apparent in that it injures mens better part their Souls whereas it lyeth in the power of no other as the now mentioned Philosopher also observeth so to do Do I say it injures them that 's too gentle a word it even marrs and spoils them as again that person doth in another place speak Other evils may ruine our Bodies our fortunes c. and may I confess by that means disquiet and disturb our Souls but they can be depraved by nought but sin this alone can deprive them of the image of God wherein consists their Excellency And when I say that Sin undoes our Souls and sin only I say that this and this alone undoes our-selves For as saith the same brave man Thy Soul is thy-self thy Body thine and all outward things thy Body's And the Excellent Simplicius speaking of Death hath this saying that it is onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Evil to our Bodies not to us And this both the Stoicks and Platonists do much insist upon and make great use of it They stick not to tell us that it is improper to say that a man consists of two parts whereof the Body is one and that this is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Constituent part of man but onely his instrument that it is but our Prison wherein we are confined our Leather-bag our Satchel our Case our Sheath our House our Cloathing and the like And we find such a notion of the Body in the Holy Scriptures as well as in the Heathen Writings S. Paul also calls it our Cloathing our Earthly house our Tabernacle 2 Cor. 5. 1 4. S. Peter calleth his body this Tabernacle I think it meet saith he so long as I am in this Tabernacle c. 2 Pet. 1. 13. Knowing that shortly I must put off this Tabernacle vers 14. So that other evils have that denomination because they are so to such things onely immediately I mean as belong to our-selves but sin is an immediate evil and the greatest imaginable to our very selves in that in whomsoever it is entertained it changes the man's nature spoils his constitution and makes him quite another thing From a Lovely Noble and Excellent it transforms him into an ignoble base and contemptible Creature We are not ignorant what names the Scripture bestoweth upon wicked men even those of the Uncleanest and most impure Beasts There is no such filthiness said Cicero as the Fâ—…ditas Turpificati animi that of an unclean Soul And the Philosophers used to express vice by Turpitudo and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filthiness as being that which is infinitely disbecoming below and unworthy of humane nature And the Wise man in his Book of the Proverbs saith that a wicked man is loathsome and cometh to shame There is no such hideous monster in nature as a Reasonable Creature living in Contradiction to the Dictates of his Understanding trampling under-foot the eternal Laws of Righteousness and opposing himself to the known will of the Great Sovereign of the World of him in whom he liveth moveth and hath his being to whom alone he is obliged for all he is or hath and for the Capacity he is in of having any thing for the future which for the present he is destitute of A Body in which the Head and Feet have exchanged places is not more deformed and monstrous than is a vitious Soul For her Superiour and Governing part is subjected to and Lorded over by her Inferiour and that which was designed by Nature to be kept in subjection and governed Her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Pythagoraeans Phrase it or Holder of the Reins and Ruling Faculty is become the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reined in and Ruled Faculty I adde moreover that well may sin be said to spoil and marr mens souls for we read in the writings of the Apostles that it kills them She that liveth in pleasures is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. 6. You hath he quickened who were dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. S. Iude speaking of certain ungodly wretches saith that they are twice dead v. 12. And the very same notion had diverse of the Heathens also Pythagoras used to put a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or empty coffin in the place of that Scholar that left his School to betake himself to a vicious and debauch'd life as thereby signifying that he was dead dead as to his nobler part And his Followers tell us that the Souls of men died when they apostatized from God and cast off the Divine Life And such a one as in whom sin reigneth may be called a dead man because according to them the Definition of a man belongs not to him nor doth he any longer deserve the name of a Reasonable Creature The Philosopher we have so often quoted and shall have occasion to do it oftener will have wickedness to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the death of the reasonable nature And Simplicius doubts not to assert that a man that is drowned in sensuality hath no more of Reason in him than a Brute creature To return to God and to a right mind to be without God and without understanding were of one and the same signification with those excellent men And our Saviour tells us that the Prodigal came to himself when he resolved upon returning to his Father's house as if that while he persisted in disobedience he was as very a Brute as were those whose husks he fed on and had utterly lost his understanding faculty Though that last saying of Simplicius may seem somewhat hyperbolical yet this following one of Hierocles hath not the least tittle of a Figure in it viz. That wicked men do render the Reason that remaineth in them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more base and wretchedly contemptible than the vilest slave They use it altogether in matters of very bad or at best of most mean concern and therefore as upon that account it were better so upon this it would be even as well if they had none at all For the Sagacity that is in Beasts is not less serviceable to them than is the Reason of a wicked man to him Nay had he onely that Sagacity that is observable in many unreasonable Creatures it might stand him in as much stead as his Reason doth and perhaps more So that from what hath been discoursed it appeareth very evidently that wickedness is the worst incomparably the worst of Evils that it is so in its own nature as well as in its consequences And therefore to deliver us from it by purifying our lives and natures is to confer upon us the greatest blessing and consequently is an undertaking of all others the most worthy of the Son of God CHAP. X. The Second Argument viz. That the Blessing of making men Holy is accompained with all other that are most desireable and which do best deserve to be so called Particularly with the Pardon of Sin and God's
the Father Phil. 2. 9 10 11. Now by vertue of the Authority he is by this means invested and dignified with and particularly as he is King of his Church hath he sent the Holy Ghost to Sanctifie us to excite us to all holy actions and to assist us in the performance of them Sixthly The Death of Christ doth also apparently promote this great Design as by his patient submitting to it he vindicated God's Right of Sovereignity over all his Creatures and the power he hath to require what he pleaseth and to dispose of them as seems good to him Whereas the First Adam by Contumacy Pride and Rebellion did put an high and unsufferable affront upon the Authority of his Maker and his wretched posterity followed his Example and have by that means done what lay in them to render his Right to their obedience questionable this Blessed Second Adam by acting directly Contrary viz. by Obedience Humility Subjecting himself to the Divine pleasure in the severest expressions and significations of it hath done publiquely and before the world an infinite honour to his Father And his absolute Right of Dominion over his whole Creation and the power he hath to prescribe to it what laws he judges sitting which was before so eclipsed by wicked sinners hath he by this means in the most signal manner manifested and made apparent And of what force this is to promote our Holiness and Universal obedience the dullest capacity may apprehend From what hath been said it appears to be a most plain and unquestionable Case that our Saviour in his Death considered according to each of the notions we have of it had an eye to the great work of making men Holy and that this was the main Design which he therein drove at And I now adde that where as it is frequently affirmed in the holy Scriptures that the End of Christ's death was also the Forgiveness of our sins the Reconciling of us to his Father we are not so to understand those places where this is expressed as if these Blessings were absolutely thereby procured for us or any otherwise than upon Condition of our effectuall believing and yielding obedience to his Gospel Nor is there any one thing scarcely which we are so frequently therein minded of as we are of this Christ died to put us into a Capacity of pardon the actual removing of our Guilt is not the necessary and immediate result of his Death but suspended till such time as the forementioned conditions by the help of his grace are performed by us But moreover it is in order to our being encouraged to sincere endeavours to forsake all sin and to be universally obedient for the time to come that our Saviour shed his blood for the Pardon of it This was intended in his death as it is subservient to that purpose the assurance of having all our sins forgiven upon our sincere Reformation being a necessary motive thereunto Therefore hath he delivered us from a necessity of Dying that we might live to God and therefore doth God offer to be in his Son Jesus reconciled to us that we may thereby be prevailed with to be reconciled to him Therefore was the Death of Christ designed to procure our Justification from all sins past that we might be by this means provoked to become new Creatures for the time to come Observe to this purpose what the Divine Author to the Hebrews saith Chap. 9. 13 14. If the blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the Unclean Sanctifieth to the Purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit ofsered himself without Spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works for what end it follows to Serve or in order to your Serving the Living God And thus much may suffice to be spoken concerning the Design of our Saviour's Death CHAP. VIII That it is onely the promoting of the Design of making men Holy that is aimed at by the Apostles insisting on the Doctrines of Christ's Resurrection Ascension and coming again to Judgement I Might in the next place proceed to shew that the Resurrection of our Saviour did carry on the same Design that his Precepts Promises and Threatnings Life and Death aimed at but who knows not that these would all have signified nothing to the promoting of this or any other end if he had always continued in the Grave and not risen again as he foretold he would If Christ be not risen saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 15. 13. then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain So that whatsoever our Saviour intended in those particulars the perfecting and final accomplishment thereof must needs be eminently designed in his Resurrection The Apostle Peter tells his Country-men the Jews Acts 3. 21. that To them first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless them in turning every one of them from his iniquities But farthermore we find the Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection very much insisted on by S. Paul especially as a principle of the Spiritual and Divine life in us and proposed as that which we ought to have not onely a Speculative and Notional but also a Practical and Experimental acquaintance with And he often telleth us that it is our Duty to find that in our Souls which bears an analogy thereunto He saith Phil. 3. 10. That it was his ambition to know or feel within himself the Power of his Resurrection as well as the fellowship of his sufferings to have experience of his being no longer a dead but a living Jesus by his inlivening him and quickening his Soul with a new life And again he saith Rom. 6. 4. that Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism unto Death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life that is Christians being plunged into the Water in Baptism signifieth their undertaking and obliging themselves in a spiritual sence to die and be buried with Jesus Christ which death and burial consist in an utter renouncing and forsaking of all their sins that so answerably to his Resurrection they may live a Holy and a Godly life And it followeth vers 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his Resurrection that is If we are ingrafted into Christ by Mortification to Sin and so imitate his death we will no less have a Resemblance of his Resurrection by living to God or performing all acts of Piety and Christianity And then from vers 8. to 11. he thus proceeds Now if we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall or we will also live with him Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he died he died unto Sin once or for sin once for
of Persons are most extremely sottish 1. Such as expect to have their share in the Salvation of the Gospel without true Holiness 2. Such much more as encourage themselves by the Grace of the Gospel in Unholiness THirdly There is nothing we are more assured of by what hath been discoursed of the Design of Christianity than that these two sorts of persons are guilty of extreme sottishness Namely Those that expect to have a share in the Salvation of the Gospel without true Holiness And much more Those that encourage themselves by the grace of the Gospel in their Unholiness First Those that expect to have their share in the Salvation of the Gospel without true Holiness I fear me that such people are not consined within the limits of the Romish Church but that a vast number of Protestants also may be deservedly accused upon this account But by so much more sottish are these than the Papists by how much better things their Religion teacheth them than the Papists doth Though I must likewise with sadness acknowledge that too many opinions have been unhappily foisted into it that give too great encouragement to a careless life But that those which promise to themselves an interest in the Salvation purchased by Jesus Christ either from their Baptism and partaking of certain Christian priveleges or from their being of such or such a Sect and Mode of Professors or from their supposed Orthodoxy and good belief and zeal against erroneous Doctrines or from their imagining Christ's Righteousness theirs and applying the Promises to themselves or from their abstaining from the grosser and more scandalous sins or from their doing some externally good actions and have in the mean time no care to be universally obedient to mortifie every lust and to obtain an inward principle of Holiness that those I say which thus do are guilty of most egregious and stupid folly is most manifest from what hath been discoursed of the Design of Christianity For we have shewn not only that Reformation of Life from the practice and purification of heart from the liking of sin are as plainly as can be asserted in the Gospel to be absolutely necessary to give men a right to the promises of it but also that its Great Salvation doth even consist in it that Salvation from sin is the grand Design of the Christian Religion and that from wrath is the Result of this I will instance in two more Scriptures for the farther proof of this The Apostle S. Paul saith Ephes. 2. 5 c. Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins hath he quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Iesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding Riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Iesus For by Grace ye are saved through faith or by the means of believing the Gospel and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Where by the Salvation which the Ephesian Christians are said to have obtained and in the bestowing of which upon them the exceeding Riches of God's Grace appeared is plainly to be understood their deliverance from their former Heathenish Impieties and sinful Practices And so is it interpreted by our best Expositors Again it is said Titus 3. 5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us how saved us it follows by the washing of Regeneration Renewing of the holy Ghost Our Saviour giveth â—…ase to our Sin-sick Souls by recovering them to health And his Salvation first consisteth in curing our wounds and secondarily in freeing us from the smart occasioned by them S. Peter tells the Christians that by his stripes they were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. It being a quotation out of Isaiah 53. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus in the second book of his Stromat hath this saying to the same purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pardon doth not so much consist in Remission as in Healing That is the pardon of the Gospel doth chiefly discover it self in curing men of their sins in delivering sinners from the power of them rather than from the mere punishment due to them By which words that learned Father declared that he looked upon the subduing of sin as a more eminent act of grace than the bare forgiveness of it Now would that man be accounted any better than a perfect Ideot who being sorely hurt should expect from his Chirurgion perfect â—…ase when he will not permit him to apply any plaister for the healing of his wound Or that being deadly sick should look that his Physician should deliver him from his pain when he will not take any course he prescribes for the removal of the distemper that is the cause of it But of far greater folly are all those guilty who will not be perswaded to part with their Sins and yet hope for the Salvation of their Souls He that looketh for this expects that which implyeth a most palpable contradiction and is impossible in its own nature to be effected It hath been fully enough shewn that mere deliverance from misery cannot possibly be without deliverance from sin and much less Eternal Blessedness in the Enjoyment of God Secondly But how excessively mad then are those which turn the grace of God declared in the Gospel into wantonness and take encouragement from the abundant kindness and good will therein expressed to wretched sinners with the more security and boldness to commit sin We read of such in the Epistle of S. Iude And God knows there are too many such in these our days But seeing it is so grosly foolish a thing for men to hope to be saved notwithstanding their living in the allowance of known sins what desperate Madness then is it to be imboldened in ungodly practices by the offers Christ makes of pardon and salvation to them These declare that they look upon the Design of Christianity not onely as different from what it hath been demonstrated it is but also as directly opposite and perfectly contrary thereunto These do not only judge their Saviour to be no friend to holiness but to be the greatest enemy likewise to it and a Minister of sin and wickedness They make him to be the very servant of the Devil in stead of coming to destroy his works They make the Christian Religion more vile by â—…ar than that of Mahomet and such a Religion as those which have but the least spark of goodness must needs abominate Shall we Sin saith the Apostle that Grace may abound God forbid Those that think they can magnifie the free-grace of God in Christ by thus doing or that they may take encouragement from it to continue in sin do make this grace unworthy of mens acceptance and no grace at all Nay they make Almighty God the greatest enemy to Mankind in sending his Son Jesus and
with profitable Instructions and in so many respects of great importance to the good of our Souls as this is CHAP. VII That to make men Holy was the Design of Christ's Death Proved by several Texts of Scripture And how it is effectual thereunto discovered in six Particulars FOurthly the making of us Holy as it was the Business of our Saviour's whole Life so was it also the great End and Design of his Death And this are we assured of by abundance of Express Scriptures Some few of which we will here produce Romans 6. 6. Knowing this that our Old man is crucified with him that the Body of Sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin 2 Corinthians 5. 15. He dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again Galatians 1. 4. Who gave himself for our Sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world viz. From its corrupt practices according to the Will of God and our Father Ephesians 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the word that he might present it unto himself a Glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Colossians 1. 21 22. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works hath he now reconciled in the Body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of Good Works 1 Pet. 1. 18. For as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with Corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as a Lamb without blemish and without Spot 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for Sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God c. That is saith Calvin upon the place that we might be so consecrated to God as to live and die to him 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our Sins in his Own body on the Tree that we being dead to sins should live to righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed Now the Death of Christ is greatly effectual to this end of making us Holy these several ways First As it gave Testimony to the Truth of his Doctrine which as hath been shewn hath no other Design Christ took his Death upon it that that was true was willing to expose himself in the Defence thereof to a most ignominious and painful death Secondly As the shedding of his blood was a Federal right confirming the New Covenant wherein is promised in and through Him the Pardon of our Sins and Eternal happiness on Condition of our sincere Repentance Faith and new obedience So the Blood of Christ is called the Blood of the Covenant Heb. 10. 29. And the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13. 20. Thirdly As it is exemplary of the highest vertue 1 Pet. 2. 21. Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously The Greatest Humility and Self-denial the greatest Meekness Patience and Submission to the Divine Will the most wonderful Charity and Forgiveness of Enemies c. are exemplified in our Saviour's Death and so it must needs be very highly Effectual towards the promoting of these most Excellent Graces and the like in us and the expelling and utter extirpating out of us the Contrary Vices One would think it impossible that he should be of an Haughty Spirit and a proud mind that seriously Considers how the Onely-begotten Son of God humbled himself to the death even the shameful and ignominious death of the Cross That he should Covet great things in the world that frequently affects his mind with the thoughts of his Saviour's emptying himself and becoming poor that we through his proverty might be made rich and preferring the death of the Vilest of wretches before the life of the greatest and most Honourable Personages How can he be vain and frothy that considers his Saviour's horrid Agony what a man of Sorrows he was and how acquainted with Griefs How can he storm at the receiving of injuries and swell with indignation against those that offer him incivilities and rudely behave themselves towards him that fixeth his thoughts upon his Saviour's meek putting up the Vilest and most Contemptuous usages and considereth how gentle sedate and Lamb-like he was when Barbarous Villains Mocked Buffetted and Spit upon him Crowned him with Thorns put a Robe in a jear upon his Back and a Reed for a Scepter into his hand and at last acted the parts of the most inhumane Butchers towards him One would think it no uneasie matter to perswade our selves to forgive very heartily the Spitefullest most malicious enemies whilst we take notice that Christ shed even his pretious blood for those that carried in their breasts the greatest malignity against him and bare him the most deadly hatred that he suffered death for those which in the Cruellest manner they were able took away his life What temptation can be forcible enough to prevail upon us sinners to murmure and repine at the hand of God in the afflictions he inflicts upon us while we observe how much greater sufferings than ours are were with profoundest Submission to and likewise the heartiest approbation of the Divine Will endured by the not onely perfectly innocent but also the highly meriting and infinitely Well deserving Jesus Fourthly As the Death of Christ was likewise a Sacrifice for sin it was in an Eminent manner effectual to this great purpose In the death of Christ considered as an Expiatory and Propitiatory Sacrifice is the offence that God Almighty hath taken against sin and the hatred he bears to it as well as his Love to us sinners infinitely declared in that he would not forgive it to us without the intervention of no meaner an offering than the Blood of his onely-begotten Son Observe what the Apostle S. Paul saith to this Purpose Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Iesus The Plain sense of which words as I conceive is this That God might at one and the same time demonstrate how holy he
all but in that he liveth he liveth unto God that is in heaven with God Likewise reckon ye your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord that is after the Example of his Death and Resurrection account ye your selves obliged to die to Sin and to live to the Praise and Glory of God And the same use that the Apostle here makes of the Resurrection of our Saviour he doth also elsewhere of his Ascension and session at the Right hand of God Coloss. 3. 1. 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the Right Hand of God set your Affections on things above not on things on the earth for you are dead that is in profession having engaged your selves to renounce your past wicked life and your life is hid with Christ in God c. that is and the life you have by embracing the Christian Religion obliged your selves to lead is in Heaven where Christ is So that this sheweth the Informations the Gospel gives us of these things to be intended for Practical purposes and Incitements to Holiness And Christ's Resurrection with his following Advancement we are frequently minded of to teach us this most excellent Lesson that Obedience Patience and Humility are the way to Glory and therefore to encourage us to be followers of Him to tread in his holy steps and make him our Pattern This we have in the fore cited place Phil. 2. 5 6 7 c. And Hebr. 12. 1 2. We are exhorted to lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and to run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Iesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Gross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God And vers 3. To consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself that is especially how he is now rewarded for it lâ—…st we be weary and faint in our Minds And that the meaning of our being so often minded of our Saviour's coming again to Iudgement is to stir us up to all holiness of conversation who can be so ignorant as not to know For we are sufficiently told that we must be judged according to our Works especially such works as the Hypocrites of this age do most despise leave to be chiefly performed by their contemned Moralists as appears from Mâ—… 25. 34. to the end of the Chapter And Lastly that is very certain which is intimated in the 123 Page of the Free Discourse Namely That all the Doctrines of the Gospel as merely speculative as some at the first sight may seem to be have a tendency to the promoting of Real righteousness holiness and are revealed for that purpose But as I did not there so neither will I here proceed to shew it in all the several instances or in any more than I have now done and that for the reason that is there given But besides I conceive that what hath been discoursed already in this Section is abundantly sufficient to demonstrate what we have undertaken viz. That to make men truly vertuous and holy is the design the main and onely design of Christianity SECT II. Upon what accounts the Business of making men Holy came to be preferred by our Saviour before any other thing and to be principally designed by him CHAP. IX Two Accounts of this The first That this is to do the greatest good to men And that the Blessing of making men Holy is of all other the Greatest proved by several Arguments viz. First That it containeth in it a Deliverance from the worst of Evils and Sin shewed so to be I Proceed in the next place to shew how it comes to pass that of all other good things the making Man-kind truly vertuous and Holy is the grand and special Design of Christianity There are these two Accounts to be given of it First This is to do the Greatest Good to Men. Secondly This is to do the Best Service to God First The Making of us really Righteous and Holy is the Greatest Good that can possibly be done to us There is no blessing comparable to that of Purifying our Natures from Corrupt affections and induing them with Vertuous and Divine qualities The wiser sort of the Heathens themselves were abundantly satisfied of the truth of this And therefore the only design they professed to drive at in their Philosophy was the Purgation and Perfection of the Humane life Hierocles makes this to be the very Definition of it And by the purgation of mens lives he tells us is to be understood the Cleansing of them from the dregs and silth of unreasonable appetites and by their perfection the Recovery of that Excellency which reduceth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Divine likeness Now the Blessing of making men Holy is of all the greatest First Because it contains in it a Deliverance from the worst of Evils Those are utterly ignorant of the nature of Sin that imagine any evil greater than it or so great It was the Doctrine of the Stoicks that there is nothing evil but what is turpe vitiosum vile and vicious And Tully himself who professed not to be bound up to the Placita of any one Sect of Philosophers but to be free-minded and to give his Reason it s full scope and liberty takes upon him sometimes most stiffly and seemingly in very good earnest to maintain it dispute for it But as difficult as I find it to brook that Doctrine as they seem to understand it that more modest saying of his in the first book of his Tusculan Questions hath without doubt not a little of truth in it viz. That there is no evil comparable to that of Sin Hierocles a sober Philosopher and very free from the high-flown humour and Ranting genius of the Stoicks though he would allow that other things besides Sin may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very grievous and difficult to be born yet he would admit nothing besides this to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly evil and he gives this reason for it viz. Because that certain Circumstances may make other things good that have the repute of evils but none can make this so He saith that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 well can never be joyned with any vice but so may it with every thing besides As it is proper to say concerning such or such a person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is well diseased he is well poor that is he is both these to good purpose behaving himself in his sickness and poverty as he ought to do but proceeds he it can never be said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. he doth injury well or he is rightly and as becomes him intemperate Now that wickedness is the greatest of evils is