and moderated NOW the Wise Man we now speak of is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Contemplative Person who hath passed through all the Discipline of Virtue For He cannot be good at true Theory who hath not first been so at Practice and to the true and sober Man peculiarly belongs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Divine Wisdom which vigorously displays it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Platonists phrase it in an intellectual Life For the good Man only lives in him who is Life it self and is enlightned by him who is Truth it self Besides Purity of Heart and Life as also an ingenuous freedom of Judgment What are the best preparations for Truth are the best preparations for the entertainment of Truth For every Art and Science hath some certain Principles upon which the whole Frame and Body of it must depend and therefore the Scripture is wont to set forth a good Life as the fundamental Principle of Wisdom For it asserts the Fear of the Lord to be the beginning of Wisdom And in Divine Things especially He that is most practical is the wisest Man and not He that is most a Dogmatist For as in the natural Body it is the Heart which sends up good Blood and warm Spirits to the Brain whereby it receives power to execute its several Functions so that which gives us power to understand the best things aright must be a living Principle of Piety within us because if the Tree of Knowledg should not be planted by this Tree of Life Why Truth prevails no more in the World then it may bring forth bitter as well as sweet Fruit evil as well as good Deeds This is the reason why Truth prevails no more in the World because men are busied more in acute Reasonings and subtle Disputes than in real goodness which Goodness and Truth grow both from the same Root and live in one another ON the contrary Vice casts a cold Poison into the Understandings of Men benums the Faculties creeps into the Bed of Reason and defiles it Yet vicious Men are more apt than others to boast of their Wisdom but if we come nearer these Landskips of Reason and Wit that which seemed afar off to be Hills and Mountains in them will be found to be nothing but artificial Shadows besides the Vanity whereby Sin is puff'd up nothing is more unreasonable and foolish For what can argue a greater madness than to forfeit the endless welfare of the Soul for the satisfaction of a Moment THEREFORE I will only ask this of Mankind that they would act according to the directions of Wisdon that is agreeably to the fixed and unavoidable Fate of things and remember that they are a sort of Beings who must hereafter live always either in unconceivable Happiness or Misery if this Meditation will not bring 'em to Wisdom there is no remedy but they must be left to the dismal and pitiless deserts of their want of Sense and Consideration NOW there are two things that make up Religion Knowledg and Practice Knowledg and Practice make up Religion the first is wholly in order to the second and both together constitute Spiritual Wisdom For God hath not revealed his Will and made known our Duty to us to make us more learned but to make us more good not to enlarge our Understandings or entertain our Minds with the Fine Notions of Virtue but to Form and govern our Lives therefore God hath so ordered things that no Man shall be Happy for any Speculations unless they are drawn down into practice For there is no kind of Knowledg that a man may sooner come at than the knowledg of Religion because the greatest part of it hath a Foundation in the common Reason of Mankind and as for that which is revealed it is only new Arguments to be good and virtuous Now this Gospel makes the knowledg and practice of Religion the only way to true Wisdom and consequently to Happiness therefore they are the Practisers that our Saviour hath bless'd in his Sermon on the Mount the poor in spirit the meek and merciful So He who acts according to his knowledg is likened to a wise Man who built his house on a Rock but He who heareth our Saviour's Sayings and doth them not is likened to a foolish Man who built his house upon the Sand the rain descended and the floods came the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell The practice of Religion is a necessary condition for Happiness As God hath made the practice of Religion a necessary Condition of our Happiness so the nature of the thing doth make it a necessary condition for it For our utmost Happiness being to consist in the enjoyment of God and it being impossible that Persons should have communion one with another that are not of a temper we must be like to God if we would be Happy Now nothing can make us like unto God but Holiness and Virtue Therefore Men are not wise who think they can be partakers of Happiness upon any other account Knowledg indeed it self is a Divine Perfection but yet that alone doth not render a man like to God neither doth that alone qualifie him for his Presence For if a Man had the understanding of an Angel he might for all this be of a devillish Temper and whosoever is so hath no disposition in him for the place of pure Happiness LET every Man therefore that hopes to be happy in the next World lead an Holy Life in this because an unholy Life is in the nature of the thing utterly inconsistent with Being in Heaven THE proper Inference from all that hath been said is that in all the exercises of our Understanding Science or Wisdom we should make the practice of Religion our main design because for this purpose God gave us our Reason For to inspire Man with a Faculty of reasoning by which he can form true Notions from single Experiments and infer one Truth from another and to inspire his Reason with Divine Notions are only two different Modes of Revelation For He did as well reveal himself to us when he gave us Reason to understand his Will as he does when he sends a Messenger from Heaven to declare his Mind SINCE then God light up in us this Candle of our Reason why may he not give new Light to it especially when it begins to burn with a dying and languishing Flame How agreeable is this to the Divine Goodness and to that infinite Care it takes of the welfare and happiness of reasonable Beings to conduct and enlighten them with Divine Revelation chiefly when the groping World had so bewildred it self in an endless Maze of Errour and was so lost in its own wandrings when no Human Understanding or Wisdom could shew the Way then to spring a Light from Heaven whereby Mankind may be directed to the Coast of Truth is the highest Instance of the care
Equals or our Inferiours IN Conversing with our Betters we must beware of Sawciness or of using our advantage if we have any For it is a true Proverb He that eats Pears with his Betters must take heed how he choose the best Rigomez de Selva a great Courtier under Charles the 5th being one Night at Cards with his Master the Emperour likeing his Game Swore that Bout should be his the Courtier not willing to cross him notwithstanding he had much the better hand threw up his Cards and yielded Some of the standers by perceiving this smiled which the Emperour taking notice of would needs know the cause without any excuse and being inform'd what Rigomez had done rather than he would displease him took it well for the present and afterwards gave him a just reward So welcome are these Civilities to Persons of the highest Quality and Honor. Secondly OUR behaviour amongst our equals must be without all Imperiousness for Insolence and Stateliness are no signs of a well bred Man but the Scandals of Conversation and it being better to give too much Honor to any Person than too little therefore it is better to carry our selves as inferiours to our equals and equal to such as are not much our inferiours Thirdly WE must so Converse with our inferiours as never to do any thing that may look like scorn because Man by Nature is most impatient of Contempt Man naturally is must impatient of câ—ntempt For a Person of Note and Birth in Rome Sueing once for the Consulship took one of the Plebeians by the Hand and finding it somewhat hardened by the reason of his daily labour asked him merrily whether he were used to go upon his Hands The Man taking this for a Scoff and a Derision of him complained to his Associates and did so far prevail that the Patrician lost the Consulship for his unseasonable jest TO conclude in our behaviour with all kind of Persons we must cut off those Angles and smooth all that roughness which may give offence and be cautious that we fall not upon either of the extremes base Submission or Surliness for these are the Two Rocks between which we must steer our Course if we would adorn the Doctrine of Christ with a blameless Conversation If we would keep up Friendship with our Brethren which Friendship bears upon it a Character of the Divine Nature because it is ever doing good to Mankind Affability without Friendship is nothing worth and without which Affability is only Talk but a tinkling Cymball Nay without it the whole World is but a Wilderness and Men are the Savage Beasts in that Desart Now our Passions of all Kinds are most apt to swell and affect our Hearts to ease and bring down these Swellings is the principal Fruit of Friendship which at the same time chears our Spirits and quickens them also in Wisdom and Virtue it doubles Men's joys and cuts their griefs into halfes upon this account our most serious Religion commands us to be chearful and friendly that we may be good company for our Neighbours for hereby our words are made more gracious and acceptable our conceits more quick and pleasant our countenances more smooth and obliging A Temper thus Framed may support the Burden of Life very contentedly which is not unfitly compar'd to a Journey to perform it all alone is so uncomfortable that we should grow weary as soon as we begin it unless we were joined in friendship with our Fellow-Travellers who will make it seem less tedious and burdensome What a comfort is this to humane Life to walk with such Companions as shall asswage our cares with their wholsom Discourses dispatch our Counsels with their sage Opinions and dissipate our sorrows with their innocent Mirth Therefore Solomon hath told us that two are better than one 1. In the Case of inward Weakness if one fall the other will lift up his Friend 2. In the Case of Dulness if one be cold and heavy the other may communicate some heat to him 3. In the Case of Worldly Troubles and violent Enemies that may prevail against one yet two he saith shall withstand them So in all private Cases the calling a Man's self to a strict account is a Medicine sometime too corrosive and sharp the reading Books of Morality is often very flat and dead and the observing our faults in others is frequently unproper for our case but the best Receipt both for the amending our Manners and the managing our Business is the Admonition of a Friend especially when he is one of real worth having a Mind furnished with treasures of divine Wisdom and a Heart full of the Love of God For the Hope neither of gain nor pleasure nor youthful affection but the Love of Wisdom Goodness and Sobriety must knit us together we must be united by the admiration and esteem of the same things for since the Study of Virtue is not subject to those changes of Fortune that other things undergo the benevolence of virtuous Men must needs be perpetual and is not in danger to suffer that decay which is wont to be the Fate of vulgar Friendship Of VERACITY OF the Conversable Virtues Veracity is the Tye and that which gives 'em their real price the Philosopher calls it Truth but that name is too general for Truth is properly the Object of the understanding as we are taught in the Mataphysicks where Ens is said to have Three properties unum bonum verum For when the understanding doth conceive aright of Things as they are in themselves with their mutual respects and relations one to another then as it were by a second notion it is said to conceive the Truth and if it happen not to form a right Conception of any thing whose truth was not made by the understanding but was antecedent to it there it is said to conceive that which is false For the better descent therefore unto our matter in hand we are to understand that there is in things a double Truth one Metaphysical the spring of all our common Notions and Principles and upon which we ground all our Reasonings and Discourse to this is opposed Falsehood and Errour Another Truth for distinction sake we call Moral unto which is opposed a Lye For when the understanding conceives amiss of any thing it doth not presently lye but errs mistakes or reports a Falshood But Mendacia animo constant we then Lye when wittingly we broach a Falshood for some evil end either of gain or flattery of fear or some such purpose And here we find that Truth which doth properly constitute this Virtue NOTWITHSTANDING Truth as it is opposed to a lye is somewhat of too large a nature to be contained under this Virtue but it is often opposed unto Justice But the Truth which especially belongs to this Virtue concerns a point of behaviour in common Conversation upon which we are frequently cast For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is
of their Sect may be overcome with Wine but can never be drunk though to be overcome with Wine be downright drunkenness in a carnal Epicurean yet it was something else in a great Stoick How Immorality becomes uncurable NOW Immorality under the disguise of piety becomes uncurable Passion and Self-will is made more implacable by pretences to Sanctity and Godliness without Virtue serves only to furnish the Conscience with excuses against Conviction for it is easie to convince a debauched Person of his Distemper from the blemishes that are in all his Actions But Hypocrisie by lodging it self in the Heart and so by being undiscernible becomes fatal and the Man is past Recovery before he feels his Malady THEREFORE of all men He who hath the Form of Godliness only is conceited with it is the most desperate and incorrigible Sinner For he thinks the performance of the outward acts of Devotion will fix him so in a State of Grace that he needs not any Virtue Thus the Supercilious and self-confident Pharisees were at a greater distance from Heaven than Publicans and Harlots For these our Saviour could by his gentle Reproofs soften into a relenting and pliable Temper But as for the Pharisees their mistaken Piety only made 'em more obdurate and obstinate in sin searing their Consciences against the Force of his sharpest Convictions so that He very justly consigned them up to an unrelenting and inflexible stubbornness Secondly MEN deceive their own Souls How Men deceive their own Souls when they think themselves exempt from the Rule and Judgment of natural Conscience which they fansie exercises its binding Power only over those that are in a state of Nature and Unregeneracy but as for them that are enlightened by the Spirit of God they are directed by the Motions thereof not by the Laws and Dictates of Nature Hence the plain and practical Principles of Reason and Honesty come to be neglected and ever after men are led by giddy Enthusiasms and are befooled by the temper of their Complexions they derive all their religious Motions from the present state and constitution of their Humours and according as Sanguine or Melancholy are predominant so the Scene alters BUT the Spirit of true Religion is of a sedate Temper and dwells in the Intellectual part of a Man In what manner the Spirit of Religion works and doth not work out or vent it self in flatulent Passions but all its Motions are gentle composed and grounded upon the Laws of Reason and Sobriety The Impressions of the Divine Spirit are steddy uniform and breath not upon the Passions but the Reasons of mankind all its Assistances work in a calm and rational way they are not such unsetled and unaccountable motions as discompose but enlighten our understandings the Spirit of God only discovers the Excellency and enforces the Obligation of the Laws of God to the Consciences of Men and works in us a reasonable love of our Duty and serious resolutions to discharge it Therefore the Spirit of every good Man is sober discreet and composed such as becomes the gravity and seriousness of Religion which floats not in his blood nor rises and falls with the Ebbs and Tides of his Humours but he maintains a calmness and evenness of Mind in all the various Constitutions of his Body he confines his Piety entirely within his Soul and chearfully keeps it from all mixtures of Imagination as knowing a Religious Fancy to be the greatest Impostor in the World And there is nothing that spoils the Nature of the best Religion more than outragious Zeal which instead of sweetning embitters the minds of Men so that those Vices which Moral Philosophy would banish are often kindled at the Altar of Religion For it abuses the prudence and discretion of good Men abhors a Christ-like meekness and sobriety and fills their Religion with ill Nature and discontent Hence it is that no Quarrels are so implacable as Religious ones Men with great eagerness damn one another for Opinions and Speculative Controversies IF this be Religion farewel all the Principles of Humanity and good Nature farewel that Glory of the Christian Faith an universal Love and kindness for all Men let us bid adieu to all the Practices of Charity and to the Innocence of a Christian Spirit Let the Laws of our Saviour be cancel'd as Precepts of Sedition Let us banish Religion out of Human Converse as the Mother of Rudeness and incivility Let us go to the School of Atheism and Impiety to learn good Manners BUT if nothing bids greater defiance to the true Spirit and Genius of Religion than a Form of Godliness denying the Power thereof then let not the Wisdom of God be charged with the Folly of Men Let then the furious Sons of Zeal without the Power of Godliness tell me the meaning of such Texts as these Learn of me for I am meek and humble I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called with all lowliness long-suffering forbearing one another in Love put on therefore as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness forgiving one another if any man have a complaint against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye So saith James 3. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledg amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness and wisdom He that can reconcile these holy Precepts with a peevish or Cynical disposition may as well unite Christ and Belial make a Christian and a Pharisee the same WHAT remains then but that we set our selves to a serious minding of true and real Goodness An exhortation to mind true and real Goodness that we trifle not away our Time in pursuing the Shadows of it nor waste our Zeal upon its Forms and Instruments that we cheat not our Souls with a partial Godliness nor damn them with an half-Religion For we must measure our profitableness under the means of Grace by the influences of it upon the obedience of our Lives we must pursue Christianity in its true and proper usefulness give a sincere Obedience to every Law of Righteousness we must not divorce Piety from Justice and Charity but join the love of God with the love of our Brother be impatient against our own Sins and other mens Opinions spend our Zeal in our own and not other men's Business be ever zealous for the prime and most substantial Principles of Religion not for uncertain and unexamined Speculations we must set our selves with all our might against our Lusts and our Passions for all our Devotions without it will never expiate one habitual Sin neither will a maimed or halting Religion ever arrive at Heaven nothing but an entire Obedience to the Laws of Christ will gain admittance there Let us therefore inform our Minds with the Excellency of true Religion and Goodness Let us adorn them with an inward Purity
best and most desirable Doctrine in the World with the vainest Enthusiasm now by the Principles of Reason we are not to understand the Grounds of any Man's Philosophy nor the critical Rules of Syllogism but those fundamental Notices that God hath planted in our Souls whereby we know that every thing is made for an End and every thing is directed to its End by certain Rules these Rules in Creatures of Understanding and Choice are Laws and in Transgressing these is Vice and Sin AS for Arguments from Scripture against the Use of Reason 't is alledged that God will destroy the wisdom of the wise and that the world by wisdom knew not God But by this wisdom is not meant the Reason of Mankind but the Traditions of the Jews the Philosophy of the Disputing Greeks and the Policy of the Romans all which the Apostle sets at naught because they were very contrary to the Simplicity and Holiness to the Self-denyal and Meekness of the Gospel Secondly IT is said that the natural Man receiveth not the Things of the Spirit of God for they are Foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are Spiritually discerned by which Words nothing more is intended than that a Man who is guided purely by natural Reason and is not enlightned by Divine Revelation cannot understand matters of pure Revelation but he thinks them absurd and foolish till they are made known to him by the Revelation of the Spirit of God and when they are so nothing appears in the Mysteries of Religion but what is agreeable to the soundest Reason and Wisdom Thirdly IT is urged that our Reason is very liable to be misled by our Senses and Affections by our Interests and Imaginations so that many times we mingle Errours and false Conceits with the genuine Dictates of our Minds and appeal to them as the Principles of Truth when they are the false Conclusions of Ignorance and Mistake All that can be infer'd from hence is that we ought not to be too bold in defining Speculative and difficult Matters nor set our Reasonings against the Doctrines of Faith But this doth not tend to the Disreputation of Reason in the Object that is those Principles of Truth which are Written upon our Souls for if we may not use our Understandings Scripture it self will signifie either nothing at all or very little to us THEREFORE to decry the Use of Reason is to introduce Atheism The mischiefs of decrying the use of Reason for what greater advantage can the Atheist have against Virtue than that Reason is against the Precepts of it This will make our Religion depend upon a warm Fancy and an ungrounded Belief so that it can stand only till a new Conceit alter the Scene of Imagination Secondly TO decry the Use of Reason is to lay our selves open to infinite Follies and Impostures when every thing that is reasonable is called vain Philosopy and every thing that is sober carnal Reasoning This is the way to make up a Religion without Sense and without Moral Virtue This is to put out our Eyes that we may see and to hoodwink our selves that we may avoid the precipices of Vice Thus have all extravagancies been brought into Religion beyond the imaginations of a Feaver and the conceits of Midnight THE last and greatest obstacle to the Progress of moral Virtue is some Men's making Morality and Grace opposite to one another Grace and Morality are not opposites To divorce Grace from Virtue and to distinguish the spiritual Christian from the Moral Man is a modern invention for not one ancient Author that hath treated of our Religion did ever make any difference between the Nature of Moral Virtue and Evangelical Grace Evangelical Grace being nothing else in their account but Moral Virtue heightned by the Motives of the Gospel and the assistances of the Spirit both which are external Considerations to the Essence of the thing it self so that the Christian Institution does not introduce any new Duties distinct from the Eternal Rules of Morality but strengthens them by new Obligations and improves them by new Principles For THE Power to perform these Duties comes from the internal Operations of the holy Spirit which applies the Motives of Religion to our Minds and by them perswades us to every good Action that we are enlightned with the knowledg of Christ cometh of his Gift who disposeth us to learn the Truth that we attend to the Word of God and are wrought into a serious Temper that we are excited to good Resolutions and confirmed in them cometh of his Grace who putteth good thoughts into our minds thereby moveth our Wills and Affections most powerfully to every good Work or to every Moral Vertue which consists not only in the decency of outward behaviour but is a prevailing inclination of the mind to those Manners or that way of Life which is best for a reasonable Creature or it is an universal goodness of Manners in Mind and in Practice NOW it is named Virtue because the strength and vigour of a reasonable creature consisteth in a temper of Mind and course of Life agreeable to right Reason it is called Moral because it is conversant about the customary dispositions and actions of reasonable Creatures so those Laws that are given with rational inducements to Obedience are said to be Moral Laws as being proper and suitable to the nature of rational Beings to whom they are prescribed and this in opposition to the Laws of Motion and Matter by which God governs the rest of his Works for that Agent which hath no power over it self but acts because it must whatsoever laudable effects it may produce it is as uncapable of Morality as those senseless Machines are that move by the Laws of Matter and Motion NOW the duties required of us in the Covenant of Grace are Moral in the strictest Sense so that Holiness and Moral Vertue are in truth the same things diversly expressed for to do that which is good and to do it well is the sum of both and it is plain that those perfections in God which our Holiness is an imitation of are Justice Faithfulness and Truth his Patience Mercy and Charity his hatred of Sin and his love of Righteousness all which are Moral Perfections and therefore when in these things we are followers of God our imitation of him does necessarily become Moral Vertue and those Duties which work in us the nearest likeness to Christ Jesus are Meekness Humility Patience Self-denial contempt of the World readiness to pass by Wrongs to forgive Enemies to love and do good to all are all in the most proper sense Moral Vertues indeed to glorifie God in Jesus Christ is an end of Obedience which Nature teacheth not but being made known by Grace we are obliged to regard this end by the Rules of Morality which are derived from Christ and caused by the Spirit so that we have no reason to boast of their
Relations and Friends happy MORE than this Vertue doth not only bring us a good Name but above all things it doth conduce to the Happiness of our Relations and Friends the goodness of God being so diffusive as to scatter his Blessings round about the Habitation of the Just for Vertue tends to this from the Nature of the thing it self because it lays the strictest Obligations upon Men to provide for their Families which whosoever neglects he is reckoned worse than an Heathen or Infidel besides it is many times seen that the Posterity of such as have given Testimony of their Goodness Charity and Kindness towards Men of Piety and Devotion towards God that their Relations have met with unexpected Kindnesses from others upon their account and for their sakes have been especially cared and provided for THUS Vertue is profitable for our Health for our Estates for our Honor and for our Relations it doth likewise improve our Understandings and bring Peace to our Minds 1. IT makes us better acquainted with the great Interests of our Souls Vertue improves our Vnderstandings and it doth also set us at liberty from the Dominion of our Vices and Passions and teaches us to use much Consideration and weighing of Things for that a Man may be vertuous it is not sufficient that he do vertuous Actions out of good Nature Interest or Passion but he must do them discreetly and for good ends by deliberation and choice for it hath been the Observation of all knowing Persons and they have delivered it for a certain Rule as hath also the holy Spirit and Wisdom of God himself That vertuous courses only together with God's Grace obtained by Prayer are capable to make a man wise that is to direct his actions in such a manner as he shall not need to repent of them Now an evil man seeks occasions to gratifie his Humor and at best thinks to stop at the Confines betwixt Passion and Vice but a wise Man avoids the occasions of Vice which he looks upon as a disease of the Soul contrary to the natural and due Constitution of it and subverting its true Tone and Disposition And that every Vice in particular is contrary to Prudence appears because Covetousness instead of Wisdom introduceth Craft Subtilty and Deceitfulness Pride breeds Confidence of a Mans self and Contempt of others Advice Lust is the Mother of Negligence and Inconstancy and at length of that blindness of Understanding which renders Men uncapable of understanding such things especially as concern their Souls but even such also as are advantageous to their temporal Welfare Besides Vertue doth most notoriously improve our Understandings by delivering us from the power of all Passions whatsoever which is done by regulating the Imagination whence they arose that is by subjecting it to Reason that it may not without Consultation follow the Suggestions of Sense and unruly Motions of Appetite these being the Clouds that darken the Mind by a kind of Physical and Natural Influence For as Intemperance and Excess do embase and clog our Minds and glue them to the World so they indispose them for all the Operations of the Spirit Malice Wrath and Envy fill us with Prejudice and false Apprehensions of things so that Mens Spirits under these Distempers are not pure nor fine enough for their Reason for as Clearness disposeth the bodily Eye for a better and quicker sight of material Objects so the Purity of our Souls that is freedom from Lust and Passion fit us for Acts of Reason and Understanding Now Vertue doth refine and purifie our Minds by stifling the fumes and steams of every Vice and Passion and the more a Man's Mind is cleansed from these Filthinesses the more noble will it be in all its Operations the more a Man is free from Passion his Apprehension of Things will be more distinct and unprejudiced and consequently his Judgment will be more steddy and better settled for freedom from Passion doth not only signifie that a Man is wise but really contributes to the making of him such Vertue promotes the Peace of our Minds Secondly VERTUE tends to the Peace of our Minds therefore the Wise man declares that her ways are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace which Peace and Pleasure are brought to us by Vertue two ways First IN that it allays those Storms of Passion which ruffle and discompose the Mind for if we lay open the Soul with its Operations we shall find that Passions regulated by Reason or God's Spirit are properly Vertues and when they are not so regulated they become Vices Now Malice Hatred Revenge Ill-will Wrath Impatience are fretting Passions and rob us of our Peace they admit no Counsel but are full of Tumult and Confusion it is not in the power of Reason to rule absolutely over these untoward Affections but because Reason is sometimes misled or obstinately mistaken Almighty God has given us his holy Religion and his Spirit to govern Reason also and render every Thought obedient to Faith So that in Religion lies the universal and never failing Remedy of all the Evils of the Soul and an infallible Cure of those Passions that lye cross to our Minds which like small Particles that have rugged and sharp Angles do continually molest and grate upon us but he that is free from the Tumults of these Passions finds nothing but Sweetness and Contentment the moderation whereof ought to be the chief aim of every one who desires to be wise or to be quiet Secondly Vertue frees us from guilt and the fears of divine Wrath. VERTUE frees us from the anxiousness of Guilt and the fears of divine Wrath whereby it doth much promote our real Peace and Pleasure for what can be supposed to be more tormenting than the continual dreads of God's Anger consequently the Satisfaction must be as great when God is reconciled to a Man and made his Friend What Comfort and Joy doth a vertuous Person perceive in the sense of his Love in the serious Reflections on a well-spent Life in the Conscience of having acted uprightly in the chief business of Life what pleasure doth such a Man take in his Service what Peace in working Righteousness what Exultation and Triumph in the assured Hope and Expectation of future Glory AS there are pure and refined Joys sweet and unmingled Delights in the ways of Vertue so on the contrary the chief part of the Misery of ungodly Men is this that they are of a Temper which is naturally a disquiet to it self and here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil frame and disposition of their own Spirits when Men are not circumspect in their Conversation and very careful to walk in the ways of Godliness especially when the Confines of Vertue and Vice are so close and the exact Limits and Boundaries are so difficultly fixed Until this rash and inconsiderate running into Vice be cured which only can be done by the