they live in can determine For Nature doth not assign this Moiety to Titius and that to Caius but leaves us to share the Earth among our selves and to enclose what she had left in common into particular properties as we shall agree among our selves And there are some cases that are Acts of injustice in England that are not so in Italy otherwise all places must be governed by the same Laws and what is a Law to one Nation must be so to all the World whereas it is evident that neither the Law of God nor of Nature do determine the particular Instances of most Virtues but for the most part leave that to the Constitutions of National Laws As for Example Theft and Murther Incest and Adultery are forbid in General but what these crimes are they determine not in all Cases and whatsoever the Law of the Land reckons for such Crimes That the Law of God prohibits Justice considered in opposition to Mercy BUT before we proceed on the Point of particular Justice we must observe that Justice commonly stands in opposition to Mercy as St. James tells us when he saith mercy rejoyceth against Judgment or as the Psalmist my song shall be of mercy and judgment which may be better translated thus be it Mercy be it Judgment yet will I Sing in which sense Mercy is opposed not to Justice for God and good men are just both in Mercy and Judgment but to severity in which Sense civil Officers are said to do Justice when they Fine Imprison and Hang Malefactors OUT of this confused Mass of Justice taken universally we are to treat of particular Justice which as we have observed is fully set forth in those two Words Suum cuique Now if I should undertake to define this Virtue as we have done others by the Passion it governs which I cannot easily name or by giving you the two extremes which it moderates and brings to the middle way I should do more than either Aristotle himself or the rest of the Lawyers who call themselves Sacerdotes Justitiae have done in those infinite and immense Volumes which they have written de justitiâ et jure against the express charge and command of Justinian their Original and prime Author IF we consult Aristotle he tells us that Justice is the Habit quô justa volumus and we are much as wise for this as we are for that itinerant and riding definition which he hath left us of Quality Qualitas est à quâ denominamur quales and more than this we shall not be able to extract out of all the Cart-loads of Law-books Out of all the endeavours of their exactest Penmen I remember well that Aristotle hath taught us that some Virtues consist in the Moderation of our Actions and for the Midiocrity it is in this that we give not to any Man more or less than his due and this is the moderation which we must keep between nimium and parum in doing of Justice then we offend in
one extreme when we give too much then in the other when we give too little NOW Justice taken in this Sense is twofold either commutative or distributive Justice is either Commutative or Distributive or as some learned Men affect to call it Justitia expletrix or assignatrix here by the way we may take notice of a vanity in many great Scholars of innovating the ordinary and known names under which things have passed thus Mr. Hobbes hath been thought as the prodigy of the age as very a deviser as if he had found out Gunpowder or Printing only for dressing common acknowledged things in new Phrases and then trimming them up for new Discoveries So Ramus is notoriously Guilty of this fault who striving to bring all Arts into a new Order and Method hath so changed their antient Names both in Grammar Logick and Mathematical Science that it is a great part of Learning to understand his new Language and some have been known who well understood these Sciences in the common Speech to have been more troubled to understand 'em in his new-fangled Cant than they were at first in their ordinary Dialect for as my Lord Bacon wisely observes nothing hath more hindred the Growth of Learning than Peoples studying of new Words and spending their time in Chaptring Modelling and Marshalling of Sciences THE learned Author of this new Language of Expletrix and Assignatrix instead of the old Dialect of Commutative and Distributive Justice may take his share patiently in this reproof First COMMUTATIVE Justice What Commutative Justice is is that Justice wherein we give by way of exchange one thing for another as when a Shoomaker gives Shooes and the Husbandman Corn thus naturally did all Men Traffick ware for ware one commodity for another which we call Trucking or Bartering But because this manner of dealing proved full of inconveniences for avoiding these Men have found out another way of exchange by Money which by a universal agreement is made the common measure of all things passable by way of Bargain and Sale now Money receiveth valuation and price by the position of the Prince and State or the mutual Convention of Men things most alterable upon every occasion therefore the Grecians do term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it consisteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being nothing in Deed and Nature but wholly depending upon the voluntary Institution of Men. WHOSOEVER invented it did Mankind a great piece of Service and freed them from that cumbersom way of changing ware for ware For in the First place Money is of easie portage so that bearing about with us a little in our Purses we have the price of all things to be bought by Money 2. It is made of Gold and Silver in this proportion that one Ounce of the former is equivalent to twelve Ounces of the latter which proportion to one another these Metals have born from the beginning And of these Metals mankind have made choice because tho they are procured by tedious and difficult Voyages yet they may be had and that in some abundance for had they pitcht upon Lead Brass Copper Iron or any other more ignoble Earth it had been liable to many inconveniences chiefly two First the abuse of Coinage 2. The burden of Carriage every one would coin 'em at his pleasure because they may be had every where and at a cheap Rate every one would complain of its weight therefore I yourgus the Founder of the Spartan Republick that he might persuade his Citizens out of their love of Money by a new kind of Argument established a Law that it should be made of Iron insomuch that when they went to their Markets they were forc'd to convey it in Wagons by reason of the weight and the vastness of the pieces And we read that the Romans used Brass for their Money in whose Language Aes Aerarium signifies Money and the Treasury and effe in aere alieno is to be in Debt This was as great an inconvenience to these People as it was to the Spartans for their As which is but half-penny-Farthing in our Money with them weigh'd a Pound whence comes the phrase Aes grave so often met withal wherefore about the time of the first Punick War they brake their Asses which were before Librales into Semisses just half so much thus by degrees they made use of smaller portions until greater quantity of Gold and Silver came in which by consent were made the common measure of all things passable by exchange so became the best and fittest instrument of Commutative Justice THE Rule Severus his Rule of Justice by which we are to exercise this Justice is that which Severus the Emperour wrote upon his Palace quod tibi fieri non vis alteri ne feceris whatsoever we would that Men should do unto us do we even so to them this Sentence should be writ on our Houses Tops and on our Exchanges The meaning of which is this that we ought to put our selves into the circumstances of every Man with whom we deal that then which we desire he should do to us that do we to him and that which we would be unwilling he should do to us do we not to him NOW this is an exact Rule and it is plain and easie Many men cannot find out what the Law is or the Right in such a Case it is so entangled in long and intricate Rolls of Parchment many men cannot deduce the Laws of Nature one from another but there is no Man but can tell what it is that he would have another man do to him every one can take his own actions and put them into the other Scale and can suppose if this that he does now to another were to be done to himself should he be contented with it And thus by changing the Scales the very Self-interest which makes a man Covetous and inclines him to injure another for his advantage makes him likewise unwilling that another should wrong him IT must be confessed in matters of Contract and Commerce many Questions arise which it is hard for one to decide who is unacquainted with these affairs the necessities of things or the hidden reasons of some kinds of dealing However this is a general Rule in making Contracts we must deal fairly and truly in performing them we must satisfie the engagements Vnskilfulness or ignorance are not to be imposed upon we have made for so we would have all Mankind to treat us Hence we are obliged not to impose upon any Man's ignorance or unskilfulness we may set a just value upon our Goods but we are not to set a Price upon another man's Head nor to Tax his ignorance therefore no advantage must ever be made of Children or any other incompetent Persons And it is sinful to disparage another man's Commodities or to raise our own above the truth that we may thereby lead a man into
is the Right of every case and a man's greatest Wisdom is seen in finding that out and his goodness in complying with it And if we keep to this Rule of doing always what is Right and Fit we shall be justified whenever we are summoned to give an account of our Actions we shall be delivered from the severity of Punishment the end of which is either to support Right or to be exemplary that others may be withheld from following bad Examples In fine the practice of this Virtue will remove from us all suspicion of Arbitrariness which is the foulest Imputation that can be put upon any man that he affects to maintain Self-will but to live in the practice of Equity gives ease to the Mind and to do thus is ever well-pleasing in the sight of God WHEREAS He who is disposed to follow the heels of the Law may as the Proverb warns him have his Teeth struck out For Summum jus est summa injuria upon many emergent and unforeseen occasions and as the circumstances of things alter so doth the Law and many times it so falls out that whoso keeps most strictly to the letter of it is in danger of committing the grossest Iniquities HITHERTO we have placed the whole sum and stress of Common Justice in these two words Suum cuique yet it is most true that He who puts into a Madman's Hand his own Sword is certainly the madder Person of the two To murther ones own Sister or Mother is the blackest Crime and the most Savage of any man can be guilty of yet Horatius Cocles and Orestes deserved their Pardons Thus a thousand Circumstances may arise to mollifie the four Precepts of the Law by reason of which its strictness may in some cases be dispensed with WHEREFORE in many Common-wealths Law and Equity have distinct Courts and Supreme Powers have always challenged a Prerogative to temper the rigour of Laws and the Style of the Chancery Court in England is Teste me ipso by which the Prince reserves to himself the moderation of the Law therefore it is called the King's Conscience tho in the keeping of the Chancellour And it is absolutely necessary this should be so that through a dark and long Journey full of Briars and Brambles we may at length come at Equity For Law suits must be uncertain so long as the Lawyers seek not for their Judgments in their own Breasts but in the Precedents of former Judges as the Ancient Judges sought the same not in their own Reason but in the Laws of the Empire besides there is scarce any thing so clearly written that when the cause thereof is forgotten may not be wrested by an Ignorant Grammarian or a Cavelling Logician to the injury or the destruction of an Honest Man THIS hath made Justice appear so perplexed a thing The reason why Justice hath appeared so perplexed a matter the mighty Commentaries upon it have brought a Cloud upon that which else would shine forth in all the brightness of Truth and Sincerity Thus the Scripture it self hath suffered by Expositions and the ways of Justice by the craft of Advocates and Clerks have been made to look like those of Fraud mysterious and crooked Thus Judgment is turned into Wormwood for it is embittered by injustice and delays make it sour But that Justice whose Character we give now is a sweet and tender Virtue as much an Enemy to hard Constructions and strained Inferences as it is to Tortures and Racks Patience and Gravity always attend it which prepare its way to a just Sentence as God useth to prepare his by raising Valleys and taking down Hills so doth Justice encourage the modest and suppresses the presumptuous and bold chiefly those who are contentious and such as are full of Shifts and Tricks whereby they would pervert her direct Courses and strive to bring her into oblique Lines and Labyrinths For these Men would make her Courts like to the Bush in the Fable to which while the Sheep fly for shelter in bad Weather they are sure to lose part of their Fleece but where untainted Justice prevails there undoubtedly is true Policy which are so far from having an Antipathy to each other that they are like the Spirits and the Sinews one moves with the other continually And that Throne which hath these two for its Supporters must be like Solomon's supported by Lyons on both sides Creatures most vigilant against all On-sets and most couragious to resist them Atheists make Justice an Artificial thing BUT Atheistical Politicians make Justice an artificial thing framed only by Men and Civil Laws as if it was the peculiar priviledg of Mankind to be born free from all Duty and Morality Thus they slander Human Nature and make a Villain of it For if there be nothing in its own Nature unlawful or unjust then must the lawfulness or the unlawfulness of all Actions depend upon a Man's Will But by this means no Laws could ever be established in the World because a man might by his Will disoblige himself and make an unlawful Action lawful as he pleases Besides if nothing is unjust by Nature then there can be no Laws of Nature and if there be none of these No Covenants without natural Justice then there can be no Covenants because Covenants without natural Justice are meer words and breath And if there are no Covenants founded upon natural Justice it is as impossible to gather mankind into Bodies Politick as it is to tie knots in the Wind or the Water MOREOVER If the real Obligation to obey the Laws of Justice be only from the Fear of punishment then might men justly break any Laws for their own advantage if they can reasonably promise themselves Impunity And whenever they have Power they may oppose Civil Authority which according to this Hypothesis is an artificial thing and nothing else but Force If it be so then there could never be any Government which violence cannot but some Natural Bond must hold together which Bond can be no other than Natural Justice which is not a Creature of the People and of men's Wills but hath a stamp of the Divinity upon it For had not God and Nature made a City had not they made Superiority and Subjection with their respective Duty and Obligation neither Art nor Force could ever have done it Wherefore to deny the mutual respects and rationes rerum to be unchangeable will spoil God himself of that universal Rectitude which is the greatest perfection of his Nature For then Justice Faithfulness Mercy and Goodness will be but contingent and arbitrary Issues of the divine Will But if Justice be as most certainly it is an indispensible Perfection in God then there is an Eternal Relation of Right and Equity betwixt every Being and the giving it that which is its propriety if Faithfulness then there is an indispensible agreement betwixt a Promise and the performance of it if Mercy then there is an
is by all means to be rooted out from among Men and this following perswasion erected in the stead of that there is no compassing the end we aim at by fraudulent and indirect courses but only by just Dealings and honest Counsels SO that if that be true which is commonly observed that Men are wont to prove such kinds of Christians as they were Men before and that Conversion does not destroy but exalt our Tempers it may well be concluded that the diligent Man in his Employment is nearer to make a modest and an humble Christian The diligent Man makes the best Christian than the Man of Speculative Science who is proud of his Knowledg for a true Preparation for the next Life is not at all inconsistent with Men's consulting of their happiness in this World or being employed about Earthly Affairs the honest pursuit of the necessaries and of the conveniences of a mortal Condition by Just and regular Ways is by no means contradictory to the most real and severe Duties of a Christian it is true indeed an irregular prosecution of Profit or Gain is an offence to Religion but so it is also to Right Reason and Nature it self And it is a wrong Conception of the State of Grace if Men believe that when they enter upon it they must presently cast away all the thoughts and desires after the Possessions of this World but when we are bidden not to think our own thoughts it is not intended that we should forbear all natural Actions and Inclinations so it must be lawful for the strictest Christian by the help of honest Arts to provide for the necessities of this Life else the condition of Men would be worse than that of the Beasts that perish seeing to them it is natural to seek out for all the ways of their own preservation IT must be confessed that there may be an excess as well as defect in men's Opinions of Holiness and then I will make no Scruple to say that the virtuous Man defiles not his Mind when he labors in the works of an honest Art to advance his profit Christianity approves of the works of honest Art the diversion it gives him will stand with the greatest constancy and the delight of pursuing it with the truth and reality of Religion Which is indeed an Heavenly Thing but not utterly averse from making use of the Rules of humane Arts wherefore it is not the best service that can be done to Christianity to place its chief Precepts so much out of the way as to make them unfit for Men of business whereas the best part of Religion is Practical and Her chiefest Precepts are those that govern the private Motions and Passions of our Minds those are its most excellent Rules which calm our Affections and Conquer our Vices And the works of practical Religion are no less wonderful than those of Art which we now speak of for in whatever place of the World Arts have been destroyed Barbarity prevails when Arts are Destroyed Barbarity hath prevailed insomuch that if Aristotle and Plato and Demosthenes should now arise in Greece again they would stand amazed at the horrible Devastation of that which was the Mother of Arts and at the ignorance as well as incivility that hath taken its seat And if Caesar and Tacitus should return to Life they would scarce believe this Britain and Gaul and Germany to be the same which they described they would now behold 'em covered over with Cities and Palaces which were in their time overrun with Forrests and Thickets They would see all manner of Arts Flourishing in these Countries where the chief Art that was Practised when they Lived was that Barbarous one of Painting their Bodies to make them look more Terrible in Battel HENCE it is remarkable that where-ever Arts have been Plante d there Humanity good Manners Religion and good Manners Fourish where Art is encouraged and the Seeds of Religion have encreased and so long as there remains any corner of the World without Civility Artificers are the most likely and fittest Persons to subdue the Rudenesses of Mankind And it was said of Civil Government by Plato that the World will be best ruled when either Philosophers shall be chosen Kings or Kings shall have Philosophical Minds And I will affirm the like of Philosophy it will then attain to Perfection when either the followers of Art shall have Philosophical Heads or the Philosophers shall have Mechanical Hands for thus the conceptions of Men of Knowledg which are wont to soar too high will be made to descend into the Material World and the Flegmatick imaginations of Men of Trade which use to grovel too much on the Ground will be exalted And the power as well as the value of Art may be proved by one instance and it is of Archimedes who did wonders by applying his skill in the Mathematicks to the Practices and Motions of manual Trades his success was so prodigious herein that the true contrivances of his Hands did exceed all the fabulous strength which either the Antient Stories or modern Romances have bestowed on their Heroes He alone sustained the burden of his Falling Country He alone kept the Romans at a bay to whom the whole World was to yield For neither Seas nor Mountains neither Fleets nor Armies could resist the Force of his Engines which are the greatest Powers of Nature and of Men. AS therefore those Men are most happy Where Arts abound there are Riches who are still labouring to improve their minds in moral Virtues which have such a mutual dependence that no man can attain to perfection in any one of them without some degree of the other so that Country is still the richest and most powerful which entertains most Manufactures For the hands of men Employed are true Riches and where this is done there will never a sufficient matter for Profit be wanting but where the Ways of Life are few the Fountains of Profit will be possess'd by Few and so all the rest must live in Idleness on which inevitably ensues Poverty FOR Idleness is that defect which is opposite to Art for the Arts of men's hands are subject to the same infirmity with Empire the best Art of their minds of which it is truly observed that whenever it comes to stand still Idleness the cause of very ill effects and ceases to advance it will soon go back and decrease So if we shall cast an Eye on all the Tempests which arise within our Breasts and consider the Causes and Remedies of all the violent Desires malicious Envies intemperate Joys and irregular Griefs by which the lives of most men become miserable or guilty we shall find that they are chiefly produced by Idleness and may be most naturally cured by Business For whatever Art shall be able to busie the minds of men with a constant course of innocent works or to fill them with as vigorous and pleasant Images
exspected from those special Advantages which they enjoy in those places is because they are not so careful to improve the benefit to be had by prudent Conversation For the Men of Reading do very much busie themselves about such Conceptions which are no where to be found out of their own Chambers the Sense the Custom the Practice the judgment of the World is quite a different thing from what they imagine it to be in private and therefore it is no wonder that when they come abroad into Business they abound so much with Fears and Doubts and mistaken Idea's of things which happens to them because they have kept out of the way in the shade of their Libraries Arguing Objecting Defending concluding with themselves and would never look out and by Conversing see what is acted on the Stage of the World FROM what I have said may be gather'd that Prudence will teach Men not to spend their thoughts about empty Contemplations The prudent Man is more for practice than Contemplation by turning them to the practices of a virtuous and an useful Life thus their minds will be cured of all their swellings when all things are represented to them just as large as they are For the nearer men come to the Businesses of Life all those shadows grow less and less which did either enlarge or darken Human Affairs And indeed of the usul Titles by which men of Business are wont to be distinguished the Crafty the Formal and the Prudent the Crafty may answer to the Emperick in Philosophy who has a great collection of particular Experiences but knows not how to use them but to base and low Ends the Formal man may be compared to the mere Speculative Philosopher who vainly reduces every thing to some grave and solemn general Rules without discretion And the prudent Man is like him who proceeds on a constant and solid course of Experiments which do not rest upon empty Knowledg but are designed for Action And it is the active Life of Virtue which it is our Interest to begin betimes because 't is a hard task for him who has only thought much for the greatest part of his days to turn a man of practice as He that can paint the Face of a Lion will much sooner come to draw any other Creature than He who has all the Rules of Limning in his Head but never yet used his Hand to lay on a Colour I have nothing more to add concerning Prudence only this that it is the best preservative we have against all false Religions and those Prudence the best preservative against false Religions that promote them wherewith unless a man be well guarded he will be ever exposed to Impostors who have an Art of presenting falshood for Truth with as fair Colours and Pretences with as exact and regular Proportions with fanciful Consequences and artificial Connexions for want of a due discretion in governing their Lives by the plain Rules of the Christian Doctrine Men have run headlong into very absurd and gross Opinions For when once Religion is made a Tool to advance the Ambition or the Interests of designing men then they broach swarms of supposititious Writings and sophistical Arguments to maintain corrupt Opinions then they pretend to Visions and Dreams to gain credit to their fond inventions But a prudent Man who makes a good Life his only purpose acts as one in his Wits should do For holiness of Life restores him to his Primitive state to the perfect and healthful Constitution of his Nature in the mean time it is a hard matter to persuade the Enthusiastical and the superstitious to be really good The Enthusiastical and superstitious are hardly brought to be really good it is no easie thing to work upon their disordered Tempers and Passions or to reduce 'em to the forsaken and untrodden Paths of Virtue NAY a prudent thoughtfulness hath a natural power in it to work in a sincere Person a sense and acknowledgment of his Sins when he retires into himself and takes a true estimate of his Condition For the workings of the mind are active and restless it will always be employed one way or another and when it hath no external Object to entertain or divert it then self-Reflection the best means to an impartial judgment of things will take place and the true voice of Conscience will be heard ALL Men therefore who act wickedly forget the very nature of their own minds but He who guides his Affairs with discretion looks forward to the end of his Actions examines the Reasons upon which his Religion is founded because most of the Errours among Men are such Whence most Mens Errours do arise as their own Reason might have corrected had they in time bethought themselves and most of the dangers they incur proceed from hence that they have a great indifferency upon their Spirits as to the truth or honesty of the Religion they are engaged in IT cannot be expected considering what fallible Creatures we are that we should always walk according to the precise Rules of Prudence However seeing that most of the Faults of Men proceed from irregular Humours and Desires which they are apt to be too Fond of we are by the Law of our Creation bound to use that Principle in us we call Reason that it may guide all our Operations and direct them to some good End For God governs rational Beings by the Principles of Reason as He doth the material World by the necessary Laws of matter and brute Creatures by the instincts and propensities of Nature Of Understanding Science and Wisdom THESE Three may be handled together because they are alike concerned in the search after Truth For the Vnderstanding perceives and apprehends the Objects by the Ministry of the Senses the resemblances of these Objects being conveyed to the Vnderstanding do there make their own Image which we call Science or Knowledg in which two things are implied What Science is the one is Truth the other is Evidence For what is not Truth can never be known and Evidence is to Truth as Sap to the Tree which so far as it creepeth along with Body and Branches keepeth them alive where it forsaketh them they die For this Evidence which is Meaning with our Words is the Life of Truth and that which hath much experience of Fact What Sapience or Wisdom is and much evidence of Truth that is much Vnderstanding and Science hath usually been called both by ancient and modern Writers Sapience or Wisdom whereof Man only is capable OF whose Soul the Vnderstanding is the highest Faculty which judges of the Reports of Sense Vnderstanding the highest faculty of the Soul and detects all their Impostures resolves all sensible things into intelligible Principles the conceptions whereof are not mere passive Impressions upon the Soul from without but they are actively exerted from the mind its self no passion being able to make a judgment
either of it self or other things but some men have been so fond of corporeal Sense as to believe that there is nothing in Human Understanding which was not first in bodily Sense which whosoever asserts must say that Life and Cogitation it self Knowledg or Vnderstanding Reason and Memory Volition and Appetite things of the greatest moment and Reality to be nothing but mere Words without any signification For if Sense were the only Evidence of things there could be no absolute truth and falshood nor certainty at all of any thing Sense as such being obnoxious to much Delusion and were Existence to be allowed to nothing that doth not fall under corporeal Sense then we must deny the Being of Mind both in our selves and others because we can nether see nor feel any such thing THERE have been also those who have thought that our understandings might be so made as to deceive us in all our clearest perceptions in Geometrical Theorems themselves and even in our common Notions if this be so then we can never be certain of the truth of any thing not so much as that two and two are four nay if this be so we can never arrive at any certainty concerning the Existence of God essentially good forasmuch as This cannot any otherwise be proved than by the use of our Vnderstanding-Faculty Besides it is no way congruous to think that God Almighty should make Rational Creatures so as to be in an utter impossibility of ever attaining to any Truth if this were so what would our Life be but a Dream and our selves but a ridiculous piece of fantastick Vanity WHEREAS no Power how great soever can make any thing indifferently to be true nor can create such Minds as shall have as clear Conceptions of Falshoods as they have of Truths For Example no Understanding Being that knows what a part is and what a whole what a cause and what an effect can possibly be so made as clearly to conceive the part to be greater than the whole or the effect to be before the cause The Deity is the original of Truth For the Deity is the original of Truth and Wisdom And it doth not derogate from him that created Minds should so partake of the divine Mind as to know certainly that two and two make four that equals added to equals will make equals that a whole is greater than a part that the cause is before the effect and such like common Notions which are the Principles from whence all our knowledg is derived MOREOVER a Perfect understanding Being is the beginning and head of the Scale of Entity from whence things gradually descend downward lower and lower Mind the oldest of all things till they end in senseless matter for Mind is the oldest of all things senior to the Elements and the whole corporeal World for if once there had been no Life in the whole Universe but all had been dead then could there never have been any Life or Motion in it and if once there had been no understanding then could there never have been any understanding produced because to suppose Life and Understanding to rise out of that which is altogether dead and senseless is plainly to suppose something to come out of nothing wherefore because there is Mind we are certain that there was some Mind from all Eternity from whence these imperfect Minds of ours came for the first Principle of all things must be an understanding Nature and the power we have to understand the truth we altogether owe to this Cause FOR Gen. 1.27 What the Image of God is in Man God created Man in his own image which image is that universal Rectitude of all the faculties of the Soul by which they stand apt and disposed to their receptive Offices and Operations therefore in Adam the Understanding was a Noble and pure Faculty could lead and controul the Passions as it listed it did then determine upon the several informations of Sense and all the varieties of imagination not hearing only like a sleepy Judg but also directing their Verdict Being innocent and quick it gave the Mind a bright and full prospect into all things insomuch that the discoveries of Truth are now very obscure in comparison with those clear representations thereof which the understanding made then IT was likewise Adam's happiness to have those Maxims and general Notions of the Mind which are the Rules of Discourse Adam's understanding much above ours and the Basis of all Philosophy clear and unsullied Study was not then a duty Night-watchings were needless The Light of Reason wanted not the assistance of a Candle This is the doom of us poor faln Creatures to labour in the Fire to spend our Time and impair our Health and perhaps to spin out all our days upon one pitiful Conclusion And 't is difficult for us who were born and bred up with Ignorance and Infirmities about us to raise our Thoughts to those Intellectual Perfections that attended our Nature in the time of Innocence But we must conclude the Understanding to be at that time most Excellent by the glorious Remainders that are left of it For all those Arts Rarities and Inventions which vulgar Heads gaze at the Ingenious pursue and all admire they are but the Reliques of an Understanding defaced with Sin and Time Insomuch that an Aristotle whom we take to be the Great Master of Science was but the rubbish of an Adam and Athens but the Rudiments of Paradise THE Image of God did no less remarkably shew it self in that which we call the practical Vnderstanding in which are treasured up the Rules of Action and the Seeds of Morality of this sort are these Rules of Life that God is to be worship'd our Parents to be honoured our words to be kept which being of universal Influence as to the regulation of the Behaviour and Converse of Mankind are the ground of all Virtue and Civility and the Foundation of Religion NOW Adam had these Notions in his Bosom firm and untainted and He had such a Conscience as might be its own Casuist and those Actions must needs be regular when there is an uninterrupted agreement between the Rule and the Faculty The Rule and the Faculty did ever agree All the Laws of Nations and wise Decrees of States the Statutes of Solon and the twelve Tables were but a paraphrase upon this standing Rectitude of Nature upon this principle of Justice that would never be imposed upon by a deluding Fancy nor bribed by an alluring Appetite no utile nor jucundum could turn the Ballance to a false or dishonest Sentence the inferiour Faculties had the clearest Instructions and were commanded too with such Power as they could not resist It was not then as it is now when the Vnderstanding chastises the Passions as old Eli did his headstrong Sons gently and easily but its Voice at that time was this must this shall be done THUS the Image of
which unwary Men have fallen into who have ventured over those limits within which our Reason should be confined The proper Work of which is to put a Man into as good a condition as He is capable of and as it is reasonable for him to expect and the desire of this is not properly a moral Virtue about which Men have a Liberty of Acting but is a natural Principle that flows necessarily from the very frame of our Natures For that What is Natural Good and what Moral which hath a fitness in it to promote the welfare of Man as a Sensitive Being is styled Natural Good and whatsoever promotes his welfare as a Rational Being is called Moral Good And the greater tendency any thing hath to advance or hinder the perfection of our Nature so much greater degrees hath it of Moral Good or Evil to which we ought to proportion our Inclination or Aversion and our Understanding tells us that the rational Nature and the perfection belonging to it is more Noble than the sensitive therefore moral good is to be preferr'd before Natural and that which is morally evil is more to be hated and shunn'd than that which is Natural The best Science is the knowledg of our selves SUPPOSE we studied nothing but this how profitable would this Science be to us For it would make us wise to salvation For as other Sciences carry out our Thoughts and entertain them with Notions abroad this will bring us to the knowledg of our selves which is the only Way to true Wisdom For an Astronomer may gaze upon the Stars may admire exteriour Objects much that appear glorious and after all he may fall into the Ditch But the end both of knowing and doing well is to be gotten only in that rare Science of what is most agreeable to the Reason and Interest of every Man It is pity to lose this Science in a croud of Definitions Divisions and Distinctions as some Philosophers have done whose Understandings seem to be always in the warlike State of Nature one against another WHEREAS it is requisite that He who would accomplish his Mind with the most excellent matters of Science should first know himself should be well practised in all the modest humble friendly Virtues And I dare boldly say that a virtuous Man of a calm and teachable Spirit is more likely to make a good Proficient in all manner of Knowledg than the Wit who must be always prying into things that are too deep or are altogether unintelligible The Chymists lay it down as a necessary qualification of their Happy Man to whom God wll reveal their Elixir that rather He must be good and innocent than too curious And if I were to form the Character of a true Lover of Science Virtue must be the Foundation and that upon a rational account For certainly such men The humble Man is most likely to be the best Proficient in Science whose minds are humble and free from all Self-conceit are in a far better way to the most beneficial Knowledg than the bold and haughty they will pass by nothing by which they may learn they will be always ready to receive and communicate Observations they will not contemn the fruits of other men's Diligence they will rejoice to see the Learning of the best Things enquired into both by themselves and others THEREFORE Socrates was esteemed the Patron of Virtue Socrates the Patron of Virtue because He was one of the First that began to draw into some Order the confused and obscure Imaginations of those that went before him because He made all parts of Philosophy to be taken off from mere subtilty and words that they might be immediately serviceable to the Affairs of Men and the uses of Life that they might no longer be wrap'd up as it was the custom of the Wisemen in Egypt in the dark shadows of Hieroglyphicks nor concealed as Sacred Mysteries from the apprehensions of the Vulgar But Virtue and the Science of Truth stands not in need of such Artifices to uphold her Credit but is then most likely to thrive when the minds and labours of men of all Conditions are joined to promote it and when it becomes the care of all People to practise it Indeed the Grecian Poets did first soften men's natural Rudeness by the Charms of Verse before they could be brought to receive the severer Doctrines of Solon Thales and Pythagoras So some men must be delightfully deceived to their own good and wholesom Instructions must be insinuated into their Minds with the mixture of Fables and the Ornaments of Fancy but when once they are got over these Rudiments nothing will relish so well with them as the stricter Lessons of Virtue and an assiduous prosecution of those Sciences that will at length bring them to the Seat of sound and perfect Wisdom NOW to seek for this Wisdom in Systems and Models Wisdom is not to be found in Systems is to seek the Living among the Dead but the powerful Energy of true Wisdom shews it self only in the virtuous Mind which is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the antient Philosophy speaks the Land of Truth And when Zoroaster's Scholars asked him What they should do to get winged Souls such as might soar aloft after Truth He bids them bathe themselves in the Waters of Life and enquiring what those were they were told the four Cardinal Virtues which he compares to the four Rivers of Paradise That Science is very thin which is made up of Syllogisms and Demonstrations but the Wisdom which is built upon Goodness is more convincing and more substantial than all those For the End it aims at is a State of Everlasting Happiness and the Means are the infused Principles of Grace whereby our corrupted Natures are exalted to their Primitive Uprightness Wisdom defined So that this kind of Wisdom may be defined to be that Habit of Mind whereby a Man is enabled to propose the true End of Eternal Blessedness and to judg aright concerning such Means as may be most fit for the attaining this End conforming his Life and Carriage accordingly Now that which is the greatest Truth to gratifie our Understandings and the Highest Good to satisfie our Wills must be an End proper for a Wise Man to follow Neither was the Ancient Philosophy unacquainted with this Way and Method of attaining unto the most Divine Wisdom And it is observed that Pythagoras had several ways to try the Moral temper of the minds of his Disciples before he would entrust 'em with the Sublimer Mysteries of his School And the Platonists were so sollicitous herein that they thought the Souls of Men could never be purged enough from the dregs of Sense and Passion to become capable of their Metaphysicks And as we have observed already Aristotle thought a young Man unfit to meddle with the wiser Precepts of Morality till the heat and rashness of his youthful Affections were cooled
being so much in our own power WHEREFORE let not Men think they can be Holy without Moral Vertue which they will be apt to do whenever Grace is set in Opposition to Virtue they may as well think they may be godly without Religion Devout and Pious without all sober and sincere use of their Understandings in spiritual matters for this mischief will certainly ensue upon it that Men will embrace Metaphors and Allegories fancies and forms of Speech instead of the Substance of true and real Righteousness 'T IS certain then The Duties of Morality are the most weighty concerns of Religion that the Duties of Morality are the most weighty and material Concerns of Religion and as in the Ordinary Generation of Mankind that vital principle the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical Nature of Man and never gives over till it has worked the whole bodily Mass into a full Complement of parts so by a new Principle of Life called Grace and derived from God through Christ into the mind true Wisdom Righteousness Justice Holiness Integrity and all the instances of Moral Vertue are fashioned by this quickning spirit in the thoughts and actions of good and pious Men This makes the whole mystery of Regeneration intelligible so that any Nicodemus may discern the manner and reason of it for to be born again signifies in its utmost meaning to become a sincere Disciple of our Lord Jesus and to be his Disciple is to believe and obey as we are ingaged by Baptism this being the clearest proof we can give to our selves or others that we own him in good earnest to be our Lord and Master if for his sake we love Truth and Goodness above all worldly interests What is meant by the New Creature NOW to be Regenerate is to be the sincere Disciples of Christ which will qualifie a Man for the Kingdom of Heaven and if that be true it follows that Regeneration and all those other Metaphors which express the state of a Man fitted for eternal Happiness do mean nothing else but his being such a Disciple of Christ as to believe in him to love and obey him when the word of God that Divine Seed hath wrought its due and proper effects upon his Soul by its Precepts the temper of his Mind and the disposition of his Will are agreeable to the Laws of God therefore we use to say of a meek spirited Man that he cannot be furious and of an honest Man that he cannot deceive and of a generous Man that he cannot do a base or unworthy Action that is it is Morally impossible that he should it being directly contrary to the Genius and Sense of his Soul so to do just so it is with him who is born of God he cannot sin because it is repugnant to the inclination and bent of his Nature which being Holy will produce a godly and vertuous Life THIS Notion of the new Creature will not suffer a Man to reckon himself Regenerate who doth not amend his Life according to God's Holy Word this will keep Hypocrites from pretending to be so who are apt to think their hearts are good when their manners are naught But the state of a Regenerate person is called Spiritual as being caused by the Grace of God's Spirit so it may be called Moral as consisting in the conformity of our Minds and Actions to the Divine Laws NOW he who makes a distinction between Grace and Vertue a Spiritual and Moral state must think that to disbelieve any of the Revelations and to disobey any of the Commands of God are not immoralities or that a Regenerate state doth not consist in Faith and Obedience WHICH state is called Regeneration a Metaphor taken from a Natural Generation because there is so great a change that a Man is as it were another Creature For first the understanding must be informed with the knowledge of truth concerning God themselves and a life to come then this belief of the Gospel will so work upon their Wills that they shall be turned from Sensuallity to the love of Goodness and this will produce a suitable change in their lives which are not now led according to the Lusts of the Flesh and the examples of ill Men but the Laws of God and the Example of Christ And thus we come to the true use of all our Faculties as an Infant after it is born falls into those Natural Motions which are hindred by its imprisonment in the Womb Nay by reason of that Divine temper which is wrought in good Men by the Holy Spirit they have such a sense of Good and Evil with regard to their Minds and Consciences as all living Creatures have with respect to their Natures For as in the Natural Life we apprehend what is contrary to it so that we will not run into the Fire nor down Precepices so in the Regenerate state we shall look upon all kinds of wickedness to be what they are detestable and pernicious to our Souls but the Doctrine and Example of Christ do communicate to us a new sense of things whereby we are so much altered for the better as if we had never lived till then and we have infinitely more reason to think of this alteration in our state than to remember the day of our birth with joy and gladness FOR now God worketh in us both to will and to do wherefore the fear and love of God and godly Sorrow and true Repentance and the hope of Eternal Life together with all Christian Vertues such as Righteousness Mercy Patience Love Joy Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith All Moral Vertues are produced by the Grace of God Meekness and Temperance are the Graces of the Spirit From hence it follows that God hath not left the success of the Gospel to depend upon that force only which the bare Revelation of the motives to Obedience hath to persuade us if it should be so it would be now lost labour to call upon God to help us by his Grace but seeing all Vertues and qualifications necessary to Salvation are produced by the Grace of God it follows that all Christian Vertues are the Graces of the Holy Spirit For saith S. James every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of Turning AND S. Paul saith that Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world this one Scripture comprehends all that Men ought to account Religion that they live godlily which is the Vertue of humble gratitude towards God Soberly which contains the Vertues of Temperance Chastity Modesty and all others that consist in the dominion of Reason over our Sensual Appetites Righteously which implies all the Vertues of Justice and Charity as Affability Courtesie Meekness Candour and Ingenuity Let Men
concurrence of supernatural strength For notwithstanding our many weaknesses through Christ we may do all things He alone gives us a will to use his Grace and knowledge to discern the want of more THE proper Inference therefore from the whole is that we resolve to go on in a good Course of Life because by this means our Work will be easier to us if we be diligent in governing our Conversation by the Rules of Vertue the difficulty of Religion will still grow less because our strength will increase and God hath promised to give greater degrees of assistance to them that use what he hath already bestowed then our endeavours must concur with this assistance which God gives for the Spirit doth usually work insensibly upon the minds of Men and therefore it is compared to the Wind which no Man sees whence it cometh nor whether it goeth even so is the Spirit of God Men feel motions upon their Hearts but how these are produced is altogether together invisible to them when the Doctrine of the Gospel is propounded and the Word is Preached they find themselves convinced of the truth of it and as their Minds are enlightned so their Wills and Affections are warned to a complyance therewith NOW when the Spirit of God hath begun this Work upon our Hearts our business is to cherish those Motions and to act accordingly which if we do and pray to God for his aid we shall find supplies coming in from him that will increase our strength unto that which is good and vertuous for we must know that the greatest difficulties in Religion are met withal at first because at first God doth not usually bestow a great measure of his Grace but he gives us a taste of his goodness and if we relish it he sends forth continually larger measures of his Grace and Favour The Conclusion drawn from all the Premisses SEEING then all the Precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our Passions in the just regulation whereof we have placed the very Essence of Vertue seeing this was the end which all Philosophy aimed at as the utmost felicity that was attainable in this World Let us make it our business to work out our Salvation by living according to these Rules which we have here set down for as they are not hard to be understood so the performance of them is easie and pleasant THEY Are not hard to be understood because God hath shewed us the difference between Good and Evil Vertue and Vice First BY Natural Instinct Secondly BY Natural Reason Thirdly BY the common consent of Mankind Fourthly BY External Revelation FIRST there is a secret impression upon the Minds of Men whereby they are naturally directed to approve some things as good and avoid other things as evil Natural Instinct teaches us what is Good and what is Evil. just as the Creatures below Men are by a natural Instinct led to their own preservation and to take care of their young ones In like manner we find in human Nature a propensity to some things that are beneficial and a loathing of other things that are hurtful to them the former appear beautiful and lovely the latter ugly and deformed NOW these inclinations do not proceed from Reason but from Nature and are antecedent to all Discourse as it is manifest from hence that they are as strong and do put forth themselves as vigorously in young persons as in those that are older they do shew themselves as much in the rude and ignorant sort of People as in those who are more refined and better instructed which is a plain Argument that they come from Nature and not from Reason for if they proceeded from Reason they would appear most eminently in those persons who are of the best and most improved Understandings and would be very obscure in such as exercise their Reason but a little whereas experience shews us that the most ignorant sort of Mankind have as lively a sense of Piety and Devotion as great a regard to all kinds of Sobriety as tender Affections to their Children as much honor for their Parents as true a sense of Gratitude and Justice as the wisest and most knowing part of Mankind AND these are the Duties that are of greatest importance to us so that the Providence of God appears herein to be wonderfully careful of the happiness and welfare of Mankind in that he hath wrought such inclinations into our Natures as to secure the most material parts of our Duty in planting in us a natural sense of good and evil so that in many cases if we do but consult our own Natures we need no other Oracle to tell us what we ought to do and what to avoid how we ought to reverence the Divine Nature honor our Parents love our Children be grateful to our Benefactours and those that have obliged us to speak the Truth to be faithful to our Promises to restore the thing that was intrusted with us to pity those that are in Misery and to deal equally with other Men as we would that they should deal with us There is no need of any subtle reasoning to prove the fitness or unfitness of these things because it is prevented by the very Instinct of Nature which teaches us what we ought to do in these cases FOR Men are naturally innocent or guilty in themselves according as they do or omit these things so the Apostle tells us in Rom. ii 14 15. When the Gentiles who have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law they are a law unto themselves their own Consciences in the mean time or by turns either accusing or excusing them according as they do or omit the doing of these things If Men obey the natural Dictates of their Minds their Consciences give them a comfortable testimony as having done what became them to do on the contrary when we affront Nature by acting against its suggestions what trouble and uneasiness do we find in our own Breasts nay when a Man hath but a design to commit an evil deed his Conscience is disquieted and perplexed at the thoughts of it and he is as guilty as if he had really acted it So Cain when he contrived the murder of his Brother the very imagination of the wickedness changed his Countenance and filled him with Wrath and Discontent for as soon as we have consented to any iniquity our Spirits receive a secret wound and will make us restless because guilt doth not only fill the Mind with vexations but puts it into an unnatural Fermentation as the Prophet Isaiah describes the wicked person he is like the troubled Sea that cannot rest and I appeal to that which every Man finds in his own Breast if he doth not feel a trouble within him upon his acting contrary to any Principle of Nature or any Notion of good and evil The Virtuous Man is the most bold and undaunted BESIDES Men
of another mind Temperance tends to our Happiness in this that it tends to our Health without which all the Enjoyments of this Life are but little worth on the other side the intemperate Man is an Enemy to himself continually making Assaults upon his own Life the Apostle adviseth that we should abstain from fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul and it ought to be no small Argument to us that they war against the Body also so for Kindness and Love besides that they are good to others they are of much use and benefit to our selves for there is unspeakable pleasure in Love a great deal of ease in a charitable Temper on the contrary how fretting and vexatious to the Mind of Man are Malice Envy and Hatred they do not only raise Enemies abroad but they set a Man against himself and deprive him of the Peace of his own Mind Compassion and Mercy is profitable to others and delightful to our selves so Compassion and Mercy are not more profitable unto other Men than they are delightful to our own Souls and we do not only gratifie our selves by doing Services to others but we thereby provoke Mankind by our Example to the like Kindnesses and so turn the pity of others to our selves when it shall come to be our turn to stand in need of their help In like manner our Reason directs us to the practice of Truth Fidelity and Justice as the surest Arts of thriving in this World these beget Confidence and give Men a Reputation in their Neighbourhood and these Vertues our Reason tells us have the force of a Law and there needs nothing to give the force of a Law to any matter but the stamp of divine Authority upon it Now God that made us and all other Creatures and by virtue of his Authority over us hath imprinted on our Natures the Principles of Good and Evil and hath so wrought 'em into the frame of our Souls by which as by a natural instinct Men are carried to approve what is good and disapprove what is evil and supposing that our natural Reasons do tell us that it is for our Interest to live in the practice of what we call Vertue and to dislike and avoid what we call Vice this is a sufficient declaration that we should do the one and avoid the other and if we live contrary to this we violate the Law of him that made us for there needs nothing to make a thing become a Law to us but that it is the Will of our Sovereign who hath Right to require it of us And this God hath declared to Mankind by the frame of their Natures and by those principal Faculties he hath endued us withal for no Man can imagine but that we should follow the Instruction of our Nature and be governed by the natural Notions of our own Minds And those natural Passions of Hope and Fear Hope and Fear are two very strong Passions that are so rooted in our Souls we cannot without great force to our selves act contrary to them And this is all the Law that great part of Mankind comes under and which is no other than that which the Apostle calls the Work of the Law written upon their Hearts and they having no other Revelation made to them shall be judged by it and those that offend against this Law shall be found guilty before God as well as those that have sinned against an express Revelation which is a plain Evidence that these natural Dictates have the force of a Law otherwise Men would not be guilty of any Crime by acting against them for it is a Rule universally true that where there is no Law there is no Transgression and this I take to be the meaning of that obscure Passage of the Apostle Rom. v. 13. for until the Law Sin was in the World that is before the Law was given unto Moses Men were capable of Sinning and therefore there was another Law against which they offended for Sin is not imputed where there is no Law But Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's Transgression that is tho they did not sin against any express Law of God as Adam did Thus Reason discovers to us how that the natural Dictates of our Minds have the force of a Law HENCE we may infer that Mankind would have been under the Obligation of Religion tho God had never made any immediate Revelation of his Mind and Will unto them if this was not so the Heathen who had no supernatural Revelation from God could not have been guilty of Sin nor liable to his Judgment for if nothing were Vertue or Vice but what was either expresly commanded or forbidden by God then all Actions would have been alike to the Heathen But there are some things naturally good and some things naturally evil and Men are bound to do the one and fly the other tho God had never made any supernatural Revelation of his Will to them For if God had never forbidden Hatred and Malice with Deceit Oppression Violence and the like Passions they would have appeared evil in themselves and ought not to have been done by us because they are inconsistent with the Peace of Human Society and contrary to the Nature and Reason of Mankind so on the other hand the Vertues opposite to these as Love to God together with Truth and Justice one towards another have such Goodness in them that they are commended to the liking of Mankind without the need of any absolute Declaration to oblige Men to the practice of them If these things were not so the Tables might have been turned and all that which we now call Vertue might have been forbidden by God and things would have been every whit as well and there would have been no difference only the Names of things would have been changed The nature of Good and Evil is unalterable BUT I appeal to any ones Reason whether he can think it as vertuous an Action to hate God as to love him to contemn as to honor him and whether Malice Envy Hatred and Ingratitude would have made as much for the Peace of Mankind as the practice of Love and Goodness would have done if they would not then it is manifest that there is something in the Nature of Things that made the difference and so long as the Nature of God and Man remain what they are some Things will be in their own Natures unalterably good and some things evil which doth not depend upon any arbitrary Constitution but is founded in the Nature of the Things themselves The general consent of mankind shews what is Virtue and what is Vice Thirdly WHAT is Virtue and what is Vice is shewn to us by the general vote and consent of Mankind which we do not extend to all the instances of Virtue and Vice but only to the great and more essential parts of it
such as Piety to God Adoration of the Divine Nature Gratitude to Benefactors Temperance Meekness Charity Justice Fidelity and such like these are agreed upon by mankind to be good and the contrary to these evil for they are generally had in esteem by Men and their opposites are evil spoken off now to praise any thing is to give testimony to the goodness of it and to dispraise any thing is to declare it to be evil and if we consider the Customs of the World and the instances of all Ages we shall find that the Things that have been praised in the lives of Men are the Piety and Devotion of Men towards their Gods their Temperance and Gratitude their Justice and Fidelity their Humanity and Charity The contraries to these have been ever condemned as Atheism and Profaneness contempt of God and Religion Ingratitude Falsness Oppression Cruelty Nay so steddy hath mankind been in commending Virtue and censuring Vice Vicious Men speak well of Virtue that we shall find not only the virtuous themselves giving their testimony to Virtue but even those that are vicious have so much Justice as to speak well of Moral Virtues not out of love to them but because their Affections are prevented by the Conviction of their own Minds and the testimony of these persons is the more valuable because it is that of an Enemy for Friends are apt to be partial but the acknowledgement of an Enemy is of great weight because it seems to be extorted from him and that which he is even forced to do against his will And it is a clear evidence that Vice is generally cryed down by Mankind because those that are so kind as to spare themselves are yet very quick-sighted to spy a fault in any one else and will arraign Vice in another with very much freedom HENCE it is that the Scripture commands that our Light should so shine before Men that they may see our good works Matth. v. 13. Charges us to promise things honest in the sight of all Men Rom. xii 17. To have our Conversation honest among the Gentiles that is to do those things which the Light of Nature cannot but approve of 1 Pet. ii 12. By well doing to put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men for this saith the Apostle is the Will of God by which it is intimated that there are some Virtues so good in themselves and so owned to be such that the worst of Men have not the face to open their mouths against them BESIDES Mankind do generally stand upon their Justification when they are conscious to themselves that they have done well but are ashamed when they have done ill Some indeed are such Monsters of Impiety that they can glory in their Shame but these are but few in comparison and they attain to this Temper by a long habit of great and enormous Vices But generally Men are Modest and are apt to Blush at what they do amiss Now Shame is a Trouble arising from a Sense What Shame is that we have done amiss and have forfeited our Reputation Guilt is a Passion towards our selves but Shame is with respect to others so that he who is ashamed of an Action doth thereby declare that he hath acted amiss and that what he hath done is accounted so by others for if he did not believe that Men had a bad opinion of such actions however he might be guilty in himself he would not be ashamed in respect of other Men But when Men have walked by the Rules of Virtue the Conscience of their Integrity lifts up their Heads because they are satisfied that other Men have a good esteem of their Actions And the Men sometimes will declare their dislike of the Ways of Virtue yet they have a secret reverence for those that do well and when their Passions are over they cannot but declare their Approbation and frequently do so All Men have a secret reverence for those that do well And this is a great evidence of the Consent of Mankind about Virtue and Vice for that those that do their Duty act above Board and live in the Practice of Goodness need not hide their Faces nor seek dark corners to do their work in as they who are forging evil deeds must do For no Man is ashamed to meet another with whom he has kept his Word and performed his Trust as he who hath done otherwise is wont to be Glory and Shame being an appeal to the Judgment of Mankind concerning the Good or Evil of our Actions NOW Vices such as Murder Adultery Drunkenness Rebellion Sedition Fraud Perjury and breach of Trust are provided against by most Nations and severely punished by the Laws of most Countrys which is a demonstration what opinion all Nations have had of these things No Law ever made against Virtue but there was never any Law made against Virtue no Man was ever forbidden to honour God tho particular Ways of Worship have been prohibited no Man was ever forbidden to be grateful faithful temperate just righteous honest charitable and peaceable which is an acknowledgment that Mankind always thought 'em good and were never sensible of any harm or mischief to come by them for had they done so they would at some time or other provided against 'em by Laws but as the Apostle saith against these things there is no Law as if he had said turn over the Laws of Moses search those of Athens read over the Twelve Tables of the Romans and you shall not find one of those Virtues that are commanded in the Scripture condemned or forbidden a sure and clear proof that Mankind never took any exception against them but rested in the goodness of them that they were necessary and profitable for all things NOW this general consent of Mankind about what is Good and Evil is a very good Argument of their being so in Truth and reality for the Consent of Mankind is the Voice of Nature and the Voice of Nature is the Voice of God the Author thereof for Tully tells us that God would not have planted these Notions in the Minds of Men had they not been agreeable to the Truth of Things there is no better way to establish what is Natural than if the whole kind agree in it and if it be Natural it is from God and whatever is from God is Real and True Now I have proved that God hath planted in Humane Nature a Sense of the difference between Virtue and Vice and hath made us able to judg what is Good and what is Evil. BUT besides this there are but two Causes into which this general Consent of Mankind can be resolved Tradition and humane Policy not Tradition because that is insufficient for so large and long a Conveyance of so many particulars as the Law of Nature consists in throughout all Ages and Nations for the Traditions of particular Nations which are supposed to be Arbitrary and to have no
practice of Virtue it is as impossible that a Man should he happy or pleased as for a sick Man to find ease by removing from one Bed to another because the Distemper is lodged within his Breast all the Disorders of which must be quieted before we can be happy for Happiness must be in our Hearts and it must spring out of our own bosoms and from thence thro the comfortable influence of God's Holy Spirit must all our Peace and Pleasure flow Wherefore I cannot conclude this whole Discourse with a better or more persuasive Exhortation than that which S. Paul makes use of to the Philippians Phil. iv 8. Finally Brethren whatsoever is right sincere and true whatsoever is comely grave and venerable whatsoever is fair just and equal whatsoever is sacred pure and holy whatsoever is generous noble and lovely whatsoever is of credit value and esteem if there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think of these things FOR these things the Lord will have us to do God's Will must be the Rule of our Actions and his Will must be the Rule of all our Actions whose Laws are like himself just and holy pure and undefiled unchangeable and everlasting fitted to the first Age of the World and to the last to the wisest and to the simplest to the times of Peace and of War established against all alterations and occurrences whatsoever for there is no time in which a Man may not be just and honest merciful and compassionate humble and sincere a Conversation thus tempered we ought to continue and carry along through honor and dishonor through all the terrors which evil Men or Devils can place in our way and if we consider the Nature and Reason of Things Virtue only doth qualifie and dispose us for the injoyment of God Vertue only doth qualifie us for the enjoyment of God because it quiets the Mind rectifies all its Faculties governs the Affections cleanses the whole Soul from all sin and pollution whereas if it were possible for a wicked Man to be admitted into the presence of God or a local Heaven to see all the glories and delights of that Place and State all this would signifie no more to make him happy and contented than heaps of Gold and Consorts of Musick a well spread Table or a rich Bed can bring any relief to a Man in the Paroxism of a Fever or in a sharp fit of the Stone the Reason is because the Man's Spirit will still be out of order till he be put into a right Frame by Virtue and Godliness 'T IS true all Men naturally desire ease and happiness because all Natures would fain be pleased and contented but they hunt after it Men are apt to mistake their Happiness where it is not to be found Men say loe here is happiness and loe there in a high Place in a great Estate or in earthly Delights but believe them not they are all shadows when you come to embrace them therefore your Happiness must be nearer and more intimate to your Minds than any thing this World can afford for those who look after the Pomps of this World grow vain and inconstant lazy and negligent those who covet the applause of the People are often disappointed of the felicity they hoped for because the People guide not themselves by Reason but Chance All outward things coming thus short of rendering us Happy we must expect our Happiness in observing the Duties and in obeying the Precepts of Virtue because they are upon all accounts for our advantage and are founded upon the Interests of Mankind so that if it were not that the God of this World did blind Mens Eyes and abuse their Understandings from discerning their true Interest it were impossible so long as Men love themselves and have a desire of their own Happiness but they should be virtuous If men sought their true Happiness they must be Virtuous for God promiseth to make Men happy for ever upon condition that they will do those things that will make them happy and easie in this World considering our infinite obligations to God the unquestionable Right and Title he hath to us and his Sovereign Authority over us he might have imposed Laws and have given us such Statutes as were not so good for us but so gracious a Master hath he been as to link together our Duty and our Interest and to make those things instances of our Obedience which are Natural means and Causes of our Happiness IT hath been antiently observed that Pythagoras his Learning ended in a few Musical jingles Thales his Wisdom in some uncertain Astronomical fansies Heraclitus his Contemplations concluded in Solitude and weeping Socrates his Renowned Philosophy led him to the practice of unnatural Lust Diogenes his sharpness of Wit to use his body to endure all manner of nastiness and coarse Labour Epicurus his Inventions and Discourses of which he boasts so much set him down contented with any kind of pleasure The same thing may be said of the Stoicks and Peripateticks WE must therefore be much out of the way if we search for Happiness in their Lessons and neglect our most Holy Religion Religion is the surest foundation of our Hopes which whosoever does he will unsettle the strongest Foundation of our hopes he will make a terrible confusion in all the Offices and Opinions of Men he will destroy the most prevailing Argument to Virtue he will remove all human Actions from their firmest Centre he will deprive himself of the prerogative of his immortal Soul and will have the same success that the ancient Fables make those to have had who contended with their Gods of whom they report that many were immediately turned into Beasts Whereas if we were to contrive a way to make our selves happy we should pitch upon just such Laws as those of Christianity are The Laws of Christ are most agreeable to the frame of our Natures they are so agreeable to the Frame of our Natures and Understandings they require of us so Rational and Spiritual a service of God they oblige us to perform Duties so plainly necessary and beneficial to us the harshest and most difficult Precepts thereof tending upon one account or other to our manifest advantage it being very reasonable for a Man to be sorry for what he hath done amiss and to amend his Life for the future to mortifie Lusts and Passions which are so disorderly and troublesom to the Mind to bring down every proud Thought which fills a Man with insolence and contempt of others to be patient in the meanest Condition which will prevent those anxieties that come from the contrary Passions to love Enemies and forgive Injuries which removes the perpetual torments of a malicious and revengeful Spirit FOR a Man is accomplished by two things First BY his being enlightened in his intellectual Faculties which is the perfection of his Understanding Secondly BY his being well directed
in his Morals to refuse evil and to do good wherein consists the goodness of his Mind Now the Doctrine of our Blessed Saviour tends to purge out of the Mind all vicious and depraved Affections and to sow therein the Seeds of Grace and Virtue for his whole Sermon on the Mount tends to implant in us a pure Heart a right Mind clean Affections an obedient Will and a sound Vnderstanding for the effecting of which observe the admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom after Mankind was broken and lost by the fall of one that another should be raised out of his Root who should satisfie the offended God should beget a new Generation of Men out of the old Stock and advance the new Nature to a higher degree of Holiness than before for sin is the greatest pollution exorbitance and degeneracy of an intelligent Agent Sin is the greatest degeneracy of an intelligent Being it is worse than rottenness and corruption in natural things for these act according to the course of their own Natures but we as we are intelligent Beings are under the obligation of a Rule and to vary from that Law is a violent and and monstrous thing for all the departures from right Reason in Understanding Beings are privatively Evils and therefore most highly displeasing unto God because all iniquity and sin is a contradiction to the unchangeable Laws of Goodness and Truth which is the Law of Heaven from which God in the fulness of his Liberty and the greatness of his Power doth never depart therefore we may say that all Vice doth offer violence to the Principles of God's Creation and that which is unnatural in the inferior World is nothing so horrid as that which is irrational in the superiour Now see what the consequence is of unnatural things in the lower World Should the Sun leave its Course and instead of being the Fountain of Light should send forth nothing but stench and darkness how prodigious and how terrible would this be Yet whosoever acts against the Divine Will and the Dictates of right Reason doth a thing more frightful than all this more violent and mischievous than if the Fire should cease to burn or the Course of Nature should fail But our Saviour both by his Precepts Our Saviour teaches us to act according to the Reason of things and by his Example hath taught us to act according to the Reason of things so that we must love that which is Equal and Right that which is true and good in its own Nature that which is just and fit according to the Mind and Will of God these are such certain Laws and Principles of Action that it is not in the power of Men or Angels to control any of them and if we vary from them we expose our selves to endless misery we spoil our Natures and the best Principles thereof which are recovered by Christ Jesus his being Sanctification to us which cleanses us from all filthiness and sets the dispositions of our Minds right the Principles of whose Religion do not appear as Spells and Charms but they operate by the illumination of the Mind and Understanding for in the intellectual World the Principles of Knowledge and Understanding are every way as vigorous as the properties and qualities in Nature are only these Act by the way of Reason and information of the Mind for in all the Virtues that are charged upon us by our Saviour there is an agreeableness to the innate Notions of our Minds and Consciences they do all accord with the natural Conceptions we have of what is just and fit to be done therefore all his Commandments are the resolutions of true Reason and when once they are received into the Temper and Constitution of our Souls they will make us to be of the same Mind as he was that is truly Wise Holy and Good for his Doctrine and his Example are Arguments of Reason sufficient to make us wise to deliver us from the power and habits of Vice and to rescue us from the Usurpations of the Devil Now these are as true Principles of Action upon an intelligent Being as any natural Qualities are in inferiour Nature and they will produce Invisible but vital and Spiritual effects with a power much above what natural Agents can exert for as he who gives himself up to Wickedness will never want a Superiour Agent to carry him on and make him more villanous and wretched so on the contrary whosoever watches over himself and employs his faculties to the doing of good shall ever have the assistance of the Divine Spirit to help him and indeed the Christian Religion doth that which is solid and substantial permanent and lasting if it do not obtain this effect in us of Reconciling our Minds and Dispositions to the Mind and Will of God and when the same Mind is in us which was in Christ Jesus of what strong and firm a temper will our Hearts be made What courage shall we have even when few comforters scarce any but Enemies are near us Goodness gentleness patience which are the Mind of Christ by all true Philosophy are esteemed to proceed from the greatest strength of Nature by all true Christianity from the highest Degree of Grace Nay when we have the same Mind with him what Bravery of Spirit will the World discern to be in us We shall not then be afraid of the most exact and severe observations of what we do nothing will appear in our Discourses but Truth and Sincerity nothing in our Lives but Honesty and Plain-dealing in all our private Actions will be seen the most unaffected modesty in all our publick a good Conscience and a love of Virtue A pure Mind thus established and firmly rooted in us will never be discomposed nor shaken by ungovernable Passions we shall feel the comforts of the Evangelical Doctrin our lives will shew the excellencies of it Our Saviours example leads us into the practice of all manner of Virtue May we all therefore endeavour to express our Affections to our Saviour by living comformable to the most perfect Example of Virtue and Piety for from his Example we fetch the most useful Instructions how to submit to the hardest conditions of Life to endure mildly the rigours of the worst State to Pardon and bear the Affronts of Enemies in the various Turns of the World always to practise Righteousness and Mercy Meekness and Long-suffering To implore Gods help by acknowledging our Obligations to Him for all that we have and do enjoy to moderate our appetites and desires in reference to the pleasures of this World and to use them according to Reason and Nature to be True and Faithful Just and Righteous in all our Actions to be kind and merciful ready to do good to all and to relieve them that are in want to be satisfied in every condition whether it be high or low to be meek and gentle because the Meek Man hath always