of the sad Condition in which Adam was after he had eaten the forbidden Fruit and upon the sense of his Fault had hidden himself from God hoping at least wishing he had done so when God enquiring after him though knowing well enough where he was asked him this Question Adam where art thou He makes this Answer for him proper enough 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I am where they are who are not able to look upon God where they are who obey not God I am where they are who hide themselves from their Maker where they are who are fled from vertue and are destitute of wisdom I am where they are who tremble by reason of guilt and cowardise This being the melancholick condition of wretched sinners after they come to consider how things are with them in the cool of the day when the heats of their Wine and Lust are over their ranting mirth ended their Passions becalm'd and they begin to bethink themselves and to reflect upon their Extravagancies and are made to hear that still voice which call'd to Adam after his prevarication Wise men having compared the sprightly erect chearful temper of good men with this Law justly pronounced that vertuous persons do not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not only exceed a vitious man in that which is honest but also overcome him in pleasure for which only the sinner seems to betake himself to wickedness And this pleasure is so considerable that Aristotle could say that it did exceed that of the wicked those Fugitives from Vertue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that it is more pure and more solid and so is as another calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a pleasure as one shall never have cause to repent of But those pains which I forementioned are more considerable because they are both more pungent and more lasting than those of the Body which made Simplicius say of them That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. that they are more grievous stay longer and are harder to be cured A bodily Distemper is more easily relieved than an evil Conscience take away the present pain and the Body returns to its health but the soul is pain'd with the remembrance of what is past and the sear of what is to come which is so great an affliction that many times it makes the present state intolerable Therefore Holy Scripture and Ancient Philosophers called the state of Sin the Death of the Soul So our Saviour said of the vitious Prodigal that he was dead and the Apostle of the wicked world that they were dead in sins and trespasses and the Heathen Philosopher the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The death of the soul is the deprivation of God and Reason which are accompanied with a turbulent conflict of inordinate passions And that none might think that he dully supposed that an Immortal Being can dy he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Not that they cease to be but that they fall from the happiness of life And in another place he says that wickedness is the corruption of an Immortal Being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it corrupts it as much as is possible For this reason when any of Pythagoras's Sholars abandoned the practise of Vertue and lest his Society they hung up a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an empty Coffin for him looking upon him as one dead And they might very well do so for is it not the destruction of a reasonable Being to be corrupted in those Principles which are essential to it to be spoiled in its best Faculties to be hindred from the free exercise of its Natural Powers to be bereav'd of that joy which a man hath when he acts according to that which is best in him to be deadned to a vital sense of his chief good and to be deprived of the love of God which is the very life of good men Whatsoever intercepts the favourable Influences of God's Benignity doth as much contribute to the death of the soul as he would promote the bodie 's life who by some fatal obstruction of the inward passages should hinder the communication of vital Spirits to all the parts of the body What joy can a man have when the indwelling God is grieved and the Fool lives in contradiction to the connate Principles of his soul 2. This brings me to the second Demonstration of the Reasonableness of Repentance because sin is an insolent contempt of that excellent order which God hath planted in Humane Nature which is his Law upon it and is the ornament and preservation of it There are few who have so little use of their soul bestoweds upon them but that they know they are better than their Bodies and that the Faculties of it do transcend those of the sensual Part and that the mind doth not only understand what is best but hath Authority bestowed upon it to govern the bodily Appetites which being inferiour in Nature and needing a Guide ought to receive Law from it The soul doth discover being it self taught of God by its natural light and super-added Revelation what is the happiness to which it was made the best good of which it is capable and shows the means by which it may be attained directs assists in the use of them propounds rational Arguments to persuade to use and persist in the use of them can baffle such Objections as are raised either by the homebred Enemy or Forreign Tentations to hinder the soul in its chearful progress towards its Felicity The soul tells us what satisfaction is allowable to the bodily appetites disting uisheth between lawful and unlawful utterly forbids the latter and commands that there be no excess in the former shows what Moderation is and the benefit of it and represents the mischief as well as the sin of excess threatens death upon the eating of all forbidden Fruit. Order is then observed as it ought to be when all the Faculties do obey this Superior upon whom God hath bestow'd power to discern Freedom of choice and authority to command For which reason ancient Philosophers have call'd it by very agreable Names as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it is the part to which is committed the guidance of all the rest It was called also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which rides and governs the lower Faculties as the Charioteer doth his Horses with Rains because it was placed in man to guide the Affections and conduct the Faculties of soul and body in what way they should go and what pace and to teach them when to rest and when they went astray to curb their Extravagancies and to reduce them into the right Path. It is worthy of all reasonable Beings to maintain this Dignity and it is their Duty to see that it be not trampled upon This made a great Philosopher say that when a man is assaulted by any
Romans having obtained he said of them that they were full of goodness Our Saviour is said to have grown in stature of body in spirit and in favour with God and Man i. e. to have increased in such Vertues and abounded in such Actions as did exceedingly please God and Man St. Iohn calls this prospering in soul by merciful Additions of grace which he prayed for his Friend Gaius That which a good man should endeavour in this matter St. Paul hath expressed to the life in his own practise i. e. I have not yet attained I am not made perfect but I follow on that I may get to the further end Christ leading me by the hand and helping me forward which makes me to forget what is behind and to add to what I have done well creeping forward and pressing towards the Mark that I may not come short of the prize I will end this Discourse with a short Gloss upon what is said by David in a pathetick Psalm who makes mention of the great desire which the Israelites had under the Mosaick Dispensation to go to Ierusalem that there they might enjoy the presence of God in his Temple and this passion did so transport them that they envied the Happiness of Sparrows and Swallows Birds which had leave to make their nests there but more admired the felicity of God's Servants who dwelt in that House enjoying the manifestations of the Divine Presence and praising God continually for the many and great Mercies which they had received from him and then pronouncing them happy in whose hearts were the ways thither i. e. who set and prepared their minds resolving to be there and passing from Valley to Valley for the Rode lay from Hill to Hill with unwearied steps travelled till they came to that most desirable place This doth every sincere Christian his aim is at the heavenly Ierusalem i. e. the Vision of Peace which is in the presence of God and he makes all his life one constant Journey thither and is therefore truly called one of that Generation of Travellers who march towards Sion and each day of his life is a step in his way and though by the common accidents of this life he may be so hindred that he shall slack his pace awhile and by the slumbers of the Night necessary to refresh his wearied Body his more active thoughts are laid asleep yet the very Night passing on with silent Minutes carries him as a ship under sail doth the Passenger sleeping in his Cabbin nearer to his Port and when he is awake perceiving that he is still in his way he goes on rejoycing and makes what haste he can to come to his Journeys end the fruition of God in Heaven Having shown the Nature of Repentance I come now to urge the Practise of it with three Motives which are these 1. The first is taken from the reasonableness of Repentance in its own Nature 2. The second is that Encouragement which we have to it from the goodness of God who is willing to forgive the Penitent 3. The third is taken from the great and inevitable Mischief which awaites Impenitence 1. It is fit that sinners should repent because sin is the most unnatural thing in the World The state of sin is a contra-natural Temper and the actions in which it expresseth it self are most unreasonable When Iohn the Baptist was sent before our Saviour to prepare his way that is to dispose men for the receiving of his Gospel which is called Luke 1. 17. to make a people ready prepared for the Lord when he begun his work by turning the disobedient to the wisdom of the just he was said Mat. 17. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to restore all things the word signifies Reponere in naturae congruentem statum to reduce men into a state agreeable to Nature which by sin was discomposed What can be more unnatural than for the hearts of Fathers to be set against their Children and for Children to hate their Parents Out of that unreasonable course of sin he brought them by Repentance into their natural Station For the reason asoresaid sin in Scripture is called distraction of mind for when the Prodigal Son made sensible of his Error returned to his Duty he is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to come to himself Sin had made him mad The Prophet Isaiah gives notice of the same thing when he said Shew your selves men return to your mind ye Transgressors He that sins runs away from God and his own Reason both at once Resipiscentia the Latin word for Repentance says the same for he that Repents doth as Lactantius says Mentem quasi ab insaniâ recipere St. Paul in the second Epistle to Timothy calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to awake one out of a drunken sleep Those who slight the great Reasons of their Duties to God and leave themselves to be hurried on in the course of their lives by brutish Appetites act but like men who are mad or drunk and they will confess it if ever they do return to a right use of their mind and settled thoughts which he hath lost who thinks he may be and do what he will Nothing but want of Reason will make any man prefer the loose Wit of a mad man and the wild motions of a Lunatick before the wise thoughts and regular actions of sober men He which sins tears all the Obligations by which God hath engaged him to Obedience breaks all the Bonds which his Almighty Creator hath laid upon his Soul as the Frantick in the Gospel did those which were upon his Body but he hath another sense of things and will not do so when he is restored to a right mind It 's true it did not please God at first to make us immutable yet that we might not fall into Error by sudden Actions he made us able to deliberate and since we do nothing so well usually but it may be bettered and do many things so ill that they ought to be mended he gave us the power of Animadversion that by reflecting upon our selves and actions we might correct by after endeavours that which was not so well done at first and it is most reasonable that we should make use of this power and fit for the Penitent to say It was best indeed not to have sinned but it is next best to repent and since I cannot recall what is past yet I will mend it as well as I can as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will endeavour to undo what was ill done in my former life I will as St. Iohn said of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do what I can to destroy my sins Another Penicent said well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. having committed a base sin I will endeavour to mend it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among other things signifies to resume a work to do it better to make up a
the Prophet brings in the Heavens as wondring at it Be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be ye horribly afraid saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of Living Waters and hewed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns which can hold no water 'T is true it was applyed principally to their forsaking the living God to serve dead Idols Hath a Nation changed their Gods which yet are no Gods but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit It was a strange Impudence in those wicked Jews of whom this Prophet speaks who when they were in a bad Condition made such by their sins would mend it by their sins They were in captivity because of their wickedness and in particular for Idolatry and were told so by the Prophet See what use they made of it We will burn Incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink-offerings to her as did our Fathers who were then well and had plenty of all things Lyars They were now in Famine for that Disobedience and yet said we will do what hath come into our minds when as all the Prosperity which they enjoyed before was from observing Gods Commands and they bereav'd themselves of it now by forsaking God as the Prophet told them before that they procured this to themselves in that they forsook the Lord their God And that their own wickedness should correct them and make them know that it was an evil thing and bitter that they had forsaken God and that the fear of displeasing him was not in them and that it should enter into their heart i. e. to gnaw it when they considered what they had done What less folly are they guilty of who forsake the peace of Conscience and hope of Immortality and pleasures of Divine Favour for the embraces of an Harlot voluptuous Riots unjust Gain or for all that Good that any or all sorts of sin can bring in exchange When they come to themselves as it was said of the Prodigal for a sinner is out of his wits they say to themselves as the Apostle did to the Romans What profit have we of those things which now only produce shame in our souls Or as that great Souldier when he saw the folly of his base Condescension in the sad Consequences of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So the Prodigal I have left the bread and all good entertainments of my Fathers house to feed upon Husks with Swine I have of a Freeman made my self a slave to Corruption When David not weighing things in the Balance of the Sanctuary i. e. esteeming them as God doth according to the true worth did undervalue the happiness of good men because they wanted that prosperity which he saw some wicked men enjoy when he came to consider better how did he condemn the folly of his former thoughts in these words So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a Beast before thee But as I have none in Heaven but thee so in Earth there is nothing that I can desire in comparison of thee Thy favour is better than life or any thing in it This was the folly of the first sinners they would mend the estate God had put them in by following their own counsels and so for the slight and short pleasure which they had in eating forbidden fruit lost the joy of Divine Favour and the peace of their own Consciences and flung themselves into shame and fear Art not thou ashamed whoever thou art which consents to sin to throw thy self out of the joy of thy soul a serene tranquillity of mind into melancholy and grief when thou seest how by sin thou hast debased thy self lost thy honour and devested thy self of the Dignity and Pleasure of Vertue for some mean satisfaction of bodily Appetite and indulging some vile Affection 2. The folly of Sin appears more he which disobeys God will transgress his Laws and go beyond the bounds which God hath set though they lay no curb upon Appetite nor stop the course of Action be to preserve us from that mischief into which we shall fall if we go farther than they permit A madman will on though you stop him only upon the top of a Precipice Is not the pleasure of single Life enough with Chastity and Divine Love or if Nature requires another state are not the modest allowances of Marriage enough without the unclean pleasures of forbidden Beds Is not the satisfaction of eating and drinking to a temperate chearfulness much better than to be drown'd in excess of Wine and choked with Gluttony and Surfets Is not a competency of worldly Means sutable to the necessities of our Condition and number of our Relatives thankfully enjoy'd better than the tormenting content of a ravenous Temper which makes the man haunted with it always to endeavour to add House to House Land to Land and to encrease his Heap with unjust Actions as well as greedy Desires When the Fool which makes a mock of sin comes to himself and is made to see what he hath done his countenance will fall as it was said of Cain and he will be ashamed to have parted with the sprightly erect temper of his Soul which with Innocence he had in the favour of God when by sin he finds himself depressed grieved undone Sampson broke the Law of his God which as a Nazarite he had upon him and suffered a Harlot to cut off his Hair but when he went out to shake himself as he said and found the Spirit of God departed from him what horrour with shame with despondence of Soul seiz'd upon him 3. The folly of a sinner appears also in this that he is not sensible of the great danger which his sin leads him into no though he hath been often told of it See this point of Folly in a few Particulars 1. He minds not that an action once done cannot be recalled and that therefore sin once committed cannot be undone Non est nunquam omnino fecisse facere cess asse He which sins makes himself guilty 2. He acts as supposing that he may be happy without the Divine Favour or may disobey and not lose it as if God could stand Neuter among men in the World and did not impartially weigh the actions of men and were not of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity But the Fool sins on neither minding the threatnings which are annexed to the Laws which he breaks nor considering that he who made those threatnings is Almighty and so can both put them in execution and appoint such punishments as we can neither imagine nor endure 3. The sottishness of the security appears more plainly because God hath declared that he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousness Is thy heart set to do evil because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily Shall a Malefactor
he was not to have sinned 1. This is reasonable for no man is sensible of danger approaching but he will endeavour to prevent it as soon as he can and he may delay so long that it will grow impossible If a mans House be on fire will he not presently endeavour to quench it If he be bitten with a Serpent doth he not seek for present remedy He which is fallen into sickness makes haste to send for a Physician every body knowing that recovery is then most to be hoped for when proper Remedies are used in time A Disease may prevail so far by neglect of those Medicines which would have cured it at first that neither they nor any other will be able to do it afterward Delay in this affair makes the work grow harder By repeating of sin the Offender hardens his heart and though afterwards he turn Penitent he will find his task more difficult because instead of a slighter disposition which he might have more easily conquered at first he must now conflict with a firm habit Shall he which cannot outgo a Footman hope to outrun Horsmen 2. The demerit of sin encreaseth by delaying to return Can he hope for mercy who hath stood out in rebellion to the last He which delays to repent treasures up wrath against himself when as God knows if his wrath be kindled but a little there is no man able to endure it It is strange that any Conceit should come into a mans Head that acknowledgeth his dependance upon God to make him defer his return to him by repentance It is possibly this He means at last to repent of his negligence Doth he and yet is deliberately negligent at present It is a new sort of Vertue this to sin pretending an intention to repent and as odd a kind of wisdom to abuse infinite goodness in hope to find that favour of which the course of life which we chuse makes us infinitely unworthy and being continued in will give us strong reasons to despair of when we dy 3. Pardon is not to be had no nor repentance when we will He who is so gracious that he pleaseth to pardon when we truly repent hath not promised we shall have grace to repent when we please We are advised in Holy Writ to seek the Lord whilst he may be found and when that is we are told I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me How applicable this is to the matter of Repentance we may see by what is said in the fith and sixth verses of Psalm 32. David was in great distress by reason of Divine Wrath which lay upon him for his sins whereupon he took himself to repentance speedily bewailing and openly confessing his Faith to to God and so returning to his duty found pardon For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found He that knows how great a matter it is to be reconciled to an offended God and that there is a time of finding mercy which if it be slipt the sinner is eternally undone will thereupon make what speed he can to return to God and humbly seek his favour in a seasonable address lest he lose himself with the opportunity It is not many years since the Master of a Ship loitering ashore and not taking the advantage of one Tide when the Wind blew fair with which other Ships went out was forced by contrary Winds to stay in the Port till the forementioned Ships made their Voiage and return'd They are bold people but extremely sottish who slight opportunities of doing that which belongs to their chief good when they know they cannot command the stay or return of such seasons Dost thou slight God in thy youthful health when to have served him early is the unspeakable consolation of old age and which they who then want it would purchase with all the World if they had it upon their Death-bed Is not old age burthen enough except it be plagued with the heavy remembrance of a wicked life This hath made many to cry out with him in the Tragedy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Alas for me that men may not grow younger twice and as often old that so I might in my after life correct what was not well done in the former part of it 4. Though a man begin never so soon this work of Repentance is not to be done of a sudden It will require great pains and much time and therefore none is to be lost Can sin which hath taken deep root in the soul be drawn up at the first pull Can our unwillingness to do it be mortified in a moment Is a habit of sin soon master'd No but as we have been longer in contracting it and so making it stronger it will not be conquered but by the contrary habit of Vertue which requires time to be implanted grow and get strength in the soul. It may be that we have many Vices to overcome and do we hope to do that presently We have committed many Errors and can we repent of them all on a sudden We have many things to do and those not easie to one accustomed to sin We are to make our selves Vessels meet for our Masters use but it will require time to do it considering how we are put out of order by sin and therefore all possible speed is necessary in the practise of Repentance 2. As Repentance must be speedy so it must be sincere and that we shall find if it answer those descriptions of it which are given in holy Scripture vvhere it is called The renewing of the mind crucifying the old man and his deeds putting off the body of sin and destroying it crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts purging our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in Gods fear being made new creatures and partakers of a Divine Nature vvith many more expressions to the same purpose The Sense of which is comprehended in these four Particulars 1. Sincere Repentance begins in a change of the inward disposition for which Reason the true Convert is called a new man as we learn from Eph. 4. and the alteration is so great that it denominates the Penitent to be a new Creature which is not meant as to Transubstantiation of Nature but Emendation of Temper making the Penitent not another person but a better Man A few Scriptures considered will make this so plain that every one may know what it means and judge himself accordingly It consists in two things 1. In change of Apprehension 2. In Alteration of Affection 1. In change of Apprehension he which is truly Penitent hath another sense of things than he had before which the Apostle calls renewing in the spirit of the mind by which he now understands the goodness of God and perceives that to be perfect and most acceptable of which he had but mean thoughts before
The carnal mind perceives not the things of God they are foolishness to him he understands no reason in them but the true Penitent hath received another mind is made spiritual and so can discern them and acknowledges that to be the chiefest wisdom which before he accounted extream folly He which lives in sin is so besotted with carnal Lust that he can see no reason in Spiritual things no more can a blind man judge of colours The true Penitent thinks highly now of the favour of God which he regarded not before and counts all things dross in comparison of the knowledge of Christ which he despised before understands the Promises to be of infinite value which he contemned before he is convinced of the necessity of God's pardon the excellency of Holiness the reasonableness of vertue and the necessary connexion which is between goodness and happiness 2. It consists also in Alteration of Affections for as he understands things better so he is otherwise affected towards them without this the former would be no proof of a sincere change but a sign of hypocrisie which a true Penitent doth as passionately desire to throw out of his soul as he would cast the Devil out of his House if it were possessed by him Many Scriptures speak this plain enough Those who are Christs have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts and have put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts The true Convert hath a new heart another spirit as it is called Num. 14. 24. The heart of stone is broke in pieces and being cast away one of flesh is put in the room of it which is easily known for by its softness it receives impressions from those things which before wrought nothing upon it The Iron sinew is broken and the stiff neck made pliable stoops to the yoke of Christ. Self-will is denied and uncontrolled appetite passeth into a state of mortification the same mind beginning to be in the Convert which was in Christ Jesus he says with him Not my will O Father but thine be done That which pleaseth thee shall please me Greedy desire ceaseth Covetousness languishes Pride is melted down into Humility Feroculum illud petulcum animal cicuratur Insolence and abusive temper is alter'd into sweetness and respect Goatish lasciviousness is changed into chastity of disposition Revenge turned into Forgiveness Malice into Charity He which has repented sincerely will by this find his conversion not to be a vain pretense because he perceives Religion to have passed into his Nature and the Gospel become a principle of new life in his soul and that by the sincere entertainment of it there he contrarily says of himself I am not I Ego non sum ille Ego I am not that I which I was before He is another man a new Creature a man now after Gods Heart He is now a Sacrifice acceptable to God because he is salted with fire that is the vigour of the holy Gospel hath eaten out the Impurity of his Affections and like a Divine Salt dried up those corruptions which putrifie the soul. 2. The sincerity of Repentance declares it self in outward expressions agreeable to the inward change and makes the course of life answerable to the temper of heart The Scripture tells us of newness of life as well as of the new man The Baptist told his Proselytes this same thing when he bad them bring forth fruits meet for Repentance that is to do works agreeable to the nature of the thing it self and the profession of it The sincere Penitent brings forth such fruits as demonstrate the Doctrines of the Gospel like living Roots to have been implanted in his heart i. e. he performs such actions as flow properly from vertuous Dispositions and Habits This the Apostle told the Galatians in other words If you live in the Spirit walk in the Spirit If you live i. e. have made the truth of the Gospel the principle of your life walk in the Spirit i. e. live according to them and let the power of heavenly Doctrine shine forth in the beauty of holy Conversation The Penitent now acknowledges Christ for his Master but to little purpose except he do what he commands him Without a true change of soul a man pretending to some acts of Religion is like a dead Tree unto which some branches of Fruit are tied and if he pretend to have a living Root but brings not forth answerable fruits he may make a plausible show because possibly adorn'd with green leaves but the Tree is such as our Saviour will cut down and cast out of his Garden Our Saviour hath given but one Rule and they will do foolishly that go about to make another to know the goodness of a Tree by and that is the fruit of it For a good Tree bringeth forth good fruits He doth not say that the Tree which is bad now may not be made good and then bring forth good fruits for that it may but that so long as it brings forth corrupt fruits it is bad Most are ready to allow this Rule when they make a Judgment of others but doth it not hold as well when they apply it to themselves Yes and therefore St. Iohn said well Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous Let no man deceive you Why were any in danger in that point Yes many did then as they do still flatter themselves that a good heart to God as they call it and some certain desire of living well will be sufficient to their Salvation No saith the Apostle He that doth righteousness is righteous He that will be accepted of God must do righteousness present to God an obedient Faith by which of old as the Author to the Hebrews tells us they wrought righteousness as he that is Christ was righteous and so was accepted of his Father because as he said himself He always did those things which pleased him He who vvill assure himself of his sincerity must make no nevv Rules to judge of it but keep true to the old one and not rest satisfied that he knovvs his Duty and approves of the Divine Will or that he hath some desires to be obedient No he must truly perform the actions vvhich agree vvith Gospel Principles and Lavvs still remembring that of our Saviour vvho is also our Judge If you know these things happy are you if you do them 3. When you have got so far and find the state of your soul right in the forementioned Particulars then remember that you must make your conformity to the aforesaid Rules universal and your Obedience uniform to all the parts of the Gospel If your Obedience be partial you vvill find nothing vvithin or vvithout that vvill keep you from being at a loss as to the proof of your sincerity If it be necessary to forsake sin it
speaking in him c. To which one may very well add What was St. Paul only a Servant of Christ's in Notion of Mind but not in Obedience of Will who had served him faithfully so many years and suffered the loss of all things for him and was ready to do so again Whom the Law of the Spirit of Life had made free from the Law of Sin and Death who lived but no longer he but Christ in him willing what he would in him and doing what he would by him for to him he had resign'd Soul and Body Strange Is it the Art of a true Christian to contrive how he may evade his Duty instead of doing it Will any wise man build the peace of his Conscience and lay the stress of his hopes upon Excuses Can any man make us believe that the chief of the Apostles was so dull as not to see a difference between an Excuse and an Aggravation Doth any thing aggravate a sin more than to commit it against ones conscience Was this the sincerity of an old Disciple the attainment of Paul the aged Had he but so learn'd Christ or taught him no better To excuse himself that he sinned he did what his Conscience told him he should not have done He hath rejected this vile pretence as much as can be in two places where he speaketh plainly of himself I have lived in all good Conscience to this day i. e. according to the Principles of Vertue which he had being a Jew and what did he grow worse afterward No for he saith that having received Christian Principles he did then as being more obliged exercise himself always to have a Conscience void of offence to God and Man It had been a brave Defence had it not for the Primitive Christians to have told the Heathens according to this interpretation that they desired to be better than they but were indeed as bad especially since they had received in their Regeneration a power which enabled them to overcome those sins to which the Heathens were slaves For so the same Apostle Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh. Not that he meant dully if they live in the Spirit they should not live in the Flesh no but that if you follow the conduct of the Spirit you will receive those assistances from it which shall enable you to overcome those Tentations which Hypocrites pretend as the only Excuses why they live after the Flesh. But these assistances must be made use of A man may be overcome of another not stronger than himself if he will not use the Arms which he hath to defend himself It is promised that if we resist the Devil he shall fly from us But can any man think that if he do not resist the Devil he will fly from him or that his yielding to the Devil will be any excuse to him when he is overcome and made his Slave when he did not resist him To close this since foolish Excuses are useless in these matters let every sincere Christian say to himself O my soul it is time for thee to know what thou hast attained in Christian Religion to seek a proof of Christ dwelling in thee and to find a good Evidence of true goodness What doth all that thou hast done amount to Dost thou find in thy self a thankfulness which is in some good measure answerable to the goodness of Christ's Love and the many Benefits which thou hast received from him Hast thou that Reverence towards him which is due to the Dignity of his Person Is thy Temper conformable to his Gospel and thy Life to his holy Example Dost thou only please thy self in the contemplation of Divine Truths and rest in the speculation of heavenly things dost thou not also endeavour to find the power of Gospel Motives working in thy soul to the ends for which they were propounded Dost thou carefully read the holy Gospel that thou mayest not be ignorant of or forget any part of thy Duty and then pray with hearty Devotion for Grace to help thee to obey and then makest use of what is bestowed that thou mayest receive more as need shall require Dost thou give thy self leave to make Hypocritical Excuses for Disobedience and pretending that Christ is made Righteousness to us thinkest that thou mayest indulge some sin in thy self or rather abhorring that falsness doest thou endeavour to give Testimony of thy Love to Christ's Person by obeying his Commands and seekest Reconciliation with God only upon the terms which he hath appointed Dost thou find that as the first purposes of thy soul were to obey so the habitual inclination of thy mind doth propound still the same way and that the constant workings and daily motions of thy soul are all set for the accomplishment of thy holy purposes The good man who finds that it is thus with him will be conscious to himself of his sincerity to God the inward sense and feeling of his soul will tell him that his Conversion is sincere as a man knows himself to be an honest man who endeavours in all his actions to keep himself close to the Rules of good Life 5. To what hath been said I need ad no more but that the sincere Christian makes a daily progress towards the perfection of degrees goes on to perfection as the Author to the Hebrews said The sincere Christian doth not make it his work vainly to compare himself with others whose defects he thinks he hath espied and please himself in what he hath attained because they are not so good but humbly desires by daily endeavors to grow better than himself and to bring the sincerity of his estate nearer to the perfection of Degrees He is mindful of the advice given to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. He grows in knowledge who understands his way to God better and better for the light of the Righteous shines more and more to perfect day The Traveller that understands his way pretty well having a great Journey to go riseth it may be by Moon-light or takes the first dawnings of the Morning for his Guidance but as the day comes on he grows more assur'd by the clear light But he grows in Grace too i. e. he is bettered in soul and does his Duty to God better and rides on more confidently and with more speed as the Traveller doth when he hath more light to assure him of his way We learn from the Apostles of the Gospel Assistances bringing a good Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a perfect man to that measure of stature which is full of Christ and makes the Christian like a man who is arrived to those years which bestow upon him a great vigor of strength a firm constitution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Apostle prayed for the Corinthians which he there calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consummation in grace which the
defect A sinner among other words in Scripture is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to miss the mark and therefore he should repent and learn to aim better Sin among other names is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a going astray He must needs be out of his way who by sin is departed from the God of his life and therefore he should take up as the Apostles advice is Repentance towards God i. e. he ought to repent and return to God We have been told and that truly that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the beginning and end of all happy life and perfection is the lifting up of our souls to God And by another that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man doth naturally return to God and therefore if we have by sin gone astray from him and our own Nature it is most reasonable as his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to repair the mischief of our flight from above from God and Vertue by returning to him To show the reasonableness of Repentance a little further I shall only add two things to be considered viz. 1. That sin is the sickness deformity and pain of the soul. 2. That it is a bold contempt of that excellent Order which the Divine Wisdom hath planted in Humane Nature 1. Sin is the sickness deformity and pain of the soul and is as destructive of its health beauty and safety as distempered humours defect in any Member solution of parts or dislocation of a Joynt can be to the Body and if it be not timely cured will be the death of the Soul Therefore the recovery of a sinner is expressed in Scripture by words which signifie Restoring of health to a sick Man the cure of a wound the Reparation of a decayed or lost Sense the setting of a dislocated Bone in the right place again and giving ease to one that is in pain And there is good Reason for it For is not an ignorant mind as bad as a blind eye A will disabled to all virtuous choice worse than a lame hand And vile affections more ugly than distorted Members An evil Conscience as afflictive as a Cancer in the Breast Pining Envy as vexatious as the gnawing of the Stomach Are not the Furies of Lust and the Rage of Drunkenness or Hellish Malice as unnatural Distempers in the Soul as Feverish heats in the Body Is not the Soul as much tormented with thinking of the folly of Surfeits as the Body is afflicted with the bad consequences of them Is not insatiable desire of worldly Greatness Riches and Pleasure as bad as the Hydropick Thirst A man would think himself in a bad Condition if he should find himself deprived of Sense deformed in any principal Member weakned in the powers of his Body troubled with a deaf Ear a lame Hand and gouty Feet his Blood inflamed and feel himself racked with the pain of the Stone he would have so little pleasure in himself that he would hate life But he who is corrupted with sin is in a worse condition for he hath neither beauty health or vigour in his Soul He is maimed in his excellent Faculties disabled to the use of his best powers and hath defaced the beauty of his Soul which is Vertue A good man is pleased with himself because he feels that his soul is in health and that all his powers are in due symmetry and finds that in his soul which should make a man in love with himself He perceives as Plato said that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as his Scholar Plotin expressed it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Psalmists words beautiful within that his soul is adorn'd with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Philo called it with compleat vertue which is the highest participation of the Divine Nature by which we are capable to imitate God which we then do when our souls are inriched with the sincere Love of God true Wisdom venerable Prudence exact Justice Godlike Benignity generous Courage lovely Temperance pure Chastity discreet Moderation composed Passions and in short when we have as he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honest Endeavours good Designs prudent Conversation temperate Manners and indeed all the Actions and Dispositions of Vertue These are the fair Delineations of the Divine Image and finding those in his soul a good man is pleased with himself and desires to be as he is But these beautiful Characters of Immortal Spirits are all defac'd by wickedness and after they are blurr'd whensoever the sinner is forc'd to hold a Looking-glass before his soul he throws it away because he cannot endure to see himself Aristotle said well concerning this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A bad man hath no love love for himself because he finds nothing in himself that is worthy to be loved Much to the same purpose Philo Iud. A wicked man hath no joy in himself after he hath debauched his Nature and vitiated whatsoever was good in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having now nothing to rejoyce in And writing upon that Verse in Genesis that after man had perverted his Nature by sin as a punishment the Earth brought forth for his sake Briers and Thorns I saith he and so did his heart too it could not do otherwise adding these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for what else can grow or spring upon the soul of a Fool but such passions as do prick and wound it Besides that which I have said upon this matter I must add one particular mischief and that no small one which will always disturb a sinner till he return to God by Repentance and that is an evil Conscience a Serpent in the Bosome which hath been well represented in our Saviour's Discourses by a Worm gnawing the Bowels or as a Rust fretting the heart a Fire in the Veins It is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Euripides calls it a Divine Goad sticking in the soul which the Heathens acknowledged under the name of the Thespesian Vipers and the merciless Furies This Cotta the Atheist if we may believe Tully confessed to be a very great vexation without reference to God his words are these Sine ullà Divina ratione grave ipsius conscientiae pondus est It is as vexatious as the company of an unpleasant Ghost to such as are haunted by it day and night who can never be quiet till it be laid But when respect is had to God which it must and will have for it is his Deputy the case is much worse for it will torment the sinner both with the sense of his Disfavour under which it puts him at present and with the fear of that punishment which it makes him expect in time to come It is a huge misery to be in such a state as makes a man afraid of God which the guilt of sin always doth This I cannot better say than in the words of a forementioned Author who speaking
will take away my Hedge and lay them waste Now sinner take heed what will become of thee and have a care of Folly in pretending to teach God what he might have done more for thee and bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance according to the grace bestowed Remember the Fig-tree in the Gospel which having no Fruit upon it when our Saviour sought it was cursed and withered And take St. Chrysost. counsel concerning it We were beaten in this type thou art frighted in this tree thou art instructed to thee is given wholsome Admonition prevent the coming of the Lord with good Fruits What God expects from thee let him find let him have what he desires lest what happened to this Tree from God happen to thee also It is not fit for sinners to dispute concerning grace but to make use of it and repent 2. Of this they ought to be more careful because God doth allow fair space of time to make use of the grace bestowed he repeats his methods of Salvation and sometimes alters them which is a great demonstration of his benignity and ought to move us effectually to make use of it Though the Divine Spirit will not always strive with men yet he continues his merciful Contest a great while Though sinners be dull in apprehending and careless in the consideration of grace offered yet God is not presently weary but waits to see if at last they will understand It is mentioned as a great Favour which God bestowed upon the Canaanites that he did not destroy them at once though they highly deserved it but gave them space for Repentance Thou didst punish the condemned with deliberation giving them time and place whereby they might be delivered from their malice God is pleased to lengthen the tranquility of sinners as Daniel saith and so gives opportunity to make use of grace not only offered but for some considerable time slighted that so they might be saved if they will yet make use of his Favour before their hearts are quite hardened through the deceitfulness of sin We read of the Jews in the Wilderness that they vexed the Holy Spirit with their Disobedience yet we read that he bore with their ill manners 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 40 years and so gave them fair space to repent of their Ingratitude and so save their Souls though their Carkases fell in the Desart After they were come to Canaan he used the same Patience sending his Prophets rising up early and sending them because he had compassion on his People and this he did till there was no remedy This same gentleness did our Saviour use towards them in the days of his Flesh which made him say when his grace was slighted O Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I have gathered thy Children together as a Hen doth gather her Brood under her Wings and ye would not The same gracious patience doth he express towards us still How oft hath God warned us by our Spiritual Guides and the Checks of our own Consciences How oft hath he advised us by such whose known Prudence and great Charity was most likely to have made their counsel acceptable How mercifully hath he tim'd his Proposals taking such seasons in which we were in a temper most likely to be wrought upon both when our hearts were softned with the sense of some merciful Providences and melted with kindness the sparks of Ingenuity being blown up into a flame or when sickness or some great affliction had shaken off our Carelesness made us see great reason to think and shown us necessity to hearken to advice Shall not the forementioned Assistances granted with so much patience make the sinner say O Lord I am that barren Fig-tree to which thou mightest have said long ago Never fruit grow on thee O heavy Curse How oft have I given thee cause to say Cut it down why cumbreth it the ground And when I have begged that thou wouldst stay another year and promised to dig about it and did not O Lord thou hast not cut me down but spared me one year and another and another I thank thee and now I will abuse thy goodness no longer I will dig about it with prayers sighs fasting and watching I will water it with my tears and endeavour that it may bring forth fruit answerable to thy just expectation O foolish Soul Is it nothing to play with Divine Patience and to make God stand by whilst thou entertainest thy self with every trifling Vanity O merciful Lord how many years have I grieved thee in this Wilderness How long hast thou born with my manners How oft have I given thee cause to say to me as once thou didst being neglected by thy sleepy Spouse who slumbred whilst thou stoodest knocking and made thee suffer the Injuries of the weather My Head is filled with Dew and my Locks with the Drops of the Night before thou couldst have admittance There are many besides the Gadarens who have turned thee out of their Coasts by their rudeness O Lord I am one of them I confess it with shame But O blessed Jesus go not from me though I deserve it Return according to thy Infinite goodness I will ever watch I will never permit the Door of my Soul to be shut against thee The Third Motive 3. The third Motive to Repentance is taken from that extreme misery which doth await the Impenitent and will unavoidably fall upon them This is told us plainly Thinkest thou this O Man that judgest them who do such things and doest the same that thou shalt escape the Iudgment of God Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to Repentance But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of Wrath and Revelation of the righteous Iudgment of God The goodness of God as I have shown leads the sinner to Repentance and so to Happiness by Pardon This goodness he despiseth and maintains in himself the hardness of an impenitent heart a heart that will not relent But thinkest thou this O man that so doing thou canst escape the Judgment of God No thou dost but treasure up wrath to thy self against the day of Wrath. Every sinner hath his measure for Iniquity and the Impenitent fills it up God also hath his Store-house for Vengeance and the obstinate sinner doth there lay up wrath against himself At present this is a hidden Treasure but it shall be opened in the day of Wrath when God will reveal the Righteousness of his Judgment upon such as would not repent God hath always declared this to be the last state of obdurate sinners He will wound the head of his Enemies and the hairy Scalp of such a one as goes on still in his wickedness Long before this it was said plainly by Moses If it come to pass when he heareth the words
of this Curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst The Lord will not spare him but then the Anger of the Lord and his Iealousie shall smoke against that man and all the Curses that are written in this Book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under Heaven He that despiseth the methods of God's grace and continues his Disobedience and yet perswades himself that all shall be well with him doth highly provoke God The Hope of the Disobedient is a great part of their Disobedience for it is a presumptuous believing against the express Declarations of God's Will and they shall be punished for it as an aggravation of their other sins Such people slight the Divine Threatnings disbelieve the Truth and Power of God concerning their performance but they shall pay dear for it especially in the great day of Wrath when Christ will come in flaming Fire to render Vengeance to those who acknowledge God no better and do wilfully disobey his Gospel This misery is dreadful because the Sufferings to which the Impenitent will be condemned are so great that now they would be intolerable but which then they shall be made to endure Of this I shall give account 1. By a brief Rehearsal of the Descriptions of them which we find in Holy Scripture 2. By the deep Impressions which they will make upon the spirits of damned Impenitents of which we are told in Holy Writ 3. By setting down four particular Notices which we have received concerning the dreadfulness of that state 1. By a brief Rehearsal of the Descriptions of the misery of Impenitents which we find recorded in Holy Scripture It hath pleased God to express the future Torments of Impenitent Souls by taking resemblances from the bodily pains with which they are now acquainted and hath chosen the most sharp of those which men suffer on Earth to be Emblems of those far greater which they shall suffer in Hell I shall name a few of them Sometimes that miserable Condition is described by the Torment of Fire than which nothing is more sharp which is called Matth. 5. 22. Hell Fire which Chap. 13. 49 50. is called a Furnace of Fire into which the wicked shall be cast in the end of the World and Rev. 21. 8. a Lake of Fire and Brimstone into which several sorts of sinners there named shall be thrown Heb. 10. 27. it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated Fiery Indignation because of the fierceness of Divine Vengeance This is terrible and therefore such as are obnoxious to it are there said to be under a fearful expectation of Iudgment It was a pain unspeakably dreadful which those old sinners endured who were inclosed in Sodom and made to perish in the noysom smoke of Brimstone and the unsupportable Torment of Fire But that is nothing to that which will be kindled in Hell where the Fire will never go out nor the Persons who are burnt in it ever be consumed Sometimes this Punishment is called the Gnawing of the never dying Worm sometimes it is represented by utter Darkness which signifies the utmost disconsolateness of a dismal Condition Happiness in Holy Writ is called Light and Heaven the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Those who are cast into utter Darkness are removed to the farthest Distance from God who is the Fountain of Life and in whose Light the Blessed see Light It is called The Blackness of Darkness i. e. the most Horrid into which no glimpse of Light shines This state is worse than that of a Malefactor who is condemned to be made up between two Walls there to perish in Darkness Hunger and Solitude Sometime this dreadful misery is signified by a Pit which hath no bottom into which the ungodly are to be cast and sometime by the Torment of a perpetual Rack sometime by a Cup of Wrath called the Wine of the Wrath of God mixt with bitter Ingredients and in this World God doth make sinners to drink some drops but in the great day he will make them drink up the Dregs of it the bitter Wrath which lies in the bottom in which is no Alloy of Mercy Lastly by the pains of the second Death which the ungodly must endure which is a thousand times worse than the first for that is but a Temporal separation of the Soul from the Body this an Eternal separation of Body and Soul from God 2. The greatness of this Misery is plainly declared by the deep impressions which we are told it will make upon the spirits of damned Impenitents as we perceive the acuteness of pain which men suffer by the grievousness of their Cries Our Saviour says that in the place to which the Impenitent shall be condemned there will be weeping and gnashing of Teeth These are Expressions of extreme grief and show the extremity of Misery A small matter will not make one cry out nor a little cold make the Teeth chatter No it is because the great day of wrath is come and who shall be able to abide it The Impenitent would then be glad of Annihilation it would be good for them that they were nothing or as our Saviour says That they had never been born In great Anguish they will say to the Mountains fall on us and to the Rocks cover us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb But the Rocks will be as deaf to the Impenitent then as they are to God now 3. Thirdly The Impenitents misery is made known to them by four particular Notices which are given them of their dreadful Condition in the other World 1. They are told beforehand what Company they shall have in Hell and that is no better than the Devil and his Angels Haters and hated of God So the Sentence runs Go ye cursed into the Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels You hold of his side and it is fit you should share in his Lot I called you to the hopes of my Mercy and offered you a part in the happiness of Obedient Souls but you rather chose to comply with your own and my Enemy and to perish with Satan rather than to hearken to me Get you gone from me and all the blessed into that Fire which was not designed for you but was appointed as the punishment of Devils but since you would have your portion in it I confirm your choice This is sad For the Devils were always and are still Enemies to Mankind They were Murderers from the beginning and are Malicious to the end To be shut up with such Companions is a greater Torment than to be nailed up in a Vessel among Serpents Will impenitent sinners be able to endure this Can they dwell with everlasting Burnings Can they make an
manifest consequences deduc'd thence And by this one Declaration so many unnecessary and perhaps hurtful Retainers to Christianity will be at once thrown off that I doubt not but if you consider the Matter aright you will easily discern that by this first Distinction I have much lessen'd the work that is to be done by those that are to follow it SECT II. In the next place among the things that seem not rational in Religion I make a great difference between those in which unenlightned Reason is manifestly a competent Iudge and those which Natural Reason it self may discern to be out of its Sphere You will allow me That Natural Theology is sufficient to evince the Existence of the Deity and we know that many of the old Philosophers that were unassisted by Revelation were by the force of Reason led to discover and confess a God that is a Being supremely perfect under which Notion divers of them expresly represent him Now if there be such a Being 't is but reasonable to conceive that there may be many things relating to his Nature his Will and his management of things that are without the Sphere of meer or unassisted Reason For if his Attributes and Perfections be not fully comprehensible to our Reason we can have but inadequate Conceptions of them and since God is a Being toto Coelo as they speak differing from all other Beings there may be some things in his Nature and in the manner of his Existence which is without all Example or perfect Analogy in inferior Beings For we see that ev'n in Man himself the Coexistence and intimate Union of the Soul and Body that is an Immaterial and a Corporeal substance is without all President or Parallel in Nature And though the truth of this Union may be prov'd yet the manner of it was never yet nor perhaps ever will be in this Life clearly understood to which purpose I shall elsewhere say more Moreover if we suppose God to be Omnipotent that is to be able to do whatever involves no Contradiction that it should be done we must allow him to be able to do many things that no other Agent can afford us any Examples of and some of them perhaps such as we who are but finite and are wont to judge of things by Analogy cannot conceive how they can be perform'd Of the last sort of things may be the recollecting a sufficient quantity of the scatter'd matter of a Dead humane Body and the contriving of it so that whether alone or with some addition of other Particles upon a reconjunction with the Soul it may again constitute a living Man and so effect that Wonder we call the Resurrection Of the latter sort is the Creation of Matter out of nothing and much more the like Production of those Rational and Intelligent Beings Humane Souls For as for Angels good or bad I doubt whether meer Philosophy can evince their Existence though I think it may the possibility thereof And since we allow the Deity a Wisdom equal to this boundless Power 't is but reasonable to conceive that these unlimited Attributes conspiring may produce Contrivances and frame Designs which we Men must be unable at least of our selves sufficiently to understand and to reach to the bottom of And by this way of arguing it may be made to appear That there may be many things relating to the Deity above the reach of unenlightned humane Reason Not that I affirm all these things to be in their own Nature incomprehensible to us though some of them may be so when they are once propos'd but that Reason by its own light could not discover them particularly and therefore it must owe its knowledge of them to Divine Revelation And if God vouchsafes to disclose those things to us since not only he must needs know about his own Nature Attributes c. what we cannot possibly know unless he tells us and since we know that whatever he tells us is infallibly true we have abundant Reason to believe rather what he declares to us concerning Himself and Divine things than what we should conclude or guess about them by Analogy to things of a nature infinitely distant from his or by Maxims fram'd according to the nature of inferior Beings If therefore he clearly reveal to us That there is in the Godhead Three distinct Persons and yet that God is One we that think our selves bound to believe God's Testimony in all other Cases ought sure not to disbelieve it concerning himself but to acknowledge that in an unparallel'd and incomprehensible Being there may be a manner of Existence not to be parallel'd in any other Being though it should never be understood by us Men who cannot clearly comprehend how in our selves two such distant Natures as that of a gross Body and an immaterial Spirit should be united so as to make up one Man In such cases therefore as we are now speaking of there must indeed be something that looks like captivating ones Reason but 't is a submission that Reason it self obliges us to make and he that in such points as these believes rather what the Divine Writings teach him than what he would think if they had never inform'd him does not renounce or inslave his Reason but suffers it to be Pupil to an Omniscient and Infallible Instructer who can teach him such things as neither his own meer Reason nor any others could ever have discovered to him I thought to have here dismiss'd this Proposition but I must not omit to give it a confirmation afforded me by chance or rather Providence For since I writ the last Paragraph resuming a Philosophical Enquiry I met in prosecuting it with a couple of Testimonies of the truth of what I was lately telling you which are given not by Divines or Schoolmen but by a couple of famous Mathematicians that have both led the way to many of the Modern Philosophers to shake off the reverence wont to be born to the Authority of great Names and have advanc'd Reason in a few years more than such as Vaninus and Pomponatius would do in many Ages and have always boldly and sometimes successfully attempted to explain intelligibly those things which others scrupled not either openly or tacitly to confess inexplicable The first of these Testimonies I met with in a little French Treatise put out by some Mathematician who though he conceals his Name appears by his way of writing to be a great Virtuoso and takes upon him to give his Readers in French the new thoughts of Galilaeo by making that the Title of his Book This Writer then speaking of a Paradox which I but recite of Galilaeo's that makes a point equal to a Circle adds Et per consequent l'on peut dire i. e. and consequently one may say that all Circles are equal between themselves since each of them is equal to a point For though the imagination be overpower'd by this Idea or Notion yet
in the World how can there come to be any Motion amongst Bodies since they neither have it upon the score of their own nature nor can receive it from external Agents If Mr. Hobbs should reply that the Motion is impress'd upon any of the parts of the Matter by God he will say that which I most readily grant to be true but will not serve his turn if he would speak congruously to his own Hypothesis For I demand Whether this Supreme Being that the Assertion has recourse to be a Corporeal or an Incorporeal Substance If it be the latter and yet be the efficient Cause of Motion in Bodies then it will not be Universally true that whatsoever Body is moved is so by a Body contiguous and moved For in our supposition the Bodies that God moves either immediately or by the intervention of any other Immaterial Being are not moved by a Body contiguous but by an Incorporeal Spirit But because Mr. Hobbs in some Writings of his is believed to think the very Notion of an Immaterial Substance to be absurd and to involve a Contradiction and because it may be subsum'd that if God be not an Immaterial Substance he must by Consequence be a Material and Corporeal one there being no Medium Negationis or third Substance that is none of those two I answer That if this be said and so that Mr. Hobbs's Deity be a Corporeal one the same difficulty will recurr that I urg'd before For this Body will not by Mr. Hobbs's calling or thinking it divine cease to be a true Body and consequently a portion of Divine Matter will not be able to move a portion of our Mundane Matter without it be it self contiguous and moved which it cannot be but by another portion of Divine Matter so qualified to impress a Motion nor this again but by another portion And besides that it will breed a strange confusion in rendring the Physical Causes of things unless an expedient be found to teach us how to distinguish accurately the Mundane Bodies from the Divine which will perhaps prove no easie task I see not yet how this Corporeal Deity will make good the Hypothesis I examine For I demand How this Divine Matter comes to have this Local Motion that is ascrib'd to it If it be answer'd That it hath it from its own Nature without any other Cause since the Epicureans affirm the same of their Atoms or meerly Mundane Matter I demand How the Truth of Mr. Hobbs's Opinion will appear to me to whom it seems as likely by the Phaenomena of Nature that occur that Mundane Matter should have a congenit Motion as that any thing that is Corporeal can be God and capable of moving it which to be it must for ought we know have its Subsistence divided into as many minute parts as there are Corpuscles and Particles in the World that move separately from their neighbouring ones And to draw towards a Conclusion I say that these minute Divine Bodies that thus moved those portions of Mundane Matter concerning which Mr. Hobbs denies that they can be moved but by Bodies contiguous and moved these Divine Substances I say are according to the late supposition true Bodies and yet are moved themselves not by Bodies contiguous and moved but by a Motion which must be Innate deriv'd or flowing from their very essence or nature since no such Body is pretended to have a Being as cannot be refer'd as a portion either to the Mundane or the Divine Matter In short since Local Motion is to be found in one if not in both of these two Matters it must be natural to at least some parts of one of them in Mr. Hobbs's Hypothesis for though he should grant an Immaterial Being yet it could not produce a Motion in any Body since according to him no Body can be moved but by another Body contiguous and mov'd As then to this grand Position of Mr. Hobbs though if it were cautiously propos'd as it is by Des Cartes it may perhaps be safely admitted because Cartesius acknowledges the first Impulse that set Matter a moving and the Conservation of Motion once begun to come from God yet as 't is crudely propos'd by the favourers of Mr. Hobbs I am so far from seeing any such cogent Proof for it as were to be wish'd for a Principle on which he builds so much and which yet is not at all evident by its own light that I see no competent Reason to admit it I expect your Friend should here oppose to what I have been saying that formerly recited Sentence that is so commonly employ'd in the Schools as well of Divines as of Philosophers That such or such an Opinion is true in Divinity but false in Philosophy or on the contrary Philosophically true but Theologically false Upon what Warrant those that are wont to employ such Expressions ground their Practice I leave to them to make out but as to the Objection it self as it supposes these ways of speaking to be well grounded give me leave to consider That Philosophy may signifie two things which I take to be very differing For first 't is most commonly employ'd to signifie a System or Body of the Opinions and other Doctrines of the particular Sect of those Philosophers that make use of the Word As when an Aristotelian talks of Philosophy he usually means the Peripatetick as an Epicurean do's the Atomical or a Platonist the Platonick But we may also in a more general and no less just Acception of the term understand by Philosophy a Comprehension of all those Truths or Doctrines which the natural Reason of man freed from Prejudices and Partiality and assisted by Learning Attention Exercise Experiments c. can manifestly make out or by necessary consequence deduce from clear and certain Principles This being briefly premis'd I must in the next place put you in mind of what I formerly observ'd to you that many Opinions are maintain'd by this or that Sect of Christians or perhaps by the Divinity-Schools of more than one or two Sects which either do not at all belong to the Christian Religion or at least ought not to be look'd upon as parts of it but upon supposition that the Philosophical Principles and Ratiocinations upon which and not upon express or meer Revelation they are presum'd to be founded are agreable to right Reason And having premis'd these two things I now answer more directly to the Objection that if Philosophy be taken in the first sense above-mention'd its teaching things repugnant to Theology especially taking this word in the more large and vulgar sense of it will not cogently conclude any thing against the Christian Religion But if Philosophy be taken in the latter sense for true Philosophy and Divinity only for a System of those Articles that are clearly reveal'd as Truths in the Scriptures I shall not allow any thing to be false in Philosophy so understood that is true in Divinity so explain'd