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
every Errour though sometimes it would require a very curious Artist in the midst of all the deformities of Errour to descry the defaced Lineaments of that Truth which it did at first resemble as Plutarch spake of those Egyptian Fables on Isis and Osiris that they had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certain weak appearances and glimmerings of Truth but so as they needed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some notable Diviner to discover them Whence the difficulty arises to find out Truth AND this I think is the case of all that search after Truth they must go along and dangerous Journey sometimes they must meet with no path at all sometimes with so many and those so contrary in appearance to one another that the variety confounds them Nay she is so involved and interwoven with mistake that Mankind seem to have done that to Truth which the Egyptian Typhon did to the good Osiris when he hewed her lovely Form into a thousand pieces and scattered them to the Four Winds Ever since her sad Friends such as dare appear in her behalf imitating the careful search that Isis made for the mangled Body of Osiris have wandred up and down gathering up Limb by Limb still as they could find them All the parts are not yet found nor ever shall be until her Master's Second coming He shall bring together every Joint and Member and mould them into an immortal Feature of Loveliness and Perfection IN the mean time we must not be wanting in all necessary Care for so doubtful a passage through all the Falshoods as well as Vanities of this Life For these are the Evils that produce most of those Heats that are amongst men And if ignorant or malicious Physicians in this violent Feaver did not apply new Heats instead of Julips they might by writing and speaking Truth reduce the World in a short time to its antient healthful and natural Temper For if Truth as Democritus fansied Truth must be sought for not without but within us lies at the bottom of a deep Well we must seek for it in the Center and heart of our selves And we shall find her seated in that Dominion which the Understanding and Judgment hath over the Passions which are the Glasses that discover to us all the secret workings of the Mind and they are the Instruments too whereby She acts either Good or Evil For according to the evenness and moderation of men's tempers so much the more impartial their judgments are and consequently so much the clearer Prospect they have of all manner of Truth This will encourage us to walk in the practice of Uprightness and Veracity until we come to that other World where are the Eternal Laws of Right and Justice the immediate and most steady Principles of Truth and Goodness where are infallible Rules for all cases and Actions however circumstantiated from which the Will of God though never so absolute shall never depart one tittle For his Truth hath place in every declaration of his Mind and signifies an exact correspondency or agreement between his Mind and his Words between his Words and the truth of things the correspondency of his Words with his Mind depends on the rectitude of his Will the Conformity of Words with his Mind and with the truth and reality of things depends not not only on the rectitude of his Will but the perfection of his knowledg and the Infallibility of his Understanding Therefore Porphyry tells us That this is one of the Properties of God to have regard to the Truth and this is that which doth set men near unto God and afterwards he adds That Truth is so great a Perfection that if God would reveal himself to Men he would have Truth for his Body and Light for his Soul Of URBANITY IN the Opinion of some austere Men this Vrbanity which we call a Virtue may be thought to have a more fit place in Erasmus his Moriae Encomium because it contains the Doctrine how we should behave our selves in our Pastimes Indeed the Life of a Man truly Virtuous doth properly consist in all Seriousness and Gravity little or no room is left for Jesting or any kind of Facetiousness But because Man is a Creature of a weak and frail Constitution easily subjected to Sadness and Melancholy Facetious Speeches a pleasant and jocular Humour A facetious or pleasant Humour allowed of by our Religion have been commended by Philosophers as virtuous not disallowed by Reason commonly affected by Men often used by Wise and good Persons These things ought to have some place in our Conversation otherwise we should think our Religion chargeable with too much sourness And Aristotle believed them so necessary to sweeten the practice of the grave and serious Virtues that He brings in Vrbanity like a Fool in a Play to make Sport or like the Battel of the Cowards in the Arcadia after the sad Story of Argalus and Parthenia HE doubts very much Whether He should set it down for a Virtue or no For in reckoning up the Vices of common Language He makes them to be Three First Stultiloquium Speaking foolishly Secondly Turpiloquium Talking lewdly Thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in English we call Jesting or Faceâ—iâ—â—â—â—â—ss BUT since for the refreshing man's Life and the smoother carrying on the more difficult Exercises of Virtue there seems to be great need of some Mirth and Relaxation We must find out a due temper for them that we may keep the middle Way even in our Recreations NOW if such a Medium can be discovered there will likewise be seen the two Extremes betwixt which it passes as Buffooâ—â—ry on one side by Aristotle called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is nothing but Impudent shameless and injurious Scoffing without any respect to Time or Place or Persons On the other Rusticity by Aristotle called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is nothing but a stupid Sullenness that makes men appear Ill-bred and unfit for Company WHEREFORE if I can make it out when Facetious Humours are allowable and when they are Wicked and not to be endured I shall be able to shew a Man how to get the Reputation of a Wit and of one that is both Good and Wise too 'T is true there is nothing Men differ much in their Opinions about Wit that men differ more in than in determining what Wit is sometimes they place it in Words and Phrases sometimes in Apposite Tales sometimes it puts on the dress of Similitudes or is wrap'd up in humorous Expressions sometimes it is lodged in a sly Question or a sharp Repartee sometimes a tart Irony goes for Wit or a big Hyperbole In short No Man can give a reasonable account of its Ways because it doth answer to all the numberless Rovings of men's Fancies and to all the turns of their Language IT will be therefore very hard to settle a clear and certain Notion hereof so as to make a Virtue of That which appears
concurrence of supernatural strength For notwithstanding our many weaknesses through Christ we may do all things He alone gives us a will to use his Grace and knowledge to discern the want of more THE proper Inference therefore from the whole is that we resolve to go on in a good Course of Life because by this means our Work will be easier to us if we be diligent in governing our Conversation by the Rules of Vertue the difficulty of Religion will still grow less because our strength will increase and God hath promised to give greater degrees of assistance to them that use what he hath already bestowed then our endeavours must concur with this assistance which God gives for the Spirit doth usually work insensibly upon the minds of Men and therefore it is compared to the Wind which no Man sees whence it cometh nor whether it goeth even so is the Spirit of God Men feel motions upon their Hearts but how these are produced is altogether together invisible to them when the Doctrine of the Gospel is propounded and the Word is Preached they find themselves convinced of the truth of it and as their Minds are enlightned so their Wills and Affections are warned to a complyance therewith NOW when the Spirit of God hath begun this Work upon our Hearts our business is to cherish those Motions and to act accordingly which if we do and pray to God for his aid we shall find supplies coming in from him that will increase our strength unto that which is good and vertuous for we must know that the greatest difficulties in Religion are met withal at first because at first God doth not usually bestow a great measure of his Grace but he gives us a taste of his goodness and if we relish it he sends forth continually larger measures of his Grace and Favour The Conclusion drawn from all the Premisses SEEING then all the Precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our Passions in the just regulation whereof we have placed the very Essence of Vertue seeing this was the end which all Philosophy aimed at as the utmost felicity that was attainable in this World Let us make it our business to work out our Salvation by living according to these Rules which we have here set down for as they are not hard to be understood so the performance of them is easie and pleasant THEY Are not hard to be understood because God hath shewed us the difference between Good and Evil Vertue and Vice First BY Natural Instinct Secondly BY Natural Reason Thirdly BY the common consent of Mankind Fourthly BY External Revelation FIRST there is a secret impression upon the Minds of Men whereby they are naturally directed to approve some things as good and avoid other things as evil Natural Instinct teaches us what is Good and what is Evil. just as the Creatures below Men are by a natural Instinct led to their own preservation and to take care of their young ones In like manner we find in human Nature a propensity to some things that are beneficial and a loathing of other things that are hurtful to them the former appear beautiful and lovely the latter ugly and deformed NOW these inclinations do not proceed from Reason but from Nature and are antecedent to all Discourse as it is manifest from hence that they are as strong and do put forth themselves as vigorously in young persons as in those that are older they do shew themselves as much in the rude and ignorant sort of People as in those who are more refined and better instructed which is a plain Argument that they come from Nature and not from Reason for if they proceeded from Reason they would appear most eminently in those persons who are of the best and most improved Understandings and would be very obscure in such as exercise their Reason but a little whereas experience shews us that the most ignorant sort of Mankind have as lively a sense of Piety and Devotion as great a regard to all kinds of Sobriety as tender Affections to their Children as much honor for their Parents as true a sense of Gratitude and Justice as the wisest and most knowing part of Mankind AND these are the Duties that are of greatest importance to us so that the Providence of God appears herein to be wonderfully careful of the happiness and welfare of Mankind in that he hath wrought such inclinations into our Natures as to secure the most material parts of our Duty in planting in us a natural sense of good and evil so that in many cases if we do but consult our own Natures we need no other Oracle to tell us what we ought to do and what to avoid how we ought to reverence the Divine Nature honor our Parents love our Children be grateful to our Benefactours and those that have obliged us to speak the Truth to be faithful to our Promises to restore the thing that was intrusted with us to pity those that are in Misery and to deal equally with other Men as we would that they should deal with us There is no need of any subtle reasoning to prove the fitness or unfitness of these things because it is prevented by the very Instinct of Nature which teaches us what we ought to do in these cases FOR Men are naturally innocent or guilty in themselves according as they do or omit these things so the Apostle tells us in Rom. ii 14 15. When the Gentiles who have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law they are a law unto themselves their own Consciences in the mean time or by turns either accusing or excusing them according as they do or omit the doing of these things If Men obey the natural Dictates of their Minds their Consciences give them a comfortable testimony as having done what became them to do on the contrary when we affront Nature by acting against its suggestions what trouble and uneasiness do we find in our own Breasts nay when a Man hath but a design to commit an evil deed his Conscience is disquieted and perplexed at the thoughts of it and he is as guilty as if he had really acted it So Cain when he contrived the murder of his Brother the very imagination of the wickedness changed his Countenance and filled him with Wrath and Discontent for as soon as we have consented to any iniquity our Spirits receive a secret wound and will make us restless because guilt doth not only fill the Mind with vexations but puts it into an unnatural Fermentation as the Prophet Isaiah describes the wicked person he is like the troubled Sea that cannot rest and I appeal to that which every Man finds in his own Breast if he doth not feel a trouble within him upon his acting contrary to any Principle of Nature or any Notion of good and evil The Virtuous Man is the most bold and undaunted BESIDES Men
the Government of his Mind and is never disturbed by Passion to be tender Hearted and Pityful because cruelty and oppression are an offence to God and a provocation to Men to resign our selves up to the direction of God's Providence that Governs the World leaving all issues and future Successes to the Wise Determination of the Divine Will To hold to the Practice of Truth because a Man's Heart will never misgive him in her ways not to dissemble but to deal openly with Mankind because this behaviour will make our passage easie through the World we shall have none to oppose none to do us harm to be humble and sober in the judgment we make of our selves because Self-confidence and Self-Conceit render Men Fools to be Peace makers and compose Differences to endure Wrongs patiently to forbear Revenge and to love our Enemies because God does so in Nature while he causes the Sun to rise upon Good and Bad to pass charitable Judgments upon others because this is the way to make an Enemy a Friend to give real demonstrations of our Integrity and Goodness by the fruits of it because Men disparage Religion who profess it and do not guide their Actions according to its Doctrines to submit our Senses and inferiour Affections to the Dictates of sober Reason and true Understanding because Mind and Understanding is appointed by God to be his subordinate Governor in human Life to be modest and chast in our Conversation because Modesty secures the Mind from Pride and Chastity preserves the Body from the worst Indispositions THUS Christ Jesus hath shewn us an Example of all Moral Vertues and an Example in some respect hath an Advantage above a Rule for it shews in what way the Roâ—e is practicable and it is a Reproach to any Man not to be able to do or suffer what others have done before him Seeing then God hath taken such care that we should know our Duty and hath made those things Instances of our Obedience which are the natural means and causes of our Happiness we are altogether without excuse if we do it not and we incur the heavy Sentence pronounced by our Savior this is the Condemnation that Light is come into the World and Men love darkness rather than Light for whover does any thing that is evil acts against the Convictions of his own Mind and the Light that shines in his own Soul besides What Advantage is it that Wickedness brings to Men Name me that Vice which improves our Reason or makes us e'er a whit the wiser that tends to the Peace and Satisfaction of our Minds or to our Health and Credit amongst considerate Persons IF then it be Vertue that points out to us the most compendious and ready way to Happiness we may see where our true Interest lies let us not suffer our selves to be cheated of it by the little Arts of Vice or the Insinuations of a Temptation than which there can be nothing more to our prejudice even as to our temporal Concerns for every known and deliberate Sin that a Man commits is a flaw in his Title to his Estate not in respect of Men but of God who is the great Governor of the World the wise Disposer of the Fortunes of Mankind Moral Vertue is the foundation of all revealed Religion AND the Scripture doth every where speak of Moral Vertue as the Foundation of all revealed and instituted Religion therefore our Savior when he was asked which was the first and great Commandment of the Law answers Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and thy Neighbour as thy self A Jew would have thought that he would have pitch'd upon some of those things which were in so great esteem among them Sacrifices Circumcision or the Sabbath But he overlooks all these and instances in the two principal Duties of Morality the Love of God and of our Neighbour and these Moral Duties are those which he calls the Law and the Prophets and which he came not to destroy but to fulfil for the Judicial and Ceremonial Law of the Jews was to pass away and did so not long after but this Law of Moral Duty was to be perpetual and immutable And the keeping of this Law consisted in the Observation of such things which the Scribes and Pharisees did most of all neglect therefore he tells us that unless our Righteousness did exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees we could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Now these Men were the most punctual People in the World for observing the Jewish and Ceremonial Law and whereas they were obliged to pay Tithes of their more considerable things they would do it even of Mint Anise and Cummin But then they were defective in Moral Duty they were unnatural to their Parents in denying them Relief because their Estates as they pretended were dedicated to an holy Use they were unjust and under a shew of long Prayers devoured Widows Houses in a Word as our Saviour tells 'em they neglected both Mercy and Judgment which are the weightier things of the Law which whosoever neglects he can never please God with any instituted or positive part of Religion and throughout the Old Testament nothing is declared more abominable to him than Sacrifices as long as Men allowed themselves in wicked Practices And in the New Testament the Christian Religion chiefly designs to teach Mankind Righteousness Godliness and Sobriety and for this end was the glorious Appearance of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works and to deal honestly with every Man to speak Truth to our Neighbour and to have our Conversation void of Offence is called the Image of God and the new Creature and the Apostle advanceth Charity above the greatest Excellencies of Knowledge and of Faith and in the description of the Day of Judgment Men are represented by our Saviour as call'd to an account both as to the Practice and Neglect of Moral Duties and no others are instanced in to shew what Place he intended they should have in his Religion Therefore from all that hath been said upon this Subject we may infer Positive Institutions must give way to Moral Virtue First THAT all Positive Institutions must give way to Moral Duties because God hath declared that He would rather have Mercy than Sacrifice and whosoever violates any Natural Law he undermines the very Foundation of Religion which hath very little in it that is positive besides the two Sacraments and going to God in the Name of Jesus Christ for this the greatest and most perfect Revelation that ever God made to Mankind doth afford us the best helps and advantages for the performing of Moral Duty and produces the strongest Arguments to engage us thereunto Secondly GOD hath discovered our Duty to us in such ways as may