ruler and King He being the only creature for whose sake they were all made stands obliged to return praise unto God for himself and them They are all freely given unto him and he ought to give up himself unto God and in himself all the rest They received not what they have for themselvs Man is the only receiver properly and God the only giver And there arises a natural obligation in the receiver to the giver from the gift received especially when great and freely given The gift is all that man has in his own nature and all that inferiour creatures have in their natures for his use There is no naturall debt or obligation on them to God nor can they perform any such thing Man alone is obliged to paythe debt of pure obedience and thankfulnes unto his creatour for himself and all the rest He is not obliged to inferiour creatures for the service they perform to him because they serv him not by choice but naturall necessity He only is bound unto God for all as affording therein food for his body and instruction to his mind CHAP. VI. Man is to be weighed and considered of by his parts that it may be known of what value he is MAn can not fully know how much he is obliged unto God for himself unless he rightly know of what value he is 1. For this we may first consider him by his general parts as comprehending in his nature and composition whatever is to be found in the whole creation He has being with things of the first degree life with those of the second sense with things of the third And the being life and sense they have are inferiour to the being life and sense he has in conjunction with reason and are designed for the mainteining of his being life and sense as the end for which they were given The rational powers in man ought to rule over these inferiour generall parts of him his being life and sense as also over all inferiour creatures that have the like The generall parts of man then are four being life sense reason The three inferiour are more excellent in him then in other creatures by personal union with the fourth All inferiour creatures then by being yeilded up to the service of man as appointed attein in him a more excellent kind of being life and sense then they have in themselvs to wit a humane being and life of sense But although as they do enter the composition of man they are advanc'd beyond what they are in themselvs such their advance by a personall conjunction with rational powers is gradual and proportionable to the different worths thereof The elements in man's composition are the immediate seat of vegetative life which he has in common with herbs and trees Vegetative life is the immediate seat of sensitive sensitive with all its parts and powers is the immediate seat and servant of the rational powers and operations The rational or intellectual life of man having no other created kind of life superiour thereunto ought to be the seat or throne wherein God alone is to sit and rule the whole man and all the world made for man's use and put together in his constitution The will and understanding of man ought to be yeilded up unto God in order to their becomming in seperably united with and subjected to his mind and will Thus as all other creatures come to be united in man so do they all in and with man come to be united with God Man by the resignation of his will and understanding unto God is therein immediatly united with God Other parts or powers of life in man are mediatly by his rational or intellectual powers united with God as sensitive life in man is united immediatly with his rational but vegetative life mediatly by the sensitive The whole world as brought together in man comes to be inseperably united with God that made it when man comes to be so united with his maker Every man that declines or rejects the means and way of being brought into such unchangable union with God does what in him lies to frustrate and render void the principal intention of God in creating the world The rest of the world was made for him He therefore is of more value then all the rest and is more obliged to God for himself then for all the rest He is responsible or accountable unto God for himself and for the whole world as made for him He ought therefore to seek out and gaine as right and cleer a knowledg as he can as to what he has received from the hand of God both in himself and other creatures that he may the better know and pay the debt thereby contracted to his creatour 2. We may weigh and consider man in the two principall parts of his composition body and soul. His body is fearfully and wonderfully made admirably organized for all manner of operations of his threefold life vegetative sensitive and rational He is more bound unto God for his body only then for the whole world besides But much more yet is he obliged to him for his soul. In tbe body we find a multiplicity and diversity of excellent and fit organs in the soul a proportionable multiplicity and diversity of excellent faculties whereby it is enabled to use all those organs and perform all those various offices and functions in and by the body which are conducible to the good of the whole person An artist has divers instruments for various artificial purposes the soul on like account his divers bodily organs or instruments for various natural uses Man has a kind of Kingdom as wel as world within himself In this kingdom are three orders or distinct powers lowest middle and supream 1. The lowest powers of life and operation in man the nutritive augmentative and generative all of them comprehended under the vegetative have four attendent of subservient faculties with in the compass of vegetative life and operation to wit the attractive retentive digestive and expulsive powers These all are as labourers and merchants in the kingdom of man They do incessantly labour to sustein and keep up the other more noble orders and excellent powers of this kingdom within man If they perform not their severall offices and respective charges the whole fabrick fall's the man dies and the kingdom is dissolved The office of the attractive or appetitive power is to desire and receive food The office of the retentive to keep it in when received The digestive and concoctive powers do gradually prepare and transform it into flesh blood and spirits The expulsive cast's out the superfluities by way of evacuation sensible as also insensibly by perspiration through the pores of the body By this means is the body nourished augmented and fitted for generation All these offices does the vegetative power of life in the soul of man perform by various bodily organs or instruments and without them it cannot exercise any
such faculties or perform any such offices And as the organs are stronger or weaker better or worse temper'd accordingly are such offices performed 2. There are a middle sort of powers in man the sensitive perform'd by outward and inward organs By outward organs are the powers of seing hearing smelling tasting touching performed to wit by eyes ears nose palate and the whole body which is the organ of touching By inward organs within the head of man calculated and suited thereunto do the common sense the imaginative and memorative powers of the soul perform their several offices The visive power by the eye discerns and distinguishes the colours forms and figures of things The auditive by the ear perceiv's and distinguishes sounds words c The olfactive perceivs and distinguishes different odors or smells c. These are their offices We may observ a kind of natural matrimony between the several organs of the body on the one part and the correspondent faculties of the soul on the other The body has a multitude of excellent organs without and within The soul has a wel-proportion'd multitude of excellent faculties exerciseable only in conjunction with these organs Besides these corporeal organical powers in man hitherto named he has also a loco-motive power by contracting and extending the parts of his body whereby he can goe from place to place and perform all artificial works c. 3. The supream and most noble powers in the kingdom of man are the rational or intellectual whose office it is to order and regulate all the inferiour both vegetative and sensitive The understanding is the chief counsellour of state in the soul judging discerning and advising what 's to be done The will is commander in chief furnished with a kind of kingly imperiall executive power Man thus furnish'd and adorn'd with many wonderful natural powers in his soule and organs in his body and having also in his personal constitution being life and sense in a superiority to what is found in the three inferiour orders of creatures because in conjunction with reason which render's him the fourth and highest may well be termed a microcosm or little world an epitome of the whole universe All that man has in himself and all that is to be found in the whole visible creation set up and ordeined for his use and service proceeds from the meer bounty and love of his creatour The love of God to man is the principal thing of all It is of like infinite excellency with himself for God is love Jo. 4. 8. Great are the gifts of God unto man that have proceeded from and do manifest his love But his love to man is infinitly greater then all his other gifts infinitly more valuable then man himself and all other creatures given for his use Thus is there an infinite and unspeakable obligation on man to God first for his infinite love and secondly for his unspeakable gifts But the knowledg of all this will little availe man unless his will be yeilded up in such sort unto the will of God as to be brought into unchangable harmony therewith and subjection thereunto Chap. 7. Sect. I. What is it man ought to render unto God for his love and all his benefits LOve Something he has to render unto God that may properly be called his own otherwise would he be obliged to an impossibility Forasmuch as the love of God is his principal gift unto man the root and foundation of all his other gifts which are but as tokens and manifestations of that the intire free and most syncere love of man to God is the most natural reasonable and suitable requital that 't is possible for him to make unto the lord for his love and all his benefits Love is the most precious and excellent gift the will of man has to dispose of freely and uncompulsorily where it list's Thus have we found the thing we sought for love seated in the supream ruling power in man his will Syncere love to God carries that in and with it which is the best requital man can make for all that God has done for him It does comprehend in it all that God requires of him It is written thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul strength and mind and thy neighbour as thy self Luk. 10. 27. Love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13. 10. Love is the radical gift of God unto man from whence did issue forth all other gifts And by the love of man to God as the prime and radical gift he has to return will all the secondary gifts of God that are tokens and manifestations of God's love to him in his own and all inferiour nature be surrendred and returned used and improved to the praise of his creatour Man's love to God will cause him to glorify God in his body and in his spirit which are God's 1 Cor. 6. 20. Love then is the most natural orderly proportion'd retribution and therefore the most pleasing and acceptable unto God that man can make No other gifts or performāces of mā whatsoever can be acceptable unto God unlesse love be the root and spring from whence they do proceed Love as it is the first so is it incomparably the greatest gift of God to man or man to God The love of man to God is that which season 's qualifies and render's acceptable all his other gifts and performances God first loved man man therefore ought to love God and that in the first place above all and no other things but for his sake or as bearing his image and superscription stamp'd or impress'd upon them Otherwise his love to God will carry no correspondency with God's love to him and so will not be accepted Though the most absolute and perfect love of man to God can in no wise equal the infinite love of God to him yet being the best thing man can give it wil be accepted The love of God to man as much exceeds all possible love of man to God as the being of God who is love excell's the being of man that is infinitely But if man give all that God requires of him even all he has to give it wil be accepted There is no pain wearisomnes or trouble in love It alleviates all other labour and renders all right performances delightfull Our love rightly plac'd and fix'd begets continual delight and gladnes of heart SECT II. The whole debt or service of love which man is obliged to pay unto God redound's and return's singly and wholly to his own profit and advantage GOd is infinitly perfect wanting nothing that any of his creatures can do for him The profit and advantage of the service performable by inferiour creatures unto man or by man unto God must light somewhere All is for man's profit both what other creatures do for him and what he does aright unto God And by how much man's nature excell's the natures of all inferiour things so much does
love may be proved of hatred As the will can love so can it hate Hatred alway's follow 's love If man be bound by the law of nature to love the lord with all his heart soul mind and strength he is consequently bound by the same law to hate every thing that 's against God with all his heart soul mind and strength and that continually and incessantly There 's the same obligation upon man to hate all that 's contrary to the will of God as to love God above all The first and principal thing he ought by the law of nature to hate is his own private self-will and that with all his heart as most contrary to God And forasmuch as our own honour praise glory and bodily pleasur's do necessarily follow the love of our own will in opposition to God's we ought to hate our own honour praise and bodily delights and consequently all the vices subservient thereunto covetousnes envy wrath and the rest As from one principal love many secondary subordinate loves do arise so from one principal hatred many secondary hatreds Every man ought to hate and oppose whatever is contrary to God to the true good of himself or any other man on the same account that he is bound to love the lord his God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself Luk. 10. 27. SECT II. The nature force properties and fruit of hatred THe principal power and property of love is the transforming of the will into the thing chiefly loved or the uniting it most intimately therewith The principal force and property of hatred then is to divide separate alienate and elongate a man from what he hates The greater the love the stronger is the union of the will with the thing loved the stronger and deeper the hatred the greater is the division and distance of the will from the thing hated And neither love nor hatred can be compelled but are free voluntary things SECT III. Two chief hatreds AS there are two principal loves so two principal hatreds the hatred of God and his will or of ourselvs and our own will And as the two chief loves so are the two principal hatreds capital enemies to each other The love of God and hatred of God are opposite so are the love of self and hatred of self as also the hatred of God and hatred of self But the love of God and hatred of self agree well together in the same will So do the love of self and hatred of God He that loves God and his will hates himself and his own will He that loves himself and his own will hates God and his There 's no middle state or way SECT IV. The different fruits of these two hatreds LOve has the primacy of hatred For hatred arises from love From the love of God and of all things in conjunction with him and his will does necessarily arise the hatred of self and of all things in combination with our own private selfish will In like manner does the hatred of God and of all things in conjunction with his will arise from the love of self and its interests If the love of God be good holy most orderly and just according to the law of nature then is the hatred of God most wicked disorderly unjust and contrary to the law of nature In like manner if the hatred of our own will be good orderly just and according to the law of nature then is the love of it wicked disorderly unjust and contrary to the law of nature The good hatred of self arises from the good love of God the evil hatred of God arises from the evil love of self The fruits above-specified that arise from a good love arise secondarily from a good hatred which alway's followeth such a love and the fruits that naturally flow from an evil love the love of self do flow secondarily from an evil hatred the hatred of God So much of love and hatred Chap. 16. Section I. Concerning other particular debts man owes unto God besides love and that first in generall HAving considered the debt of love which man owes to God and the great advantage redounding unto him by the due payment thereof as also his unutterable damage if he pay it not let 's enquire after other debts the payment whereof will also be our great gain and the final non-payment our eternal damage God made all inferiour creatures for man and man for himself furnishing him alone with a nature and capacity fit to perform all the duties and to pay all the debts which he owes unto God both for himself and all the rest No inferiour creatures can perform or understand any such matters From what man is furnished with for the performance of all duty to God may he certainly conclude what ought to be done by him If he can know love fear honour glorify praise adore or pray to God if he can beleeve hope and trust in God he may conclude that God is to be known lov'd fear'd honour'd glorified prais'd ador'd beleev'd hoped and trusted in If he can wholly delight himself in God then is God wholly delectable If he can do well God can reward him if ill he can punish him If he can be guilty God can be a judg If he can ask pardon God can give it In like manner we may the other way from the properties of God argue the duties of man If God ought chiefly to be loved as infinitly most desireable man ought chiefly to love him If he ought chiefly to be fear'd honour'd prais'd man ought to fear honour and praise him The like correspondence as is between the soul and body of man is between God and man in this case If the body have eyes ears nose c we may certainly conclude that the soul has a power of seing hearing smelling c. And if the soul have these powers the body ought to have such organs The bodily organs without such faculties in the soul or such faculties of the soul without such organs in the body would be useless and in vain A man that has no eyes is never the better for having a visive faculty in his soul. He sees nothing Though all other debts man owes unto God are included in and connexed with love yet hath each its proper and special reason why it ought to be paid For they are due to him on different and special accounts love on one fear on another honour on a third praise on a fourth c. Again love is not fear or honour nor is honour love or fear each is a distinct debt But where love is paid all wil be paid God is chiefly to be loved because he is originally essentially and unchangably good There is none thus good but God only Mar. 10. 18. He alone is to be fear'd as omnipotent He alone is to be honour'd as the inexhaustible fountain of all things and of all the joy comfort and blessednes that his
omniscient omnipotent and most just He perfectly know's all the thoughts intentions desires words and actions of all men that ever were are or shal be So can he exactly proportion rewards and punishments thereunto He must be absolutely infallible in his knowledg of all the circumstances and aggravations of every step man makes within or without in thought word or deed Otherwise how can he be exactly and absolutly just in recompencing them And how numberless are the thoughts words and actions of one mā in a race of 40 50 or 60 yeers more or less How innumerable then must all the works words desires and thoughts of many millions of men in all places and ages of the world needs be And what then must he be that know's all in such sort as exactly to proportion rewards and punishments thereunto His understanding must be infinite who is the infallible judg of all these matters And he must also be omnipotent that is able to perform and effectually to dispense such rightly proportion'd rewards and punishments unto all men for their numberless thoughts words and actions good or evil Otherwise the due recompence of all may yet faile As for the justice of God shall not the judg of all the earth do right can he do wrong His will is the supream rule of all justice To sum up all then Man by the free exercise of his rational powers can perform works good or evill There is therefore some rewarder and punisher of all men and he must be infinitly wise powerful and just that every thought word and action of every man may receive its due recompence SECT IV. The principal reward or punishment of man is intellectual spiritual and invisible not corporeal sensible or visible THe rational powers by which man is distinguish'd from beasts and other inferiour creatures are the root of all such operations as deserve reward or punishment These being intellectual invisible powers the rewards and punishments must be so too The LIBERUM ARBITRIUM or power of working arbitrarily in its true and full extent comprehend's both the rational powers understanding and will The former discern's judges propounds the latter chuses and executes The joynt operation of both is required in every free action and therefore as joyntly considered are they the proper reception and subject of reward or punishment The principal riches or treasures then of man as wel as his punishment must be spiritual and invisible not corporeal sensible or visible They are also everlasting as the powers that immediatly receive and possess them are The chief good of man as man consists not in any thing he has in common with beasts and therefore not in any thing that can be perceived or received by such bodily senses and powers of life as he hath in common with them Consequently it consist's not in any bodily delights or pleasures Nor does the evil of man as man principally consist in bodily punishment They then that place the chief good of man in things bodily visible or sensible do embrace and teach a lie deceiving others and themselvs to their own destruction CHAP. IV. The special difference of man from all inferiour creatures whereby a yet more compleat knowledg of him is to be gained THe general difference of man from all inferiour things by having what they have not is common to other degrees The second hath what the first hath not the third what the second hath not But there is a more peculiar and especial difference of man from all inferiour creatures and that is not that he has what they have not but that he know's both what they have and what he has which none of them know They know not at all what value they are of in themselvs or comparatively with one another They know not of what order or degree they are or wherein they differ from and excell one another Beasts birds fishes and creeping things do not know what they have received from the hand of their creatour beyond trees and plants Nor do trees and plants know what they stand possess'd of beyond elements stones metalls mineralls and all inanimate compounds Man only in the whole visible creation know's what he hath of excellency and dignity above all the rest and what they have above one another He know's also that other creatures do not know either what he has or what themselvs have He knows that he only can know both There are five degrees of difference to be found amongst creatures and four of them are peculiar unto man 1. Man has that in his nature which no inferiour creatures have Things of the third degree have also that in their nature which no things in the first or second have c. So this difference is common to other creatures as wel as man 2. The second difference is that man know's what he has beyond other creatures and what they have above and beyond one another This difference is special and peculiar unto man only 3. Man know's that what he has he has not from himself but hath receiv'd it from another and that other things have not what they have from themselvs nor yet from him 4. He can by the right exercise and improvement of his rational powers find out him from whose bountifull hand both he and all other things have received what they have 5. He hath a capacity of cleaving fast unto him when found out and of being firmly and indissolubly united with him Again man only can rejoyce in the things he has inferiour creatures not What can it profit any creature to have a more noble and excellent nature then other things unless it can kuow what it has To have a great treasure and not know it will afford no matter of rejoycing Trees and plants on this account as not knowing what they have can have no joy in what they have beyond things without life On like account birds beasts and fishes can have no joy or gladnes from what they have beyond trees plants and other things because they know not what they have For joy arises not barely from the having of any thing but from the knowing that we have it and of what value it is in distinction from other things Yea even this knowledg alone would nor yet be a sufficient ground of rejoycing unto man unless he could also know him from whose hand he has received all unless he could find him out and hold him fast when found praising him and adhering to him eternally CHAP. V. All inferiour things were made for man INferiour creatures were not made for their own sakes but for man's for his profit necessity comfort and instruction For what does any thing they have profit themselvs seing they know not what they have What they have they have it for man and what is wanting in them man has He alone know's what they have and what he has They with man do make up one visible body city or Kingdom of which he is head
part the woman then by her into the man and so into all mankind 'T is the right method in the art of tempting to assault the weaker part for entrance When evil is to be introduced by way of instigation this is the surest course But the evil of angelical nature entred first into the stronger part then by it into the weaker because that nature sin'd and fell of its own proper motion without any instigation from another The stronger more excellent and capacious angel whose will was of the most flexible active temper was most apt to assume unto himself a soveraign and uncontrolled excercise of his own will in a proud and presumptuous opposition to God's with an ERO SIMILIS ALTISSIMO I wil be like the most high This was the case of the Luciferian head of the fallen angels The evil of sin then may seem to have begun in him that by creation was the most excellent of all the other angels that fell They fell by freely and instantly complying with his rebellious will In humane nature man the stronger part became evil by adhering to and complying with the weaker the woman 's disorder'd will Angelical nature first fin'd By that was the woman tempted by her the man So sin entred upon all mankind The chief evil angel proudly exalted himself and his will into competition with God and his and so became the first capital enemy of God He affected soveraignty he would not remain subject to any superiour will He erected a kingdom empire and dominion within himself against the Kingdom empire and dominion of God And he presently became obstinate resolute and fixed in this deviation from and enmity against God He can never return from it to all eternity Consequently will he ever hate and oppose to the utmost the will of his creatour as most opposite to his Thus came there to be two totally distinct contrary and opposite wills the most absolutely pure and holy will of the omnipotent creatour and the depraved will of the first angel that sinn'd And the said leading angel the devil does contend with all his might for the maintenance and defence of his own will in opposition to God's To these two contrary wills of God and the devil are all other wills of men or angels reducible Every will truly good is joyn'd with the will of God every evil will with the will of the devil All the other angels that adhered unto joyned with and took complacency in the will of the devil became fixedly one with him so as that they cannot will any thing but what he will's He is the head they the members in opposition to Michael and his angels Rev. 12. 7. All the wills of of the good angels are bound up in a state of everlasting and unchangable harmony with the will of their head the head of all principality and power The evil angels are a compacted army resolved to fight for the defence of the depraved will of their head and for the fulfilling thereof in opposition to the will of God The good angels are an opposite army united with the will of their head and contending for the fulfilling thereof in opposition to the devil and his followers By how much the more high and excellent a creature the first angel that sinn'd was made so much the more vile and inferiour did he become by the voluntary corrupting of himself He is the lowest basest and vilest of all creatur's His will perverted by pride and self-love became the root and fountain of all evils When once his will was perverted he resolved to employ the over-reaching subtlety of his understanding in all possible arts methods and wayes of delusion for the deceiving and drawing of men into the same perdition with himself So much be spoken concerning the voluntary evil of the fallen angels sin SECT III. The punishment of the angels that sinn'd THe involuntary evil or evil of punishment which the angels that sinn'd were forc'd to take whether they would or no was a casting of them down to hel and a reserving of them in chains of darknes unto the judgment of the great day But untill they be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Rev. 20. 10. after the thousand yeers reign of Christ or rather untill with their head they be shut and seal'd up in the bottomless pit Rev. 20. 3. so as to be utterly disabled to exercise any depraving influence upon men all along the said thousand yeers they are termed rulers of the darkness of this world Eph. 6. 12. Their head Satan is termed the God of this world that blind's the minds of men lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them 2 Cor. 4. 4. The night of this world is now far spent Rom. 13 12. wherein these rulers of darkness have most wofully blinded mens understandings and captivated their wills in and by the ensnaring vanities of this world The day of the lord is at hand wherein they shall be utterly disabled as to any such practices But they are now laying about them in extreamity as knowing they have but a short time They have great horrour and disturbance in their present aery mansions from the checks restraints and limitations they find themselvs under from the power of their enemy who is infinitely stronger then they They are restless in their inordinate cogitations and desires They are troubled that they cannot deceive the very elect that they cannot touch him that is born of God 1. Jo. 5. 18. with their depraving assimilating influence that they cannot ruine all mankind to a man When a sinner is converted the eyes of his mind open'd when he is turned from darkness to light and from the power of satan unto God Act. 26. 18. there is joy in the presence of the angels of God and sorrow in the devil and his angels Luk. 15. 10. Chap. 19. Sect. I. In what manner men come to be united with the first evil angels as their head THe two principal opposite wills of God and the devil make two opposite Kingdoms empires dominions and lawes a Kingdom of darkness and a Kingdom of light All men are subjects in the one or other of these Kingdoms The devil layes claim to all those things which belong to God honour praise adoration c. He is obstinate and blinded in this transcendent strein of pride and presumption He does all he can to destroy the honour glory and worship of God as contrary to his He extreamly hates the Kingdom of God envies man's capacity of ascending thither and labour 's to the utmost to obstruct and hinder his motions that way He labour's might and main to bring all men under his dominion But there is a twofold difference between the first captivity of mankind and other fallen angels to the will of the first the devil First all the fallen angels became fix'd in and with the will of their head in enmity to God but men are capable