these two answerable to which there must be some difference assigned between Practical writings and Controversial though for some other reasons it may be the difference is not so great If I should speak any thing to the disparagement of the Learned Books of Learned men I should deserve to be counted an Envious Fool who for want of abilities to attain to what they have attained envy the fame of their names That small measure of Learning I have I thank God for and without arrogance I may say I have so much as to make me wish for more and to honour it where ere I find it I have a great veneration for those men whose Reason being serviceable to their Religion are able solidly and accurately to dispute a controversy and contend earnestly for the Truth It was a brave atchievement of Hannibal in regard it was successful to break himself a way through the Alpes with Fire and Vinegar Such are there within the Church of God men valiant for the Truth whose way lies through Rocks and Mountains of opposition and difficulty yet there is a certain sharpness and piercingness of wit whereby they make their way plain and it is easy to follow them whom it was almost impossible for ordinary men to go before These men have not their deserts if they be not men of renown and famous in their generations This I have said that I might not be thought to derogate from them nor by any thing that follows eclipse or darken the splendour of their names For notwithstanding all this though Books of Controversy be very excellent in their kind yet Practical Books do more nearly concern us than many Controversial Those disputes are most excellent that are most useful and then are they of greatest use when they inform the judgment in order to the directing and bettering the life from which end those controversies which are more remote have least of excellency and may best be spared But Books of Practice are therefore so called because they do immediately tend to the bettering the lives of men There are many things concerning which controversies are moved which we may safely be ignorant of There are others which it is fit we should have a right understanding in yet if we doubt or it may be are in Errour it is such a miscarriage as holy men may be obnoxious to and yet continue holy But there are not so great allowances given us in matters of practice as that we may count our selves unconcerned in them Besides it is not for every one to write nor for every one to read Books of Controversy we whose employments fix us in obscure corners of the Country far from Books but what our own poor Libraries furnish us withall and far from frequent converse with Learned men it cannot be expected that we should mannage disputes equally with those who have better helps or if we should what little notice would the greatest part of our people take of them they who little understand would as little regard these things But every Body hath a Soul to save and is therefore obliged to understand the way that leads to that Salvation and more than so to walk in it So that there is a peculiar excellency in those writings that teach us how to order our conversations aright which is not in many speculations and parts of Learning Archimedes did well to study the Mathematicks and the skill he attained in that Noble Science was so great that few mens inventions did better deserve an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But when the City was taken and his life in danger it had been better for him if he had more studied his own preservation So they who retch their faculties as far as they can towards the comprehension of Omne scibile do well provided that they do not in the mean time neglect that which is more necessary the study of a good life To promote which is the design of this Book a design certainly good for it aims to make men good What I have done in it is not for me to say sure I am I have meant honestly and have faithfully endeavoured If any wonder why I spend so many words in so an acknowledged an Argument as if a man should write a Book to prove that so long as the Sun shines the day lasts the first part of â—ny undertaking will answer him that though it be acknowledged in Thesi yet there have not wanted those who for several Reasons have had but a mean opinion of Moral Vertue Or if it were not so yet the lives of men do greatly need some such discourse Wickedness and Immorality is very bold and bare-faced and it is no easy matter to put it out of Countenance yea in all likelihood where Immorality discovers it self so shameless in the life there is Atheisme setled at the heart Something therefore I take occasion to say to the Atheist more then once Indeed he deserves to be more sharply and severely dealt with but that there is little to be got by Casting pearls before Math. 7. Swine That little I have said is too much for him to answer if he read and consider it if he will not nothing can be enough For the rest I will not pre-occupy my Reader onely I interpose that for the greater perspicuity of the Method I cast it into Books and Chapters and Sections but leave him when he hath read the whole and considered the manners of mankind to judge whether I have not chosen a needful subject and that which was fitting to be suggested If I have any where failed as I am not the first who have appealed to a Candid Reader So I hope my offence is not so great as that I should despair of the same Candour Moral Vertues Baptized Christian OR The Necessity of Morality among Christians BOOK I. CHAP. I. Sect. 1 WHen we distinguish our selves from the Heathen World by a Profession of the Christian Religion it is to be supposed we believe the Christian Religion to be the best in the World or we are fools to be what we profess But the Excellency of this Religion doth not lye in a supercilious condemning of whatsoever may be found good and laudable elsewhere but rather on the other side for the Doctrine of the Gospel though it have this principally to glory in that it doth reveal the Mystery hid from ages and generations viz. the redemption of Col. 1. 2â— the world by a Crucified Saviour yet withal doth owne and comprehend within it self yea and further improves whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure c. and if there be Phil. 4. 8. any vertue or any praise doth require us to think on these things There have been some Notices of God and some acknowledged principles tending to the bettering of the lives of men ever since there were mâ—n in the world But if it be lawful to
allude to a fable as some have seigned the Sun all night to be clipt into Stars which in the morning do re-unite in the body of the Sun so hath it been in this case The knowledge of God and those precepts of the Law of Nature which grew up in the world by being propagated from Adam to Noah and so downwards after the multiplying of Languages and dividing of Nations were as the Sun broken into Stars for the further they scattered the weaker and fainter they grew till at last the Gentile world was beâ—ighted for the Gentiles did walk in the vanity of their mind Having their understanding Ephâ—â— 4. 17. 18. darkned c. Thus it continued to be the world for the greatest part of it was governed by dim lights or indeed shadows rather than lights till the Sun of righteousnesse arose Yet â—â—â—l 4. 2. still there was some star-light in this night of Ignorance there did remain a Conscience of good and evil the Gentiles who had not the Law of Moses did by Nature the things contained Rom 2. 14. in the Law The more sober Heathens did believe themselves to be under an obligation of being vertuous and accordingly we find in many of their writings good precepts that direct us in our behaviour in the world which though of themselves they cannot attain the end for which the holy Scriptures are profitable 2 Tim. 3. 17. that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works yet are not these precepts of Morality to be despised in as much as our Blessed Saviour himself from whom our Religion takes its name doth frequently urge and inculcate those very rules of a good life which were acknowledged among the Heathens and as he did himself assume our humane Nature to his divine at his Incarnation so doth he assume Morality and incorporate it into Divinity so that the Gospel doth require of every one that names the name of Christ to depart 2. Tim. 2. 19. from iniquity That is as much as to say he that pretends to be a Christian though he must be somewhat else yet withal he must be a Moral man which is the position I undertake It is necessary for a Christian to be a Moral man Sect. 2 That is He who professeth faith in Jesus Christ and therefore is called a Christian whether he be so onely by outward profession or also by an inward participation of the Divine Nature this man is not at his liberty but he is bound up he is under a necessity of what kind will hereafter appear of practising moral vertues i. e. He owes obedience to the Moral law There is a certain manner of life which the law directs to and is therefore called the moral law because circa Mores it is concerning the manner of a mans conversation his behaviours towards other men or his carriage towards himself A Christian should be moral as well as Religious he must live soberly and â—it 2. â—2 righteously as well as godly He must be just and honest and temperate and meek and in a word fullfil the whole law by an universal observation of that comprehensive precept Thou Mat. 22. 39 shalt love thy neighbour as thy self Which is enough to be said for the explication of the Terms they are plain to any one that is willing to understand them Sect. 3 3. That I may the more orderly proceed in the proof of what I have undertaken to prove namely that it is necessary for a Christian to be a moral man I comprehend all my subsequent discourse within these two Propositions Prop. 1 Whatever reasons may have induced some men to speak slightly and undervaluingly of morality yet none of them all conclude against the necessity of it in a Christian Prop. 2 When we have yeilded to these as much as safely we may yet do there remain great and strong and unanswerable reasons why it is necessary for a Christian to be a moral man and abound in moral vertues By the first of these we shall gain an answer to all those objections that may be made on the other side and shall proceed thus far that there doth not appear any thing to the contrary but that it may be so the second will be a more full demonstration of the case thaâ— not onely it may be but so it is and so it must be and cannot be otherwise because it is necessarily so CHAP. II. Sect. 1 THe first Proposition will take up the first Book and that is Whatever reasons may have induced some men to speak slightly and undervaluingly of morality yet none of them all conclude against the necessity of it in a Christian In the making good of which Proposition it must be enquired what may have been the reasons that have induced men thus to speak in each of which it will be found that they do not conclude moral vertues unnecessary for they are such as these An extream opposition to the doctrine of the the Papists concerning the merit of good works A sense of the insufficiency of moral vertues for Salvation without the addition of Faith and Repentance A desire to save the prerogative of the Scriptures and to prefer them before the writings of all Heathen Moralists or Philosophers To these three there is much to be yeilded but not so much as to prejudice the cause but in the two following there is a great deal of danger as in these a great deal of truth They are An opinion that the obligation of the Moral Law is not consistent with the perfection of a Gospel-state and as Antinomianisme hath frequently ushered in Libertinisme The vitious inclinations of men of corrupt affections have prompted them to break all these bands of humane societies that they may range and rant without controll who have therefore cast off the yoke of all goodnesse because it is too heavy for their flesh and blood yea and sometimes have embolden'd themselves to say as they who have said with our tongue Psal 12. 4. will we prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us Sect. 2 An extream opposition to the Doctrine of the Papists concerning the merit of good works Indeed it is easie for opposition to be extream when two adversaries have turned their backs upon one another they will be ready to think that whatever is contrary to error must needs be truth and therefore though they go never so far from each other yet still they are in the right way whereas commonly truth lyes in the middle between both and doth frequently suffer as Christ did with a Thief on each hand for whether we add to truth or diminish from it on both sides an injury is done to it Thus is it between the Papists and some of their eager adversaries for the most part the Papists erre by adding to the word of God by being wise above what is written To the Scriptures they add Traditions and
fail in many things yet they did not fail every where sometimes they do give good precepts yea many times and those very rules of Vertue which they gave so far as they are according to the Scriptures but not where they contradict are fit for us to take notice of and being improved by Scripture they are necessary for us to conform to To argue that because they erred in some things therefore they are not to be believed in any thing is as vain as to say because a man sometimes tells a lye therefore we will not believe him where we know he speaks true There are some things in which we know the Philosophers have spoken true for the Scriptures speak the same As God baâ—e witnesse to the Israelites they have well said in all that Deut. 5. they have spoken though there wanted in them an heart to do it so verily though in their lives these men be weak as other men yet they have well said in many things they have spoken very selfe-denyingly and like mortified Christians concerning the contempt of the world and worldly things They have given good rules for the government of a mans selfe both as to his passions within and outwardly for his discourse and actions they have disparaged wickedness and vice and they have done what they could to represent Vertue amiable and lovely that if it might be that might come to pass which Plato speaks of it as Tully quotes him Formam ipsam Marce Fili tanquam faciem Tully Offic l. 1. honesti vides quae si oculis cerneretur mirabiles amores ut ait Plato excitaret sapientiae Were it possible to see Vertue in an humane shape she would wonderfully draw all mens eyes and affections after her That Moral Vertues are so excellent is not now to be prooved but hereafter when these disadvantages are all remooved for the present it is sufficient to say that because we have the Scripture to supply the defect of all other Authors it argues nothing against the necessity of morality that others have been imperfect in the descriptions and recommendations of it Sect. 2 Yea moreover it may not be amiss to adde for a conclusion of this Argument that suppoâ—ing we have the word of God to correct their errors there may be very good use made of the writings of Philosophers and if it be done without arrogance or affectation of being thought to have read a great deal it may be lawful and convenient to imitate St. Paul whom we find to have inserted into the body of the New Testament three sentences out of three several Heathen Authors Aratas Menander Acts. 17. â— Câ—r 15. Tit. 1. and Epimenides and that for these three Reasons That we may justifie the Scriptures as to a â— main part of them the severe precepts they give for the right ordering our conversation ought not to be lookt upon as strange things for they are such as the world hath been long acquainted with where the light of the Gospel hath not come yea as Balaam had a desire to curse the Children of Israel yet did altogether bless them so have some Heathens unwittingly given an honourable Testimony to Christian Religion and the Gospel though they have persecuted the Professors of it in as much as they themselves have said many the same things though they could not lay so sure a foundation for a good life nor build so high towards perfection as the Scriptures have done yet somewhat they have done in the same kind by which rude and imperfect Modells they have justified that excellent platform of a new Creature created to good works that God hath given us in his Sect. 3 It is lawfull to quote Heathens that we may shame our selves where we fall short of those Vertues to the knowledge and practise of which the more Ignorant Heathens have attained with what astonishment may we look into the Christian world to see how many there are that know more and better then the Heathens but do worse we Christians that ought to follow the Example of Christ and the Apostles are many degrees below the more sober Heathens This is to the shame of many that name the name of Christ and yet depart not from those iniquities that Cato or Socrates would have been ashamed of Solomon expresses his indignation against idleness by sending the Sluggard to School to the Ant who having no Prov. 6. 6. 7. 8. guide overseer nor ruler provides her meat in the Summer c. Now if so ignoble a Creature be fit by its Example to teach a man as it is Parvulanam Horace Exemplo est magni formica laboris See how the little Pismires be Instances of great Industry Then may a Heathen be fit to teach a Christian Go to the Philosopher thou degemerate Christian thou hast the word of God for thy Rule the Spirit of God for thy guide which they wanted yet did they better provide for their credit while living and for their safety after death Would Aristides have played the Knave and have cheated his Neighbour who was firnamed the just Were Fabricius and Curius so â—ordid and covetous as many Christians are of whom the Roman Storyes report how little they car'd for gold and Silver or the bribes of Pyrrhus Would Regulus have been Treacherous to his own Country who was resolved to be true to his Enemies How was Luxury and riot discouraged among the Lacedemonians when the places where they used to feast together were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch because of their frugality in their expences And so in other cases It is good to see what they have said and done that the Man may shame the Christian for it is a very shame for us who have better helps than they if we doe not go beyond them in all Vertue and goodness Sect. 4 It may be worth the while to borrow some passages from these Authours because though the Scripture be more perfect yet in some things where it is not so particular instances from others may help to illustrate what is more closely couched in them It is no defect in the Scriptures to be short but their glory that in so little a compass so much should be contained But in regard they are so much shorter then many discourses of the Heathens it cannot be imagined but that some things should be more dilated on elsewhere which may help to convey what is here commanded with the greater force to our understandings and affections The gay addes nothing to the sense and meaning of the book yet it encourages the Child to take the book into his hand and so he may learn the sooner So are those illustrations and similitudes and examples and apposite sentences which we bring out of other Authours not by way of supplement to the word of God but to try if by any way or means we can make any impression upon the minds of men And this
stirr'd will sting Some men seek and some make occasions to prejudice and wrong their Neighbours Neither is yet this Pandora's box quite opened Besides what hath been already said the very example of wicked men leavens the World and by making it a mass of iniquity increases the number of those mischiess which pester mankind A Company of Drunkards are a Plague to the place they live in and so are most other sins for they are catching and infectious and many perish by the evil example of other men This and the former might be plentifully insisted on but that they are obvious to every ones experience Sect. 8 There is yet another great mischief comes to the World by wickedness it hinders the propagation of the Christian Religion into other parts of the World It might be a great motive to perswade Infidels to have good thoughts of that Religion whose professours live good and honest lives We have a Prayer in our Liturgy on good Friday on purpose for Jews and Turks and Infidels that they may be fetched home to the flock and be made one fold under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord and surely they do a service acceptable to God who are any ways instrumental in so glorious an undertaking but how had the men need be qualified who are like to do any good this way they had need be men of excellent lives and be very true to the exercise of those Vertues that have found so much praise among the Heathens I have read somewhere of Averroes if I mistake not that a point of Doctrine alienated him from the Christian Religion Quandoquidem Christiani adorant quod comedunt sit anima mea cum Philosophis Transubstantiation was then creeping into the Church or if not he did not rightly understand the Doctrine of the Sacrament But corruption in practice will much more alienate The Spaniards in some of their first dealings with the Savages in Heylin Geogr America to perswade them to be baptized told them that they who were baptized should go to the joyes of Heaven the rest should go to Hell One of them a person of quality askt them whether they themselves the Spaniards were to go they said to Heaven then says he I had rather go to Hell with the unbaptized than live in Heaven with so cruel a people What marvel is it if a Jew or Infidel argue thus I see these men that go for Christians take little care of their lives they pretend to the most excellent Religion in the World but if we may judge of it by their actions their profession is vile and contemptible God doth not stand in need of the ministry of men when it pleases him that the fullness of the Rom. 11. Gentiles shall come in and all Israel shall be saved he can-bring his own ends about with any or without any means But as to humane probabilities how is this like to retard the spreading of the Gospel Blindness is hapned Rom. 11. to Israel and it continues upon the Infidel but they are not so blind as not to see that True Religion includes Morality If therefore in all our Negotiations with them our Merchants and Factors or whoever any ways converse with them would not only exactly observe the rules of Justice which it is to be hoped they do but would also take care and pains in the governance of themselves that they be discreet and sober and advised in all their behaviour it might be hoped that Infidels would by degrees entertain better thoughts of Christian Religion than yet they do But alas this is the very thing to be feared Christendom it self is in a great many places over-grown with Barbarism We may send them word to China and the Indies and America that Vertue is no where so much honoured and owned as among Christians but when they come to hear that Pride and Revenge and Covetousness and Sensuality and all manner of Vice doth prevail as much with us as in any other parts of the World our sin hath the same aggravation with that of Eli's Sons The sin of the young men was great before the Lord ◠Sam 2. for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. It is no wonder if Heathens abhor Christian Religion when they see Christians live such horrid lives Though this be not indeed the fault of our Religion but of the professours of it yet it will be interpreted so and this mischief is added to all the rest men of immoral wicked lives hinder as much as in them lyes so far as they are wicked the spreading of Christian Religion Wherefore if we would do good in the World we must abound in Moral Vertues for the contrary Vices are much to the detriment and damage of Mankind CHAP. X. Sect. 1 BY being Vertuous men become profitable and their Vertue makes them so wherefore these things are said to be good and profitable Tit. 3. to men These are the men whom the world can ill spare for they are useful in their places There is no Creature in the world be it never so mean but so far as it is useful is to be accounted of even the Ass and her Colt had a value put upon them because the Lord Math. 21. had need of them This is to be said in the behalf of Vertue there is need of it It makes men fit to do good service and therefore ought to be encouraged and practised And that which was named last but one in the last Chapter I now begin with Good men do good by their good examples As men of naughty and vitious lives corrupt the world so here doth Vertue countermine vice He hath but little observ'd the world who doth not see what a mighty force example hath almost every where Now though examples of Vertue do not so much good as bad examples do hurt because men are generally most inclin'd to that which is worst yet some good they do and many times a great deal For were it not out of this perswasion why ◠do we read History It is no doubt a pleasant thing and as much a recreation as an employment to look beyond our own Times and Countries and see what hath been done in the World in former times and what is elsewhere But if there were nothing else but bare pleasure there may be as much said for Romances as for real stories There is a profit as well as a pleasure Studia abeunt in mores as the Lord Bacon Essay of study observes and then when men fashion their lives and manners according to their studies whereas other studies make men witty and subtle this peculiar effect hath History it makes men wise And how is that but by observing the examples of others and improving them to our advantage So thought another Wise and Learned Man Defixum hoc Peireskius Gassend de vit â ejus habuit conferre maximè Historiam componendae vitae censebat enim quodammodo