Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Tit. 3. â— things are good and profitable to men The goodness of an Action consists in its agreeableness to its rule Now because these Moral Vertues are according to Rule therefore they must needs be good Which is easily proved if one thing be but supposed viz. that Man is a reasonable creature Which proposition if any man shall deny or profess to doubt of there is little to be got by arguing with him for he doth profess himself to be uncapable to discern of an Argument He must be taught by Correction rather then Instruction He must be taught as we teach Dogs Argumento bacillino with a wooden Argument Wherefore supposing this that man hath some nobler principle in him then a Hog or a Dog somewhat above life and sense and motion he is a Creature endued with Reason with an Uâ—derstanding to discern what is truth and a Will to chuse what is good I am then to demonstrate that which if all men were vertuous would need no other demonstration But the wicked excesses and abominable debaucheries of a great part of the world not excepting those that live in the Christian world give occasion to think that wickedness doth alter mens understandings Malitia mutavit Wisd 4. intellectum So that they are not sensible of any difference betweeen good and evil men will not be perswaded at least they live as if they were not but that it is as lawful to revenge an injury as to requite a kindness It is as noble and generous to inflame their souls by Intemperance to Lust as it is to deny themselves and to mortifie those affections Dolus aut Virtus they cannot tell which to prefer it is as creditable to cheat another if it be done handsomely and ingeniously as it is to be scrupulous lest they should do any wrong and so almost in all sorts of Vice Sect. 4 It is not like that these kind of persons should leave a wanton play for a discourse that pretends to Sobriety and Morality if they will forsake the Church to go to the Tavern or Ale-house or worse places it is not likely they will find themselves in so melancholy retirements as to be at leisure to peruse an argument of this nature Yet it is not impossible but out of an humour at least they may An Epicurean would hear St. Paul Agrippa and Bernice very fanciful persons had a great mind to hear what he could say for himself And I remember a story in Plutarch that when Plato had perswaded Timothy the Son of Conon to leave his great feasts and one night to sup with him the next morning finding himself in a more happy temper of body then he used to be after his luxurious meals he acknowledged that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that sup with Plato are better for it the Plutarch Sympos â— 6. proeâ—m Day after So possibly may it be with these my endeavours if any body will be perswaded to try they will find it true what upon the former supposition I am now to evince that there is a goodness in Moral Vertues and an unsuitableness an unbecomingness and naughtiness in every vice Which I prove by Propositions founded upon and drawn from one another CHAP. II. THe first whereof is this Sect. 1 Prop. 1 Man being a reasonable Creature must of necessity have another and higher rule to act by than brute Beasts are capable of There is a Lex Vniversi or a Law whereby the whole Creation may be said to act or to be acted by Rule The Motions of the Heavens we call orderly and regular motions because they are by Rule according to the appointments of that God who hath appointed the Moon for Seasons Psâ— 104. and the Sun knoweth his going down The changes among the Elements are natural and according to Rule the growth of Plants the exercises of sense in Beasts pursuing that which is convenient and avoiding that which is inconvenient to their Natures all these 〈◊〉 a kind of a Rule to act by Now how comes it to pass that Man alone above all the rest of the Creation should be lawless In as much as we are Creatures we have the Law of our Creation but in regard we are Reasonable Creatures of a higher and nobler Nature than any beast of the Field either our actions must be below our Natures or we must have an higher and more excellent Rule than other Creatures have They have a Rule whereby they eat and drink c. They have a Rule for their bodies which is all they are worth We have Souls besides and how can it be but they must have a Rule proper and suitable to their Natures Our wills and affections have their proper objects to fix upon as well as the Eye hath Colours or the Ear Sounds Now the objects of our wills being as different as those of our senses there must be some way and means whereby the Soul may distinguish between good and bad as well as the Eye between white and black It is not possible that every thing should be fitting for us to do because of the contrariâ—ty that is in actions If it be fitting to be sober and temperate then it is not fitting to be drunk If fitting to love others then not fit to hate and malign them and so in other cases But how shall we know what is fitting or not but by some Rule whereby we may try and so pass a Judgment upon our actions Some Rule then there must be proper for us Man being a reasonable Creature must act by Rule and by a higher Rule than Brute Beasts are capable of Which is the first Proposition Sect. 2 The Rule which all men are to frame their actions according to is the Law of Nature or the directions of right Reason There is another Rule by which it hath been already proved that there is a necessity of these Vertues because they are commanded by the Word of God it would be Actum agere now to insist on that which indeed is our best Rule But there have been many Nations in the World with whom God hath not dealt as with the Jews of old as for his Judgments they have Psal 147. not known them or with Christians now Many have not the Gospel among them yet they are not without a Rule for even these Gentiles shew the work of the Law written in their hearts Rom. 2 c. the same Law which the Heathens call non scriptam sed natam Legem even this Law of Nature which is an universal Rule all the World over If any should be so brutish as to think their sensual appetite the measure and rule of what is good or bad they do in effect deny themselves to have any Reason because they suffer it to be over-born and over-ruled by sense for if the actions of a reasonable Creature are governed by sense what is
they lived have had much of their will and fancy and corrupt Affections but little 1 Sam 18. 20. ch of their Reason and so when the Evil Spirit is upon Saul it is no wonder if he cast a javelin at David and afterwards at Jonathan his best Friends but when his Reason returns to him he acknowledges his errour and says that David was more righteous then he In like manner 1 Sam. 24. many Men hate those Vertues which are according to Gods own heart as David was but this is during the prevalency of the Evil Spirit when they come to die as the Soul is loosning from the Body so by degrees they are wrought off from the deceits of sense and the temptations of the World when they are at Deaths door and see it opened for them then they have another representation of themselves Sculls and dead Mens Bones and the Worms that are to feed upon them and besides a dismal pre-occupation of their thoughts concerning the dreadful day of Judgement these things alter the case Then the Men who would sometimes fill themselves with costly Wine and Ointments and crown themselves with Rose-buds Wisd 20. to be partakers of their wantonness c. yet shall be afraid and remember their sins and Wisd 4. their own wickedness shall come before them to convince them Yea they shall change their minds and sigh for grief of mind and say within themselves This is he whom we sometimes had in Wisd 5. derision and in a Parable of reproach We fools counted his life madness and his end without Honour How is he counted among the Children of God and his portion is among the Saints If this be Apocryphal yet it is good sense and the more likely to be true because Canonical Scripture gives us a like instance wicked Balaam did even before his death desire to dye the death of the Righteous and that his last end Numb 23. should be like his Herein are many wicked men like Balaam of whom we read this passage Balaam the Son of Beor hath said and Numb 24. the man whose eyes are open hath said Dixit vir occlusus oculo says Montanus according to the letter of the Hebrew The Margin of our Translation hath this Exposition of it The Man who had his eyes shut but now open There is a beauty and lustre in Vertue against which Vitious Men shut their eyes and will not see but Isa 26. they shall see and be ashamed When death is closing their bodily eyes till the Resurrection then the understanding opens and discerns the folly of the fore-past life when it is growing too late to amend then Men begin to Repent and proceed thus far at least to acknowledge they have done ill and to owne a goodness in Vertue and an agreeableness to their natures and right reason Sect. 2 This observation is common and of easie notice taking that many prophane Men are thus affected when they dye But it is true withal that this General Rule among others hath its Exceptions The Consciences of some Men are past feeling while they live and are not awakened when they dye As Pope Boniface the 8th lived like a Lyon and dyed like a Dog So is many a wicked Man in this sense Primus ad extremum similis sibi From first to last one and the same He lives in sin dyes without shame They live like Beasts and so they dye they sin like Lions boldly and undauntedly and fiercely they dye like Dogs wretchedly and churlishly and basely without the understanding of a Man to consider whither they are going without Faith in God or love to Heaven or Fear of Hell Yet notwithstanding all this as we say of Brute Beasts that they have some semblances of Reason in many of their Actions of which Plutarch give many instances in his Book De solertiâ Ammalium so these Brutish Men while they live have some Candle-light of their understandings The Spirit Prov. 10. of a man is the Candle of the Lord not extinct though it be shut up in a dark Lanthorn and do not discover it self to others unless it be at unawares Sect. 3 For 2. There are some certain times and seasons wherein the most vitious persons that are acknowledge the Vertues contrary to their practice to be agreeable to right Reason for which there are these Evidences Many Men who will not leave sin yet will dissemble it It is not much more common for a Malefactor at the Bar to plead not Guilty then for a Drunkard when he is sober to deny that he was drunk And so they that will swear will lye and deny that they did swear and he that would revenge himself upon his Neighbour will not owne it to be Revenge he that would cheat his Neighbour would be thought an honest Man c. wherefore now is all this were not these vices contrary to right Reason and the Vertues they oppose agreeable thereto Why should any Man be ashamed of that which he doth not believe to be unlawful If it be a Vertue to be Drunk or Knâ—vish why do not Men avow and profess it and make as much conscience of being Drunk as others do to be Sober Herein did Gehazi Ananias and Sapphira and others betray themselves when a Man denies a fact which he knows himself to have committed he is therein a self-condemned Man He denies it because he is loth to owne it and therefore Men do not owne their sins because they know them to be sins and the Vertues that are contrary to them to be good and reasonable Actions Sect. 4 If it happen that wicked Men do for some time forbear their excess of wickedness and do some good action If a riotous debauched person continues sober whether for want of opportunity or ability to sin or if because others are he be charitable to the Poor or forgive an Injury or the like how quickly doth he proclaim his Righteousness and take occasion to commend himself As Jehu would 2 Kings 10. have his zeal for the Lord taken notice of when yet he was but a Hypocrite And the Pharisees likewise Hypocrites would sound a Mat. 6. Trumpet when they gave their Alms Such Hypocrites still there are who in a sense but little commendable would make a Vertue of necessity because they could not sin they would be thought Vertuous because they did not A Knave that is made to be Vertuous against his will how ready is he to alledge that as an Argument for himself and to boast that he did no wrong This supposeth Vertue to be praise-worthy else why should they praise themselves for it when yet they are not Vertuous out of love to it but only because they cannot safely commit vice Sect. 5 Yea once more It is evident that wicked Men believe Vertue to be reasonable and good by the apprehensions they have of it in others especially when it makes for their
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
who have at any time been upon their sick beds and to their own apprehensions have been like to dye what hath been the opinion of these men concerning the pleasures of wickedness what remains of all their joys what are the ecchoes of their songs what relish have they upon their palates of all the dainties that they have either eat or drunk what are they now the better for the wrongs they have offered others and for their revenge and such like evil dispositions wherein they have triumph'd in their life time If I may make an answer I do not doubt but it may be such an one as once Esau made Jacob Behold I am at the point to dye Gen. 25. and what profit do all these things do to me And therefore I may argue a little further in the words of the Apostle What fruit hath any man in those things whereof he is now ashamed for if the next words may be inverted Death is the end of those things Death puts an end to Rom. 6. all the merriments of life and now at death the remembrance of those things is grievous to them Then succeed those wishes and it is well if they be not as vain as their former joys I would I had better understood my self would I had had more wisdom and more grace to have forsaken that evil company that led me away to consent and partake in their wickedness would I had look'd on my pleasures not as they came with their flattering and inviting aspects but as they now go away from me with repentance and fear and shame Oh that I had taken more care to please God and less to enjoy the pleasures of sense Some such thing said Cardinal Wolsey a little before his death Had I serv'd Herberts History Henry 8. God as diligently as I have done the King he would not have given me over in my gray hairs So say men of wicked and immoral lives had I pleased God more and my company and my self less God would not have given me over in this my necessity but I have had my portion in this world I have sought for sin and hunted after pleasure and if God be not more merciful to my soul I shall have no portion in the world to come but everlasting separation from the presence of God Surely these are the apprehensions of some men that send for their Minister and though they would fain justifie themselves as much as they can yet they cannot deny but they have been Company-keepers they have been Gamesters and it may be worse they have spent a great deal of time idly and wantonly Now what becomes of these men whether peradventure God may give them grace to repent is not for us to determine our charity hopes the best But whether so or not these self-accusations and these different apprehensions they have of things when they are dying to what they had when they were lusty and strong to sin is an argument of the vanity and shortness of that pleasure that men take in sin and 't is the fourth proof that there is no considerable comfort to be found in sin either living or dying This is the first part of this Third Argument There is a necessity of Moral Vertues that our lives and deaths may be comfortable for so long as men continue wicked notwithstanding all the brags they make that they live the merriest lives yet it is found to be nothing so CHAP. VIII Sect. 1 THe ways of Vertue are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace It is said of wisdom but it is such a wisdom as dwells with Prov. 3. Prov. 8. Prov. 9. prudence and such a wisdom of which the fear of the Lord is the beginning and where it is so it follows in another place And unto man Job 28. he said the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding So that Vertue being comprehended under that wisdom which teaches a man to order his conversation aright of that likewise may it be said that her ways are ways of pleasantness Pleasure is the satisfaction of an appetite and according as the appetite is whether sensible or rational so is the pleasure The joys and pleasures of sin are but the pleasures of sense for the most part and therefore inconsiderable It will be now found that the pleasure that arises upon Vertuous Actions is in the mind and soul Delight is nothing Reynolds Treatise of passions else but the Sabbath of our thoughts and that sweet Tranquillity of mind which we receive from the presence and fruition of that good to which our desires have carried us Concerning which much might be said and there is no Theme gives a man a greater temptation to try his skill in Rhetorick then this But I intend to argue not to declaim I am therefore content to pass this over only when I have added one description of joy and pleasure which I find in an Author though a Jesuite yet excellent in these kind of writings Gaudium Neiremberg de Arte voluntatis Prolep 5. est quoddam silentium appetitus quaedam Modestia Ambitionis quoddam claustrum cupiditatis quoddam sine fastidio epulum cordis quidam Thronus jam considentis Affectus quaedam Mors desiderii c. denique ut haec complectar quoddam satis And surely this Joy must needs be a glorious thing when the glory that God will beam on his servants in the other world is so express'd Enter into the joy of thy Math. 25. Lord. Those great and immeasurable measures of joy are reserv'd for the world to come yet now in this life in this vale of tears there are rivers of pleasure True it is the joy and Rom. 15. peace which God fills his people with is in and by believing And the joy we have out of Christ is unsound as we out of Christ are unsafe wherefore it hath been before said that Book 1. Moral Vertue is not to be separated from Faith but they suppose one another and then supposing the Vertue we speak of to be such it will be easie to prove that the exercise of Moral Vertues Righteousness and Temperance c. do furnish us with a great deal of joy and comfort Sect. 2 That I prove when I have but first suppos'd that whereas the pleasures of vice are all or for the most part of the sense and outward man the pleasures of Vertue are inward in the mind After what manner the mind is gratifyed will appear in the following Sections let it now be supposed and then how much hath Vertue to say for her self and to glory over wickedness and sin If we may borrow a little of Jothams parable Vice is Judg. 9. the Bramble that instead of shadowing scratches the body Vertue is the Vine that chears the heart of man Vice is a plaister that skins over an old sore Vertue is a cordial