the Same Power that caused the Creature to be and continueth its Being can be suppos'd a reason of its Cessation We can prove no such Death as an Adnihillation of any thing nor does it appear to any that consider the matter that even any Bodily Creature ceaseth to be But the contrary might be shewn by many Arguments if it were doubted of Even those things which seem to the ignorant and inconsiderate to be most likely to be destroyed such as things that are burnt I can at any time demonstrate even to the eye that none of their parts cease but are only separated or altered The Death of the Body is but some kind of alteration or change of its Modes or Circumstances as a Separation of the parts of its Organical Structure or an Alteration of such and such Motions requisite to continue its Particular Mechanism or Animal Oeconomy The Body remains I mean all the Matter of it after the Division of its parts and it cannot rationally be suppos'd that the Mind the more Substantial and as all are ready to acknowledge the more Noble Part of Man should suffer more alteration by the Dissolution of the Body than the Body it self does The Change the Body undergoes is apparent but what Change you will say may the Mind be reasonnably suppos'd to suffer at its Separation from the Body or whether not enough to be call'd Death Many Treatises have been written and Discourses made to prove the Immortality of the Soul and some for its suppos'd Mortality but the Authors have not been so happy as to agree in the Notion of Life and Death with one another nor all so considerate as to fix any determinate Notion for themselves or to tell their Readers what they mean by its Living or Dying so that it may be true or false for them But I shall here state the question more plainly and tell you first that by the Life of the Soul I mean a Continuation of Thinking or of Understanding and Willing Where there are these Actions and Passions there is enough to be call'd Life and that which better deserves to be named Living than any whatsoever Organization and Motion in Bodies And the plain Question is this Whether upon the Death or Dissolution of the Body Thinking wholly ceaseth A Cessation of some of the Modes of Thinking cannot be enough to be properly call'd the Death of the Soul for so it would not only be always dying but dead as it alters so continually at least every night and day An Alteration of some of the Modes of Thinking may in a figurative and improper Sense be called Death but the Question is not of any such Death It is probable that many if not all those Thoughts and Ideas we have by occasion or on condition of our Body as so and so disposed may cease tho' it cannot easily be thought absolutely necessary for we cannot conceive the Body to be a natural Occasion of any Thoughts but so by the Will of God who if he please we may well think can cause the same Ideas and Thoughts without it tho' it seems not to any purpose or probable that he will For on the other hand it is more likely that God permitted Death for the Cessation of those Thoughts or at least many of them the Body is the occasion of since Man's fall into Sin in Good and Bad For as much as we are tempted to most of our Disorders by occasion of the Body and to gratifie some Sense or other disorderly or besides the Direction and Will of God seems to be the first and most constant Temptation every Man is drawn aside with Now the Good Man or Repenting Sinner through the Goodness of God on this Supposition of such Thoughts ceasing gets this by Death tho' in it self an Evil that he is freed from all the Allurements of this Life occasioned by his use of this Body The undue Gratifications of Sense can now no more perswade him the unprofitable care of avoiding little Bodily Displeasures now takes not up his Thoughts the Difficulties from the Injustice and Cruelty of Sinners press him now no more to act against his Maker's Will but he seems perfectly freed from Temptation having perhaps now no Object of desire present but God and nothing to interpose for his Love as a Rival with his Maker Nothing now seems necessary for him to know but God and himself Nor needs he or values he could he have them any little pleasures in Creatures when he is at God the Fountain and Cause of all On the other side the Evil Man also looses all those Gratifications of Sense he so much affected and erringly counted his chiefest Good and must needs find that he foolishly set his Heart on that which would not make him happy but so soon left him And as his Will is not reconcil'd and subjected to God's but he desires still that which cannot be God cannot so communicate himself to him to make him joyous but he must be subject to all that Anguish that the Reflection on the loss of the Creatures he so much delighted in and that he hath miss'd the Fountain of all Good can cause in him with all the Vexation and Trouble that all the disorderly Thoughts of such a Soul can raise to it self But to come to the point in hand again It cannot well be thought that the Soul or Mind of either Good or Bad should die or Thinking wholly and for ever cease or yet for a time upon the Body's Death because the Continuation of Thinking or Life of the Soul can't rationally be suppos'd to depend on the Body a thing more ignoble than it self being very unlikely to be its cause but upon the Will of God its Author And God cannot well be suppos'd thus to let any of his Creatures cease or disown his Works that are good as the Beings of all things are much less can Minds the Intelligent and Active Beings be thought to be adnihilated or cease Thinking so soon and to no purpose Change they may and do as all Creatures are mutable but what of God would be seen in the Cessation of any especially of Minds who are the only kind of Beings capable of beholding God If the Soul ceaseth to think and so dies more than a figurative Death it ceaseth to be for Thinking and Mind are the same Being which if you will not be perswaded to believe you must at least acknowledge them inseparable For a Mind that does not think or a Thinker that cannot think is a Contradiction and to call that a Power or Agent that can do nothing is absurd for that which can do nothing is no Power or Agent and a Power or Agent that will do nothing is as great a Contradiction for Willing is Doing even Thinking Again Nothing is more strongly implanted I may say concreated in the Mind of Man than a desire to continue and if Being is good the Continuation of Being is good
if the Desire to continue be good God is the Cause and Implanter of such a Desire and consequently wills we should have such a Desire I think none can but desire to continue if it were the Will of God we should cease to be the desire to continue would be a Sin but God can't be suppos'd to will we should desire that which he don't will should be that would be to will us to will contrary to his Will Now whatever God wills to continue cannot be supposed to cease If God wills to manifest himself in and to his Creatures to be loved and feared by them he must continue them for by their Cessation all these things will cease and be impossible Every Good Man that loves God would continue to love him it 's God's Will he should love him Can God be suppos'd to make him cease to love his Maker To what purpose Let it but be granted that it is not God's Will I should cease to love him and the Immortality of my Soul is secured for while I love I live viz. mentally Nor can the Evil Man that don't love God nor fear to act contrary to his Will be suppos'd to be for ever or for a long time exempted from the Evils of his Rebellion against his Maker or rendered by God himself uncapable of all Conviction Or can it be thought probable that God should make Creatures to deny him a little while and then cease under so great a Mistake as never to believe and confess God to be their Sovereign Lord and Sufficient Benefactor But if God approve himself and his own Works he will rather continue them and suffer them to make themselves miserable and find they are not God's than not assert himself God one way or other to all his Intelligent Creatures Besides the Soul either of Good or Bad cannot with any reason be suppos'd to cease for a time and then be again for if it cease to be it is not and nothing can be properly affirm'd or deny'd but of that which is Where there is no Being neither Life nor Death can be asserted So that if a Soul cease to be and a Soul be afterwards it cannot be the same but a new one to whom can be charged no account of the ceased Souls past Actions There must be a Continuation of Being or there can be no Identity or Sameness and the Essentials of the thing must remain or there is not the thing but another If there be not a Continuation of Thinking and Conscience of former Thoughts it cannot be conceived how the Sameness of a Mind can be ascertained and if a Soul in this present State be wicked and cease at the Dissolution of the Body it can neither be just nor good that a new one should be miserable because the ceased Soul was unrighteous nor be determined what new one should be so Nor that a Soul penitent in this World should not it self be happy hereafter but have its hopes of future Happiness utterly frustrated and be put off with the Mock-happiness of being happy in another Soul What Encouragement can I have to my Duty if I suppose I must not continue to the Perfection and Happiness of my Obedience but must perish and only now be contented to think that God will create a Soul hereafter and perhaps give it my Dust to be happy because I only began to be holy Or how shall I be deterr'd from Sin if I am perswaded I my self must be discontinued and that it is not I but another Mind that is in danger of everlasting Vexation it may be with my old Body if I now die impenitent When we say a Man is dead if we talk like Rational Creatures we must have some determinate Sense of those words He is dead Who is dead He. The He or Person must remain What is dead Such a thing A Man The thing or Man is tho'dead A Man is a Compound of Soul and Body Or a Mind doing and suffering with or by occasion of an Organical Body A Man's being dead is the Cessation of this manner of Life not of either of the Components Beings or Essential Properties The Body unacted by the Mind is useless among Men and tends to Corruption or Dissolution of parts so the Living put it out of their sight the Soul or Mind is invisible of its self and can neither converse with Men nor Men with it without the use of Body so when separate it is not to Men yet it no way follows but that it may well be to God and to it self which is Being enough But the Soul consider'd apart can have no Dissolution of parts having none to be separated nor can it die otherwise than in a figurative or Metaphorical Sense As it may be said to be morally dead or dead in Sin when it is impenitent and not conformable to its Duty To be Spiritually dead when it thinks not of or is not busied about Spiritual things To be dead to Sin or dead to this World when its disorderly Thoughts or undue Manners of Thinking on earthly vile sordid things cease It may be said to be dead to Joy or Comfort when it has lost all pleasant Thoughts and has only grievous horrid anxious ones without all hope or rest continually and if such a State always continue whether the Soul be separate from or joyned to a Body it is that which is properly call'd everlasting Death Thus I think it is apparent that the Soul is immortal and that which is its proper or natural Life viz. Thinking does not cease Tho' to suppose the Soul immortal of its own Nature or that it is or has any thing in it self which necessarily infers its Continuance would be as great or a greater Error than to fancy it mortal for that would be to suppose it immortal as its Author is But it cannot be suppos'd thus to be immortal for whatsoever had a Beginning or had not Being always may be supposed to have an End and cease to be Such are all Creatures who would fall into nothing if God should not will their Continuance But that he does will them to continue I think we may be perswaded by the foregoing Considerations 32. Moreover we have not only reason to believe that Souls do continue tho' separate from that is disusing their Bodies and such a Life they lived with them but that they shall have their Bodies again after some time because the end of the Souls having a Body cannot easily be thought to be fully attained in this Life This material World seems to be made chiefly for Man to be concern'd with and the things therein to be Objects of his Knowledge and Subjects of his Actions It is by means of his Body that he is now capable of knowing and acting in Bodily Nature but what he knows and does therein is so imperfect notwithstanding all the Wonders that have come within the reach of his Understanding and great things have
be and shall be hereafter But of this I shall speak more when the Order of my Discourse brings me to it again By the Knowledge of God and our selves which we may have these three ways we are rationally led or perswaded to will well by conforming our Wills to the Will of God The Knowledge of God howsoever attained may be divided into Two Heads First That he is or that there is a God Secondly What he is The Knowledge of our selves likewise will bear the same division The Knowledge of what God is may also be divided in two parts First What he is in himself Secondly What he is in relation to his Creatures 3. Now that we may find out and prove to our selves the Existence of a Divine Being or God let us descend into our selves the nearest step we can make and plainest way we can go and that which I here shall choose to take leaving those other more commonly traced paths and see what Arguments we can find within us for the being of a God yea by what necessity we are compell'd to acknowledge that he is First Every Man hath a Sense or Experience of the Reality of his own Being certain beyond all demonstration so that none can doubt of his own Existence or needs to have it proved and if any could here doubt that very doubting would certifi◠him that he hath a Being or is For if there be a Doubting an Enquiring a Supposing a Will to know c. there is something Actions and Passions cannot be without Being or where there is no Being of nothing nothing can be suppos'd affirm'd or denied So that it would be but time lost to go about to convince a Man of his own Being of which he cannot but be certain and what he cannot deny but he will at the same time affirm himself a wilful Lyer 4. We shall therefore consider in the next place so far as our present business in finding a Divine Being requires what we are And because I have but now made mention of Doubting and Considering and find Men so apt to doubt question and consider what we are as to our Essence or Being as well as of other things I say we are Doubters Questioners Considerers and Supposers But what is Doubting Questioning Supposing and Considering It is Thinking and that an imperfect Thinking Thinking that wants something in which we find an incompleat defective Understanding and a Will or Desire of something we have not Now where-ever is found any thing of Ignorance in the Understanding or any want of Power in the Will it appears that that Being cannot in any wise be thought to be of it self or self-sufficient but must consequentially be acknowledg'd to be dependent having some other Being its cause For he that finds himself insufficient to himself can in no wise be thought to be sufficient of himself He that not only wants something he may have but moreover cannot give himself what he wants is dependent on something else for some addition when a Being that is independant and self-sufficient in its Essence cannot be supposed to need another than its own Understanding and Will on any account We all find in our selves a want of Knowledge we know but a few things and we know but a little of those few things we know and moreover of those things we do know we come to the Knowledge of one after another so that we are sometime ignorant of what we afterwards know yea in all our Thoughts we find a constant succession of one Thought after another we cannot think of all we think together but we forget one thing while we consider another and we do not see it possible that it should ever be otherwise with us which Imperfection of the succession of Thoughts one after another in spiritual Natures or Minds is the notion of Time and that for which they are said to be in Time or Timous Beings and would be so if there were no motion of Bodies or Body at'll and while there is any Mind having this succession of Thoughts afore and after Time is and will be and that Mind in Time or Timous Notwithstanding the Fancy of those who talk of Souls going into Eternity or being eternal à parte post on the after half half eternal which is a whole Contradiction Now where there is a succession of Thoughts one after another there was a precedure of them one before another till we come to a first or beginning Thought which with us is past and what is past was present and future and what was future was not then in actual being the same must be said of Men or other things that are before one another as well as of Thoughts there must be a first and where a thing was not but only might be if it be or begin it must be begun and what is begun must have a Cause or be begun by another it cannot be its own efficient for so it would be suppos'd to be before it is which is a Contradiction Now if there be something that began to be as we must conclude of our selves there must be a Cause of our beginning which Cause did not begin to be for if it had it had been alike insufficient and it-self wanted a Cause and so must be caused and so we must run on tell we come to a first Cause which is sufficient and necessary of it-self always the same and this first Cause is God And as we find our selves from our imperfect Understandings and successive Thoughts necessitated to grant our selves caused and that the Cause of our Being must be sufficient of it-self or perfect if we come to the particular Consideration of our Wills we shall find two things there denoteing Imperfection and Insufficiency First Variableness Secondly Impotence As to the Variableness of Will we all find our Wills changeable sometimes willing one thing then another yea sometimes one thing then the contrary in which Variableness of Will is also seen a farther Imperfection of our Understanding For we will the thing which at the present appears best to us but what at one time seems good or best at another is not so in our Judgment but bad Now at one of these times the Judgment fails and errs Secondly We find the Impotence of our Wills in that we will things we cannot effect This every one is sensible of he that affects to be an Atheist himself We see a Defect in our Knowledge often we would know somethings we don't know and what we cannot cause our selves to know when we would likewise we would sometimes do the things we find we cannot do so we still find our selves insufficient so that there may be something added to our Knowledge nay we find there daily is which we at our pleasure cannot add and that there may be some increase of our power which we of our selves cannot cause How will this prove a God may the Atheist say I answer most evidently For
what He is I shall now go on to consider a little more largely both our selves and God as to what kind of Beings we are and what God may and must rationally be thought to be And as I say I shall consider and consider our selves first I say First We are Considerers What is Considering It is Thinking and he that considers or thinks seriously will find nothing which he can properly call Himself but Thinking or his Mind That Organick Frame or Body of a Man is not the Possessor of a Mind or the self-using a Mind but a thing the Mind or Cogitation uses that which saith I Me Mine is the Mind and nothing else And tho' Thinking is call'd by divers Names as Soul Mind Understanding Will Memory Conscience c. yet it is all the while but one thing Thinking The principal Diversity of which we can possibly make is but according to its divers Applications to its Objects which if well consider'd can be but two 1st Understanding 2d Will Or in other words Knowledge and Desire Under these two Heads or Divisions come all the Modes of Thinking The threefold Division of our Mind into Understanding Conscience and Will which some make and call the Threefoldness of a Creature is not Good but a Mistake for Conscience differs not from Understanding but in respect of the Objects Other things or Self for whether I know my own Thoughts or know any other thing it is Knowledge still the Understanding is understanding as much when apply'd to one Object as when apply'd to another Conscience is but another name for Understanding when apply'd to one's own Thoughts So Memory is but the Thinking again that we thought before of such or such a thing I need name no more any one may find who considers the matter that our Knowledge of things and the Acts of our Wills or our Desires about them are the two essential Parts or rather Modes or Properties we can make in any Mind and yet Knowing and Desiring or if you like better the words Understanding and Will what-ever the Object of either may be or the manner of their Application is still but one Thinking and my Thinking is one and the same Being whatever Mode or Object it hath and what I call my Mind or Soul my Self or Person So that Understanding and Will are essential to a Person or Intelligent Being this Duality and nothing else or but what is reduceable to these Where there is these there is a Person and what-ever is more or other than these is not of the Essence of a Person or Intelligent Being Those that make Understanding and Conscience two things in God consider'd in himself calling them two Modes or Relations or the like as some witty Men have done have not consider'd the matter closely For where there is nothing but God and nothing else is necessary and eternal his knowing himself or Conscience is the only necessary or essential Understanding there being no other Object So that to consider God as having necessarily or essentially an Understanding other and distinct from Reflection or Knowing himself is but to give him so no Understanding and comes to no Distinction at all That original Mind or Wisdom which some Wise Men of late talk of as something other than what they call Reflex Wisdom or God's Knowing himself considering God solitary and in himself is just no Wisdom his self being the only Object unless they perswade themselves that his thinking on Creatures is his Original Wisdom which I suppose they will hardly dare to do but this by the way Against this Notion That Thinking is the very Essence of the Mind or Soul the very Person or Self I find two principal Objections First That Thinking is not that which is real substantial or constant enough to be the Soul or Mind Secondly That it is but an Act and requires an Agent or an Attribute requiring a Subject which Agent or Subject is more likely to be the Soul or Mind To which first I answer That Thinking of any thing we can imagine is most real and constant for we may suppose Bodies not really existent but only in imagination and there is no notion we have of any thing but Body and Thinking wherefore we cannot honestly suppose any thing else but we cannot suppose Thinking to have no Being because while we suppose or think we are sure it is actually present we may suppose we might have been without the Ideas or Figure-thoughts of Bodies or any Thoughts that come by occasion of them as we find sometimes we are We may also suppose Bodies not to have been and yet we be they being not necessary Beings and if they had not been we must have always been without the Ideas of them For if we try we shall find it as hard as if we consider unreasonable to suppose that we can frame or stir up in our selves Thoughts of things that are not as that we can bring things into actual Being or Create the Creating of Perceptions of things I will call it being to be done by the same Power as the Creating of things themselves And we may suppose God himself being an Almighty Mind might have created Minds without Bodies the Notion of a Mind or Cogitation not necessarily including Body or quantity But to return As we find Thinking so real or truly existent that we experience its Existence when ever we consider it and cannot suppose any thing to be without supposing Self-existent Cogitation or Almighty Mind so as to the continual or perpetual Existence even of our Thinking I do not mean as apply'd to any one Object for it is variable and inconstant in that respect and as it is a Creature cannot be apply'd to many or all its Objects at once and yet it is still Thinking what-ever it is apply'd to As to its Continuation I say we know of no time since we began to think or have a Being wherein we did not think for what-ever we remember we remember we thought on Memory being but thinking over the same Thought with reflection on it and tho' we do not remember what we thought on at such or such a day or hour yet we are sure we then thought or were thinking To be short we are sure we continually think except in sleep say some which seems to be the chief Objection against continual Thinking To which I say we think always one Thought still following another Sleeping and Waking but we soon forget all those Thoughts that make no considerable Impression on our Wills or whereby we are very little affected In the continual Succession of Thoughts we experience when we are awake great numbers go as fast as they come without being dwelt on or repeated of those Objects that very little affect us and so are presently forgot and are as if they had not been or as if the Objects had not been in our Mind Besides as a great if not the greatest number of our Thoughts
are of and by the means of external things let in by the Organs of the Senses which are as Conditions in this life at least of our receiving such Cogitations the Indisposition of the Senses or want of those Conditions leaves us without those Thoughts if wholly indispos'd but if only in part the Thoughts are weak and pass unremembred and not reflected on and so are by some inconsiderately suppos'd not to have been But tho' our Eyes are shut in sleep and we then see nothing we have visible Ideas sometimes from the Remembrance of things seen tho' confused for no one born blind and so continuing ever dreams he sees yet the other Senses are not quite laid by we feel hear and smell c. tho' but remisly and our Thoughts or Perceptions are but faint and so it is no wonder if we forget them as fast as they pass and so suppose we had none And which to me makes the matter past doubt I have discours'd with a Person fast asleep who hath answer'd me distinctly to many Questions without so much as dreaming of any thing that was said But moreover if we do not think when asleep we do neither understand nor will or which is the same have no Understanding or Will but every Morning or perhaps twice or thrice every Night a new Mind for Understanding that understands not or Will that wills not is no Understanding or Will but an Absurdity And it is the same as to say I am Thinking and yet do not think But we remember we think sometimes in sleep and that strongly and though most commonly it is but weakly yet it is Thinking And such weak Thinking we may suppose a Child in the Womb may have none perhaps but what comes by Feeling or Tasting I speak according to the common Meaning for all Senses are but different ways of Feeling and yet the very Ideas that come by the grossest of the Senses are Thoughts still it being the Mind that perceives not the Body From these Considerations to name no more we may be perswaded that we always think tho' we don't always reflect and remember our Thoughts and so that Thinking is real and constant But to the second Objection That Thinking is but an Act of something else the Agent or an Attribute of something else the Subject I answer First by demanding what this more real and noble Agent is What Notion have we of it I have long try'd and can find nothing an Object of my Understanding but either Thinking or Body what others may chance to do who never try'd and are resolved they never will I know not Let them tell us what thought they have of it different from Body and Thinking if they can But if neither they nor we have any notion of such a third Being we cannot with any reason affirm any thing of it or that such a thing is If they have any thought of it they have some knowledge of it and so need not acknowledge themselves at such a loss as they commonly do when this Question is put them What is the Soul or expose themselves as they commonly do by talking of that whose Essence they acknowledge themselves wholly ignorant of But if any suppose Thinking an Action or Attribute of Body or that it is Body some way or other posited or moved how they cannot tell that is Thinking or that as they rather would say thinks they must suppose Body more noble as the Cause or Agent which I believe they will hardly do But we can suppose Body not to be we may be ignorant of it and yet think which could not be if it were Body that thinks besides if Body thinks it knows it self to think and so the Dispute is at an end but Body does not know it self to think because it is doubted whether it thinks or no Whatever thinks cannot be ignorant of its Thinking nor can any thing be well thought to be an Agent that is ignorant of its being so or does not will to be so If Body could be suppos'd to think and know it self to think it would be Thinking consequently not Body for of Body and Thinking there are wholly different Notions But Body we affirm to be no Agent of any thing or Creator of Ideas or Thoughts God alone must be supposs'd with good reason to be the Cause and Contriver of our Thinking As we find our Thoughts do not cause our Body much less can we suppose Body to cause our Thoughts or act any thing in us our Body is moved according to our Will and our Will and Understanding is often affected by means of our Body but Body is not the Cause or Agent of either Besides one half of our Thoughts are Passions nothing but our Desires or the Application of our Will about Objects seems properly our Action And tho' Thinking be look'd on as an Attribute requiring a Subject different we may as well suppose an essential Attribute or Attribute that is Identical the same with the thing it self in the created Mind as to say what-ever is in God is God or that there is not another thing which is not Wisdom Goodness Power c. which is God in which Wisdom Goodness Power c. reside as things accidental Nor is it so strange an Expression as that it may not be admitted to say Cogitatio est cogitans or Thinking thinks for in truth I take it to be the same as to say Thinking is Thinking which is no worse than an Identical Proposition But to leave this Question with these few touches to give others occasion to consider as besides my main purpose I shall pass to that Knowledge of our selves which most concerns us and even that Knowledge is the Knowledge of our selves as Thinking and that as Thinking well or ill If our Thoughts are well in order that something else that some fancy is the Agent of the Action Thinking in us that unknown Soul that Chimera or that Body whose Particles are very far from one another or friggle about very nimblely such is the common Notion of a Spirit is of little value If my Thoughts are duely apply'd to their due Objects I care not for that unknowable Soul for it is in the right order of our Thoughts that Happiness consists and whereby we come to attain the End of our Being 8. Having thus found our selves to be imperfect Minds variable limited caus'd or created Cogitations let us consider our Cause or Creator and that First as he must needs be thought to be in himself and then we shall the more fully discover the Second thing which hath been partly discours'd already What he is to us And the first notion that occurs to my Mind of God or the Cause of caused insufficient things as consider'd in himself is That he is Self-sufficient or Self existent Having found my self insufficient and consequently that I must have a Cause sufficient to be so which he could not be were he himself caused
been effected by his hand that we believe God will not let him loose his Body or cut the bond of Corporal and Spiritual Nature for ever but rather give it him again and that so alter'd as where-with he may be more capable of all those things he ought to do and be in Bodily Nature The Creatures inferiour to Man and subject to his Knowledge and use are but very little known or duly used in this Life therefore it is probable they will in another and without a Body we cannot see that the material World can signifie any thing to the Mind of Man Man at his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Dissolution probably ceases to be to the BodilyWorld and the Bodily World to him but in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Resurrection standing up or using a Body again he is again united to Bodily Nature to do and be something again therein And that he may be more capable of what he should be and do than he was in his first State or of finding the great Unreasonableness and Unhappiness of persisting in the contrary to his Duty it is requisite that the Body he receives should be altered or not exactly the same but otherwise modified so as to be capable of the state the Soul is then determined to And if we have reason to believe the Body shall be changed we cannot well think it shall be exactly the same numerical and like figured Parts of Matter it had before such a Supposition is needless as well as groundless if not contradictory The Body a Man of Forty or Fifty has is not the same numerical Matter he had at his Birth but has received the greatest part of its bulk from the various matters of his Food so that he was truly eating from his Trencher what is his Body But every Soul hath its own Body tho' the Body now be in continual change The Matter of the Bodies of Men and Brutes in the long tract of the Ages of this World hath been confounded and the same Matter or part of it that was the Body of one at one time has become the Body or part of the Body of another at another time but that needs not trouble us when the Sameness of a Person does not consist in the Sameness of the Matter of his Body but in the Continuation of his Thinking and Conscience of his Thoughts Nor perhaps have we any ground to suppose the raised Body will be altogether unchangeable it will be enough if to the happy it be such as will never any way hinder their Happiness to the wicked such as will continue tho' in the want of all the disorderly beloved Gratifications of Sense To believe the Possibility of a Soul 's having a Raised or Refitted Body either from the common Matter of the Earth or partly from those very Particles it formerly had is no difficulty when the Will of God is supposed the Cause Nor need we perswade the Possibility of a Recollection of dispersed Matter or tell you that even the Art of Man can gather together that which seems to be separated as much as a rotten Corps There is no manner of Difficulty or Contradiction in believing the Resurrection to those that believe a God The Difficulties that some have pretended in the notion of the Numerical Sameness of every Particle of Matter are nothing when we are no way obliged to believe it such a Resurrection 33. Moreover as all things in this sinful Life are very much out of order and Men do not sufficiently see their Disorders but think well of that which is ill and ill of that which is well It is very requisite and becoming the Perfections of God beseeming his Justice and Truth or his Approbation of his Will to Man and of his Constancy with the Manifestation of the true Causes of all Good and Evil that there should be some time or other after this Life for a time of Discovering Determination Judgment or Declaration of the Truth of things That the Work of Repentance and Obedience may be approved and appear to be good and most profitable for the Creature and Disobedience and Impenitence may be no more mistaken by Sinners for the way of Goodness and Happiness That Justice and Injustice may no more be taken one for the other that the Good may appear to be delivered from the power of the Wicked and the Wicked appear to be the Fools that were deceived And that the Truth of things may be most manifest and the Determination of them clear even to wicked Men it is not only highly probable but necessary that Men shall appear again in such Bodies as whereby they may be known to one another and these things be effected by such a means and in such a manner as may most aptly tend to the undoubted Determination of all things to their due and lasting Condition 34. Now as it is evident that Man's Business is to be conformable to the Will of his Maker according to that order the Most Wise thinks fit wherein his Perfections may be most seen and whereby the Creature may be most happy or pleas'd and since it is as evident that Man has failed and gone out of this order and vainly sought out himself an impossible way of Happiness wherein his Maker cannot be duly seen It follows that Man ought to repent and change his Mind To the doing of which it is necessary that Man should be capable of so doing It cannot be an immediate Obligation on a Creature to do what he cannot do Tho' the Creature has disobey'd yet the Obligation to future Obedience still remains so consequently a Capacity of obeying It would be very hard to be required to give what one has not and cannot have The Difficulty that may seem in several Instances wherein a Man may in some sort render himself uncapable of what he ought to do may be solved by this Consideration That Man cannot be thought to be disabled of a Will or Faculty of Desire While he has a Being he always wills or desires something and his Will is changeable by the strength of Argument or new appearance of Good from one thing to another There are the greatest Arguments on the side of Duty which may possibly appear to the Man whereby his Will may be changed and the willing according to God's Will is the act of Obedience which God accepts where the Soul cannot effect the outward things which are to Men the Testimonies Signs and Effects of it And such hearty Desires continued God often assists to be shewn forth and have their Effects to others or by his Providence some way or other rectifies the matter As for instance If a Man borrows Money spends it and then can't pay it he repents that he has done amiss desires and endeavours to get Money to pay but can't God forgives his Sin wherein he willed amiss accepts of his Will to pay for the deed supplies his Creditor another way or
and is kind unto the unthankful and the Evil he counsels us to imitate God Who tho' Men be Enemies to him does nothing to them but what may be an Argument to make them his Friends Is Hatred an uneasie Passion Let us love all Men and be at ease Would we have Friends Is it better to have many than few Operative Love reconciles Enemies and heaps Coals of Fire upon their Heads not to burn them but to melt them down into streams of Love We cannot well love our Enemies as such with a Love of Complacency but the working Love of Benevolence if we are good does as much as may be to make our Enemies such as God and we would have them when Hatred does but increase and continue Hatred The Goodness of God leads us inimical Sinners to Repentance and this God-like Behaviour in us is the greatest means we can possibly use and is often found effectual to turn the Arrows of Enmity against us into Beams of Love This reconciling Message of Heaven sent by Jesus Christ to rebellious Mortals the Enemies of God and one another is not without good reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Good Speech or Gospel teaching Love and Friendship as the Soul of all Duty and Essence of Happiness This Gospel is not improperly also call'd the Better Testament in comparison with the Old Dispensation of Carnal and Troublesome Ordinances which God suffered the Hebrews as well as other Nations for a long time to labour under This Gospel Dispensation if Men would live to the Purity of it being most easie reasonable and alike suitable to all Men being but compleat or very little more than Exact Morality is that which would rectifie all the Disorders of Mankind that can be amended in this Mortal State Secondly As Christ taught the most plain and reasonable Doctrine so he gave the height of Argument to perswade it such as could be most prevalent on Rational Creatures to gain their Compliance with the Mind and Will of their Maker He has not only convinceingly asserted and proved himself sent of God a mighty Argument to procure the reception of his Message by very many Miracles done by his Means but manifested the things themselves delivered to be God's Message by their Excellency as most becoming God to dictate and most fit for Man to receive If the highest reason be enough to perswade the Will of Man he hath given it I challenge all the most Zealous Jew or Reasoning Deist to shew me one thing that Christ hath indeed taught or his Disciples at his Command which cannot be most rationally accounted for or where he hath imposed upon the Understanding of Man or obliged him to believe or profess any thing that is contradictory or unintelligible or commanded him to do any unreasonable thing or what is against his real Interest Let them shew me that Judaism or Deism is more reasonable and he that can may have great hopes of making me a Proselyte till that is done which I am confident will never be I am resolved to remain a Christian or a Disciple of him who hath given the most fair Copy of Truth relating to God and his Will to Man and relating to Mens present and future Condition wherein I can see no difficulty to any that fairly reasons and looks upon Christianity as it is in it self and not as corrupted and misrepresented by the Fancies and Traditions of Men in the Antichristian Defection Moreover What Christ hath most clearly declared in way of Precept he hath back'd and confirm'd by his Influencing Example his Life being most exactly conformable to his Doctrine in entire Submission and Conformity to the Will of God and constant perseverance therein against the greatest Temptations Earth and Hell could offer thereby asserting by a Home Argument that the doing the Will of God is eligible yea best tho' we should thereby loose all the good things of this life we can loose with Life it self in the grounded hopes of a future State free from all the Evils of Temptation Sin and Unhappiness Which Future State he hath so plainly taught and manifested that by him it may be well said Life and Immortality was brought to light the Immortality of the Soul and a Future Life of Body and Soul together after a Resurrection being Truths left unto him clearly to teach 38. That Christ might thus become a most fit Means or Mediator between God and sinful Men to bring them from Rebellion against God's Will to Obedience to the Will of their Maker it is to be considered what manner of Person Christ must be And first it was necessary that he should be a Man that his Conversation with Men might be most near familiar and unquestionably real A Man like unto us in all things Sin only excepted than which there cannot be conceived a more proper Medium between God and Sinners Nothing can possibly be supposed between God and the Creature There can be no Third or Middle Being that is neither God nor Creature to be a Mediator and God cannot be a Mediator himself because he is one of the Extreams Tho' God is the First Cause or Mover of Man to Repentance he cannot be said to be a Means or Instrumental Cause nor can there be any to use him or send him no nor can he be said to send himself or any one of his Attributes or Properties Nothing of God can in any proper sense be said to be absent from God and between God and Sinners A King may declare his own Will but he cannot be said to send himself on an Embassy A Sinner could not be a compleat Mediator for Sinners are the other extream Repenting Sinners may indeed be a sort of Mediators between God and the Impenitent and have been so as Moses was and others but they are incompleat ones they were but the Servants sent If God would give a compleat Mediator or Embassadour to the World of Sinners he must give such a one as his Son Christ was who tho' he might yea must be a Man like us in all things else Sin must be excepted If he were not a Man truly truly innocent a Second Adam he could not be an exact and perfect Example nor a most unquestionable Witness nor have shew'd that Man might have done his Duty But he must be capable of being tempted to disobey or he could not have been an Example of resisting and obeying None but he that might possibly disobey could yield free Obedience such as is worthy of God's Acceptance God himself who is incapable of being tempted to Sin or of Disobedience cannot be said to obey nor is there any above him to whom he can be obliged If Christ must be innocent and persisting in Obedience he must not be of the common race of Mankind that is take both his Body and Soul mediately from sinful Parents as others do but must as to his Soul the Subject of Sin or Obedience be an
Immediate Work of God as the first Man was Whatever comes immediately out of the hands of the Creator cannot be thought to be other than pure but out of an unclean thing cometh that which is unclean That Christ might be a Second Man in Innocence he must not be begotten by the sinful Will of Man as other Men are Conceptions of Self Will and Erring Understanding so determin'd to Evil rather than to Good that their at first weak Understanding or Reason is not sufficient to counter-ballance the manifold Temptations by occasions of Evil within and without Instructions and Examples to sin they meet with very early from Parents and others whom they little suspect such Enemies to them who use them to those Actions which tho' Ignorance makes innocent Reason when they come to know what they do makes culpable and use determines to But Christ besides his pure Original doubtless had the special Grace of God keeping him from Temptation so long as God saw fit that he might have at least the same advantage of strength of Reason the First Man had who was to undergo far greater Temptations But tho' he might not be a Soul derived from Man's corrupt Soul yet his Body might well be taken from the Matter of Mankind without his being thereby sinful or the more inclinable to sin For the Body is not the Subject of Sin or that which infects the Soul it may be an occasion of Temptation to Sin but Sin entirely resides in the Mind being but a disorderly Act of the Will That a Soul coming pure out of the hands of God should become a Sinner by using a Body taken from a Person that was a Sinner is unreasonable to be thought while Matter has nothing in it but Quantity Figure and Motion which howsoever disposed or modified has nothing of the Notion of Sin in it We might as well suppose a Man must needs become a Thief or a Murderer if he dwell in a House given him by one that was such Christ we all acknowledge received the Body God prepar'd him from the Virgin Mary whom all suppose a Sinner except some of the Roman Church yet we suppose him not made a Sinner thereby It was convenient Christ should receive a Body from Mankind that he might be a Real Man and a near Kinsman or Brother A Rational Soul using an Organical Body such as a Man's is really a Man tho' the Soul do not begin mediately by Generation as much as if it did otherwise the first Rational Creature using an Organical Body would not have been a Man the same in kind as others The First Adam's Soul could come no way but by Inspiration and his Body was a more Immediate or Special Work of God than the Bodies of others his Off-spring therefore he is called the Son of God in a nearer respect than they And that Christ's Soul was produced by the Immediate Power of God and his Body by a Special Work of the Most High he is the more properly said to be the Second Man or Adam God forming a Seed in a Woman a Virgin that we might be sure he was not a common Man when a Woman is naturally or commonly a Creature whose Seed is not in her self originally but in the Man or perhaps to speak more properly that hath no Seed This Seed of the Woman inform'd with this Holy Soul this One Exception from the common Order of the Production of Men is therefore with good reason call'd the Son of God eminently as distinct from others who on any lesser or more common Accounts are said to be his Children And the same reason for Subsistance we have given us in the Gospel Luke 1.31 The Angel said unto Mary thou shalt conceive in thy Womb and bring forth a Son and shalt call his name Jesus Ver. 32. He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God shall give him the Throne of David 〈◊〉 his Father Christ is said to be the Son of Abraham the Son of David only according to the Flesh because Mary from whom he received his Body materially was of the Off-spring of Abraham and David Ver. 34. And Mary said unto the Angel how shall this be seeing I know not a Man V. 35. And the Angel answering said unto her a Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall over-shadow thee therefore also that holy Thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God And to strengthen the Virgin 's Faith he tells her ver 36. Her Cousin Elizabeth who was old and accounted barren had conceived For v. 37. with God nothing shall be unpossible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every word shall not be unpossible viz. whatever can be said in reason to be a thing to be done shall not be unpossible with God He brings her from the less to the greater he that has caused the Old and Barren to be with Child a thing above the power of Nature can do more even cause thee a Virgin to conceive without the means of a Man Thus Christ that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Soul Spirit or Mind that received his Body from Mary and so became the Compositum call'd a Man was truely call'd the Son of the Most High as God the Father of all was in a special manner his Efficient Cause and the Son of Mary and her Progenitors as she was the Material Cause of what was material in him And least any should think the Holy Ghost the Efficient Cause of Christ's Conception and so rather to be called his Father from whence would arise a great difficulty from those Expressions ver 35. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Math. 1.18 and 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let it be considered that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spirit is put without the Article and is rather to be rendered a Holy Spirit and of a Holy Spirit then the Holy Spirit A Holy Spirit shall come upon thee or into thee Signifying thereby either that she should have a Holy Disposition in order to the over-shadowing Power of the Highest viz. of the Father coming to effect such a Conception or that she should receive a Holy Conception in her or both So she was found with Child of a Holy Spirit That which is conceived in her is of a Holy Spirit that is she hath a Holy Conception in her was found with Child of a Holy Conception neither a Spurious as Joseph thought nor a Common Conception The Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 does not denote the Efficient Cause any more here than it does when spoken of Mary Luk. 1.35 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of thee in thee or by thee and Matth. 1.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Mary or in Mary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was born or conceived Jesus not that she was the Cause
of the Conception When we say such a Woman is with Child of a Boy we mean her Child is a Man Child not that a Boy impregnated her Now what is there inconceivable or mystical in all this I admire that any Man should make it a difficulty to believe that God whom they acknowledge to be the Creator as he hath made Seeds to grow in Plants and fall off and increase in the Earth to the due size of Plants as he hath caused Seeds to grow in Man which ejected into their proper place for Nourishment the Matrix of the Woman are informed with a Mind and grow to perfect or due sized Animals fit to be nourish'd another way and so come to be born and act of themselves in the common order of the Creation could not as well if he pleas'd go for once on a special occasion out of his common way in Nature and work a Miracle in the First Production of a Humane Seed or Small Organical Body in a Woman and give it to a Soul of his immediate Producing without the Will of Man Or that this Mind and Organical Body of God's particular making should not be thought to be an Innocent Man free as Adam that he might obey God in overcoming the greatest Temprations That such a Person so produced was really given amongst Men besides the Prophesies of him in the Old Testament for instance that the Seed of the Woman shall bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee of thy Brethren like unto me unto him shall ye bearken According to all thou desired'st of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly saying Let me not hear again the Voice of the Lord my God neither let me see this great Fire any more that I die not And the Lord said unto me they have well spoken that which they have spoken I will raise them up a Prophet from among their Brethren like unto thee and will put my Words in his Mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him c. Deut. 18.15 16 17 18 c. and a Virgin shall be with Child and bring forth a Son c. Isa 7.16 See Chap. 11.1 c. Dan. 9.25 26. and Gen. 49.10 Which Texts all deserve to be well considered tho' I omit to recite them at length Besides these Prophesies I say and many more agreeing with his Character Circumstances and Time of Manifestation we have the sufficient Testimony of his Disciples not absurd and contradictory but such as we have endeavoured to shew might well be conceived to be true All which I think is enough to challenge the Belief of any that will give themselves leave to consider Besides the Consideration of Christ's Person as an Innocent Perfectly Obedient Man thus produced and related it was necessary that God should be with him in an extraordinary manner inspiring him with Wisdom enduing him with Authority inflaming him with Love Luk. 2.40 47 42. acting in him who yet acted freely with God as it were his Organ whereby he made known his Will and manifested himself most clearly to Sinners and was as it were conversing amongst them working Miracles by him to convince Men of his special Sonship and Mission which Christ frequently asserted from that Argument of the mighty Works of God wrought by him Which Wonders of Christ were also necessary to perswade the Truth of his Doctrine as received from God especially in that part of it where he taught the Insufficiency of the Levitical External Worship which the Jews were so unapt to believe other than the Will of God or ever to be abolished But tho' Christ taught that which to them seem'd a new way they were inexcusable in not believing him when God concurr'd with real Signs and Wonders which he cannot be thought to do to perswade Falshood so much against his pure Will These Miracles wrought by his means and by his Disciples from his Authority were not only testified by his Disciples but seen and confess'd by many the Opposers of his Doctrine It was necessary I say God should be with him in so extraordinary a Manner who was to be the most Extraordinary Embassadour or Instrument of God And that God was so with him cannot with any reason be doubted if his Friends Testimony and his Enemies Confession of his other Miracles be not enough his Prophesies of so many things exactly fulfilled in relation to himself his Disciples the City of Jerusalem c. methinks are convincing Arguments that he was the Prophet that God had promised a Prophet being to be known to be sent of God by the things coming to pass The Anointed with whom God was in a most special manner and never left him unless so far as to shew that the most Perfect Creature is insufficient in it self and cannot be satisfied or pleased in the withdrawing of the Chearing Presence of God To let it appear that an Innocent Man may be grieved at the Disobedience and Misery of Sinners and not only sympathize with them in their Unhappiness but be afflicted by them not only be greived at their unjust and wicked Doings but suffer from them that Sorrow that in the common course of Nature is occasioned by what may be done to the Body And tho' God left him so far to the Will of the Wicked as that they prevailed to put him to Death whereby we may have occasion to believe that Adam was not invulnerable or naturally immortal before the Fall but by the Grace of God in the Gift of the Tree of Life and his special Providence which on his Obedience would have prevented external Hurts and Death thereby tho' I say God suffered the Wicked to put him to Death on a false Accusation as a Malefactor and he patiently suffered to give us an Example that nothing should deter us from Obedience it was necessary that God should raise him from the dead That as he had chose Death rather than omit his Duty God should crown his Sufferings with a Resurrection to Immortality as a Token that he had regarded his Obedience as perfect that he deserved not Death but Men unjustly laid hands on him and slew him and that their so doing was disapproved of God Which Resurrection of his being the Confirmation of his being the Christ and of his having done his Work so far exactly and that he would in due time finish it wholly his Disciples constantly witnessed as having seen him and convers'd with him Forty days after his Suffering and the Jews and Romans having heard it said he would rise again after three days taking strict care to watch the Sepulchre least there should be any cheat in the matter so that there can be no rational doubt of it It is very easie to be sure a Man is put to Death and as easie to know he is alive if many Persons see and hear him
of the Field are mine V. 12. If I were hungry I would not tell thee for the World is mine and the Fulness thereof V. 13. Will I eat the flesh of Bulls or drink the blood of Goats V. 14. Offer unto God Thanksgiving and pay thy Vows unto the most High V. 15. And call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorifie me Psal 51.16 Thou desiredst not Sacrifice else would I give it thou delightest not in Burnt-offerings V. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit c. Jer. 7.22 I spake not unto your Fathers nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the Land of Egypt concerning Burnt-offerings or Sacrifices V. 23. But this thing commanded I them saying obey my Voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people c. 1 Sam. 15.22 To obey is better than sacrifice Hos 6.6 God will have mercy and not sacrifice Math. 9.13 If ye had known what this meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Ye would not have condemned the guiltless Spoken to the Jews condemning his Disciples when they being hungry plucked the Ears of Corn but might have been said to them rather when they afterwards more unjustly condemned and slew him Is 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the Burnt-offerings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-goats c. And at the 16th Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil Ver. 17. Learn to do well seek Judgment relieve the Oppressed judge the Fatherless plead for the Widow Mich. 6.6 7 8. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the High God Shall I come before him with Burnt offerings with Calves of a year old Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of rivers of Oil Shall I give my first-born for my Transgression or the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul He hath shewed thee O Man what is Good And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God But the sacrifices of God Psal 107.22 are sacrifices of Thanksgiving Psal 4.5 Sacrifices of Righteousness 1 Pet. 2.5 Spiritual Sacrifices Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ Sacrifices of praise and doing good Heb. 13.15 16. By him therefore let us offer up the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name But to do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Sacrifices of love to God and our Neighbour Mark 12.33 And to love him with all the Heart and with all the Understanding and all the Soul and with all the Strength and to love his Neighbour as himself is more than all whole Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices Living Sacrifices Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore Brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a living Sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service And the Author to the Hebrews chap. 10.5 brings Christ in from Psal 40.6 c. saying to God A Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not but a Body hast thou prepared me as the Septuagint reads it but the Hebrew hath it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my Ears hast thou digged viz. opened to hear thy Commands not to Sacrifice certainly for saith he in Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God Above when he said Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings for sin thou wouldest not neither hadst pleasure therein c. Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God He taketh away the first viz. Sacrifice that he may establish the second viz. doing the Will of God By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all c. Ver. 16. This is the Covenant I will make with them after those days speaking Jer. 31.33 of the New Covenant saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their Hearts and in their Minds will I write them Ver. 17. And their Sins and Iniquities will I remember no more Ver. 18. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin c. From all which places compared and many more that we might consider it appears that Christ is a Sacrifice or Offering acceptable to God as he does his Will in prosecuting the end of his Mission the bringing Sinners to Repentance and Obedience to God against all opposition even Death it self giving up his Body to Death rather than omit any thing he was to do And Sinners have the benefit of this Sacrifice not as God is appeas'd atton'd or reconciled to Sin or Sinners by any pleasure that can be added to him by beholding the Pain Bloodshed or Death of an innocent Man but rather as they are attoned or reconciled to God and their Duty to him by beholding Christ's Obedience in doing the Will of his Father even under the greatest Sufferings even to Death he could meet with from the opposition of Earth and Hell his Constancy being a convincing Argument that his Doctrine was good and his Life to be imitated a Perswasive to follow him in Gospel or exact Moral Obedience through whatsoever Persecution for Righteousness sake leaving all those external and childish things of the Levitical Priesthood as useless Wherefore as a better Covenant God saith He will put his Laws into their Hearts What Laws The Laws of Offerings and Ceremonies might possibly be put into their Hearts no such Laws as readily come into the Hearts of considering Persons such as we have ver 24. viz. Love and good Works So that the Obedience of Christ is the Christian Sacrifice but not ours by its pacifying God for us Sinners but by our following it as it is an Example in offering up all we are and have in love to God which is our reasonable Duty Christ may also be said to be sacrificed for us as he dedicated and offered up his Life in prosecuting the Good of Sinners by teaching them and perswading them to be reconciled to God He may also be said to be a Sacrifice to the Wrath and Malice of the wicked Jews as they devoted him and gave him up to Death according to the Councel of Caiaphas to prevent the Romans coming upon them on the noise of his being said to be the King of the Jews they supposing as also his Disciples for some time did that he meant then to set up an earthly Kingdom thinking it was better that one Man should die than that the whole Nation should perish
Torments But I do not believe that those Torments or Pains and Diseases in this life are inflicted or caused by God's Immediate Hand but are the Work and Procurement of Sinners according to that Jer. 2.19 Thine own Wickedness shall correct thee c. God can I think be no more the Cause of the Creatures Misery than of its Sin otherwise than as he is the Cause of the Creatures being capable thereof so that the Creature could neither sin nor sorrow if God had not made it a Creature Let us endeavour to clear this matter if possible that I may not be thought by all Men grosly mistaken to hold so great a Paradox as that God does not punish for Sin There are two sorts of Evils the Creature is capable of Sin and Misery or rather Sin and Displeasure which though we call two are in many Respects the same That God should be the Cause of Sin few will in words tho' many do in consequence affirm and I think I have said enough before to convince them both But Displeasure or Misery most Men I meet with esteem God the Cause of to the Creature In the Consideration of Misery we have First The Want of Good or Pleasure Secondly The Presence of Evil or Displeasure First As to the Want of Pleasure It is certain God made Intelligent Creatures capable of Intense and perpetual Pleasure and Satisfaction but if the Creature has it not it is not God's fault It was impossible the Creature should have continual Happiness or Pleasure as God has it viz. independently in it self or by its own Will as its own oppos'd to the Will of God God could make it no more than a Creature and so the Creature must needs be satisfied by its Creator But if the Creature turns from God and sets up a Will against him he must needs want Satisfaction when through Creature-Impotence he can't have his Will God's Will not concurring with his and when through Creature-Folly he has willed what was not best for him and finds it so So that if the Creature wants any Pleasure or Good it is because he has turned from it or left it or at least has some other Sinners hindering it or taking it from him by their Sin for even the Innocent as Christ was being Creatures may suffer by the Sins of others But the presence of this Evil of Displeasure may farther be considered under two Heads 1st Displeasure merely mental 2dly Displeasure or Pain by the occasion of the Body both of them in their center are nothing but discontented or uneasie Thoughts a Consideration or Apprehension of something against ones Will. Now as to the first If I desire that which is contrary to the Order of the Creation unfit to be and cannot have it and therefore am foolishly discontent angry fret rage c. it is not God that makes me do so No the disorderly Desire is a Sin something against God's Will therefore God don't will it To will something against God's Will is a Sin and to be angry and fret and rage because we can't have our disorderly Will is a farther Aggravation of the Sin a stronger Will against God's Will therefore God can't cause or will it that were to cause Sin so that God cannot be suppos'd the Cause of the Mental Unhappiness or Displeasure God has given Man a very large desire but for what that it should be crossed because he is but a Creature and can't be God No but that it may be satisfied in the way it possibly can viz. by its Maker in the compliance with his Will in the excellent Order of the Creation that Man willing what God wills viz. that which is good and so to be doneby God's Power may be very happy But as to those uneasie Thoughts we have or may have by occasion of the Body which go under the name of Pain and Disease there seems more difficulty to excuse God's hand from being the Giver But I think if we consider it may soon appear that God is no more the Cause of all the Conditions or the Actual Existence of this Misery than of that Discontent Sinners have when they have not their foolish Wills in other things The Connection of the Body with the Mind without which such Sensations are not probably thought to be in the Mind is to be ascribed to God as the cause The manner of this Union of Soul and Body is Use the Mind desires to use the Body acts upon it by and with it and receives divers Ideas or Thoughts of Body by occasion of it God's Will is indeed the Bond of this Union he wills that the Mind should desire to use its Body gives the Mind power to move it and to do divers things in Bodily Nature by it and causes that when such and such Conditions are in the Body the Mind should have such and such Ideas or Thoughts pleasing or displeasing But as I said before of Sin God made Man capable of Sin not that he might sin so God made Man capable of displeasing Thoughts by means of the Body not that he might have them as the end of the Capacity but that he might as much as possible avoid the least thing that tends to the spoiling or disordering of the Body with which he is to act a Part for a time When there are the Conditions of Pain or Disease God in his general Law in Nature wills Pain or discontented Thoughts should follow and so this Discontent in it self is not sinful but God is not the Cause of the Application of the Conditions but the Sinner himself or some other Sinner for him When there is such and such a Body abus'd and unduly apply'd to Man's Body the Mind presently is uneasie as at the approach of some Enemy but this Uneasiness was not the end God caused in Man such a Sensibility but that Man might be the more affected with the pleasing Sensations he has made him capable of by avoiding at the first touch all things that tend to remove the Conditions of Pleasure that he might sooner be warned so than he could by Consideration God made Man exquisitely sensible that he might be capable of Pleasure even by having a Body and not be as it were imprison'd against his Will and whenever the Conditions of Pleasure are present God fails not to cause that Sensation tho' under Circumstances where the Creature acts against his Will So on the contrary But Man has a power given him to use or abuse things and it is one part of his business in this World to do all those things that tend to keep his Body most in health and ease that he may be the more capable of the chief part of his work which does not relate only to this Life but that which is to come viz. the rectifing his Thoughts in order to his greatest and lasting Happiness But to bring the matter near the eye if possible take this instance Fire tends to
loath to repent and try him except she were sure She can't find in her heart to forgive her poor Debters Some-body or other has wrong'd her and she 's resolved to have Satisfaction it is but just So she thinks God must have Satisfaction for her Sins or he can't be just and tho' she has heard a Sin-sweetning-Story that Christ hath made Satisfaction for Sinners she can't believe she is of that number she is not sure she 's one of the small number predestinated Shall I tell her yet more plainly what 's her Disease She loves Sin too much Duty too little her Heart is not inflam'd with Love to God so as to influence all her Actions She has not had him represented to her so Good Merciful Loving Ready to Forgive all freely as indeed he is Besides that Witness for God the Conscience that testifies when Man hath done well or ill is not clear perhaps and according to the measure of Obedience or Disobedience in known Duty will the Comfort or Discomfort generally be to a convicted Soul and faith that there is Forgiveness with God is one Duty without which Comfort is seldom securely enjoy'd Now let us consider has God left or afflicted such Persons No they have left God and hid themselves from him let them but be perswaded to turn to God and believe his Infinite Love and Goodness and love him with all their Hearts and they will quickly find that Perfect Love casts out Fear their Troubles will cease with the restifying their Judgments and changing their Wills Now of all the Miserie 's sinful Creatures are lyable to the Eternal Torments as they are call'd of the Damned in Hell can I think with least reason be thought to come from the hand of the Best Being as the Inflicter or Executioner when these Miseries may well be thought chiefly to consist in the Exasperation and height of those uneasie Thoughts which are the very Acts of Sin as Wrath Envy Hate Despair Desire impossible to be satisfied c. Add unto these their Effects with whatsoever Devils and Immortal wicked Men may be able to inflict upon one another and the most uncharitable Soul can hardly desire a greater Hell for his greatest Enemy But what I have said already of Displeasure merely Mental and that which comes by the means of the Body may be easily applied here if well considered But yet farther methinks it is a very hard Thought to think that God who as the beloved Disciple tells us is Love should hate and take Pleasure or Delight in tormenting his poor foolish frail Creatures or that he should afflict willingly or from his Heart or affect with Grief the Children of Men and that for ever But he must be supposed either to do it willingly and take pleasure in so doing or he cannot properly be said to do it for God cannot with any reason be said to do any thing against his own Will or in which he has not pleasure that cannot be suppos'd of a Perfect or Self sufficient Being nor can any action of the Creature be thought to bring God under a necessity of doing any thing he delights not in and he swears he hath no pleasure in the Death of the Wicked Ezek. 33.11 chap. 18.32 It is the Sinner that will die or chooseth Death he seeks pleasure indeed but he hath it not because he seeks it where it is not to be had viz. in his own foolish disorderly Will distinct from God's Will when God cannot give it him that way it being impossible The Damned doubtless are exceeding uneasie why they have turned from God the Fountain of Pleasure They have lived and died in a course contrary to God's Will contrary to the only possible way of Happiness and God is just in suffering them to have their own choise in leaving them after innumerable Arguments to perswade them to real good to make the Experiment how happy they can be without being beholden to him and it is enough to shew that God approves not of their Sin if he continue their Being his Work under the greatest Misery they can bring themselves into and as they are no more sinful than they themselves and their fellow Sinners can make them so if they have no more Misery than what they can work in themselves and one another it will be proportionable to their Sins and both may be exceeding great God can't be thought to work or cause Despair Wrath Malice Hate and Envy at the greatest Good Extream Discontent at his Will and the Happiness of others fierce furious unsatisfied Desire c. in his Creatures he must not be thought to be the Cause or Agent of those sinful Passions they are all against his Will as he hath clearly manifested And we cannot suppose that God's Justice requires that Sinners for a short life of Rebellion against their Maker in this World should be bound to rebel against him for ever or believe that they can satisfie for some Sins here with a Continuance of all Sins they are capable of in a State of Immortality hereafter No there is no necessity of Unhappiness but what the Sinners own perverse Will brings upon him his disorderly Passions are let loose and to what extremity Passions may be carried out who knows These will be Tormenters if there were no Devils able to vex And where these evil Passions are in their extream how can it be thought that the Bodies such Anxious Souls would delight in can be other than the Occasions of far greater Misery than they were capable of being in this Life wherein some of the Passions disorder'd have brought the Bodies to be very uneasie Concomitants with this Aggravation that they have then no more Death to expect to rid them of that uncomfortable Companion unless we could suppose that Hell it self hath at least this Happiness to be a Remedy for the Diseases of the Body and a Safeguard from all those Evils Sinners could lay upon one another in this life or that their Folly could bring God under a necessity to disown his well-wrought Work their Being and to let them fall into nothing As for the Examples of external Judgments as they are call'd which we have especially in Scripture wherein some may think the immediate Act of God as inflicting is always required when they were more than Preventions of greater Evils the Persons would have run into they may easily be accounted for by supposing Men sometimes left to the power of the Devil the Prince of the power of the Air who seems eagerly covetous to enlarge the Dominion of Hell or to do any kind of Mischief Of this we have an Example in Job Or that God sometimes withdraws his Providential hand from protecting a People or a Person that leaves him and suffers them to fall into the hands of others that are wicked their Enemies As were the Judgments on Israel or others by Inimical Nations in which Instances we can't suppose God does
inspire the evil Agents with malicious Desires of Murders Robberies Rapes c. God may indeed be thought to permit yea commissionate a People to stand up against another in just defence and to cut off the declared and dangerous Enemies of Mankind but such wicked Persons have brought others under a necessity of preserving themselves and them that are better than these wicked ones or of delivering the Unhappy that are in their hands God may likewise leave Persons obnoxious to be surprized by the Elements as by Thunder and Lightning Earthquakes Inundations things not evil in themselves Falls of Houses Infectious Diseases Casual Fires by which wicked Men may suffer yea the Good be translated from this wretched life without any special Act of God But all these things or I think whatever you can name of Evils would be absent were Men but as wise and good as they ought Wisdom would foresee and prevent and Goodness do no ill the Wise and Good would not expose themselves or others to the too strong Motions of Bodily Nature nor want God's special Preservation which the Rebellious have forfeited Were but the Evil of Sin absent from the World I do not see that there would be any other Evil for which Mankind could be thought unhappy or could be unthankful for their Being tho' all things else were just as they are yea were Man to lead his Life on this Earth for ever Had I but this one Point to handle I think I could easily shew how were there not Sin all the Defects in Nature would be remedied To conclude God hath made all things in an excellent Order such as is most conducive to Man's Happiness but if Man foolishly affect to be his own Rule and strive to cross the most wise Order of his Maker it is no wonder that those things God made for his Good and Service are often the Occasions of his Hurt and too hard for him God continues the Natures and Qualities of things and it is not fit he should alter the Creation at the foolish Caprice of every silly Man that Fire may not burn and Water not drown when Sinners please to have them changed but tho' Fire burn and Water drown him that foolishly abuses them yet those noxious Effects cannot properly be looked on as Punishments inflicted by God any more than he that hangs himself can be said to die by the hands of the Executioner And if God cannot be said to give Good to his Creatures as obliged so to do but still gives of Grace how can he be thought to be so bound to give Evil as that he cannot be said merely to permit the Creature to make it self miserable 45. Another Opinion that hath passed long with Credit in the World without any good ground is the Doctrine of Imputation of Sin and Righteousness Adam's Sin say some is imputed to his Off-spring and so they become guilty in the sight of God and are deprived of original Righteousness Let us consider the Plain English of it and it is this God reckons Adam's Children guilty of Adam's Sin They don't mean the same Sin in kind but that God charges them as guilty of their Fathers very Acts of Transgression which is all one as to say that Adam's Act of Sin is his Childrens Act. But this cannot be true for as my Father's Action is not my Action nor my Action my Father's God cannot be deceived and suppose the doing of one Man is the doing of another Men commonly say we sinn'd in Adam but it is absurd to say a Man sinn'd before he had a Being that which is not can have nothing said of it nor can it do till it is We were indeed potentially in Adam but not actually and where there is no actual Being there can be no Action to be guilty of God himself tells us by a Prophet The Father shall not bear the Iniquity of the Son nor the Son the Iniquity of the Father but the Wickedness of the Wicked shall be upon him and the Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the contrary would be unjust One Man may commit the same Sin another did commit and in that sense be guilty of the other Man's Sin or rather of the same kind of Sin the other did commit Or one Man may tempt another to sin and so be guilty of the others Sin but still a Man's Guilt is his own and not anothers It may with more reason be said that Adam is guilty of our Sins and we of the Sins of our Off-spring than that we are guilty of his or they of ours because sinful Parents are the cause of bringing a sinful Off spring into the World and often their Instructers in Wickedness It is certain that one Man may suffer by the Sins of another but not for the Sins of another justly The Father may waste his Estate and so the Children may be brought to Poverty the Father may teach his Child to do Evil either by Precept or Example and so bring him to Misery As for the Propagation or Original of Sin in Adam's Posterity there are Two Opinions either of them much more likely to be true than the Fancy of Imputation of Sin or God's taking away original Righteousness which is no better than to say my First Father sinn'd and God charges me with it tho' not guilty of it and causes me therefore to want Righteousness or to become a Sinner Taking away ones Righteousness is tempting one to sin The one of the two more probable Opinions is that the Soul as well as the Body is propagated and a sinful Soul is uncapable of begetting a Soul without sinful Inclinations a pure thing being unlikely to come out of an impure Now least it should seem that the Soul is suppos'd propagated without any ground for such an Opinion I say both Scripture and Reason do at least favour it Adam begat a Son in his own likeness and Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob. 'T is not said Adam begat a Body but a Son in his own Likeness if he had begat only a Body he had not begat a Son in his own Likeness Adam was the Image of God as he was an Intelligent Being and a Lord over the inferiour Creatures and if Adam had not begat an Intelligent or Thinking Son he had not indeed begat a Son in his own Likeness It is said of the Regenerate they were not begotten of Bloods nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man which implys that a Natural Man is so begotten as to his Body of Bloods that supplies Matter to the Seed and of the Will of the Flesh that is Carnal Desire instigating its Projection but as to his Soul of the Will of Man desiring to get his like That the Body of a Man proceeds from the Bodies of his Parents none doubts why may not the Soul as well proceed from the Soul of the Father in the Act of Generation
or of the Mother in Conception It is by Virtue of the Word of God Increase and Multiply that there is any Generation at all and why may not the same Word give a power to the Soul to beget a Soul as well as to the Body to beget a Body The Word is spoken to Man as a Compound of Body and Soul and neither part is excepted Isaac was a compleat Man consisting of Body and Soul if Abraham begat only Isaac's Body he did not truely beget Isaac But you will say perhaps the Body is divisible and part of it may be separated and become another Body but the Soul does not consist of parts and so cannot be thought capable of producing another Soul I answer This is no difficulty for the Soul to be begotten does not consist of Parts has no Quantity or Bulk and so needs not a Bulky thing to spare a part to make it of Why may not the Soul the Immaterial and more Noble Part of Man by the Will of God be as capable of begetting a Soul as the Body the Bulky and more ignoble is for the Production of a Body Why must the Soul be thought capable of less in its kind than the Body in its kind Why may not Cogitation break forth into new Heads of Cogitation as well as Body sprout out into new Organical Bodies tho' we may be ignorant of the precise Manner of both But there is a second Opinion which possibly may be true whether the Soul be propgated or no and that is That every Son and Daughter of Adam is tempted and falls as soon as they are capable of choosing Good or Evil tho' not as their first Father with a forbidden Apple yet with many other forbidden things tho' how soon or precisely when they thus fall is uncertain That Children are for some time Innocent seems to some very probable not only because the Scripture in divers places speaks of them as not having done Good or Evil not knowing the right hand from the left not knowing to choose the Good and refuse the Evil not to have sinn'd after the Similitude of Adam 's Transgression c. but because it is not reasonable that Sin should be reckon'd where there is no Law and there can be no Law where there can be no Knowledge of a Law Had God not told Adam himself he should not eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge he could not have transgress'd in so doing And that all transgress and become Sinners is no wonder if Adam a Man in his perfect use of Reason having but one thing forbidden and but one immediate Tempter was so soon tempted and fell much more liable are they to fall who have not such a Capacity of discerning have many things forbidden many Tempters within and without yea and many Examples of Transgression the strongest Temptation and are thereby inured to those Actions before they can judge of them which when they are capable of knowing what they do become Sins and tho' they come to know such Actions are sinful Custom is as it were natural and not presently changed Moreover Children are not only tempted and taught to sin by Example but even by Precept from Parents from Nurses from Servants from Play-fellows c. to be Proud to Revenge to Lye to Covet to Steal c. so wretched a World is every Mother's Child brought forth into that there are none but the Son of the Blessed Virgin who was not only begotten by the special Operation of the Most High but was strong in Spirit and filled with Wisdom by the special Grace of God from his very Infancy I say there are none but he who have not fallen by divers Temptations Yea we are often falling even after Repentance and have every day need to renew our Repentance and come to the Throne of Grace for the Pardon of our Sins Now if every Man's Sin is his own and not anothers and no Man can justly suffer for anothers Sin much less can the Sins of Fallen Men be truely imputed or reckon'd to Jesus Christ As Christ is not really guilty of the Commission of any Sin or the Cause of any Man's Sins so it is impossible God should think he is or reckon him guilty Neither the Will of God nor of Christ can be in such an Untruth and Injustice Neither God nor Christ nor any but Sinners can charge Sin upon the Innocent or punish him for it Tho' Christ be said to bear the Sins of the Sinful it is not the Guilt of them because he is not guilty and God can't reckon him so nor the Punishment of them justly or from God but it is either meant he bears them away that is saves them from them by being an Effectual Means of bringing them to Obedience or that he with Patience and Compassion suffer'd under their sinful Actions and Miseries bore their Affronts Injuries Mockings Scourgings condemning and crucifying of him and was grieved at their Unhappiness in so doing Neither is Christ's Righteousness or any ones else truely imputed or reckon'd to others God cannot reckon or think Christ's being obedient is my obeying because it is not so or reckon any Man obedient till he is so because Christ is obedient If he could he would reckon amiss I cannot but admire at many who reckon themselves special Christians how they dare affirm that God reckons us guilty of Adam's Sin or Christ guilty of ours and punishes the one for the other notwithstanding God has declared the contrary saying The Father shall not bear the Iniquity of the Children nor the Children of the Father and that he will not clear the Guilty nor condemn the Innocent I believe the blind fancy of our Sins being imputed to and punish'd in Christ and Christ's Righteousness being transferred on us has been a means of transferring Righteousness and consequently Salvation from many a Soul 46. Another Fancy common among us and near of kin to this is That we are to be saved by the Merits of Christ and that he meriteth of God Life and Salvation for us c. The notion of Merit is this The Person meriting does something or other more than his Duty whereby he obligeth the Person he merits of to something or other as due and the Meritor so deserves that he ceaseth to be beholden for what is become by his Action due to him but it is a Debt that cannot be withholden without Injustice in the Person he merits of Now that it is a groundless Fancy that God should become indebted to Christ or to us for any thing Christ hath done or suffered will appear if we consider that it is impossible for any Creature to merit any thing of God for it self and if not for it self much less for another It cannot merit for it self because all that the Creature has or is except Sin it has from God and all the Acts of Obedience it can do are naturally due to God God can receive