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
and conformity to the Divine Will accomplish them with all Godlike Virtues and Perfections We must be sure to obey the Fundamental Laws of Justice Mercy Tempeperance Humility Meekness Patience and Charity We must live up to all the Rules of Real and Essential Equity and build all our hopes upon an unmaimed and solid Religion IN the second place we must observe That licentiousness of Living hath brought a great decay upon Moral Virtue The Christian Religion rightly understood and sincerely practised serves no doubt to make men more morally virtuous than any other that at this Day is or since the Creation hath been profess'd in the World not only in regard of Justice and Temperance but of Wisdom and Fortitude But it will be said The dâ—generaâ—y of Mankind lamented that since the first Plantation hereof Men have from time to time degenerated so as the farther they are removed from the Primitive Christians who shined in good Works they have grown worse and worse Since their times Zeal for Virtue hath decayed as if it had not been the intrinsick Excellency of Religion but the Fires of Pagan Persecution that kindled that Heat in the Breasts of Christians What shall we take to be the reason of this decay have the Principles of Christianity lost their Efficacy like the Gentile Oracles that all the motives of Virtue and Holiness have now so little influence upon men's Tempers or Lives or rather this must be the reason that of old Christianity was rooted in the Hearts of Men and brought forth the Fruits of good Works in their Lives Whereas now it is only a barren Notion in Mens Heads and their Actions are not governed by it then it was the Employment of their Souls in Meditation of their Hands in Beneficence Now it is become a disguise for Covetousness Ambition Malice and all that 's Evil It is true in the ancient Authors which studious Men turn over they find descriptions of Virtues more perfect than really they were the Governments are represented better and the ways of Life pleasanter than they deserved upon this these bookish Men compare what they read with what they see and here beholding nothing so Heroically transcendent because they are able to mark all the spots as well as beauties of every thing that is so close to their sight they presently begin to despise their own times and exalt the past to contemn the Virtues and aggravate the Vices of their Age But such is the condition of Religion Debauchery a great Impediment to the growth of Religion that the Moral part of it suffers much by reason of the Debauchery and ill Manners of Men And when lewdness hath gotten a habit and Men's Foreheads are Brazen in their wickedness they will not receive a check from disarmed Religion but rather harden themselves against it and account that their Enemy which they are sure will not give countenance to the Vices they are now settled in Besides when a Licentious course of Life hath brought Men to disuse the Duties and Offices of Religigion all its Obligations are antiquated with them then instead of Prayers they learn to Curse and Swear and from not going to Church for a time grow to plead a Priviledg not to come at it at all Secondly NOT only loosness of Life but also a wrong apprehension of Christian Liberty hath much obstructed the Practice of moral Virtue for some Men have thought themselves discharged thereby from all the obligations of the Moral Law and have been so absurd as to take the Gospel to contain nothing else properly but a Publication of God's Promises and that those Promises are absolute without any Condition of our Obedience so that neither men's Justification nor Salvation do depend upon it Libertinism a pernicious Principle THIS is the Doctrine of modern Liberties and is a Perswasion fit to Debauch the whole World about the Apostles times it was much pleaded for by the Gnosticks to excuse their revolts from Christianity in Times of Persecution and their beastly Sensualities as if the knowledg of the Truth gave a Priviledg neither to profess nor practise it when the one proved too incommodious to their secular Interests or the other too disgustful to their sensual Inclinations WHEREAS the contents of the great Character purchased for us What the Liberty is which Christ hath purchased for us and brought in by the Lord Jesus are these that besides the freeing us from the Dominion of Sin which the Law of Moses could not do and the Tyranny of Satan which the Gentile World lay under He hath set our Consciences at liberty from Judaick Rites to pursue our own Reason and to serve all the interests of Peace and good Order in the World hence it is that we find liberty and condescension or self-denyal joined together by St. Paul Gal. 5.13 ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty as an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another and by St. Peter 1. Eph. 2.16 as free yet not using your liberty as a Cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God But if Religion should set us free from the Rules of Virtue all the duties of it would be uncertain and precarious things nay it would destroy it self and the Societies of Men would be so far from being the better for it that their happiness would be undermined thereby but this is so expressly contrary to the whole design of the Christian Doctrine and goes so cross to the very Sense of every honest Mind that I shall not spend any more words about it IN the Third place we are to consider how the progress of Moral Virtue hath been discouraged by decrying the Vse of Reason in Matters of Religion as if Reason was not as much the Word of God as Revelation as if whatever contradicts Reason was not opposite to Faith For Abraham's Reason was a great confirmation of his Faith two Revelations were made to him Our Reason confirms our Faith that seeemed to clash one with another and if his Reason could not have reconciled their difference he could not have believed them both to have been from God for Divine Revelation doth not give new Faculties to Men but propounds new Objects to those Faculties so that when God reveals any thing to us He reveals it to our Understandings that we may judg concerning it that we may not believe every Spirit but try whether they be from Him or no now that which hath spoiled the Lives of many Men is there assenting to such Doctrins as never came from the Fountain of Truth therefore to preserve our integrity and keep the Truth we must try the Spirits and compare the evidences Men bring for what they assert which it is not possible to do but by the Use of our Reason But to be confident and peremptory in any thing without Reason is nothing but obstinacy of Mind WHEREAS if we turn off Reason we level the
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
are naturally full of Hope or Fear according as they follow or go against these Principles who is so confident and bold as he who hath behaved himself well and virtuously who is so strong and well armed against the force of the Powers of Darkness against the apprehensions of a dreadful Judgment these things are so terrible that they must needs raise our fears but the honest Man who is not conscious to himself of any guilt is secure in his own Mind from any harm or prejudice from the Divine Justice either here or hereafter whereas guiltiness creates fears of danger without any other reason for it and so the Scripture informeth us that the wicked flyeth when no Man pursueth him nay when a Man hath done a secret fault which no Eye is privy to nor no human Law can punish yet even then he is constantly under the torment of his own thoughts and hath a natural dread of a superiour Being to whom the most hidden Actions of Men are known and whose Justice will not spare to punish FOR Men have naturally the Notions of good and evil within them which in the plain cases of Right and Wrong will tell them what they ought to do and what they ought to avoid so that in acting well they will be justified and acquitted in their own Minds but in doing the contrary they will be condemned BUT yet there is a considerable difficulty in this matter because the Opinions of Men have been much divided about Virtue and Vice the different Laws and Customs of several Nations seem to argue that they are not so well agreed about these things consequently the difference between Good and Evil is not so well known more than this there is in Mankind a propension to evil and Men are generally vicious which seems to contradict that natural Instinct which shews us as we say what is Virtue and what is Vice To this Objection we answer that all Mankind are agreed that those Moral Virtues before mentioned ought to be practised and that the contraries to them are Vices and ought to be rejected if any one particular person happen to be of another mind he is as rarely to be met with as Monsters and no more to be drawn into an Argument against the truth of this Assertion than a Man being born with three Legs can be an Argument that Men naturally have not two All Men have agreed that God is to be worshiped though they differ much about the particular circumstances of his Worship keeping of Faith all Men have held to be a Duty though some say Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks but this is no prejudice to the Truth it must be granted that there is not the like evidence in all things that there is in some and many things are not so clear but that partial and inconsiderate Men may have wrong conceptions about them but these may be remedied if Men will be wise and consider things as they should do if they will lay aside violent prejudices and self-Interest for if they will govern themselves like Men and not be hurried away with Passion It is one thing to know what Virtue is and another to live according to that knowledg they may come to understand what is good and what is evil it must be confessed there is a great corruption in human Nature and we must consider that it is one thing to own the difference between Virtue and Vice another thing to live and act according to this judgment Although Men have the Notions of Good and Evil yet after all they may choose the Evil and refuse the Good and this the Apostle speaks of in Rom. vii 27. I delight in the Law of God in the inward Man that is my mind consents to it as Holy Just and Good but here he tells us he felt another Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death according to that of the Poet Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor For a Man may be convinced of his Duty but not act accordingly FOR by natural Instinct we know what we ought to do antecedent to all Reason and Discourse Secondly Natural Reason tells us what is our Duty OUR Duty is also discovered to us by natural Reason for the force of moral Actions are planted in Mens Minds and woven into the frame of their Natures but to make our Duty more plain God by the light of Reason hath shewed us what is good and what is evil and not only so but he stamps upon them the Authority of Laws for these two are very different to apprehend a thing good for us to do and to be under the Obligation of a Law to do it for to this it is necessary we should apprehend it to be the Will of our Superior that we should perform it NOW our Reason doth discover to us what is Virtue and that the Lord our God doth require our Obedience to it First BY shewing us how convenient and agreeable it is to our Natures Secondly BY the tendency of it to make us happy and to free us from Evil and Misery NOTHING is more suitable to our Natures than to have an esteem of what is great and excellent and Mankind being taught that all Perfection is in God we must adore him for that which is good doth naturally beget Love and Reverence so it is agreeable to our Natures to honor our Parents to be grateful for Benefits received to be just and righteous to be charitable compassionate and temperate to be meek humble and prudent Those that act contrary to these Duties offer an Affront to their own Natures and feel a pain in themselves however they may carry it to others BESIDES these things tend to make us happy and to free us from Misery for Reason considers the consequences of things and we call that Virtue or Good which will bring some benefit to us and that Evil or Vice which is like to bring upon us some Inconvenience upon this account Reason doth shew us what is good and what is evil to begin with Piety towards God nothing is more reasonable than to make him our Friend who is able to make us happy or miserable and the way to make him our Friend is to observe all the Vertues of a good life on the contrary Impiety or a neglect of Vertue is plainly against our Interest for this is to disoblige him who is more able to make us miserable than all the World besides and without whose Favour nothing can make us happy so that our Reason will require us to live vertuously as for instance If Nature did not teach us Gratitude Discretion would it being the only way to obtain a second Favour to be thankful for the first Humility may seem to be a thing of no great Advantage but he that shall consider what contempt Pride exposeth a Man unto will be
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
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
errour or draw on a Bargain the more easily MATTERS of rarity and fancy have no certain Estimation therefore we must be moderate in the price that we put upon them so much the rather because in these things we are left to be our own Judges Neither should we venture so far as to go to the utmost limits of what is Lawful for he that will walke upon the very brink the least step awry will tumble him down so he who will do the utmost of what he may do will sometime or other be tempted to what he should not act for it is a short and easie passage from the edges of what is lawful to what is unlawful and evil Therefore in that latitude which Trading Men have of Gain they are bound by this Rule of Justice to shew favour to the Poor and Necessitous to practice Ingenuity towards the ignorant or unskilful and moderation towards all Men. WHERE they have any doubt about the equity of their dealings they should choose the safest part for not only a good Conscience but a quiet one is to be valued above Gain therefore in Matters of Duty they ought to do the most in divisions of Right and proportions of Lucre where there is any Dispute they ought to choose the least for this is always the safest course Now the circumstances that vary Cases are infinite so that when all is done much must be left to the equity and chancery of our own Breasts Neither can it be determined how much a Man may get in the Pound and no more for he may make a greater Gain at one time than another of the same thing he may take those advantages which the change of things and the Providence of God gives him he may take more of some Persons than others provided he use all men righteously he may use some favorably I shall not descend to any more Particulars on this Head for the sake of Sir Thomas More 's Observation of the Casuists in his time that they did not teach Men not to Sin but did shew them how near they might come to Sin and not commit it THE second Species of particular Justice we call Distributive Justice Distributive Justice adjusts due Rewards and Punishments which is concerned in adjusting due Rewards and Punishments and in dealing with every Man according to his desert For many Men doing the same thing do not deserve alike great Persons and private Men carry not away the same reward of their Actions The Husbandman sells his Corn at the same Rate to the Prince and to the Beggar but the same Action of the King and of the mean Person is not rewarded in the same measure Seeing therefore doing of Justice is nothing else but dealing equally with all Parties as near as we can that all things may come to equality or which is the same to equity we are to observe that there are two ways which we are to take in all our Actions of doing Justice First ONE is called medium Rei which is always the same and is that medium Arithmeticum which Aristotle and other Moralists talk of at large Secondly THE other is medium rationis vel proportionis and is called medium Geometricum which is not always the same but varies according to persons times occasions and other circumstances NOW the principal thing which is to be respected in the doing Justice is that which we call equity How Equity and Justice differ as it stands in opposition to the rigour or strictness of Law And here we must observe that there is some difference between Justice and Equity tho sometimes they are put together and are taken for the same thing what the Laws and common Reason will allow that we call just but equity considers the circumstances of the Case and will grant allowance if they do require it for equity doth moderate the Rigour of the Law sometimes there may be what is just and no equity in the Case but sometimes there is both just and equal in the same matter now wheresoever there is equity against strict Justice there equity ought to take place AND when we consider how much we are beholden to the Mercies of God for our Being and daily Maintenance we shall not think it safe to appear in the defence of strict Justice not to stand upon all Strict Justice not to be stood upon that the rigour of the Law can desire For this is the Apostles Rule Let your moderation that is your Clemency and Compassion be known unto all men it being a Habit whereby a Man is enabled and inclined to deal according to the equitable sense of the Law and is placed betwixt the two Extremes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rigour or summum jus on the one hand insisting too much on the Letter and relaxatio nimia remitting too much from the true sense of it on the other side Now both these Extremes the excess and the defect being evidently Vices it must follow that the Medium betwixt them must be a Virtue and have in it the Obligation of a Duty AND if we do not act as it commands us we shall not only depart from the Nobleness of a Christian Spirit but we shall take such a course as that a cancell'd Obligation may return upon us as it did upon that wicked Servant in Saint Matthew who because He did not forgive his Brother a small Debt after his Lord had so freely forgiven him a great one was afterwards taken and cast into Prison because he had not compassion on his Fellow-servant as his Lord had pity on him IN all our humble Applications to God Almighty we both hope and pray that He would not be extreme to mark what we have done amiss but overlook our manifold Infirmities And I dare say He is very unmindful of Humane Nature it self who can harden himself against all Compassion to his Brethren when at any time they are mistaken or surprized THEREFORE let Just and Equal be thus stated What common Reason or the letter of the Law will admit may be accounted just but equal considers all Circumstances and allows for Errours or any unavoidable Accidents To be just is to demean our selves according to the Laws of the Place wherein we live To be equal is to consider all things that are reasonable and to act accordingly FOR this temper of Mind will render us gracious and merciful consequently most like unto God who is just and Righteous in all his ways full of mercy and compassion For it is every ones Tenure and security where this Virtue doth not take place there will be nothing but Fraud and Cozenage and every man will be unsafe it supports Human Society which otherwise would soon fall into Strife and confusion it is agreeable to the principles of our Natures We were made to these things and we force our selves and offer violence to our Faculties whenever we do an unjust Action that is cruel or unrighteous It
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
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
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
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
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
encourage us to the practice of it for we are prompted to it by a kind of natural Instinct we are led to the knowledge of it by Reason by the general vote of Mankind and by the most powerful and prevailing Passions of Human Nature Hope Fear and Shame And to take away all excuse of ignorance from us by an express Revelation from himself so that whenever we omit our Duty or do any thing contrary to it we offend against all these and incur the heavy sentence pronounced by our Saviour that Light is come into the World and men love darkness rather than Light for he that doth evil acts against the Convictions of his own Mind and the Light that shines in his own Soul Thirdly PIETY towards God Righteousness Justice and Charity towards Men are more pleasing to God and more valuable that if we should offer to him all the Beasts of the Forest or the Cattle upon a thousand Hills for to the strict observance of these Duties we are directed and obliged by our very Nature and the most Sacred Law which God hath written upon our Hearts and that we might have no pretence to take us off from them God hath freed us in the Gospel from those many Observances and burdensom Ceremonies wherewith the Religion of the Jews was incumbred that we might better mind Moral Duties and live in the practice of them Fourthly WE see in the last place what is the best way to appease the wrath of God and to reconcile our selves to him God seems oftentimes to have a Controversie with us as with his People of old and at such times we are apt to ask as they did wherewith shall we come before the Lord and bow our selves before the most high God! And we are apt to think as they did that the next way to please him is by external Worship and Devotion which may be good and necessary but these are not the things that God doth mainly require of us it is true Prayers hearing the Word of God and receiving the Sacraments are to be performed but these are but means to a further End and serve to engage us to the practice of the great and essential Duties of Christianity and to promote the Virtues of a good Life There doth appear in many Men a great deal of external Devotion but their Lives and Manners are generally very corrupt and the weighty things of the Law are neglected as Justice Righteousness and Mercy so that we may take up the complaint of the Royal Psalmist help Lord for the Righteous man ceaseth and the faithful fail and till we return to our antient Virtue and Integrity of Life we have reason to think and fear that God will continue to have a Controversie with us notwithstanding all our Zeal and Noise about his Religion which must prevail with us to do Justly to love Mercy and to walk humbly with our God otherwise it will seem to have less power and efficacy than Natural Agents have But if we are truly religious there is an imperceptible spring that guides all our Motions in the Path of Virtue for we cannot see at what passage the good Thought entred neither can we perceive how the good Spirit infuses a Pious desire Thus it is in Nature we see the Sun shine and can feel his warmth but we discern not how he enters into the Bowels of the Earth how his little Atoms steal into the secret Pores of Plants how he impregnates Nature with new Life nay we feel not how our own Spirits move how they start and flie as quick as we think from one end of our Nerves to the other so undiscernable and so puissant is the working of God's Grace in the change of our Minds into an heavenly Temper in imprinting upon our Souls the fair and lovely Notions of Goodness and Truth in laying in our Minds the Seeds of a blessed Immortality whereby the Soul will be gradually exalted to the utmost Perfection in all the Parts and Faculties thereof By Grace and Virtue the Mind is sitted for an everlasting State of Happiness that is the Understanding will be raised to the utmost Capacity and that Capacity completely filled the Will will be perfected with absolute and indefective Holiness with exact Conformity to the Will of God and perfect liberty from all servitude of Sin it shall be troubled with no doubtful choice but with its radical and fundamental Freedom shall fully imbrace the greatest good The Affections shall be all set right by an unalterable Regulation and in that regularity shall receive absolute satisfaction To this internal Perfection will be added a condition proportionably Happy consisting in an entire freedom from all Pain Misery Labour and Want an impossibility of sinning and offending God an Hereditary Possession of all good with an unspeakable complacency and joy slowing from it FINIS BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Charles Harper at the Flower-de-Luce over against S. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet DOctor Willis's Practise of Physick being the whole Works of that Renowned and Famous Physician Rendred into English Second Edit with Fourty Copper Plates Fol. The Historical and Miscellaneous Tracts of the Reverend and Learned Peter Heylyn D. D Now Collected into one Vol. And An Account of the Life of the Author never before Publieshd Fol. The Religion of Protestants a safe Way to Salvation with a Discourse of the Apostolcal Institution of Episcopacy By W. Chillingworth M. A. To which in this Edit is added shewing the Reason why he left Popery Fol. The History of Queen Elizabeth By W. Cawbden King at Arms. Fourth Edition Fol. The Second and Third Parts of the VVorks of Mr. Abraham Cowley The Second containing what was VVritten and Published by himself in his younger Years Now Reprinted together Sixth Edition The Third Part containing his Six Books of Plants never before Published in English viz. 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An Assistance to Justices of the Peace for the easier Performance of their Duty the First Part containing the particular Clauses of all such Statutes from Magna Charta untill the 1st of King James II. that do any ways concern a Justice of Peace in the other Part the whole Office of a Justice of Peace is methodically digested with the most approved Presidents under ptoper Heads to which is now added a Table for the ready finding out the Presidents never before Printed by Jos Keble of Grays-Inn Esq An exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower of London being of great Use for all that are concerned in Parliamentary Affairs and Professors of the Laws of this Realm collected by Sir Robert Cotton Knight and Baronet Fol. An exact Abridgment of all the Statutes in form and use from the Beginning of Magna Charta begun by Edmond Wingate of Grays-Inn Esq and since continued und their proper Titles Alphabetically by J. Washington oft Middle Temple Esq to the Year 1689. 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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
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