the measures of Justice and the Dictates of Common Sense that the bare doing an irregular act or the bare having an irregular propension should be punishable at all much more with eternal damnation as it must be if every dependence of an action upon the will be enough to render it imputable that is if every material be also a formal sin This I say would be very unjust because such irregular acts are no more a man 's own than those committed by another man. 8. But it is certain that God does not proceed by such measures as may be gather'd from the Oeconomy of his severest dispensation the Law. For when he forbad murther with such strictness and severity as to order the murtherer SECT II. A more particular and explicit consideration of Material sin and what it adds to the general nature of evil 1. AFter our Distinction of sin into Material and Formal and our justification of that distinction it follows that in the next place we give some more particular and explicit account of the nature of Material sin That it is an irregular act in general was intimated before but to speculate its nature more thoroughly we must set it in a clearer light and define what it is that makes an action irregular And the account which I shall give of this I shall ground upon that Definition of St. John who tells us that sin is a transgression of the Law. So that transgression of the Law is the irregularity of an action and is more explicitly the Material part of sin 2. Thus far in general But now to make Transgression of the Law fully adequate and commensurate to Material sin so as to extend to all kinds of it it concerns us in the next place to enquire what is here to be understood by Law and upon the right stating of this will depend the whole Theory of Material sin 3. By Law therefore in the first place is to be understood that which is Positive that is any rule of action prescribed to us by God consider'd only as prescribed Any action so prescribed be it otherwise never so indifferent for the matter puts on the force of a Law from the Authority of the Prescriber and every transgression of such a Rule is Sin. 4. But the Transgression of Law in this narrow sense of the word will not comprehend all the kinds of Material sin For altho Positive Law creates the first difference in some things yet it does not in all For had God never made any Positive Law yet the doing of some actions would have been sin nay there was sin where there was no Positive Law as may be probably collected from the fall of Angels But where there is no Law there is no Transgression There must be therefore some other law besides Positive Law. 5. By Law therefore 2ly is to be understood the Law of Reason that Candle of the Lord that lights every man that comes into the world in his passage through it This is twofold For 1st by the Law of Reason may be understood that Original stock of rational Tendencys or practical sentiments which prevent all Discourse and reasonings about what is to be done and answer to Speculative Principles For as the Animal and sensitive Nature is not only furnish'd with Sense and Perception but also with certain connatural instincts and impressions whereby Animals are directed and inclined to sensitive good so for the guardianship and security of Vertue against the danger either of ignorance or inadvertence God has furnish'd the Rational nature not only with the faculty of reasoning but with certain common Principles and Notions whereby 't is inclined to the good of the Reasonable life This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so much talkt of and that which men generally mean by the Law of Nature 6. Or else 2ly by the Law of Reason may be understood a Power which a Rational Creature has of finding out by discoursing from first Principles what is fit to be done and of reflecting upon the reasonableness of those Moral Anticipations and impressions which he before entertain'd tho he knew not upon what ground 7. These two make up the adequate notion of the Law of Reason but we are not yet come to the adequate notion of Law. For if the Law of Reason be taken in the first sense for a stock of Moral Anticipations implanted by God in the Soul this will be but another branch of Positive Law. For Light of Nature and Light of Scripture are but different modes of Divine revelation and neither of these can be the ultimate Reason into which the Morality of every action is to be resolv'd 8. But if the Law of Reason be taken in the latter sense for a Power which a Rational Creature has of finding out by discourse what is reasonable to be done this will of necessity lead us higher namely to consider that there are certain antecedent and independent aptnesses or qualitys in things with respect to which they are fit to be commanded or forbidden by the wise governour of the world in some positive Law whether that of internal or external Revelation or both 9. We are therefore in the next place to resolve these antecedent aptnesses of things into their proper ground or to assign what that is which makes an action fit to be commanded or forbidden Which when we have done we are advanced as high as we can go and have found out that supreme eternal and irreversible Law which prescribes measures to all the rest and is the last Reason of good and evil 10. That therefore which makes an action fit to be commanded or forbidden by the wise governour of the world can be nothing else in general but its respective tendency to prompt or hinder the attainment of some certain end or other which that governour proposes For all action being for some end and not the End it self its aptness to be commanded or forbidden must be founded upon its serviceableness or disserviceableness to some end So much in general 11. I further consider that this end must be that which is simply and absolutely the best and greatest For no other is worthy of God. Now certainly there is none better or greater than the universal good of the whole Sisteme of things which is therefore to be regarded and prosecuted to the utmost both by God and all other Intelligent Beings 12. And hence arises this first and great Canon or Law that whatever naturally tends to the promotion of the common interest is good and apt to be commanded and whatever naturally tends to the disinterest of the public is evil and apt to be forbidden This is the great Basis of Morality the fixt and immutable standard of good and evil and the fundamental Law of Nature 13. And because there are some actions in specie which with relation to the present systeme both of the Material and Intellectual world have such a natural connexion with the
furtherance or prejudice of this great end therefore these by way of Assumption under the two general Propositions are intrinsecally and naturally good or bad and are thereby differenc'd from those that are made so only by arbitrary Constitution Tho yet in one respect these are arbitrāry too in as much as they depend upon such a particular Hypothesis of the world which was it self arbitrary and which if God should at any time change the relations of actions to the great end might change too that which now naturally makes for the common advantage might as naturally make against it and consequently that which is now good might have been then evil But still the two great Hinges of Morality stand as fixt and as unvariable as the two Poles whatever is naturally conducive to the common interest is good and whatever has a contrary influence is evil These are propositions of eternal and unchangeable verity and which God can no more cancel or disanull than he can deny himself 14. So that now to analyze the immorality of any action into its last Principles If it be enquired why such an action is to be avoided the immediat answer is because 't is sin if it be ask'd why 't is sin the immediat answer is because 't is forbidden if why forbidden because 't was in it self fit to be forbidden if why fit because naturally apt to prejudice the common interest if it be ask'd why the natural aptness of a thing to prejudice the common interest should make it fit to be forbidden the answer is because the common interest is above all things to be regarded and prosecuted if farther a reason be demanded of this there can no other be given but because 't is the best and greatest end and consequently is to be desired and prosecuted not for the sake of any thing else but purely for it self 15. So that now the last Law whereof sin is a Transgression is this great and Supream Law concerning the prosecution of the common interest And every sin is some way or other directly or indirectly a transgression of this Law. Those against any Moral Precept directly and those against a Precept merely Positive indirectly because 't is for the common good that the Supreme Authority be acknowledg'd and submitted to let the instance wherein Obedience is required be in it self never so indifferent 16. If it be now objected that according to these measures there will be no difference between Moral and Physical evil contrary to the common distinction between malum Turpe and malum Noxium the one as opposed to bonum utile and the other as opposed to bonum honestum I answer that I know of no good or evil but of the end and of the means Good of the end is what we call bonum jucundum good of the means is what we call utile Evil of the end there is properly none but that only is evil which is prejudicial to it Indeed the old masters of Morality discours'd of moral good and evil as of absolute natures and accordingly nothing so common among them as to talk of Essential Rectitudes and Essential Turpitudes But I think it greater accuracy to say that Moral good and evil are Relative things that bonum honestum is one and the same with that which is truly utile and that Malum Turpe is that which is naturally against the profit of the Community And herein I assert no more than what the great master of the Latin Philosophy and Eloquence professedly contends for throughout the whole third book of his Offices And therefore instead of evading the Objection I freely own its charge and affirm that there is no difference between Moral and Physical evil any otherwise than that Physical evil extends to all things in nature which obstruct Happiness whereas Moral evil is appropriated to Actions that do so SECT III. The second part of the Discourse which briefly treats of Formal sin with the requisites necessary to its constitution Where also 't is enquired whether the Nature of sin be positive or privative 1. WE are now come to the second part of our Discourse where we are to treat of the nature of Formal Sin that is of Sin consider'd not abstractedly for the mere act of Obliquity but Concretely with such a special dependence of it upon the will as serves to render the Agent guilty or obnoxious to punishment 2. And here the first thing to be observ'd is that altho material sin does neither in its notion nor in its existence include formal sin yet formal sin does always include the other Tho there may be a transgression of the Law without formal sin yet the latter always supposes the former and as St. John says whosoever committeth sin transgresses also the Law. 3. But that which formal sin adds over and above to material and under whose respect we are now to consider it is the connotation of that special dependence of it upon the will which derives guilt upon the Agent So that for a Definition of formal sin we may say that it is an irregular action or a transgression of the law so depending upon the will as to make the Agent liable to punishment This is in the Phrase of St. John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have sin that is so as to be accountable for it for he speaks of that sin which upon confession God is faithful and just to forgive and consequently not of material for where there is no guilt there can be no Remission but of formal sin 4. From this general notion of formal sin proceed we to enquire what that special dependence is that makes an irregular action formally a sin And here 't is in the first place supposed that not every dependence of an action upon the will is sufficient to make it imputable And with very good reason For otherwise the actions of Infants Fools and Madmen would be imputable for these as indeed all actions have some dependence upon the will at least as a Physical Principle 5. To be positive therefore that an irregular action may so depend upon the will as to derive guilt upon the Agent 't is necessary first that it proceed from the will as from a free Principle Free not only in opposition to coaction for so all the actions of the will are free but in opposition to necessity or determination to one part of the contradiction That is in one word 't is necessary to the imputableness of an action that it be avoidable To this purpose is that common saying of St. Austin Nemo peccat that is formaliter in eo quod vitare non potest And great reason the Father had to say so for he that cannot avoid transgressing the Law is not so much as capable of being obliged by it because no man can be obliged to what is impossible and if he be not obliged by it certainly he cannot Morally and Formally break it A thing which the
for their correspondency to our rational Natures are usually distinguish'd by the name of Natural Religion For there are Practical as well as Speculative Principles and that he who does no hurt is to receive none is as evident a Proposition in Morality as that the whole is greater than its part is in the Mathematics or that nothing can be and not be at once is in the Metaphysics 18. And as Religion and Natural Religion carry such a strict conformity to our Rational facultys so does Reveal'd Religion too All the lines of this as well as of the other point all the way at and at last concentre in the Happiness and welfare of mankind 'T is a persuance of the same excellent end only by more close and direct means For God in all his intercourses with us does accommodate himself to our natures and as he will not forcibly determin us to good because he has made us free so neither does he require any thing from us but what is good and consistent with Reason because he has made us Rational And altho we cannot by this Candle of the Lord find out some of the great and wonderful things of his Law for herein consists the formal difference between Natural and Reveal'd Religion yet when they are once proposed to us they are highly approv'd by our Intellectual relish and strike perfect unisons to the voice of our Reason so that even the Animal man for 't is of him the Apostle there speaks consents to the Law that it is good 19. And indeed were it not so it would be as unfit for God to propose as hard for man to receive since even the Prudence of a Nation is by no one thing either more justify'd or condemn'd than by the good or ill contrivance of its Laws Shall not then the law-giver of the whole world enact that which is right as well as the Judge of all the Earth do right Shall he not be as wise in the framing of his law as he is Just in the Execution of it God in contriving the Mechanism of the material world displaid the excellency of his Divine Geometry and made all things in Number Weight and Measure He establish'd the world by his wisdom and stretch'd out the heavens by his discretion And shall he not govern the Intellectual world with as much wisdom as he made the Natural one Questionless he does and the law which he has prescrib'd to us is as perfect and excellent as that whereby he wrought the Beauty and Order of the universe For the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works He has accommodated his Statutes and Judgments both to the infinite perfection of his own Nature and both to the actual perfection and capacity of ours God is a spirit and accordingly as the Apostle tells us the Law is Spiritual Man is Rational and accordingly the Homage he is to pay to him that made him so is no other than a. Reasonable Service 20. But to be as compendious and yet withall as just and distinct as may be in so copious and plentiful a Subject I consider that as the whole rational nature of man consists of two facultys understanding and will whether really or notionally distinct I shall not now dispute So Christianity whose end is to perfect the whole man and give the last accomplishment both to our Intellectual and Moral powers will be wholly absolv'd in these two parts things to be believ'd and things to be done If therefore in both these it can acquit it self at the Bar of Reason the Conclusion is evident that it is a Reasonable Service 21. First then as to the things which are to be believ'd Now these are either the Authority and Truth of the whole Christian Institution or the Truth of particular Mysterys contain'd in it The Ist of these will appear to be a reasonable Object of faith two ways I st from the nature of its Design and its excellent aptness to compass it and 2ly from extrinsic Arguments and collateral circumstances And I st 't is recommended to us by the nature of its Design and its excellent aptness to compass it It is according to the precedent representation a very wise and rational Hypothesis above the reason of man indeed at first to contrive but such as when proposed it must needs approve and acquiesce in as at once the Power and Wisdom of God because as I first observ'd and shall hereafter more plainly demonstrate 't is so admirably fitted to the Honor of God and to the necessitys of man thereby verifying that double part of the Angelical anthem at the appearance of its Divine Author and at once bringing glory to God on high and on earth Peace to men of good will. 22. And as it appears thus rational in its general Idea or Structure and thereby speaks it self worthy of God so 2ly that it came actually from him no Rational person can doubt that considers that conjugation of Arguments that cloud of witnesses whereby its divine Original stands attested Such as are the variety of Prophecys and Prefigurations their punctual and exact accomplishment in the Author of this Institution his Birth Life Miracles and Doctrine his Passion Death Resurrection and Ascension with all the wonderful Arrear and train of Accidents that ensued for the Confirmation of Christianity such as the wonderful Sustentation Protection increase and Continuation of Christs little flock the Christian Church the miraculous assistances and miraculous actions of the Apostles the Harmony of the Evangelists the Constancy and Courage of his first Witnesses and Martyrs the defeat of the Infernal Powers in the silencing of Oracles the just punishment that lighted upon his enemies and lastly the completion of all Prophecies that proceeded out of his divine mouth while on earth which I shall here only point at in general and leave to the inlargement of every man's private meditation 23. Then as for the particular mysterys contain'd in Christianity I know but of three that threaten any distarbance to our Philosophy and those are the three Catholic ones mention'd by St. Athanasius the Trinity the Hypostatic union and the Resurrection Now concerning the two first I observe that they are indeed above the adequate comprehension of our Reason but not contrary or repugnant to it For as we cannot conceive how these things can be so neither do we positively and clearly perceive that they cannot be as we do in contradictions and things contrary to reason But as to the last I don't in the least understand why it should be thought a thing incredible that God whose very notion involves Omnipotence should raise the Dead 'T is true we are as ignorant how this can be as in either of the former Articles but that it absolutely may be there is much plainer evidence especially to those who think it reasonable to believe a Creation Which if taken according to
of his affections gravitates and inclines to somthing further what is more Reasonable than that he fix upon God as his Center who is as well the End as the Author of his Being And since whatever portion of his love is not directed hither will necessarily light for it cannot be idle and must fix somwhere upon disproportionate and vain Objects which neither deserve it nor can satisfy it and consequently will but vex and torment him what can be more Reasonable than that he unite and concenter all the rays of his affection both Intellectual and sensitive upon God and according to the strictest sense of this great Commandment love him with all his heart Soul and mind Vision and Love make up the full composition of our Celestial Happiness hereafter and they are the nearest approach we can make to it here 30. Nor is the 2d great Commandment less reasonable than the first The truest and most effectual way a man can take to love himself is to love his neighbor as himself For since man is a necessitous and indigent Creature of all Creatures the most indigent and since he cannot upon his own solitary stock supply the necessitys of his nature the want of Society being one of them and since of all Creatures here below none is capable of doing him either so much good or so much harm as those of his own species as 't will be his best security to have as many Friends and as few Enemys as he can so as a means to this to hate and injure none but to love and oblige all will be his best Policy So far is the state of Nature from being according to the Elements of the Leviathan a state of Hostility and war that there is no one thing that makes more apparently for the interest of mankind than universal Charity and Benevolence And indeed would all men but once agree to espouse one anothers interests and prosecute the public good truly and faithfully nothing would be wanting to verify and realize the Dreams of the Golden Age to anticipate the Millennial Happiness and bring down Heaven upon Earth Society would stand firm and compact like a Mathematical frame of Architecture supported by mutual dependencys and coherences and every man's kindnesses would return again upon himself in the Circle and Reciprocation of Love. 31. But besides this Consideration of Interest there is another which equally contributes to recommend this Law of universal Benevolence and perhaps with more sweetness of insinuation than the former and that is Pleasure These two are put together by the Psalmist who tells us that 't is both good and pleasant for Brethren to dwell together in unity There is certainly a most Divine pleasure in the acts and expresses of Benevolence so that if God may be said to take pleasure in any one thing besides the richness of his own infinity it must be in the Communication of it Sure I am no man can do good to another without recreating and feasting his own spirit nay even the most happy and self-sufficient man who as to his interest has the least need to be kind and obliging yet as to his Pleasure has the greatest For he enjoys his happy state most when he communicates it and takes a Partner with him into his Paradise and receives a more vigorous joy from the Reflexion than from the Direct incidency of his Happiness 32. I might here take occasion to shew the Reasonableness of Justice and Honesty with other particular Branches of this great Law but the necessity of these is so notorious no Society being able to subsist without them and withall so attested by the common vote and experience of the world it being the business of all human Laws and the end of all Civil Government to engage men to the observance of them that I shall not need to make any Plea in their behalf Instead therefore of lending any further light to what shines already so conspicuously by its own I shall now proceed to justify the Christian Law in some of those instances which seem most to cross the present interest of mankind 33. There are some Precepts of the Christian Law which seem directly and in their whole kind to be against the interest of man. For as for those which may accidentally and in some junctures of Circumstances I shall consider them afterwards Now these I shall derive from that Abstract of Christian Philosophy the divine Sermon on the Mount. The 1st instance shall be in the Precept of Meekness which our Divine Lawgiver has extended so far as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we resist not evil which is not to be understood in Prejudice either of the Civil sword or of legal Prosecutions for the reparation of injurys for this would be to give the worst of men a continual advantage against the best nor of public wars between distinct kingdoms for they being under no common jurisdiction have no other expedient whereby to right themselves when injured but only as to Private persons who by vertue of this Precept are not permitted unless in apparent danger of life for then the Law of self-preservation takes place the Benefit of other laws being not at hand I say are not permitted to retaliate evil but obliged rather with their Divine Master to give their backs to the smiters and their cheeks to them that pluck off the hair 34. Now this may seem a very disadvantagious and inconvenient command in as much as it may be said by tying up our hands to expose us to all manner of contumelies and affronts and invite the ill treatments of rude and disingenious spirits But whoever seriously considers the matter will find that pure and simple revenge is a thing very absurd and very productive of ill consequences and in some respects worse than the first injury For that may have some ends of profit and advantage in it but to do another man a diskindness merely because he has done me one serves to no good purpose and to many ill ones For it contributes nothing to the reparation of the first injury it being impossible that the Act of any wrong should be rescinded tho the permanent effect may but instead of making up the breach of my Happiness it increases the objects of my Pity by bringing in a new misery into the world more than was before and occasions fresh returns of malice one begetting another like the encirclings of disturb'd water till the evil becomes fruitful and multiplies into a long succession a Genealogy of mischiefs And by this time I think the man has reason to repent him of his Revenge and to be convinc'd of the Equity of the Law which forbids it 35. The next instance I shall mention is that of loving enemies This runs higher than the former that being only negative not to return evil but this positive to do good A strange precept one would think and highly contradictory to Reason as well as
qualify him for Law or Obligation Vertue or Vice Reward or Punishment But these are Absurdities not to be indured and therefore I conclude according to the Rules of right Reasoning the Principle from which they flow to be so too 13. To clear up then the whole Difficulty with as much Brevity and Perspicuity as in a matter of this intricacy is possible I shall no longer consider the Understanding and Will as Faculties really distinct either from the Soul it self or from one another but that the Soul does immediatly understand and will by it self without the intervention of any Faculty whatsoever And that for this demonstrative reason in short because in the contrary Hypothesis either Judgment must be ascribed to the Will and then the will immediatly commences Understanding or the Assent of the will must be blind brutish and unaccountable both which are as great Absurdities as they are true Consequences This being premised I grant that as the Soul necessarily wills as she understands so likewise does she necessarily understand as the Object appears And thus far our sight terminates in Fatality and Necessity bounds our Horizon That then that must give us a Prospect beyond it must be this that altho the Soul necessarily understands or judges according to the Appearance of things yet that things should so appear unless it be in Propositions that are self-evident as that the whole is greater than any one part or the like is not alike necessary but depends upon the degrees of Advertency or Attention which the Soul uses and which to use either more or less is fully and immediatly in her own power And this indifferency of the Soul as to attending or not attending I take to be the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bottom and foundation into which the Morality of every action must be at length resolv'd For a farther proof as well as Illustration of which Hypothesis let us apply it to a particular case and try how well it will answer the Phaenomena In the case then of Martyrdom I look upon sin as an evil and not only so but while I attend fully to its Nature the greatest of evils And as long as I continue this Judgment 't is utterly impossible I should commit it there being according to my present apprehension no greater evil for the declining of which I should think it eligible But now the evil of Pain being presented before me and I not sufficiently attending to the evil of Sin this latter appears to be the lesser evil of the two and I accordingly pro hic nunc so pronounce it and in Conformity to that judgment necessarily chuse it But because 't was absolutely in my power to have attended more heedfully there was Liberty in the Principle the mistake which influenc'd the action was vincible and consequently the action it self imputable This Hypothesis however strange it may seem to those that have sworn Faith and Allegiance to the Dictates of the Schools I believe will be the more approv'd the more it is examin'd and that not only as rational and consistent in it self but also as a refuge from those Absurdities which attend the ordinary Solutions Neither is this account wholly unlicens'd by Authority for I find some hints and intimations of it in the School of Plato where the reason why those middle sort of Beings call'd Heroes are not so uniformly pure as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is assign'd to be because they do not so equally attend to the Beauty of the Supream Good. 14. From what has been said it appears plainly that the Morality of every human action must be at length resolv'd into an immediat indifference that the Soul has of attending or not attending and consequently that we are not only under Obligation as to the acts of the Understanding but that all Obligation begins there 15. Having thus clear'd the way by the Proof of this Preparatory Position that we are under Obligation as to the acts of the Understanding in general I may now proceed to consider that our opinion of our selves is one of those acts of the Understanding which are subject to Law or in other terms that we are not at our own liberty to entertain what Opinions we please concerning our selves but that we ought to regulate them by some Standard Now the general reason of this is because 't is of great moment and influence in relation to our Practice what Opinion we entertain concerning our selves Indeed there are many acts of the Understanding which tho originally free yet fall under no Obligation by reason of the Indifferency of the Matter as in things of pure and naked Speculation These are the unforbidden Trees of the Garden and here we may let loose the Reins and indulge our thoughts the full Scope Thus there is no danger of Heresy in asserting or denying the Antipodes nor is Orthodoxy concern'd whether the Moon be habitable But altho to mistake a Star be of no consequence to the Theorist that sits immured in his Study yet it may be to the Pilot that is to Steer his Course by it There are other things which have a practical Aspect and here 't is not indifferent what we think because 't is not indifferent what we do Now among these the Opinion of our selves is to be reckon'd as having a great influence upon our well or ill demeaning our selves respectively as will more minutely and particularly appear when we come in the third and last place to consider the absurdities and ill consequences of transgressing the Standard prescribed and therefore I shall defer the farther prosecution of it till then and in the mean while proceed to the second Observable Namely That the Standard whereby we are to regulate our Opinions concerning our selves are those excellencies and perfections which we are really endow'd with Which is collected from these words according as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith. 16. In the former part of the Text there was indeed a Restraint laid upon our Opinions concerning our selves but it was general only and indefinite But here the ground is measured out and the Boundaries precisely set 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the great Ecliptic Line which is to bound the Career of our most forward and Self-indulging Opinions If we keep within this compass our motion is natural and regular but if we slide never so little out of it 't is unnatural and portentous Or to speak with greater Simplicity he that judges of himself according to those excellencies whether Moral or Intellectual which he really has does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinks soberly and he that thinks himself indow'd with any Kind or Degree of Excellence which really he has not does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinks of himself more highly than he ought to think 17. Here then are Two things to be considered First that we may proceed so
determination superadded by Intelligent Beings which I call Moral Entitys As to the second I grant the consequence but deny the absurdity of it For it is no absurdity that Moral evil should be Metaphysically good For this Metaphysical transcendental goodness which is the affection of Ens is nothing else but a Being's having that essence whereof it is capable or as Suarez expresses it its having that perfection which is convenient to it But this is very consistent with the nature of Moral evil for this may have what belongs to its Idea as well as good and 't is the Perfection of sin to be exceeding sinful SECT IV. Corollarys deduced from the whole The foulness and deformity of sin represented That it is the greatest of evils That no Formal sin can be in its self Venial That in all probability Vindicative Justice is essential to God hence deduced A new Hypothesis for the reconciling of eternal Punishments with the Divine Justice That he who thoroughly understands and actually attends to the Nature of sin cannot possibly commit it 1. HAving thus far carried on the Theory of sin we may now sit down and take an estimate of its Foulness and Deformity And methinks I am affrighted at the ugliness of the face which I have unmask'd and am ready to start back from the distorted and ill-boding monster For however the magic of Self-love may reconcile men to their own faults yet if we set the object at a more convenient distance from the eye and consider the Nature of sin irrespectively to our selves 't will certainly appear according to the precedent measures to be the most deform'd monstrous thing that can either be found or conceiv'd in Nature 2. For if we consider it in its full latitude it is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Habitude of the will to the worst of objects than which what can be imagin'd more monstrous and absurd If we consider it as a violation of Positive Law what can be more indecorous than for a Creature to violate the commands and trample upon the Authority of that awful excellence to whom he owes his life his motion and his very being If we consider it as a violation of the Law of Reason what can be more monstrous and unnatural than for a man to rebel against the vicarious power of God in his Soul to refuse to live according to that part of him whereby he is a man to suffer the ferine and brutish part to get the Ascendent over that which is rational and Divine to refuse to be govern'd by those sacred Digests which are the Transcripts of the Moral Nature of God and to act against the very frame and contexture of his being Lastly if we consider it as a Transgression against that great and Soveraign Law of promoting the common Happiness what a monstrous evil must that be which crosses and opposes the best of ends and which is also proposed by the best of Beings that for the interest of an inconsiderable part commonly ones self justles the great wheel of Society out of its proper track that by persuing a lesser in prejudice to a greater good disturbs the order of things dislocates the frame and untunes the Harmony of the universe 3. We may also hence conclude that sin is the greatest evil that is or that can possibly be For it is contrarily opposed to the greatest possible good and consequently must needs be the greatest evil And besides 't is that which in no case or juncture whatsoever is to be committed and therefore must be the greatest evil because otherwise it might happen to come into competition with a greater and so commence eligible which is contrary to the supposition Moreover the greatness of this evil above all others is à posteriori further confirm'd from the greatness of the Sacrifice required for its attonement God could not or at least thought not fit to remit it without the shedding of blood and that too of the blood of God. So great a Fool is he so little does he consider that makes a mock at sin 4. Again it may be hence collected that no Formal sin can be in its own nature venial For according to the former measures every Formal sin tho never so small is a sin against the greatest Charity imaginable For 't is against that Charity whereby I ought to promote the ends of God and prosecute the great interest of the universe And consequently cannot be in its own Nature venial or pardonable without Repentance 5. Nay may I not further conclude according to the preceding measures that 't is very probable that no sin could have been pardon'd even with Repentance had there not been also satisfaction made for it and that vindicative Justice is essential to the nature of God For when I consider sin I find it so diametrically contrary to the essential sanctity of God and so destructive of that great End which he cannot but propose that he must needs hate it with an infinite hatred But how he should do so and yet not punish for it is hard to understand 6. Upon these measures we may also find out a way of reconciling eternal punishments with Divine Justice The great Objection is what Proportion is there between a transient act of sin and eternal misery And if there be none how is it consistent with divine Justice to inflict the one for the other This has been a great difficulty and has for a long time stood proof against all solutions But now if we consider sin as contrarily opposed to the greatest possible good the good of the universe and consequently as the greatest possible evil its demerit will be such that we need not fear 't will be over-punish'd even with eternal misery For if any misery is to be endured rather than one sin to be committed 't is also just that any may be when it is committed For the equity of both depends upon sin's being the greatest evil 7. The last Deduction which I shall make from the Premises is this that he who thoroughly understands and actually attends to the nature of sin cannot possibly commit it For as long as he does so he must look upon it as the greatest evil otherwise he cannot be said rightly to understand it And if he look upon it as the greatest evil he cannot chuse it so long as he continues in that judgment because the then chusing it would be the chusing of all that whereby it exceeds other evils gratis which is the chusing of evil as evil which is impossible 8. Whosoever therefore consents to the commission of sin passes first a wrong judgment upon it has the light of his understanding darkned and intercepted by a cloud of Passion loses the present Conviction of sin's being the greatest evil and so commits it to avoid as he then foolishly thinks a greater So that the cause and origine of all sin is ignorance folly and inadvertence there is a false