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
Patrons of Physical Predetermination would do well to consider 6. But when I make it necessary to the imputableness of an action that it be freely exerted I would not be understood of an immediat Freeness For certainly those rooted and confirm'd sinners who have by long use reduced themselves under a necessity of sinning are never the more excusable for the impotence they have contracted If there was Liberty in the Principle 't is sufficient 7. The next requisite and that which gives the last and finishing stroke to Formal sin is that it proceeds from the will sufficiently instructed by the understanding That is to make a man sin formally 't is requisite that he has not only a Power of avoiding that action which is a transgression of the Law but that he also know it to be a Transgression of the Law at least that he be in a capacity so to do that so he may be induced to exert that Power And 't is also necessary that he know that he commits it that is he must have or at least be in a capacity of having both notitia Juris and notitia Facti 8. The former of these depends upon that common Principle that Laws do not oblige till they are publish'd according to that known Maxime of the Canon Law Leges constituuntur cum promulgantur and that of the Civilians Leges quae constringunt hominum vitas intelligi ab omnibus debent And the latter also depends upon the equity of the same Principle tho somewhat more remotely for without this the Law with relation to that particular instance cannot be said to be properly known For altho I know such a species of action suppose Adultery to be a transgression of the Law yet if I know not that by such a particular instance I commit it I cannot be said to know that this my action is a Transgression of the Law and consequently supposing this my ignorance invincible am wholly excusable as appears in the case of Abimelech when he took Abraham's wife 9. So that to the Constitution of Formal sin these two things are required 1st that the Transgressor have a Power either immediatly or at least in the Principle of not doing that action which is a Transgression 2ly that he either do or may know that act to be a Transgression of the Law and likewise that he know when he commits it And thus have I shewn the rise progress and maturity of sin I have presented to view both the imperfect Embryo and the full proportion'd and animated Monster All which I shall briefly comprize in that compendious description of St. James Lust when it is conceiv'd bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finish'd bringeth forth death 10. There is one thing behind relating to the nature of sin in common which I shall briefly consider and that is whether its nature be Positive or Privative The latter is generally held both by Metaphysitians Moralists and Divines but upon what sufficient grounds I could never yet understand The Formal part of sin without all Question is Positive as is plain from the very notion of it For it denotes only that special Dependence which an irregular act has upon the will which is the same as well as the common substance of the act both in good and bad actions and consequently alike Positive 11. All the controversy therefore remains concerning the Material part of sin whether that be Positive or Privative And this too not with respect to the mere Act for that without question is positive but with respect to the irregularity of it 12. Here then I consider that according to the foregoing measures the irregularity of an action is not only its aberration from the Rule but its crossing or going contrary to it For 't is not only its not promoting but its opposing or at least its natural aptness to oppose the greatest and best of ends So that 't is not so properly an irregularity as a contra-regularity And therefore good and bad actions are not privatively but contrarily opposed and consequently both positive for contrarys are always so 13. For as to be in pain is not Privatively but contrarily opposed to being Happy for Pain is something more than want of Happiness so that action which causes Pain or misery is not Privatively but contrarily opposed to that which is effective of Happiness and consequently is as Positive as the other 14. Those sins which bid the fairest for Privation are sins of Omission But even these if we consider their Nature will appear to be also Positive For to speak properly their irregularity does not lye in the not doing or the not willing to do what ought to be done but in the willing not to do it But to will the not doing of a thing is as positive as the willing to do it as being not contradictorily or privatively but contrarily opposed to it The sins therefore of Omission are as Positive as those of Commission The only difference is that the Positiveness of sins of Commission lies both in the Habitude of the will and in the executed act too whereas the Positiveness of sins of Omission is in the Habitude of the will only 15. And what is here determin'd concerning Moral evil will I suppose hold equally true in all evil except only that which is Absolute that is whose evil is not its noxiousness to any thing else but only the want of some constituent Perfection due to its self according to that distinction mention'd by Suarez in his Disputation de Malo of Malum in se and malum alteri This indeed does import no more than a Privation And this I suppose might be the occasion of mistake to those who first thought Moral evil to consist in a Privation only for Absolute evil does so and they as I intimated above took Moral evil to be a kind of absolute Nature 16. Many things I know might be and are commonly objected against the Positiveness of sin but I can think but of one that 's worth considering which is that if Sin be positive it will be a real Entity and if so then we are press'd with a double absurdity 1st that God will be the Author of it as being the efficient cause of all Entity 2ly that it will be good goodness being a necessary Affection of Ens. 17. To this I answer 1st that I not only freely acknowledg but contend that sin is a real Entity But then I distingush of Entity There are Physical and there are Moral Entitys By the latter which alone needs explication I understand certain modes of determination superadded to Physical things or motions by intelligent Beings in order either to the interest or disinterest of the universe 18. This being premised I answer to the first part of the objection by denying that it hence follows that God is the Author of sin God indeed is the Author of all Physical Beings and Motions but not of those modes of
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
proper difficulties and Agonies of a Vertuous engagement we add those calamities and straits it oftentimes exposes us to through the malice and folly of the world So that as Plato writ upon his School 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let none enter here that understands not Mathematics it may be set as a Motto upon the School of Vertue Let none enter here that wants Courage And as 't is necessarily requisite to the susception of all other vertues so is it their main support guardian and establishment Without this every other Vertue is precarious and lies at the mercy of every cross accident Without this let but a Pistol be held to the breast and the severest Chastity will be frighted into compliance the most Heroic Friendship into treachery and the most ardent Piety into renunciation of God and Religion There is nothing among all the frailnesses and uncertaintys of this sublunary world so tottering and unstable as the vertue of a Coward He has that within him that upon occasion will infallibly betray every vertue he has and to secure him from sin you must keep him from Temptation This was the Principle the Devil went upon in his encounter with Job Do but put forth thy hand says he to God and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to thy face He was right enough in the Proposition tho mistaken in the application Having now seen the usefulness of this great Vertue 't will be worth while to enquire a little into its Nature And that the rather because 't is not only variously and falsly apprehended by the many but too confusedly and darkly deliver'd even by Moralists themselves That which with the Vulgar passes for Courage is certainly nothing else but stupidity desperateness or fool-hardiness a brutish sort of Knight-errantry in seeking out needless encounters and running into dangers without fear or wit which is so far from having the fore-mention'd property of Courage of being a guardian and security of our Vertues that 't is in it self a sin But are we like to have a better account of it from the Moralists why they tell you that it is a Mediocrity between Fear and Boldness So Aristotle in his Ethics But then as for defining what this Mediocrity is wherein the very point of the business lies you are as much to seek as ever Others will tell you that 't is a firmness of mind in sustaining evils and undertaking dangers Accordingly they assign two parts of Courage Sustinere Aggredi Thus Epictetus and the School of the Stoics But what it is thus firmly to sustain or undertake an evil and what evils are to be thus sustain'd or undertaken they either could not or have not thought fit to acquaint us In order therefore to the settling the Point in hand I consider 1st in general that Courage has evil of Pain for its object which in some circumstances is to be chosen or submitted to Whence I form this general Idea of Courage that 't is a firm and peremptory resolution of Mind to chuse evil of Pain in right circumstances or when 't is truly eligible This Definition I confess runs in general Terms much like one of Aristotles but I intended it for no other Only it has this advantage above his that it lays a Foundation for one that is more particular For 't is but here to subjoin when an evil is truly eligible and the Idea of Courage will be sufficiently determinate and express Now to make a thing eligible 't is necessary that some way or other it appear good evil being no way eligible under its own formality And to make an evil put on the nature and appearance of good two things are necessary 1st that it be a lesser evil than some other and 2ly that the chusing of it be a necessary Medium for the preventing of that other Then and in no other case is evil truly eligible and consequently we shall not be mistaken in the Idea of Courage if we define it to be such a firm and constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or disposition of mind whereby a man is fix'd and determin'd never to dread any evil so far as to decline it when the chusing it is the only remedy against a greater And this is most eminently signalized in the case of Martyrdom when a man submits to the greatest evils of Pain to avoid that much greater one of Sin. This is the very summity and perfection of Courage that which an Hannibal or a Scipio could never equal in all their gallantry and feats of war and I dare venture to pronounce that he who would rather dye or part with any worldly interest than commit a sin can never be a Coward And here I cannot but take notice of a false notion of Honour and Courage whereby the world has been generally abused especially those men that make the highest pretensions to both According to these mens Measures of things 't is sufficient reason to post a man up for a Coward if he refuse a Duell And to merit a badge of Honour from the Herald's Office if he accept it These men would be ready to laugh at me I know as a lover of Paradoxes should I tell them that their characters must be quite transposed to make them true And yet I cannot help it so it falls out that he who declines the Duell is indeed the man of Honour and Courage and he who accepts it is the Coward For he who declines it despises the obloquy and scorn of the world that he may approve himself to God and his own Conscience would rather be pointed and hiss'd at than be damn'd and so chuses a lesser evil to avoid a greater But he that accepts the Duel so dreads the loss of his credit among those whose good opinion is of no value that to avoid it he chuses to incur sin and damnation and so chuses a greater evil to avoid a less And if this be Courage we must strike it out of the Catalogue of the Vertues for nothing is so that is not under the direction of Prudence much less what is down-right Folly and the very exaltation of Madness Of Seriousness SInce I began to consider so far as to make Reflections upon my self the most early and prevailing disposition which I observ'd was an Inclination to Seriousness and since I consider'd the nature of things and the circumstances of Human life I found I had reason to thank the kind influence of my birth for making that my Temper which otherwise I must have been at more cost to acquire For tho it be generally reckon'd only as a Semi-vertue and by some as no vertue at all yet certainly nothing is of greater advantage both as to Intellectual and Moral attainments than to be of a serious composed and recollected spirit If it be not it self a vertue 't is at least the Soil wherein it naturally grows and the most visible mark whereby to know those that have
both the world's and his own rest to make himself great For besides the emptiness of the thing the Play will quickly be done and the Actors must all retire into a state of equality and then it matters not who personated the Emperor or who the Slave To what purpose should a man be very earnest in the persuit of Fame He must shortly dye and so must those too who admire him Nay I could almost say to what purpose should a man lay himself out upon study and drudge so laboriously in the Mines of Learning He 's no sooner a little wiser than his Brethren but Death thinks him ripe for his sickle and for ought we know after all his pains and industry in the next world an Ideot or a Mechanic will be as forward as he To what purpose lastly does a Tyrant oppress his people transgress those bounds which wise Nature has set him invade his neighbor's Countrys deprive the innocent and peaceable of their Liberty sack Cities plunder Provinces depopulate Kingdoms and almost put the foundations of the Earth out of course to what purpose is all this Thou Fool says our B. Saviour this night thy Soul shall be required of thee and then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided There is certainly nothing in all Nature so strange and unaccountable as the actions of some men They see as the Psalmist speaks that wise men also dye and perish together as well as the ignorant and foolish and leave their riches for others and yet they think at least act as if they did that their houses shall continue for ever and that their dwelling places shall endure from one generation to another and call their lands after their own names This they think is their wisdom but the Psalmist assures them 't is their foolishness and such a foolishness too as makes them comparable to the Beasts that perish however their Posterity may praise their saying And certainly the Learned Apostle was of the same mind when from this Principle The time is short he deduces the very same conclusion we have hitherto pleaded for that we should be very indifferent and unconcern'd about any worldly good or evil that they that have wives should be as tho they had none and they that weep as the they wept not they that rejoice as tho they rejoiced not they that buy as tho they possest not and they that use this world as not abusing it for the fashion of this world passes away It does so and for that reason there is nothing in this life to be very much lov'd or very much fear'd especially if we consider what a grand interest we have all of us at stake in the other world For as 't is with the sufferings so is it with the enjoyments of this present time they are neither of them worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed We have seen how frivolous and unconcerning the greatest affairs of this world are how unworthy to be made the objects of our solicitude much more to be the Business of our lives we have weigh'd them in the Ballance and they are found wanting But man is a Creature of brisk and active facultys and is there no employment for him yes as God has furnish'd him with Powers so also has he assign'd him a work and such a one too as is to be perform'd with Fear and Trembling There is a good fight to be fought there is a whole Body of sin to be destroy'd there are Passions to be mortify'd Habits to be unlearnt Affections to be purify'd Vertuous and holy dispositions to be acquired Acts of vertue to be opposed against Acts of sin and Habits against Habits in a word there is a Heaven to be obtain'd and a Hell to be avoided This indeed is a great work and of great concernment to be done and such as calls for our principal I could almost say our whole care and diligence The great necessity of which for more distinctness sake I shall represent in a few Considerations And I st it highly concerns us to be very careful concerning our final interest because of the vast the infinite Moment of the thing For certainly it can be no less whether a man shall be Damn'd or Saved eternally Happy or eternally Miserable No man certainly that thinks at all can think this an indifferent matter or if he does he will one day be sadly convinc'd of the contrary when he shall curse the day of his Birth and wish for the Mercy of Annihilation The lowest conception we can frame of the condition of the Damn'd is an utter exclusion from the Beatific presence of God. And tho the non-enjoyment of this be no great punishment to sensual men in this state and Region of exile who perhaps would be content that God should keep Heaven to himself so he would let them have the free use of the Earth yet hereafter when the Powers of their Souls shall be awaken'd to their full vigour and activity when they shall have a lively and thorough apprehension of true Happiness and of the infinite Beautys of the Supreme good there will arise such a vehement Thirst such an intense longing in the Soul as will infinitely exceed the most exalted languishments of Love the highest Droughts of a Fever The Soul will then point to the Center of Happiness with her full bent and verticity which yet she shall find utterly out of her reach and so full of Desire and full of Despair she shall lament both her Folly and her Misery to eternal ages And who is able to dwell even with these everlasting Burnings But 2ly as an Argument for our great Care we may consider that as the interest is great so a more than ordinary care is necessary to secure it And that upon several accounts I st because our Redemption by Christ is not our immediat and actual discharge from sin as the Antinomians would have it but only an instating us into a Capacity of Pardon and Reconciliation which is to be actually obtain'd by the performance of Conditions without which we shall be so far from being the better for what has been done and suffer'd for us that our Condemnation will be so much the heavier for neglecting to finish so great Salvation 2ly Because the Conditions of our Salvation tho temper'd with much mercy and accommodation to human infirmity are yet so difficult as to engage us to put forth our whole might to the work A great part of Christianity is very harsh to Flesh and Blood however to the Habituated Disciple Christ's yoke may be easy and his burthen light And accordingly the Path that leads to life is call'd narrow and the gate tho open'd by our Saviour is yet so strait that we are bid to strive to enter in at it And the Righteous scarcely are sav'd Again because there is a strong confederacy against us among the Powers of darkness We have a very
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