of Man when he was Apostatized from the Truth of first Inscription The former of these is of things necessary in themselves in their Nature and Quality so immutable and indispensible The latter is the voluntary Results and Determinations of the Divine Will Things that are of an immutable and indispensible Nature we have Knowledge of them by the Light of first Impression The voluntary Results of the Divine Will we have by Revelation from God Man's Observance of God in all Instances of Morality these are Truths of first Inscription and these have a deeper Foundation greater Ground for them than that God gave the Law on Mount Sinai or that he did after ingrave it on Tables of Stone or that we find the Ten Commandments in the Bible For God made Man to them and did write them upon the Heart of Man before he did declare them upon Mount Sinai before he ingraved them upon the Tables of Stone or before they were writ in our Bibles God made Man to them and wrought his Law upon Mens Hearts and as it were interwove it into the Principles of our Reason and the things thereof are the very Sence of Man's Soul and the Image of his Mind So that a Man doth undo his own Being departs from himself and unmakes himself confounds his own Principles when he is disobedient and unconformable to them and must necessarily be self-condemn'd The Law externally given was to revive awaken Man after his Apostacy and Sin and to call him to Remembrance Advertency and Consideration And indeed had there not been a Law written in the Heart of Man a Law without him could be to no Purpose For had we not Principles that are Concreated did we not know something no Man could prove any thing * For he that knows nothing grants nothing Whosoever finds not within himself Principles sutable to the Moral Law whence with Choice he doth comply with it he hath departed from himself and lost the natural Perfection of his Being And to be conformable to this is the Restitution to his State Things of Natural Knowledge or of first Inscription in the Heart of Man by God these are known to be true as soon as ever they are proposed And he hath abused himself and forc'd himself from his Nature and deformed the Creation of God in him whosoever doth not take Acquaintance with subscribe to make acknowledgement of these great Things The great Principles of Reverence of Deity Of Sobriety in the Government of a Man 's own Person Moderate use of the Pleasures and Contentments of this Life The great Instances of Righteousness and Justice in Mens Transactions one with another For they are Connatural to Man Then for Truth of Gospel-Revelation that speaks for it self recommends it self and shews it self to be of God In this Case we may say as the Samaritans to the Woman They were brought to take Cognizance of our Saviour by the credible Report of the Woman But after they had had converse with him Now say they we believe in him not for thy Words but we credited thee so far forth as to come and see him but because we have seen and heard Such are the Declarations of Faith in God by Jesus Christ of Remission of Sins of God's accepting of Sinners upon Repentance that any Man that is awake to any true Apprehensions of God he will readily believe them and embrace them when they are declared to him by any Instrument The great Things of Reveal'd Truth tho' they be not of Reason's Invention yet they are of the prepar'd Mind readily entertain'd and receiv'd As for Instance Remission of Sins to them that repent and deprecate God's Displeasure it is the most credible Thing in the World For God made us Creatures fallible at the best Now here is finite and fallible failing and miscarrying repenting and reforming upon a Declaration from God So false is it that the Matter of our Faith is unaccountable or that there is any thing unreasonable in Religion that there is no such Matter of Credit in the World as the Matters of Faith nothing more intelligible It was a Mystery before God in Christ reconciling the World Now all the World is taken into a Possibility of receiving Benefits hereby Tho' there be nothing of Merit on the Creature 's side nothing that we can do that can deserve yet it is a Matter of very fair Belief that the Original of all Beings the Father of all our Spirits the Fountain of all Good will one way or other pardon Sin and do what behoves him for the Recovery of his laps'd Creation And any probable Narration made in the Name of God of the Way and Means and the particular Circumstances whereby God will do it will fairly induce Belief with sober serious and considerate Minds And what have we to do with others upon the Account of Religion If they be not serious and considerate they are not in a Disposition towards Religion That Promise of the Seed of the Woman breaking the Serpent's Head God hath been speaking this out further and further by his various Revelations in the several Successions of Time He has represented it in divers Shapes But now we have it expounded For the Seed of the Woman is God manifested in the Flesh And breaking the Serpent's Head is destroying the Work of the Devil The Anti-type doth exactly answer the Variety of the Types All foretold of our Saviour was fulfill'd in him We have many things in prophane Stories in several Ages that give Testimony and Light to Parts of Reveal'd Truth Many of their Stories are in Imitation of Scripture History As Nisus's Hair in Imitation of Sampson's Deucalion's Floud in Imitation of Noah's Hercules in Imitation of Joshua c. Many of the Heathens that were not corrupted by Education or Interest or the Strain of the Time do relate many things that are consistent with those that are in the Bible St. Austin tells us he found the Beginning of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel among the Platonists Eusebius read in the Commentaries of the Heathens those Circumstances and Matters of Fact that the Evangelists do mention and also the Signs at our Saviour's Crucifying as the Eclipse of the Sun and an Earthquake and other Accidents Tertullian speaks of sundry things which Pilate writ to Tiberius sutable to what the Evangelists relate concerning our Saviour Yea Mahomet himself who is the last great Impostor doth mention the Souldiers apprehending our Saviour with an Intention to put him to Death Acknowledging him to be a great Prophet but he tells us when those Souldiers were stricken down God took him away and they lighted upon another something like him and crucify'd him Plutarch an Eminent Author gives us an Account of Pan the great Daemon of the Heathens who was heard greatly to complain that a Hebrew Child was born and they never heard him after all the Oracles then ceasing Porphiry tho' of no great Credit
Constitution in the State of Innocency And for Reveal'd Truth that fits and supplies Man in his lapsed State Every Man that knows his State feels want in himself of Health and Strength And Reveal'd Truth is that which doth supply this Want And is that which he would have wish'd for from God In this he hath Terms proposed to him of Pardon and Reconciliation upon Repentance and returning to God Never did Patient and Physician meet more happily Disease and Physick than Man in a lapsed Condition and the Proposals that are through the Grace of God in the Gospel In the one there is Man full of Misery in the other the Grace of God for Mercy and Forgiveness Man's Language in that State is O wretched Man who shall deliver me from this Body of Death The Grace of the Gospel puts these Words into his Mouth I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord that he hath deliver'd me And he is bid to have no evil Heart of unbelief There is a State of Guilt on the one side a State of Justification on the other A State of Sin and a State of Holiness Fear of eternal Death And a Promise of eternal Life So that the Grace of the Gospel is fitted to Man in his lapsed State and Condition in order to his Restoration and Recovery The fifth and last Argument is the Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of what God hath done in the Way of Divine Truth For God sends not his Truth into the World alone But having done one thing will also do another to make the former effectual Now they that have not the Divine Spirit want the great Commentator upon Divine Truth in the World And therefore let such Men look after it For this is a great and a certain Truth that God in his Grace and Goodness will give his Spirit to guide and teach and assure the Minds of good Men Tho' none know it but those that feel him But they who have the Spirit of God know nothing more certain For they have Satisfaction and inward Peace and Joy in believing They perceive such Operations of God in themselves whereof the World cannot receive any Account The Divine Spirit doth open their Understandings as it did the Apostles brings Things to their Remembrance mekes them consider the Inwards of Things and calls them to Advertency and Consideration The great Work of the Divine Spirit is to lead Men into right Apprehensions and stay a Man's Thoughts in Consideration till the Principles do receive Admittance and become a Temper and Constitution till they infuse and instil themselves and make a lasting Impression Tho' for my part I do believe that the Scripture is clear and full of Light as to all Matters of Conscience as to all Rules of Life as to all necessary Matters of Faith So that any well-minded Man that takes up the Bible and reads may come to Understanding and Satisfaction And hence it is that we have Sufficiency from God to preserve us from Cheats of all sorts So that a well-minded Man that hath this Instrument of God need not be mistaken in any necessary Matters of Faith For the Bible is sufficient and intelligible in the Way of Religion and for all the Purposes thereof as any other Book for the Learning of any other Art or Science And upon this Account God hath done that which will justifie him and at our Peril be it if we be found ignorant or have been deceived For we needed not ever have been ignorant or mistaken in any thing that is vital in Religion and to this Purpose there is also the Divine Spirit still to attend upon this Instrument of God So that they who do acknowledge God and pray unto him for his Help and Assistance have the Advantage of being taught by the Spirit and by Means thereof are in a sure Way of Knowledge with the consequent Effects of Holiness and Goodness By these Five Arguments a Man may be resolved against the Atheism Infidelity and Prophaneness of the World And from this Discourse about which I have been long I do infer That Atheism and Infidelity are the most unaccountable Things in the World and inexcusable The Athiest must be every where self-condemned And the Infidel within the Pale of the Church There is nothing that God hath done more in any way whatsoever than he hath done for the Security of Men against Atheism For I dare say if any Man do but think and use Reason he may know all Natural Truth And what can a Man do less How is he a Man if he do not either of these Doth any Man know any thing but by Thinking and Considering Yea perhaps this is all that we pretend to For we are born to nothing else All Habits and Dispositions all actual Knowledge is our own Acquisition with respect to the Grace of God No Man is born to any actual Knowledge in the World or to speak a Word or understand a Notion But all Habits and Dispositions are acquired And therefore an Atheist shall be self-condemned as one that never used his Reason nor so much as exercised his own Thoughts And for the Infidel within the Pale of the Church If he will but search and consider he may find that which will beget Faith and Belief And therefore the Athiest and the Infidel are the most unaccountable and unexcusable Persons in the World For they have done nothing themselves They have not so much as thought or consider'd they have not seen with their own Eyes If a Man living in the World or in the Church be either an Atheist or an Infidel he hath been an idle Person in the World and a Sluggard His Understanding hath received no Culture or Care he hath made no Improvement of himself nor done any thing worthy of a Man SERMON II. ROMANS I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ For it is the Power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek I Have declared several Assurances we have of Divine Truth Natural and Reveal'd in Scripture against Atheists Infidels and the Prophane As 1. The great Acknowledgement it hath met with in the several Ages of the World 2. The Representation that is hereby made of God * which is agreeable to what Man is made to know The Proposals made to us by God the Invitations made by him the Prohibitions Commands and Promises all these testifie of God and declare worthily concerning him 3. The ingenuous Effects and Operations of Divine Truth upon Mens Spirits and in their Lives 4. The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in his State of Institution and of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed State in order to his Restitution and Recovery 5. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance Now if * this be so we may concur in Sence and Resolution with the Apostle I am not ashamed of the Gospel c. I
the Margin r. Mat. 18. p. 363. in the Margin r. 1 John 4. 18. p. 366. l. 16. r. Imprudence p. 394. l. 11. r. Impetuosity p. 446. l. 10. r. Members SERMON I. JOHN VII 46. Never Man spake like this Man BEcause there are amongst us those who are bold to call into question DEITY those who dispute against the main and principal Matters of Christian Faith under pretence of Reason the Excellency of God's Creation by which I will be concluded therefore I make choice of these Words to deal with them with their own Instrument Never any Man spake as our Lord and Saviour I will not lay the Stress of my Argument upon the Credit of those who spake these Words for they were I know not whom And I will make no more Advantage than I will give to the Devil himself who is related to speak many things that are â—â—â—orted in Scripture But I will found my Argument on the Quality of the Matter Yet it is considerable that they who are engaged in the contrary * Party are declared Enemies and have a contrary Interest that even they are over-born and so far subdued as to make an Acknowledgment There are among us Persons that are Sensual and out-right Brutish that put off Human Nature and discharge themselves of Principles of Reason and Understanding I think no Man doubts of this It seems to be evident and undeniable Yea they themselves are self-condemn'd in what they do And Men that do distemper themselves and put themselves out of the Use of their Reason when they do recover they wish they could do otherwise But then there are those that pretend to dispute against Deity and under Excuse of Reason pretend to be Atheists These make a great Bluster and Noise in the World and undertake to defend themselves with Show and Colour of Reason and Argument And again There are those who will admit of Principles of Reason to the full and all the immediate necessary Results and unavoidable Deductions from it and yet they sâ—ick at Reveal'd Truth pretending Want of Evidence and a Failure in point of Assurance and of infallible Conviction and Confirmation These Men avoid Atheism But stick in Infidelity * Now with him that pretends to Atheism or * who if he doth acknowledge Deity is an Infidel and sticks at Reveal'd Truth these two last I will deal with from this Scripture For * as for the first sort they being self-condemn'd are easily convinc'd Among other Excellencies of Divine Truth this is none of the smallest Weight that when it is declared it doth recommend it self to and satisfies the Mind of Man concerning its Reality and Usefulness Men are wanting to themselves that they do not see with their own Eyes that they do not make a particular Search that they do not examine that they do not consider or in a word that they do not use the Judgment of discerning For we that are of the Reform'd Religion who deny the infallible visible Judge we do allow to every Christian a private Judgment of discerning not * only as his Priviledge that God hath granted him * but as his Charge Where People are of no Education have no Liberty or Advantage in respect of Leisure or other Opportunities we do advise them to use Modesty and Humility and to be rather Learners than forward to Teach For it is good Councel and it is that which is done in all other Affairs Whosoever he be that hath not the Opportunity to acquaint himself with the Mystery it is safer for him to make use of other Expedients than for him to be peremptory in a Resolution But this for certain Men are wanting to themselves if they do not see with their own Eyes if they do not search and use a Judgment of discerning For Men attain to no settled State in Religion no Heights or Excellency of Spirit who do not make a Discernment by their Judgments But they run away with Presumptions Suppositions with conceited Imaginations with received Dictates are Light of Faith credulous do comply with others in Sence in Judgment in Practice And it is their Necessity so to do if they will not make Matters of Knowledge their Business There cannot be receiving of Truth in the Love of it and consequently in the certain Obedience of it where there is not receiving of Truth in the particular Judgment of the certain Verity of it and the Sence of the Goodness of it This Advantage Truth hath It hath so much of Self-evidence it is so satisfactory to the Reason of an ingenuous Mind that it will prevail unless there be an Indisposition in the Receiver This I take for the certainest Matter of Experience All things are according to the Disposition of the Receiver one Man will interpret into a Courtesie that which another turns into an Injury According as Men are in Preparation and Disposition of Mind so will things be entertain'd that are offered to Consideration and proposed But Truth if it doth appear if it be represented and fairly proposed it will find Entertainment in a Man's Mind if a Man's Mind be not by contrary Indisposition made in an Incapacity Truth is the Soul's Health and Strength natural and true Perfection As increated Wisdom speaks to God Prov. 8. 30. so Truth speaks the same Language to Man's Soul I was by him as one brought up with him I was daily his Delight Truth is so near to the Soul * so much the very Image and Form of it that it may be said of Truth that as the Soul is by Derivation from God so Truth by Communication No sooner doth the Truth of God come to our Souls sight but our Soul knows her as her first and old Acquaintance Which tho' they have been by some Accident unhappily parted a great while yet having now through the Divine Providence happily met they greet one another and renew their Acquaintance as those that were first and ancient Friends Truth is of a different Emanation for I cannot distinguish Truth in it self but in way of descent to us Truth either of first Inscription or of after Revelation from God The Truth of first Inscription is Connatural to Man it is the Light of God's Creation and it flows from the Principles of which Man doth consist in his very first Make This is the Soul's Complexion And Truth of after Revelation is the Soul's Cure the Remedy for the Mind's Ease and Relief The great Expectation of Souls is the Promise of God's Messiah They wait for the Consolation of Israel For this hath been the State of the World Man in Degeneracy and Apostacy disabled himself prejudiced his Interest in God Losing his Interest by his Degeneracy and Apostacy he is in Hope and Expectation of some Revelation from God concerning Terms of Reconciliation and Recovery And when these did appear then * was it said Lord now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace Here comes Truth of after Revelation for the Recovery
says that after one whom they called Jesus came to be worshipp'd they never could receive any more Benefits by any of their Gods One of the Roman Emperors was so possess'd with what was related concerning a Kingly Race among the Jews and was so startled with the Credibleness of the Report that he set himself to destroy all of the Family Publius Lentulus gives the Senate an Account that he saw himself and was an Eye-witness of the Man Jesus among the Jews who cured all Diseases and raised from the Dead Insomuch that Tertullian bids the Heathen Emperor search their Records For your own Kalender * says he recites the Things that are done by our Saviour This in the Days of Julian who was turn'd off by the Feuds and Exasperations by the Factions and Divisions among those that were call'd Christians Insomuch that he hated Christianity but otherwise a Man of eminent Justice and Good to the Common-wealth One who was a Philosopher gives an Account of the Christian Religion The Christian Religion says he consisting in Spiritual Worship and Devotion to God Purity of Mind holy and unblameable Conversation of all things that are call'd Religion it is the most Entire most Pure but only mightily hurt by some who have fill'd it with superstitious Things So that we may resolve that the Difficulty of Faith arises from the wicked State of the Subject rather than from the Incredibility of the Object It is hard to act otherwise than the State from within doth dispose a Man It is not imaginable that any Man can believe contrary to the Life he lives in When he lives in the State of eternal Death to believe eternal Life Or to believe the Pardon of Sin when he lives in it and slights the Sin he lives in For our Saviour says You cannot believe because of your wicked Hearts It cannot stand together To live in Sin and to look for Pardon of Sin For God doth not give to any one that is impenitent the Power of Faith Be not conform'd to this wicked World but be ye transform'd by the renewing of your Mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable Will of God Intimating that if a Man lead a wicked and ungodly Life if a Man in respect of State Complexion and Constitution of Soul be in Contradiction to the Principles of Religion the Principles of God's Creation he cannot prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God They that were in a Religious Disposition did readily believe and entertain our Saviour and acknowledge him to be the Messiah that was promis'd of old But those that were perfectly obstinate in the Pharisaick Disposition they rejected him And this is clearly true that Men cannot believe while they live in Sin and are in Impenitency and are under the Commands of their Lusts. For we find that an ingenuous Mind and one that is a true Penitent he doth with more Difficulty forgive himself than God doth He that is truly affected and cordially turns to God he is truly sensible of the Deformity and Impurity of Sin Though Repentance give Heart's Ease and Satisfaction and tend to the Quiet of his Mind yet he doth more hardly excuse himself than God doth But a Man that is wedded to the World that is under the Power of his Lusts that applauds and magnifies himself in Self-will is given up to the Affectation Arrogancy and Self-assuming how can this Man give himself Satisfaction concerning Pardon of Sin when he is in a contrary Spirit in a contrary Disposition He cannot believe that God will pardon Sin because he himself doth not pardon any other Offender God's Goodness well consider'd speaks him to be propitious and inclinable to Compassion But Impenitency speaks a Man's Incapacity of being pardon'd This is the Sum. All Divine Truth is of one of these two Emanations Either it flows from God in the first Instant and Moment of God's Creation and then it is the Light of that Candle which God set up in Man to light him and that which by this Light he may discover are all the Instances of Morality of good Affection and Submission towards God the Instances of Justice and Righteousness of Men and Temperance to himself Or else it is of an after Revelation and Discovery Man being out of the Way of his Creation by his Defection from God is recover'd by this Revelation Upon this Consideration that Man was never better than finite and fallible and considering that we have given an Offence and * considering the Relation that God stands in to his Creatures and that he is the first and chiefest Goodness it is * what may be fairly supposed that God will recover his Creation one way or other Wherefore that which the New Testament doth discover is that which was in general Expectation Now the Terms of the new Covenant are possible to Sinners They are Just and Fit Reasonable and Equal They are to us who are departed from Truth Restorative They are satisfactory to our Mind and quieting to our Conscience For if I have offended against the Rule of Right I ought to repent of it confess it be sorry for it and do my endeavour to commit it no more And there is Reason to think that God can pardon For every ones Right is in his own Power Every one doth dispose of his Right in that way which he will Since therefore it is God's Right upon the Failure of Obedience to reduce the Creature by Punishment it is in his Power to abate of Punishment if he pleases or to remit it And it is most reasonable to think that God should be allow'd to do this in what way he would Therefore we conclude that all the Instances of Christian Doctrine either they are fairly knowable if we use our Faculties and Understanding * and these are the great Instances of Morality and Principles of Reason or else if we do consider those Things that are considerable in the Case the Things of Reveal'd Truth are of fair and easie Belief The former of these the great Principles of Reason they are * by awakened Minds easily and readily found out The latter are * by prepar'd Minds fairly admitted and entertained This I say against the Atheism of the prophane World and those that do affect to be Infidels because they pretend they have not the Assurance of former Times * nor of powerful Miracles I will now instance in those Assurances that we have to settle us in the Entertainment of Divine Truth And they are these Five I. They are concurrent with the Sence of the Heathens and Strangers who do agree with us in all the Instances of Morality in these we cannot speak beyond them they speak and act so as to shame us For how many of us do act below them in these Particulars and as to many Things of the New Testament concerning Christ we have great Testimony from them as was shew'd II. The Representation
that is made to us by Truth concerning God He is represented worthy himself and so as we may credit what is said of him III. The ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth hath upon Mens Minds IV. Its Fitness to Man's State V. The Agency of the Divine Spirit in pursuance of it As to Morals we have the full Concurrence with us of Heathen Authors all those that are any whit reform'd And for the rest we have a good Rule in Philosophy which tells us that he is incompetent to give Testimony upon account of Morality that is himself vicious For he that is vicious is himself a Moral Monster And upon a Moral Consideration every Man is vicious that either is stupidly ignorant or dissolute and profane And their Judgment in point of Truth is considerable In Morals all those of the Heathens that have attain'd to any Reformation either to the Improvement of their Intellectuals or the Refinement of their Morals they all concur with these immutable and indispensable Verities And as to those reveal'd the several Parts of History concur in all the Things that the Evangelists do declare concerning Christ. It is very true there have been in the World several Persons that have grosly neglected the Materials of Natural Knowledge so that Men have suffered their Faculties to lie asleep The Mind and Understanding have been in most Men useless and unemploy'd And there hath been invincible Ignorance as to the great Points of Reveal'd Truth in several Ages and Places of the World But this I dare assure you that there never was any considerable Opposition against the main Principles of Natural or Reveal'd Truth by those that have any knowledge of it No Man of any Competency of Knowledge or Proportion of Goodness hath risen up against any of these great Instances of Morality or the main Articles of Christian Faith But these have had as I may say Universal Acknowledgment For if any have risen up against them they have been incompetent and so of no Moral Consideration The Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing for Truth doth not lie in every individual Persons receiving it for then you have nothing that is of Universal Acknowledgement but in the due and even Proportion it bears to the Universal Reason of Mankind This Principle no Man in his Wits will deny That it is impossible that the same thing should be and not be at the same time Yet some were so perverse and cross absurd and degenerate from sober Reason that they did deny it And Plutarch saith That nothing yet was ever in the World so absurd but some have held it Therefore we may entertain that which any sober Man in the due Use of Reason hath entertain'd and proposed upon Terms of Reason for the Satisfaction of others And we may conclude that the Universal Acknowledgement of a Thing as Truth it doth not depend upon every individual Persons receiving of it but upon the even and true Proportion that things bear to the Universal Reason of Mankind This is all that can be said when Men pretend to prove any thing by Universal Reason Thus the Being of a God is proved by Universal Reason For except only Monsters those that are upon the Account of Morality very Monsters Persons that have grosly neglected their Understandings and lived like Beasts none else but have acknowledged Deity Men improved in their Intellectuals and refin'd in their Morals have received and entertain'd it on Grounds of Reason It is observable that the great Differences that have been between Men in the several Ages of the World they have not been about any necessary and indispensable Truth nor any thing that is declared plainly in any Text of Scripture But all the Differences have been either in Points of very curious and nice Speculation or in Arbitrary Modes of Worship Now notwithstanding these Differences I dare say and give assurance that God gives Men leave with a safe Conscience to live in Peace and to keep the Communion of the Church of God in the World and to submit to the Government Whosoever hath professed himself a Christian doth acknowledge Christ to be the Head The Christian World scattered into particular Ways and multiplied into Sects and Parties yet do agree in the great and bright Truths of Reason and Christianity such as are fixed and of the greatest Magnitude The Mahometans themselves did never charge Moses or Christ as being Impostors For they acknowledge Moses as we do for a true Prophet and go along with us in the History of Christ till the Fourteenth of John and Vers. 16. and there is their first Departure They acknowledge all that is related concerning Christ Only they tell us that what Christ said of sending the Spirit and another Comforter is meant of Mahomet and they tell us that our Saviour set down his Name but afterwards his Disciples put it out They acknowledge Christ to be a true Prophet and beyond Moses and out of respect to him they deny all that is said about his Death and Crucifixion Reason doth suppose two things by which we may be further confirm'd in the Truth of our Religion 1 st That if it had been a Cheat and an Imposture it would have been deprehended in length of Time being often told and in several Ages and Companies sometimes by parts sometimes together and under several Circumstances and upon several Occasions there would have been some Differences in the Relations Had there been any thing false in our Religion * or that were not solid true and substantial it having past through sixteen Ages being above Sixteen hundred Years old those Men that lived before us being inferiour to none of us for Parts they would have deprehended it as guilty and forewarn'd us of it Therefore we may take it for granted that the great Matters of Natural Knowledge and Faith that have pass'd through so many Ages and Generations are solid true and substantial and that the Book call'd the Bible which hath run done from the time of our Saviour and his Apostles to this Day may be received with double Assurance Credit and Advantage For Error and Falshood is never long-liv'd but Truth is Eternal and that which will continue for ever 2 dly I do suppose another thing with great Reason and that is considering the Goodness of God the Care he has of his Creatures his Love to Truth and the Respect that he bears to those that worship him that he would not suffer the Good Intentions of such to be abused by any Imposture nor suffer that which is false to take such place in all Times and Ages of the World without the least Check or Controul But some may object if this be so what say you to the Mahometans and the great Factions that have been in the World and prevailed Are not these Testimonies against the Truth of our Religion As for Mahomet he had only the Assistance of an Apostate Monk who taught him to compound a Religion
out of Gentilism and Judaism and in the Composition that he hath made so far as he hath added any thing of his own it is so contemptible to sober Reason and so contrary to those things that he hath taken out of the Old Testament that it is not hard to detect him for a Cheat and an Imposter For devest him but of those things which he stole out of the Bible and that which is his own will appear base vile and contemptible to the Reason of Mankind and most ridiculous Now if God had given Testimony to his Religion it would have been in a way of Reason and most agreeable to the Understandings of Men and not in a way of stupid Ignorance but in such a way as might challenge the greatest Opposers to find any thing contrary to those Prinples of Reason and Understanding which he hath planted in Man's Mind But as to Mahomet History doth declare him to be a Person of a Debauch'd Life and one that had not Credit in the time of his Life As to the great Factions that have been in the several Ages though they have been many Persons yet they have been but one Party and one Party is to be consider'd but as one Opinion for if there be a thousand Men in a Party it is but one Opinion and one single Person is as much as a whole Party All those of a Party are bound up to one Opinion * and to believe as their Party believes Therefore I except against those that have blindly gone on without Consideration For these have not acted by the Guidance of Humane Reason Now I shall give you some Intrinsick Arguments by which I shall convince those of their Wickedness and Folly that affect either Atheism or Infidelity The first is this which is the second Assurance we have of Divine Truth The Representation that Religion makes to the Mind of Man concerning God even such a Representation as the Mind of Man if duly used and well informed would conceive concerning him For God is represented Lovely Amiable and Beautiful in the Eyes of Men and what is said of God is worthy of Him and is consistent with what Man is made to think or know concerning him For this is truly Divine and God-like to do Good to relieve to compassionate and on the contrary it is Diabolical and most opposite to the Divine Nature to destroy to grieve to oppress And what a relation doth the Bible make of God to be Merciful Gracious Long-suffering Full of Compassion So * on the other side how is the Devilish Nature describ'd and represented to us The Devilish Nature is hurtful given to Malice Hatred and Revenge but the Divine Nature is placable and reconcileable ready to forgive full of Compassion and of great Goodness and Kindness This for the Representation that both Old and New Testament make of God and this is agreeable to the Sense of every awaken'd Mind All that the Gospel requires is Repentance from Dead Works and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Sum of all that is declared and super-added and nothing in all the World can be declared or required upon Terms of greater Justice Reason and Equity For will not any one acknowledge that if an Inferiour give Offence to a Superiour he ought to humble himself and ask Forgiveness Can any Man's Reason in the World be unsatisfied in this Then for Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is it not very equal and fit that if God will pardon Sin he should do it in what way he thinks fitting that if we go to him for Cure he should take that way to recover us which he thinks best So that these * Terms which are super-added to the Principles of God's Creation are such that there were never more equal fit and reasonable proposed to Men neither is this all but they are satisfactory to the Reason of our Mind For this is found to be true upon experience that the Mind of an Impenitent cannot receive Satisfaction nor Consolation in any other way Should all the Men in the World or an Angel from Heaven speak * Pardon to an Impenitent the Sense of Repentance would be better Satisfaction to his Mind beyond any Foreign Testimony whatsoever Though God should tell me my Sins were pardon'd I could not believe it unless I repent and deprecate God's Displeasure For Repentance is satisfactory to the Reason of my Mind is necessary to quiet my Conscience and I should not be rational or intelligent in Religion unless I satisfied my Mind which is to do what I can to revoke what I have done amiss and to deprecate God's Displeasure and then apply to him for his Grace in that way which he has declared Therefore these * Terms are not only just and equal in themselves but tend to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Mind * and are Restorative to our Natures Now the Representation that is made to us by Divine Truth either natural or reveal'd is that which is satisfactory and consonant to the Reason of our Mind it is that which doth justly represent God as he stands in opposition to the Cruel Devilish and Apostate Nature as being Placable Compassionate and Reconciling and so in the use of true Reason a Man would have thought and imagin'd concerning him that he would not be wanting to afford unto Men fitting Aid and Assistance for their Recovery And thus is God represented Lovely Beautiful and Amiable in the Eyes of the whole Creation * Another Intrinsick Argument which is the Third Assurance of Divine Truth is the ingenuous Operation that Divine Truth both Natural and Reveal'd hath upon the Mind and Understanding of Man For these Truths call Creatures to Self-resignation to commit themselves to God to depend upon him And how doth this tend to the Heart's Ease * and to the Quiet and Satisfaction of a Man's Soul For we know by Experience that even the best and wisest of us are oft times transcended by our Occasions and at a loss The Affairs of the World do transcend the Capacities of our Mind and Understanding Now Religion both Natural and Reveal'd doth teach us that in respect of God we are but Instruments assumed determin'd and limitted and it is no Disparagement to an Instrument if it fail that we are but Creatures and have our Dependence upon him And how doth this tend to the Satisfaction of our Minds because we know that God is wiser than we and that he is greater and every way better than we * So that if any thing succeed ill which either the Honour of God or the Good of his Creatures * seem'd to require then we being but God's Instruments and subservient to him * may know that we should not have failed unless God would Thus our Religion teaches us Submission to God Acknowledgment of him Dependence upon him It assignes to Man his proper place respectively to his true Center and so lays a Foundation of
Heart's Ease Quiet Content and Satisfaction The Grace of the Gospel whereby we hope to be saved doth not only give Continuance Help real Furtherance and Assistance to Natural Truth which lost much by Man's Apostacy from God and so needed a hand to help it up but it also doth its own proper work by emptying the Mind of Man of Wilfulness Presumption and Self-conceit which is incident to his Nature and so making room for the help of Grace and Divine Assistance and Forgiveness But to pursue this Argument a little further A Gospel-Spirit doth excel in Meekness Gentleness Modesty Humility Patience Forbearance and these are eminent Endowments and mightily qualify Men to live in the World This is that which makes Men bear universal Love and Good-will and over-comes Evil with Good This I dare say had we a Man among us that we could produce that did live an exact Gospel-Life were the Gospel a Life a Soul and a Spirit to him as Principles upon Moral Considerations are this Man for every thing that is excellent and worthy and useful would be miraculous and extraordinary in the Eyes of all Men in the World Christianity would be recommended to the World by his Spirit Were a Man sincere honest and true in the way of his Religion he would not be grievous intollerable or unsufferable to any Body but he would command due Honour and draw unto himself Love and Esteem For the true Gospel-Spirit is transcendently and eminently remarkable every way for those things that are Lovely in the Eyes of Men for Ingenuity Modesty Humility Gravity Patience Meekness Charity Kindness c. And for all this that I have said I will refer you but to that of the Apostle where he doth set out the fruits of the Spirit and the works of the Flesh He tells you that the works of the Flesh are Hatred Malice Emulation Strife Sedition and such like All of a kind and all of them do speak Hell broke-loose and come in upon us in the World For these are from Hell and tend to Hell and represent to us in this World the Hellish State that we dread to meet with hereafter But on the other side the fruits of the Divine-Spirit in Men they are Love Joy Patience Long-suffering Meekness Gentleness and such like And all of these are such lovely things that they make Heaven in a degree where they are found * Whereas the former turn the World into a kind of Hell Such is the Nature of Religion that it keeps the Mind in a good Frame and Temper it establishes a healthful Complexion of Soul and makes it fit to discharge it self duly in all its Offices towards God with its self and with Men. Whereas the Mind of a wicked and profane Man is a very Wilderness where Lust and exorbitant Passions bear down all before them and are more fierce and cruel than Wolves and Tygers So the Prophet Isaiah 57. 20. The Wicked is like the Raging Sea always casting forth Mire and Dirt and Prov. 17. ver 12. One had better meet a Bear robbed of her Whelps than a Fool in his Folly and you all know who is Solomon's Fool even every wicked Man The Heavenly State consists in the Mind's Freedom from these kind of things It doth clear the Mind from all impotent and unsatiable Desires which do abuse a Man's Soul and make it restless and unquiet It sets a Man free from eager impetuous Loves from vain and disappointing Hopes from lawless and exorbitant Appetites from frothy and empty Joys from dismal presaging Fears and anxious Cares from inward Heart-burnings from Self-eating Envy from swelling Pride and Ambition from dull and black Melancholly from boyling Anger and rageing Fury from a gnawing aking Conscience from Arbitrary Presumption from rigid Sowerness and Severity of Spirit for these make the Man that is not byass'd and principled with Religion inwardly to boyl to be Hot with the Fervours of Hell and like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose Waters cast up Mire and Dirt. But on the other side Things that are con-natural in the way of Religion the Illapses and Breakin gs in of God upon us these require a Mind that is not subject to Passion but in a serene and quiet Posture where there is no tumult of Imagination It is observed among the Rabins that if a Prophet fall into a Rage and Passion the Spirit of Prophesie leaves him They say that Moses did not prophesie after the Spirit of Passion moved him But sure it is there is no genuine and proper effect of Religion where the Mind of Man is not composed Sedate and calm I find among the Philosophers that they never had expectation of any Noble Truth from any Man that was under the Power of Lust or under the Command of Fancy and Imagination or that lived in the Common Spirit of the World They thought that God did not communicate himself to such But this is certain that no Man that is immers'd in a sensual Brutish Life can have any true Notion of Heaven or of Glory These things must signifie no more to him than a Local Happiness and sensual Enjoyment than the highest and greatest Gratification of the Animal Principle all that he can think of Heaven is that it is a Place of great Enjoyment some Local Glory something that is suitable to the sensual Mind For we cannot ascend higher in our Actings than we are in our Beings and Understandings And these Men that think our Happiness lyes in the sensual Objects of Delight are not capable of understanding either the Reason or Necessity of Mortification inward Renewal and Regeneration in order to admittance into Heaven For they do not look upon Heaven as a State and Temper of Mind which is requisite to be reconciled to the Nature of God and to be according to his Mind and Will But Religion is the Introduction of the Divine Life into the Soul of Man and Men cannot possibly be really happy in the separate State but by these things by having a Divine Love ruling in their Hearts by Self-resignation and Submission to the Divine Will and by being like unto God Things are very well known what they are in being by what they are in working what the Principle of them is by the effect that flows from them Now I may say of Divine Truth whether Natural or Reveal'd that these do satisfie the Mind of Man and keep him from being barbarous cruel and inhumane Raligion doth give such Evidence and Assurance of it self that if you put it in competition with any thing that any Natural Man whether Atheist or Infidel doth ever rest upon it will appear to have a greater Foundation in Nature and * on the Grounds and Principles of common Reason Equity and Justice than any thing which can be set up against it to counterballance it And Reveal'd Truth super-added to Natural doth not only give assurance to it and helps to recover
that which we know by the Light of God's Creation which is weakned by Man's Sin and * his Apostacy from God but it doth also do its own proper work and teach a Man to return to his own place to acknowledge God depend upon him and be subservient to him * It teaches him to empty his Mind of all Presumption Pride Arrogance and Self-assuming So that a Man is fit to receive the Grace of Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin together with all Divine Influence Concurrence and Assistance But since I have laid so mighty a weight and so great a stress upon this Acknowledgment in the Text I must needs here prevent an Objection which may be raised and it is this Some may object and say you have no Divine Authority for these words for tho' they are in the Bible they are but here related I confess I have no more Authority from these words being spoken by these Persons of whom they are related than if they were clean the contrary to what they are For I do find concerning our Lord and Saviour that some Persons of like Disposition say that he did do his Miracles by Belzebub the Prince of Devils and if we lay the stress upon the Sayers we must as well credit them as these Therefore I will grant you that I have no Authority for ought I have said from these words materially consider'd or as related and put down here Neither do I lay any weight or stress on the Sense of these Reporters for I will grant that it might be hap-hazard what these Men said for as much as they did not speak out of any purpose or intention or out of any settled Principle and such Men have upon the like occasion given a clean contrary Report Now I will give you a profitable Observation from hence Take care how you quote Scripture for that is Scripture for which you have Divine Authority not that which is barely related in the Text. For you have the Speeches of the Devil and the Advice of the worst or Men related in Scripture Scripture is only consider'd in the truth of Matter of Fact and that these things were done but it doth not follow from hence that they are materially Good No Man must pretend to do as Ehud did because his Action is recorded in Scripture No Man must pretend to borrowing without Intention of paying as the Israelites did for if they had not extraordinary warrant they were * to be condemn'd in their Practice So for us to curse our Enemies as we read in the Psalms the Prophet did not knowing in what Spirit it was done * it is not warrantable for us to do the like from thence Neither must we hate any because the Jews were to hate and to destroy the Seven Nations which they interpreted a Commission to hate all Mankind but themselves Therefore in like case we cannot certainly prove that any thing in the Book of Job is certainly Divine that was spoken by Job's Friends because God himself declares that they had not spoken that which was right concerning him as his Servant Job had done Therefore if you will have Divine Authority see what is said and think it not enough that it is barely related in the Book Neither is it enough to pretend to a single Text nor the Practice or Perswasion of any Man whatsoever nor to any thing accidentally spoken that can amount either to Matter of Faith or Divine Institution it must be express Scripture it must be Scripture in conjunction with Scripture For Scripture as a Rule of Faith is not one Scripture but all And therefore tho' I have taken advantage from these words yet all along I have laid such certain and such infallible Grounds tending to give Satisfaction in the Matters of Reason and Faith as the several Points are capable of And now I proceed to a fourth Argument which is this The Suitableness of Natural Truth to Man in the State of his Creation And the Suitableness of Reveal'd Truth to Man in his lapsed and fallen Condition in order to his Restitution and Recovery And first for the Suitableness of that which we call Natural Religion Natural Religion was the very Temper and Complexion of Man's Soul in the Moment of his Creation It was his natural Temper and the very Disposition of his Mind It was as con-natural to his Soul as Health to any Man's Body So that Man forc'd himself offered Violence to himself and his Principles went against his very make and Constitution when he departed from God And consented to Iniquity It is the same thing in Moral Agents to observe and comply with the Dictates of Reason as it is with inferior Creatures to act according to the Sense and Impetus of their Natures It is the same thing with the World of intelligent and voluntary Agents to do that which right Reason doth demand and require as it is in Sensitives to follow the Guidance of their Sences or in Vegetatives to act according to their Natures It is as natural for a Man in respect of the Principles of God's Creation in him to live in Regard Reverence and Observance of Deity to govern himself according to the Rule of Sobriety and Temperance to live in Love and to carry himself well in God's Family this I say is as natural for him as for a Beast to be guided by his Sences or for the Sun to give light How far therefore are we degenerated and fallen below the State in which God created us since it is so rare a thing for us to comply with the Reason of Things Nothing is more certainly true than that all Vice is unnatural and contrary to the Nature of Man All that we call Sin that which is nought and contrary to the Reason of Things is destructive of Human Nature And a Man forceth himself when he doth it So that to comply with those Principles of natural Light and Knowledge which God did implant in us in the Moment of our Creation and exactly to be obedient to the Ducture of Reason is con-natural to Man in respect of the State of God's Creation And it may be as well expected from an intelligent Agent to observe God and to live righteously and soberly as from any sensitive Agent to follow its Appetite Humility Patience Meekness and such like Vertues they do favour Nature whereas Passion Pride and Envy do waste and destroy Nature Nature's Desires are all moderate and limited But Lust is violent and exorbitant Nature is content with a very few things But if a Man give way to inordinate Desires then there is no Satisfaction to be obtain'd Lust is not a thing that will be satisfied by adding and adding But he that would be satisfied must abate and moderate his Desires and undue Affections It is certain that all Natural Truth all that is founded in Reason and that derives from the Principles of God's Creation that all of these do agree with Man's
communicable Perfections Holiness Righteousness and Goodness we imitate and resemble him If we would be happy as He is we are to be holy as he is in our Measure Degree and Proportion SERMONS OF D R WHICHCOT PART II. LONDON Printed for Awnsham and John Churchill MDCXCVIII SERMON I. PHILIPPIANS IV. 8. Finally Brethren Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any Vertue if there be any Praise think on these things A Weightier Scripture more summary and comprehensive of all Perfection I do not find any where It shews how compleat and well furnish'd the Man of God shou'd be one who professeth himself a Christian names Christ and pretends to the Faith of the Gospel Whatsoever is Good in its Nature and Quality shou'd be well known to him shou'd be his Ornament and Accomplishment endow his Mind and qualifie his Spirit Whatsoever Things are TRUE And here we must take up Pilate's Question What is Truth Truth is first in Things then in our Apprehensions For the First the Truth of Things lies in this that Things do exist of their own Principles Now this Truth of Things is no Charge of ours it is God's Charge it is the Effect of God's Creation For he hath made all Things True and therefore Things must be True For God cannot fail either through Impotency or want of Power or through Error of Judgment This is Truth metaphysically But then that that we are concern'd in is the Truth of our Apprehensions And our Apprehensions are then True when they agree with the Truth and Existence of Things when we conceive of Things as they are And if we think otherwise then there is a Lye in our Understanding And here is the Occasion of all the Evil that breaks in upon Mortals that we do not conceive of Things as they are but that all Men except some few either worship the Idol of particular Imagination or the Idol of Popular Superstition They either follow private Imagination of their own or general Mistakes And he is a Man of a thousand that can rise up and quit himself of these two Idols Solomon observes that the Simple or the Fool believes every thing that is represented But the State of Things is determined fixed by God in the Moment of Creation And our Judgments and Apprehensions are to be conformable to the Reality and Existence of Things And when our Affections and Actions are suitable to such a Judgment and Sense of our Minds we are then in the Truth and never else The first belongs to a Man's Understanding and that speaks him an able Man a Man of Judgment a Man of Sense and Experience The latter speaks him a good Man And indeed if Mens Actions comply not with the Sense of their Judgments there will be Self-condemnation and no Peace within The next Distinction is the Truth of Things either upon a natural Consideration to know Things in their Natures and Qualities and this is * Natural Philosophy and is of great Use in the Life of Man and tends to the enlarging Man's Understanding But this is not the Concernment of Religion and Conscience Or else it is Truth upon a Moral Consideration And this only is the Concernment of Conscience And here we do enquire whether Things be right or wrong good or evil and accordingly charge our selves We are to be in Reconciliation with Things that are good and to have a Displacency against Things that are impure unholy and contrary to the Mind and Will of God And this is the Concernment of Conscience and the Business of Religion and is every Body's Charge For both a good State here and a future good State hereafter depends upon it Now Man's Obligation to Truth viz. That Truth should be in all his Actions and Apprehensions it is grounded upon the State and Principles of his Creation Man's Capacity Man's proper Employment Man's true End Man's Relation Of which there has been mention elsewhere I will * now give you certain Instances by which I will first show you when there is Truth on our part respectively to God And if I discover when we are said to Lye to God I shall by the same shew you when there is Truth towards God Now we put a Lye upon him in these * several ways To profess and not to believe this is high Dissimulation and a horrible Indignity put upon God This represents God as if he might be mistaken or imposed upon To believe and not to do and this is to hold the Truth in Unrighteousness Which in Scripture is look'd upon to be an Act of the greatest Violence Deformity and Malignity To begin and not to persevere To pretend God and mean a Man's self or the World To make God a Mean and the World an End I dread to have to do with any Man that will make Use of his Religion to gain him Credit and to make a Bargain Of such a Man one had need take double Security * Lastly to name the Name of God and not to depart from Evil. In these Cases we do not abide in the Truth But we put a Lye upon God In the second place As there is a Lye to God so a Man may put a Lye upon himself * viz. Either to gratifie his Lust for Lust is a false Principle Lusts are Exorbitances and Irregularities They are false Births They have not true Existence Or to give way to found Imagination It is also to put a Lye upon a Man's self to live after Temper For this is below Reason and short of Vertue And hence it is that every petty Astrologer pretends to tell Fools their Fortunes * There is no Man that is wise but he is more than Temper A Man by Wisdom doth govern himself and over-rule all Fate and Destiny whatsoever For Man under God hath a kind of Sovereignty over himself A Man hath Power to use Diligence that he may attain to right Apprehensions of Things And then he hath Power to execute and perform according to his Apprehensions This also is to put a Lye upon a Man's self to perswade ones self in any thing without warrant of Reason or Scripture To settle in an Opinion without warrant of Reason or credible Testimony is Impotency and Fondness CREDULITY is a Stranger to Wisdom and the very Nurse of Superstition * Also a Man puts a Lye upon himself if he have his Will for his Rule For Will is no Rule at all Will signifies nothing unless it be that Will which is in Conjunction with infallible Understanding which is the Will of God Some Men think it is the highest Perfection to be Arbitrary But really if they do consider it is a Piece of the greatest Impotency and foulest Deformity In these Cases a Man puts a Lye on himself In the Third place To give an Account of Truth between Man
Nature and Nativity from above For whosoever professes that he believes the Truth of these things and wants the Operation of them upon his Spirit and Life he doth in fact make void and frustrate what he doth declare as his Belief and so he doth receive the Grace of God in vain unless this Principle and Belief doth descend into his Heart and establish a good Frame and Temper of Mind and govern in all the Actions of his Life and Conversation RELIGION is not a particular Good only as Meat against Hunger or Drink against Thirst or Cloaths against Cold but it is Universally Good a Good without Limitation or Restraint * For Holiness and Purity of Mind is the self same thing to the Mind that Health and Strength is to the Body It is good * also in point of Satisfaction to the Judgment For no Man that useth Reason can otherwise sit down contented unless he be in Reconciliation with God unless there be fair Terms between God and him It is good * also upon the account of Peace and Settlement of Conscience upon which the greatest Good of Man doth depend for want of which nothing without him can make any Compensation Now to shew it in Particulars RELIGION which is in substance our Imitation of God in his Moral Perfections and Excellency of Goodness Righteousness and Truth * is that wherein our Happiness doth consist And we then relish the truest Pleasure and Satisfaction when we find * our selves reconciled to God by Participation of his Nature They who have not * this Sence of God may have a Religion to talk of and profess * a Religion to give them a Denomination but they are not at all in the true State and Spirit of Religion nor have they any real Benefit by it nor are they any whit enabled by it nor have they the more Peace and Satisfaction from it But when our Minds are transformed by Religion then we feel at least at times strong and vigorous Inclinations towards God And with these Motions * our Minds are best pleas'd and satisfied because these are most suitable to Nature and the highest Use and Employment that Humane Nature is capable of Upon this account it is that there is more Pleasure and Satisfaction in Contemplation than in any of the Pleasures of Sense and that those Men that live a-part from the World and are taken up in Meditation and Contemplation their Pleasures are more intense and solid than those * of the Licentious and * of such as please themselves in all the Gratifications of Sense There is no Heart's-ease like to that which riseth from Sence of Reconciliation to God and walking in Ways of Righteousness For in these Ways Mens Hearts never check them nor occasion them any Disquiet For let the World say what they will to be challenged by the Reason of a Man's Mind goes nearer to a Man's Heart than the Censure of all the World besides To act contrary to the Reason of * one 's own Mind is to do a thing most unnatural and cruel it is to offer Violence to a Man's self and to act against a Man's truest Use and Interest For all manner of Wickedness is a Burthen to the Mind and every Man that doth amiss doth abuse himself For it is not possible for any Man to run away from himself or to forget what he hath done He must stand to the Bargain that he hath made and abide by the Choice that he hath taken And in the whole World there is nothing so grievous for a Man to think of as that when he did amiss and made a mad Choice he went against the Sense of his own Mind For in this Case he is not Heart-whole There is no Man who knows himself but knows what I now speak is true Tho' I know it is common in the World for Men to do against Reason and to live by Chance and not to pursue any true Intention or follow any worthy Design But as it happens and as Company and Occasion leads them so they act be it better or worse Not considering that what Matter of Disease is to the Body which many times is very grievous and so indisposes a Man as to put him quite out of Self-enjoyment * the same Is Malignancy in the Mind Guilt in the Conscience Nay I may say that These are much more troublesome and grievous to be born than any malignant Matter of Disease can be to the Body They make not true Judgment of Religion that take it to be a Limitation and Restraint upon Man's Liberty Yet some are so foolish as to think that if God would we might have lived as we list and have been released from those many Obligations that Religion seems to lay upon us Whereas this is as great a Lye as ever the Father of Lyes could invent For Religion is not a burthensome and troublesome Thing which if God had not commanded might have been forborn and all Things have been as well No There is nothing in real and true Religion that is of that Nature And this I dare defend against the whole World that there is no one thing in all that Religion which is of God's making that any sober Man in the true Use of his Reason would be released from tho' he might have it under the Seal of Heaven For such a Dispensation would be greatly to his Loss and Prejudice As much as if the Physician instead of giving wholsome Physick to his Patient should give Poyson For all Things in real Religion tend either to conserve or * restore the Soundness and Perfection of our Minds and to continue God's Creation in the true State of Liberty and Freedom So that if a Man did understand himself and were put to his Choice he would rather choose to part with the Health and Soundness of his Body than with the Purity and Integrity of his Mind For as much as the one is his far greater Concern And he had much better live with a distempered crazy Body than with a troubled disquiet Mind and guilty Conscience But * on this Subject I have many Things to say and therefore will digest them into Five Heads First Man by his Nature and Constitution as God made him at first being an intelligent Agent hath Sense of Good and Evil upon a Moral account All inferior Beings have Sense of Convenience or Inconvenience in a natural Way And * accordingly all inferior Creatures do chuse or refuse For you cannot get a meer Animal either to eat or drink that which is not good and agreeable to its Nature And whereas we call this Instinct it is most certain that in intelligent Agents this * other is INSTINCT at least And for this Reason Man is faulty when either he is found in a naughty Temper or any bad Practice For he hath Judgment and Power of Discerning He is made to know the Difference * of Things And he acts * as a mad Man that