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
or fear Whereas altogether they rob us of our selves and snatch us from what is Main and Principal We are apt to be troubled about many things while we omit the one thing necessary Men of any * sort of Religion think it necessary to observe the Difference of Good and Evil and therefore they will not be employ'd in that which is not Honest But there is something further Let Men consider that things of lawful Employment if too many may snatch a Man away from himself and keep him from attending upon God by which he may be happy Therefore we should not too much charge our selves nor be over busie in the World 2 dly Men are apt in the first place to save themselves harmless in this hurtful and dangerous World * It was St. Peter's Advice Master save thy self this Evil shall not befal thee who might have undone himself and all the World besides if his Councel had been followed A great Man of our Nation hath observ'd in History and it is so in this Case he that follows Truth close at the Heels may chance to have his Teeth struck out As the World may go to hold forth Truth impartially and severely to keep to the Practice of it may prove the difficultest and costliest Service Truth may carry us into Contests where other Mens Principles clash and interfere with ours Truth allows not base Compliance with Fancy Lust Will Humour but requires us to keep in the Way and to walk in it with all Simplicity Integrity Sincerity Plainness and Open-heartedness We must neither desert nor betray Truth to expedite our selves out of Difficulties or to open a Way to escape Man must walk in his Integrity through the World and must maintain his Truth and Uprightness as Job did his Righteousness So that By-standers may rectifie themselves by comparing with him and so find out how much they have departed from Rectitude Plutarch distinguisheth between a Friend and a Flatterer The former stands as steady as an Oak and he doth not at all yield to humour Will or Fancy so that the other when he returns from his Exorbitancy by comparing himself and finding where he left him may know how far he hath departed from his Integrity Whereas the Flatterer accomodates himself to Humour and Fancy applauds all Deeds and Sayings will do every thing to gratifie and will admire whatever is said But a true Friend hath Truth for a Rule to his Life and Spirit But as the World goes a Man of impartial Truth and Uprightness shall be laid aside as not conversible but as Morose and Cynical But here I superadd for Explication that all that I have said of adhering to Truth is to be understood of the undoubted Principles of Piety Sobriety and Righteousness For saving in these Cases to please every Body to give every one Satisfaction to go as far as you can with Men to live in a Universal Reconciliation if it be possible with the whole Creation of God this is Evangelical and Divine This is not to be limited but with Conscience to the great Rights of Sobriety Temperance and Justice 3 dly Men gratifie their Sences steep themselves in Worldly Delights and Pleasures Sensuality makes the Pallate of the Soul so dull and gross that it cannot perceive that which is sincere and true Wisdom is not in the Way of Epicurism but in the Way of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance For Knowledge will not be relished till the Soul be purified by Abstinence by Mortification by Abstraction from gross Matter and by Separation from Sense 1 Tim. 5. 6. Jam. 5. 5. 2 Pet. 2. 13. 2 Tim. 3. 4. Titus 3. 3. Heb. 11. 25. These places represent the State when Men become brutish and sottish and fail in the Species of intelligent Agents go downward grow less by steeping themselves in worldly brutish and carnal Pleasures The Sensualist is no capable Recipient nor meet Discerner of Divine and Spiritual Truth 4 thly By long abuse of themselves Men come into a Temper that is wholly unnatural to Truth He that doth Evil hates the Light comes not to it least his Deeds be reproved This is most certain universally We have our selves as we use our selves He that doth accustom himself to Divine Meditation and Contemplation and to Thoughts of God raises his Soul and doth daily more and more ennoble his Faculties But he that lives wickedly the longer he lives the more limited and confined his Soul will be Every Man is for his Intelectuals and for his Principles according as he doth accustom himself according as he is in use Sui cuique mores fingunt fortunam This is most true of internal Endowments as well as of other things No Man knows what he may be brought unto by ill Use Custom and Practice Innocence is a Safe-guard and gives Protection The first base Act is against the Hair And as Saul forced himself to offer Sacrifice so the Sinner at first forces himself he doth it at first with Dissatisfaction he apprehends he doth himself Wrong A Man that hath been brought up vertuously ingenuously and hath maintain'd the Tenderness of his Soul and his Innocency he will stick at a base Proposal and abhor it Had many Men imagined when they began how far they should have gone on where Sin would have carried them they would have consider'd better of it But the breaking in of Sin is like a Torrent of Water which is easily stopt before the Way over the Banks be found But if once it hath found the Way over it bears all before it There is a Modesty belongs to our Nature till a Man hath prostituted it But when once a Man hath done a base Act he hath lost that which would restrain him Therefore we observe that no Man comes to be outragiously bad all on the suddain But he brings himself to it by havocking Conscience by confounding his Principles and putting away the Ingenuity of his Nature Thus have I shewn you how it comes to pass that Men do live so unanswerably to their Knowledge * Now to make some Observations from the whole We see the Course of this World and in it we may foresee the State of Men in the other World Can they look God in the Face hereafter with any Comfort who here like not to retain God in their Minds Will not the Issue of holding Truth in Unrighteousness of contradicting the Reason of our Minds of forcing our own Judgments of making Havock of Conscience be Confusion and Astonishmont What can a Man look for when he is not true to himself when he hath every thing rising up against him his Conscience condemning him This cannot but end in Confusion and Astonishment For things hold a Proportion one to another Force in one way brings on Force in another Consequents answer foregoing Principles So that the Business of the Day of Judgment may be plainly foreseen * It may be here accounted for by the Things of this State
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
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
according to the Difference of Good and Evil to do the one and to avoid the other Which are not positive and arbitrary Impositions but they arise from Conveniences and from Inconveniences of our Natures States and Relations So that the Sinner is a Person of violent Practice and one who doth unnatural Acts. And an Impenitent is one of a senceless and stupid Mind The Things that are the Bane of Mankind and that do alienate us from God are Sensuality Worldly-mindedness and Wickedness The two former of these do sink the Creation of God below it self so that it doth not continue the same that God made it A Man by these is render'd utterly unfit for Converse and Communication with God For by these he sinks himself below his Kind and makes himself equal to the Beast that perishes And by the latter * viz. Wickedness Man passeth into a clean contrary Nature becomes an Enemy to God and makes God an Enemy to him Against Sensuality and Worldliness I propose for Remedy the Application of the Principles of Reason and Vertue and the applying of our highest Faculties to their End and Object For while the Mind is employ'd in Heavenly Meditation or in extracting Spiritual Notions from material Things it is employ'd worthy of Intelectual Nature And our proper Business is to be thus employ'd By which the Concerns of the Body will be either laid aside or moderately engaged in and regarded Whereas this Power of our Souls is as it were lost where Men use themselves as if they had no Spirits but were altogether Body or as if the Body were the principal or governing Part. And in such a Condition are they who cannot understand what we mean when we bid them lift up their Hearts to God For the Candle of God's lighting within them whereby they are qualified to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways either it burns so dim that they cannot see by it or it is quite put out For it is found by Experience that the Malignity of the Heart doth blind the Understanding And true Wisdom will never abide in a malicious and wicked Soul There are indeed Souls that are * so active and so well acquainted with Heavenly Meditation that they very well know what is the Food of Souls and have the fore-taste of the Delight and Pleasure of the other World And certainly these Men have the greatest Satisfaction in their Lives of any other Persons For there is more of Satisfaction in Meditation in Reading in Conference about Divine Things in Application to God by Prayer and other holy Exercises than in any bodily Pleasure whatsoever For all bodily Exercise comes off with disquiet of Spirit Whereas in the other Way there is Refreshment every Moment There is new Acquisition For if there be any thing like Infinite in the Creation under God it is in Invention and the Power of Thinking This is the Advantage of Intelectual Exercise above Bodily Exercise The one works inwardly is still on the getting hand and is still in use for what this Man gets he hath still in store and that which is got in this way of Intelectual Employment will still improve by Use and what we get we always keep for Knowledge is no burden Whereas in things of the Body Use and Want Spend and be ever after without But it is no wonder that they who never acquainted themselves with retiring from the World know not what these Things mean Who mind only Worldly Things and know no more than what belongs to the Animal Life But on the other side if a Man make Application to God he acts with all his Might he recollects himself and gathers himself into himself that he may receive from God what God hath to communicate And the Things that God hath and doth offer are so great and glorious that our narrow Vessels had need be wholly emptied to make room for them Therefore the Minds Substraction from the World is necessary by way of Preparation and holy Meditation to beget in us such a Disposition by which we may receive from God A Man that can enjoy himself alone by Consideration and exercising his Faculties may run through as it were all times For a Man may live before he lives and after in this way He may by Reading acquaint himself with what was in former Times and by what Things are he may guess what are to come If he reflect upon Things past and view Things that are present and take a Prospect of Things to come as the Effect of Causes that are in being in this way Rational Faculties have sufficient Employment Whereas they that are always drudging in the Affairs of the World and never enjoy themselves alone will find little Satisfaction in these Things It is the proper Work of Reason in Man to find God out in his Works and to follow him in his Ways It is the proper Employment of our intelectual Faculties to be conversant about God to conceive aright of him and then to resemble and imitate him Religion is an Obligation upon us to God The first Motion of Religion is to understand what is true of God And the second is to express it in our Lives and to copy it out in our Works The Former is our Wisdom And the Latter is our Goodness In these Two consist the Health and Pulchritude of our Minds For Health to the Body is not more than Vertue is to the Mind A deprav'd and vicious Mind is as really the Sickness and Deformity thereof as any foul and loathsome Disease is to the Body And as really as these tend to the Death and Dissolution of the Soul and Body so the Vices of the Mind tend to the Separation of God and the Soul What is short and inferior to Converse with God doth require a Recess from Worldly Business and Employment A Man can hardly compose an ordinary Poem without this But for the noblest Employment receiving from God and making Acknowledgment to him is a Man fit for this in the Hurry of Business and Confusion of Things It is also observed that this Life of Privacy and Retirement is either the best or the worst Life For in it we do as God doth or we imitate the Devil He who can be alone to his own Content in Measure and Degree is as God is For what other Employment had God from Eternity but satisfying himself in his own Goodness But as * this may be * the best so it may be the worst Life For a Man may be employ'd in contriving Mischief as the Devil is whose Work is said to be to bring Men into Condemnation If therefore * we are alone to ill Purposes and Designs then Solitariness and Retirement do make the worst Life * But if * Man be retired and alone and not intelectually employ'd then through Stupidity and Dulness he sinks down into the State of a Beast For take it for a certain Truth to be
but the Fewel of it is the Guiltiness of Mens Consciences and God's withdrawing because the Person is uncapable of his Communication Sin is an Act of Violence in it self The Sinner doth force himself and stirs up Strife within himself and in a Sinner there is that within which doth reluctate and condemn him in the inward Court of his own Conscience For if our Hearts did not condemn us all without might be avoided all else would fail if this Internal Guilt and Self-Condemnation might be removed But this Naughtiness of Disposition and Incapacity of Repentance is that which continues the Subject in Misery Hell * therefore is not a Positive Infliction but doth naturally follow upon Guiltiness and a spightful devilish naughty Disposition unto God and Goodness There is something in every Man upon which we may work to which we may apply to wit the Light of Reason and Conscience to which the Difference of Good and Evil may be made appear If we therefore declare Godliness Righteousness and Truth Men have a Voice to give Testimony and Conscience in Men will yield notwithstanding the power Lust hath over them If Reason may not command it will condemn Lastly Here you may have an account what it is that gives a Check and a Stop to the Motion of the Divine Spirit There is an Error in the first Concoction which is hardly remedied which is want of Advertency and Consideration Men do not awaken their Principles but give themselves leave to do what they cannot justifie themselves in Now there is no place for the further Motion of the Divine Grace where the former Grace is neglected and * render'd ineffectual It is self-neglect and voluntary allowing of our selves in Evil which brings us to Misery For there is no Invincible Ignorance in respect of things good in themselves and necessary No Ignorance excuses Immorality in any Instance whatsoever but invincible Ignorance doth excuse Infidelity in the chiefest Point The Reason is because the high Points of Sobriety Righteousness and Temperance God hath made every Man to know but for the Resolutions of his Will Man must be perswaded of God and if God do not make Application to him where he doth not give he doth not require Take notice then of the Boldness and Presumption of these obstinate rebellious and contumacious Sinners who having this Proclamation from the Majesty of Heaven that the Wrath of God c. yet will dare to continue in Practices of Unrighteousness and assume to themselves power to controul the establish'd Laws of everlasting Goodness Righteousness and Truth and to vary from tâ—e Reason of things to gratifie their own Sence and to please their own Humours and to serve their own Ends and take upon them to over-rule all things that are holy settled and establish'd from Eternity What shall a Man say to such Persons Yet the Atheistical and Prophane are guilty of this Contumacy But as the Apostle says Their Condemnation is just and their Judgment lingers not We seem agriev'd at God's Plagues and Judgments which do so much disturb our Peace and Settlement in the World but we do greater Acts of Violence For we imprison Truth and give God true cause of Offence and take upon us to controul the Establish'd Laws of Heaven and to do other things than the reason of things dictates to us and directs us to do For the Text tells us that those that are obnoxious to God's Wrath are Persons of ungodly Practice so that they are of themselves condemn'd They cannot give an account to the reason of their own Minds nor satisfie their own Consciences but are hurried on and transported by furious and violent Lusts holding the Truth in Unrighteousness they are self-condemn'd before they be condemn'd of God BECAUSE THAT WHICH MAY BE KNOWN OF GOD IS MANIFEST IN THEM FOR GOD HATH SHEWED IT Uâ—TO THEM The Apostle doth here take upon him and thinks fit in this great Affair of Life and Death to shew and prove by Reason From hence we may learn three things 1 st That here is a Check and Controul to the forward and presumptuous Imposers that take upon them to dectate and determine and are angry with all Persons that are not concluded by their Sence These Persons take upon them more than the Apostle did 2 dly That Religion stands upon the Grounds of truest Reason for the Apostle here after he hath asserted proves by Reason 3 dly God's Ways and Dealings with his Creatures are accountable in a way of Reason But some think that God uses Arbitrary Power and that they might escape without Punishment if he would and that it is nothing but his Will and Pleasure In the 17th Verse he hath declared the way of Life and Salvation and in the 18th the way of Misery and Death Therefore the Ways of God are accountable in Reason If this were not the Way of God a Way worthy of Truth we might ask why this Apostle may not refer us to his publick Authority who might if any * one because of his extraordinary Conversion and Commission from Heaven but he declines that and proves by Reason But this great Truth is hereby hinted that the way of Reason is the way most accomodate to Humane Nature Therefore let us lay aside imposing one upon another or to use any canting in Religion Let us talk Sense and Reason for the Apostle doth here shew and prove by Reason And God himself who hath all Priviledge he says he will draw them with the Cords of Men and what is that but Arguments satisfactory to the Mind of Men and in the Evangelical Prophet Isaiah shew your selves to be Men that is awaken your rational and intelectual Faculties and take things into serious and impartial Consideration and I will convince you It is an Apology for any finite fallible Creature when he is mistaken if he had some Reason for his Mistake and if he can but shew why he did so think you have him excused 'T is a high Advantage and Double Security to any Teacher or Instructer to have in readiness to shew that what he saith is not his private Imagination but is in Conjunction with the Reason of Things or the Principles of God's Creation and of Divine Revelation if it be a Matter of Faith This but by way of Observation Because the Apostle doth decline his Commission of Apostleship and doth prove by common Reason That which is the Apostle's Argument is that all those who in the Language of Scripture are Sinners all that are ungodly impious towards God and unrighteous in his Family they sin against their Light go against the Principles of natural Conscience imprison Truth and sin against their Knowledge The Argument is because God made Men to know that he himself IS and his natural Perfections This is here plainly attested in this Verse It is shortly spoken to But because it is a Matter of great Weight it is spoken more fully
which hath the Predominancy over all other Inclinations as being the Supream and ultimate End to which all his Designs and Actions must be subservient by a natural Necessity Whereas on the other hand those Rules or Means which are most proper for the attaining of this End about which we have a Liberty of Acting to which Men are to be induc'd in a Moral Way by such kind of Motives or Arguments as are in themselves sufficient to convince the Reason these I call Moral Duties DUTIES as deriving their Obligation from their Conducibility to their promoting of our chief End and MORAL as depending upon Moral Motives So that Self-love and the proposing of Happiness as our chief End tho' it be the Foundation of Duty that Basis or Substratum upon which the Law is founded yet it is not properly a Moral Duty about which Men have a Liberty of Acting They must do so Nor can they do otherwise The most vile and profligate Wretches that are who are most opposite to that which is their true Happiness they are not against Happiness it self but they mistake about it and erroneously substitute something else in the Room of it So that if Men were upon all Accounts firmly convinced that God was their chief Happiness they would almost as necessarily love him as hungry Men do eat or thirsty Men do drink I have enlarg'd the more on this Particular the better to manifest the true Cause or Ground of this Love * to God BEING FILLED WITH ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS c. I will not rake into this Dunghil I will only observe that ILL-WILL is Characterized under no fewer Titles than Twelve Observe here where the Apostle reckons up the horrid and desperate Apostacy of Men that abuse Nature * and live in all Contradiction to Reason Religion and Conscience how many Titles and Places one sort of Iniquity doth take up being filled with all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS Maliciousness full of Envy Murder Debate Malignity Whisperers these are all of a Nature and Quality Backbiters Haters of God Despiteful Inventers of evil Things Implacable Unmerciful so that Two Thirds of these malign Characters lie upon the Want of Charity Love and good Will Humility good Affection doing that which is worthy of Human Nature For this is Con-natural and Inherent to every Species to consult the Good of those that are of the same Kind Hence we may observe how many ways Men sin against Charity The Scripture lays much of the Stress of Religion upon the Principle of GOOD NATURE and the Charitable Disposition I will give Account why Scripture doth so 1 st IT is of principal Use in Subservience to God's Government in the World If this Principle of good Nature and good Will were general there would be no Difficulty in Government The greatest Difficulty of Government either in the Hands of God or of his Instruments is occasion'd from the Perverseness of Men one to another For if there were but a Principle of good Nature and good Will Government would find an easie Discharge 2 dly It is the Expression of our Resentment of God's Compassion and Goodness They that maintain the Principle of good Nature are the Representatives of God in the World These are under the fullest Communications of God And these are in their Measure and Degree what God is in his Height Excellency and Fulness 3 dly Unless we be exercised in the Practice of it here we shall be no ways qualified to become Citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem hereafter * And since it is a necessary Preparation and Qualification for the entrance of a Soul in the State of Eternity unto Glory we shall not wonder why the Scripture doth so insist upon it Unless we be discharged of Ill-will unless we be freed from Ill-nature we cannot have Admittance or Entrance into the Heavenly Jerusalem For we should be a Disturbance to that happy Society The Pleasures of Eternity are mental intelectual and satisfactory without Molestation or Contest An uncharitable Christianity unmerciful void of Good-nature is no more Religion than a dark Sun is a Sun or a cold Fire is Fire He only can dwell in God who dwells in LOVE If * we at all resemble God partake of his Nature or are in any degree such as he is we must root out of our Natures all Malignity Envy Malice Rancour Spite Displeasure To be out of Love and Good-will is to be in the Devil's Form and Spirit A Christian must not be an Enemy 'T is not compatible with Christianity to bear Ill-will * or as we say to carry Coals Frowardness Peevishness Male-contentedness are the most dangerous Evils because Men warrant themselves in them supposing that they are justifiable in it * Thus Jonah chap. 4. ver 9. I do well to be angry But oft we find upon after-Consideration not so much cause as upon the suddain we supposed so have reason to unsay and to undo This is frequently the case of ungovern'd Minds and of Cholerick Constitutions In this case I ask these hasty Furious Persons do they consider the Hurt they do to themselves when they * thus dispossess themselves of themselves so as neither to enjoy God nor themselves If we would be secure we must resist the beginnings of this Evil. Scripture give us many Cautions sundry Reasons several Precedents and Examples Prov. 15. 1. and 17. 14. * Thus Jacob's preventing Esau's Revenge Abigail's pacifying David's Rage so as that he blesses God for her What Mischief followed upon Hanun's misrepresenting David's intended Respect What upon Rehoboam's churlish Answer Nothing more discomposes the Mind than its own taking Offence which if it does it is its own fault He that conceives Displeasure in his Breast carries that within him which doth corrode * and torment him It is the Unhappiness of some that they are not born to the * same Good Nature * others are 'T is more their Burden than it is to others to be of * such bad Natures I would rather converse with such as are so tho' that be troublesome enough than have it my self for then it is an Evil without me if I have it my self it is an internal Malady If it were my Disposition from my Infancy I would study nothing but the Moral Vertues till I had subdued it For what is Vertue given for but to rectifie Crookedness of Nature Man hath his Religion to little purpose if by it he doth not mend his Nature and refine his Spirit Such a one only makes a Profession of it takes a Denomination from it There is great Congruity between our Well-being and the Nature of things enjoyned by Religion Thy Law is Truth that is such as it ought to be Submission to the things of Religion is ready kindly regular because our Minds are cast into the same Moulds with them framed into Suitableness and Conformity We worship God best when in our Mind * we are like him when in respect of God'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
strange Fire before the Lord. One fire to Reason seemed as good as another to offer Sacrifice with But because there was an Institution to the contrary whether they did it wilfully or carelesly they perished by Fire Also let us remember the Bethshemites who being transported with Joy and Affection looked into the Ark a Thing contrary to God's Appointment to the Hazard of their Lives Likewise Uzza in his Zeal when he found the Ark ready to fall as he thought put to his Hand to keep it up and was slain for his Labour it being contrary to God's Institution When we think of these things seriously we shall find cause him abundance thankfully to acknowledge God's Goodness that we are engaged only where the Nature of the thing doth engage and that we are not made liable and obnoxious to god in things that are not Evil in themselves and hurtful for us It is greatly hazardous for a Finite and Fallible Creature to be limited and confined by Will and Pleasure where there is no Reason that the Mind of Man can discern why he should be restrained For we are mightily for Liberty And unless we be satisfied in the Reason of the thing we have a great Desire to look into that which we are prohibited 'T is hard to be subject to Will * as it is Natural to yield to Reason Therefore it is not a thing that we should affect to come into Bondage or be determined more than God hath determined us Let these things be weighed by those Men who love to multiply Positive Institutions and to determine the Liberty of our Minds in Circumstances and Punctilio's in things * where God hath not limited or determined us For my part I will not part with that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And this is one Part of our Liberty I must confess the greatest of all is to free us from the Guilt and Power of our Sins but the next is this to put us out of Danger and free us from the Obligation of Conscience where Reason and the Matter it self doth not oblige us The Moral Part of Religion is indispensably necessary because every piece of * It doth sanctifie by its Presence As * for instance Humility Modesty Righteousness Temperance Reverence of Deity and the like These Things cannot be in any Man's Mind but they make him Holy Whereas the Instrumental Part of Religion doth not sanctifie by Presence For you may pray and hear the Word and receive the Sacrament and be wicked still But every * thing of the Moral Part of Religion doth sanctifie by Presence just as a Remedy or Cordial or Diet doth do a Man good by receiving it * But to speak now * of the great Benefits * that accrue to us by our Saviour's being in our Nature He doth acquire the Right of Redeeming us and makes Satisfaction in that Nature that had trangressed And he doth repair the ruined Nature of Man by dwelling in it and by working Righteousness in it by which means he hath wrought out all Malignity and naughty Habits by contrary Acts the Acts of Sin and Vice by Acts of Vertue and Goodness the Acts of Intemperance by Acts of Sobriety and Temperance Now let us look for the Explication of * this in our selves in our Nativity from above in Mental Transformation and DEIFICATION Do not stumble at the use of the Word For we have Authority for the use of it in Scripture 2 Pet. 1. 4. Being made Partakers of the Divine Nature which is in effect our Deification Also let it appear in our Reconciliation to God to Goodness Righteousness and Truth in our being created after God in Righteousness and true Holiness It was a signal Evidence of a Divine Power in the Disciples of Christ at the first Publication of the Gospel that it wrought so great an Alteration in all those that did receive it The Envious Debauched and Disobedient It made Temperate Sober and Religious Humble and Good-natured It converted the Embracers of it to a Life more suitable to Reason and Nature and all Moral Vertue * We may observe from this that nothing of the Natural State is base or vile Whatsoever hath Foundation in God's Creation or whatsoever the Providence of God calls any Man unto it is not base For our Saviour himself took Flesh and Blood and that is the meaner Part of Humane Nature Whatsoever is Natural hath nothing of Disparagement in it nothing that exposeth a Man to Contempt and Scorn And this may satisfie those that are in the meanest Offices and Employments that there is nothing base that hath place in God's Creation That which is Vile Base and Filthy is unnatural and depends upon unnatural Use and degenerate Practice Also observe here the great Honour put upon Humane Nature when the Son of God came into it when Divine Goodness did take into Consideration the Rise and Advance of Created Nature and to recover and raise It to all possible Perfection He did take to himself a peculiar relation to Humane Nature Then let us take Consolation in this For it cannot be thought that God did so great a thing and of so deep a Consideration as to unite Humane Nature to his own Existence and to set it at his own Right hand to the Admiration of Angels for he saith let all the Angels of God worship him that he did such a thing as this is to beget a Notion or to raise a Talk and make a Wonder in the World and put the Creation into a Gaze and Astonishment God doth nothing for so light an end and especially not his great things such as these which call for Fear and Reverence on our part This we may say is one of the greatest Works * of God This if possible doth transcend the very Creation of God at first for there was nothing * there to resist him but in the Restoration there was Malignity and Sin God did this therefore for the great and unconceivable Good of that Nature that he hath so highly honoured Therefore what Consolation should we have from it what Declaration should we make of it what Thanksgiving for it Having this Knowledge how should we rejoyce in God and be above the World * how should we depress the immoderate Motions of Sense and savour Spiritual things that so we may the better understand this great Mystery by which we are so highly honoured And this is the proper use of this High and Noble Argument Therefore let this be explicated verified and fulfilled in us For this you must understand that Religion is not satisfied in Notions but doth indeed and in reality come to nothing unless it be in us not only Matter of Knowledge and Speculation but doth establish in us a Frame and Temper of Mind and is productive of a holy and vertuous Life Therefore let these things take effect in us in our Spirituality and Heavenly-mindedness in our Conformity to the Divine
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