special notice of them which as St. Austin tells us made them to attribute its Success to the Power of Magick thinking it impossible that it should do such Wonders without the Assistance of some powerful Spirit And indeed it is not to be supposed how it should work such strange and suddain Alterations in Men by its external Arguments and Motives without a divine Power concurring with them and animating and enforcing them and though now that Christianity hath gotten such footing in the World and is become the Religion of Nations the divine Spirit does not ordinarily work upon Men in such a strange and miraculous way but proceeds in more humane Methods by joyning in with our Understandings and leading us forward by the Rules of Reason and Sobriety so that whatsoever Aids it affords us they work in the same Way and after the same Manner as if all were performed by the Strength of our own Reason yet we have a standing Promise which extends to all Ages of Christianity that to him who improves the Grace which he hath already more Grace shall be given that if we work out our salvation with fear and trembling God will work in us to will and to do and that he will give his holy Spirit to every one that sincerely asks and seeks it For of the Performance of this Promise there are none of us all but have had many sensible Experiences for how often do we find good Thoughts injected into our Minds we know not how nor whence How frequently are we seiz'd with strong and vehement Convictions of the Folly and Danger of our own Wicked courses even in the midst of our loose Mirth and Iollity when we are rock'd into a deep Security when we have endeavour'd to chase good Thoughts from our Minds or to drown them in Sensuality and Voluptuousness How often have we been haunted with their Importunities till we have been scar'd by them into sober Resolutions And when we have complied with them what Ioys and Refreshments have we sometimes found in the Discharge of our Duty to encourage us to Perseverance in Well-doing All which are plain and sensible Instances of the internal Operations of the Holy Spirit upon our Souls So that when we comply with these inward Motions of the Holy Ghost so as to forsake those sins which they dissuade us from we do then mortify the deeds of the body by the spirit FROM the Consideration of these Benefits by the Spirit of God many useful Inferences may be deduc'd And First From hence we may discern the Necessity of the Spirit to enable us to mortify the Deeds of the Body And indeed considering the Infirmity of our Natures and the many Temptations we have to encounter how we are habituated to a Sensual Life before we are capable of exercising our Reason and how much our Wills are biass'd by our Carnal Inclinations it is hardly to be imagined how we should ever be able to retrieve our selves from the Power and Dominion of our own Lusts without some supernatural Aid and Assistance For tho' we have an Understanding capable of distinguishing between Good and Evil and of discerning all those Advantages and Mischiefs that are inseparable unto vertuous and vicious Actions though we have a Will that can comply with the Dictates of right Reason and is no ways determined and necessitated to Evil and though we can do whatsoever we will Yet if besides those Motives which arise out of the Nature of Virtue and Vice we had not supernatural Arguments to assist us our Inclinations would certainly prove too strong for our Reason If the lascivious Wanton had no other Arguments to oppose against the Temptations of Lust but that it vexes him with Impatience fills him with mad and ungovernable Desires torments him with Fear and Iealousie betrays him into Sickness and Poverty and the like How can it be expected that such slender Arguments should prevail against the Importunities of his depraved Appetite If the covetous Oppressour had no other Motive to confront his Lust with but that his Injustice exposes him to the Hatred of those whom he injures and violates the Laws of Society and consequently is destructive of the Publick Good in which his own is involved alas What thin Arguments would these be to him in comparison with the Temptations of a Bag of Gold And though to these natural Arguments God hath added sundry supernatural ones in the Revelation of the Gospel such as are in themselves sufficient to check our most outragious Appetites and to baffle the strongest Temptations Yet alas our Thoughts are so squander'd among this great Multiplicity of carnal Objects that surround us that did not the Divine Spirit frequently suggest those supernatural Arguments to us and by the powerful Influence of his Grace keep our Minds intent upon them we should never recollect our selves to such a thorough Consideration of them as is necessary to persuade our selves by them into a lasting Resolution of Amendment So that we have very great need both of the outward and inward Grace of God for though we can deliberate what is best to choose and choose what we find best upon Deliberation yet we are like Men standing in bivio between two contrary Roads and are naturally indeed free to turn either to the Right hand or to the Left but on the Left-hand way there are so many Temptations perpetually beckoning to us and inviting us unto that which is Evil and our brutish Passions and Appetites are so ready upon all occasions to yield and comply with them that we should certainty go that way did not the Holy Spirit importune us with strong Arguments to turn to the Right-hand way of Vertue and Goodness II. WE may learn from hence the Necessity of our Concurrence with the Spirit For the Spirit of God works upon us in such a way as is most congruous to our Free and Rational Natures that is it doth not act upon us by mere Force or irresistible Power but addresses to our Reason with Arguments and Persuasions and so moves upon our Wills by the Mediation of our Understandings But when He hath done all He leaves it to our own Choice whether we will reject or embrace his Proposals For although I firmly believe as no Man would be wicked were he not invited by the Temptations of sin so no Man would be good were he not solicited by the Grace of God yet I see no Reason to imagine that either the one or the other invades the Liberty of our Wills The Temptations of Sin indeed incline us one way and the Grace of God another but when all is done they leave us free to choose or refuse and neither the one nor the other forces or necessitates us And hence the Successes of the Divine Grace are in Scripture attributed to the Disposition or Indisposition of the Subject it acts upon So Matth. xi 20 21. Then began he to upbraid the Cities wherein his mighty
it must be either the present Possessor's or no-bodies but then when God who is the supreme Proprietor of all doth by his providential Permission continue any ill-got Possession till all lawful Claim to it is worn out he doth thereby intitle the present Possessor to it and createth it his Right and Property For though God's Providence can be no Rule against his Revealed Will nor consequently can authorize any Man to possess what another hath a just Claim to because his Revealed Will forbiddeth it yet it is to be considered that when no Man can justly Claim what I Possess I wrong no Man in possessing it and consequently am in no wise forbidden it by God's Revealed Will and therefore in this Case by his Providential Continuance of the Inheritance of it to me he giveth me free Leave to possess it and that Leave is an implicit Conveyance of a just Right and Title to it So that Legal Possession when there is no Iust or Legal Claim against it is an undoubted Right a Right founded on the free Donation of God who is the Supreme Proprietor of all things and therefore Iustice obligeth us not to rob or deprive Men of what they are intitled to by Law nor to despoil any Man by Stealth or strip him by Violence or defraud him by Craft and cunning Insinuation of any Right or Property to which the Law intitleth him because by thus doing we do not only wrong Man of that Right which by Legal Conveyance he deriveth from God but we do also wrong God himself by presuming to alienate his Bequests and to reverse and cancel his Donations For he who by Stealth or Robbery or Fraud depriveth another of his Property doth impiously invade God's Right of bestowing his own where he pleaseth and refuseth to stand to that Division and Allotment which his Providence hath made in his own World he doth in effect declare in his Actions that God hath nothing to do to share his World among his Creatures that he will not endure him to reign Lord and Master in his own Family of Beings nor allow his Providence to Carve and distribute his own Bread and Meat among his Children but that he will snatch from every one's Trencher and Carve what he pleases for himself out of every Man's Commons and Allowance So that to deprive another you see of what he is Legally possessed of is a high and crying Injustice against God and Men for he that will needs have more of God's Goods than God hath given him is an impious Robber of God and he that will needs have those Goods of God which he hath given to another must be an unjust Robber of Man If therefore we have injuriously deprived another of his Legal Rights we are bound by all the ties of Religion towards God and of Honesty towards Men to make what Restitution we are able for it is certain that my wrongful Seisure of what is another Man's doth not alienate his Right to it so that he hath the same Right to it while I keep it from him as he had at first when I took it from him and consequently till I restore it back to him I persist to wrong him of it and my detaining it is a continued Repetition of that Fraud or Theft or Oppression by which I wrongfully seized it And whilst I thus persist in the Sin the Guilt of it abideth upon me and I am justly responsible to the Tribunal of Heaven for being a Robber of God and Men. Whilst therefore I unjustly detain what is another's Right I keep the Earnest-peny which the Devil gave me to intitle him to my Soul for ever and so long as I possess the Spoils of my injured Brother I maintain so many Evidences to give Testimony against me and to raise a Cry on me as high as the Tribunal of God CHAP. VI. Of Justice in reference to the Rights acquir'd by Personal Endowments or outward Rank III. THERE are other Rights acquired by Personal Accomplishments such as Wisdom and Learning Integrity and Courage Generosity and Goodness which do naturally render Men exceeding useful and beneficial to the World and therefore by these Men do acquire a just Right to be highly esteemed and honoured by all that know them For Praise and Honour are the natural Dues the Birthright and Patrimony of Excellency which by its own inherent Merit challengeth Esteem and Veneration he who excelleth another hath a Right to be preferred before him in the Esteem and Value of the World to have his Light reflected with a more glorious Splendor and his Excellencies resounded with higher Elogiums Now the Excellency of a Man consisteth in the Graces and Ornaments of his Mind and as we do not esteem a Ship excellent because it is curiously carved and inlaid but because it is exactly fitted to all the purposes of Navigation as we do not account a Sword to be excellent because it hath a rich Hilt or Embroidered Scabbord but because it hath a keen Edge a sharp Point or a good Guard and Temper so none but Fools will esteem a Man to be excellent because he hath a great Estate or a comely Body or weareth fine Clothes and rich Trappings but because he hath a brave and a goodly Mind a Soul well adorned with Intellectual or Moral Accomplishments These are the Glories of the Man whereas all the rest are only the Imbellishments of his Case and Outside So that the true stamp of Nobility is upon the Minds of Men and consisteth in those Graces of Understanding and Will whereby we represent and resemble God who is the Pattern of Excellency and the Fountain of Honour So that true Honour is nothing else but a due Acknowledgment of the Excellencies of Mens Minds and Wills or their own Intellectual or Moral Accomplishments ecchoed and reverberated upon them in just Acknowledgments and Commendations which to with-hold from one that truely deserveth them is great Injustice and Dishonesty For he who detaineth from a worthy Person those honourable Acknowledgments that are due to his Virtues robbeth Virtue it self of one of the fairest Jewels in her Diadem and that is her Honour and Glory he strippeth and dispoileth her of her Garments of Praise stealeth from her her Native Rays and Luster and buries her alive in Darkness and Obscurity and therefore since to rob a virtuous Person of his Honour and Reputation is so great an outrage to Virtue it self it must needs be highly unjust and dishonest And herein consisteth the great Iniquity of Detraction and of lessening or debasing Mens deserved Praises and Commendations which is a higher Injustice than to pick their Purses for he that clips or imbaseth a Man's Honour robbeth him of his best and dearest Property and whilst he sucketh the Veins of anothers Reputation to put colour into the Cheeks of his own he liveth upon the Spoils of his Neighbour and is every whit as injurious to him as if he should pull
which is none of our own supposing it hath a rightful Owner to whom we can make a Restitution of it For what we have wrongfully got is none of ours but his whom we have wrongfully deprived of it and to him we are bound in Conscience to restore it in case he be living and we know where to find him if not to his lawful Heirs or Assigns But if either the Party be dead whom we have wrong'd of it or we cannot find him or any Heir of his that can lawfully claim it it is not only lawful but necessary for us to bestow it upon the Poor and Needy For where there is no visible Owner the Property reverts immediately into the Hands of the Supream Lord of the World who hath settled it as a Pension on the Poor to eek out the narrow Provisions which his Providence hath made for them But to give Alms out of those unlawful Gains which we are obliged in Justice to restore to the rightful Owners is to make our selves the Thieves and the Poor the Receivers For to do Alms is to give away something of our own to remedy another's Want or Misery and therefore to give away one Man's Right to supply another's Necessity is not so much an Alms as a Robbery By this Rule therefore Debtors that owe more than they can pay are obliged in Conscience not to intrench upon their Iustice by their Mercy nor to disable themselves from being just to their Creditors by being merciful to the Poor For though to relieve the Poor be nakedly and abstractedly good yet it is to be considered that particular Actions are good or bad according as the Circumstances are which adhere to them And when that Action which is nakedly good happens to be clothed with an evil Circumstance it is so far Evil and Unlawful And therefore when my relieving the Poor is accompanied with this evil Circumstance of defrauding my Creditors of their Due I am so far bound in Conscience not to relieve themâ— because if I do I must relieve them unjustly this therefore we are especially to take care of that our Alms be just and righteous III. THIS Duty of Almsgiving ought to be performed readily and chearfully For this is the Apostle's own Direction Even man according as he purposeth in his heart so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity for God loveth a Chearful Giver 2 Cor. ix 7. And indeed if we give Alms out of a Principle of Mercy and Compassion it is impossible but we must do it chearfully because by Compassion we make others Miseries our own and so by relieving them we relieve our selves and are Partakers with them in the Comfort of those Reliefs we afford them For when I see a Man struggling with Want and groaning under a sharp Necessity if I relieve him I ease and refresh my own yearning Bowels and the Humane Nature within me which is common to us both doth by a kind of sympathetick Motion exalt and raise up it self and swells with a generous Pleasure So that if Mercy be the Spring of my Alms they will flow with a free and chearful Current because all the while I am watering others I shall feel the Refreshment of my own Streams When therefore we bestow our Alms with a grudging and unwilling Mind 't is plain that it is not Mercy but Shame or Fear or Importunity that moves us and if so there is no Virtue in them nor can we expect that any Reward should attend them For to contribute towards another's Relief because we are ashamed or afraid to do otherwise is rather paying a Tax than giving an Alms And when nothing can be wrung out of me but what is distrained by Importunity I give not for the Poor's Relief but for my own Peace and Quiet And what Virtue is it for a Man to give only to get rid of a Dun and ease himself of a troublesome Importunity Wherefore to render our Alms virtuous and rewardable it is necessary that they should be performed with a free and chearful Heart that they should flow like Water from a Spring in natural and unforced Streams and not be pump'd from us with Shame or Impottunity IV. THIS Duty of Almsgiving ought to be performed liberally and bountifully according to the proportion of our Estate and Abilities For the Design of those Alms which are the Fruits of Mercy is to redress the poor Man's Misery to satisfy his hungry Bowels and rescue him from the pinching Necessities under which he groans and languishes And this being the Design of Mercy it measures its Alms accordingly and proportions them to the craving Necessities it supplieth And its Aim being not only to rescue the miserable from extream Misery but also according to its Power to render them happy it doth not think it sufficient to rescue the Necessitous from extream Want and Famine but doth also covet to render their Lives happy and give them a comfortable Enjoyment of themselves For meerly to keep a Man from famishing looks rather like a design to prolong his Torment and spin out the Duration of his Misery than to contribute to his Ease and Happiness and if we design His Happiness as we must do if we design mercifully we shall endeavour not only to enable him to live but to live comfortably and accordingly proportion our Alms. 'T is true the Liberality of our Alms is to be measured not according to the Quantity of them but according to the proportion they bear to our Power and Ability and though I should give five times less than one who hath ten times my Estate yet I should be as liberal as he according to the proportion of my Ability And accordingly the indigent Widow's two mites are pronounced by our Saviour a more liberal Alms than the much more which those which were Rich cast into the Treasury Mar. xii 42 43 44. Because they cast in of their abundance but she of her want And therefore though as I shall shew by and by it is impossible to determin the Measures of Alms which we are obliged to because the particular Measure of our Abilities is so various yet this to be sure the Law of Mercy exacteth that in proportion to our Estates and Circumstances they should be liberal and bountiful For he who gives in such slender Proportions as bring little or no Relief to the Receiver acts as if he designed rather to mock him than to supply his Necessities or as if he intended rather to keep him alive for a Prey to a long and lingering Misery than to render his Life happy and comfortable V. THIS Duty of Almsgiving ought to be performed timely and seasonably i. e. in the nick of Opportunity when the poor Man's Necessities call loudest for it and our Relief and Succour may be most beneficial to him To such Poor indeed as do always want our Alms can never be unseasonable because their Necessities do always call for them But
Creatures and this Reason of ours is implanted in us by the great Author of our Beings for no other End but only to steer and direct us to be an Eye to our blind and brutish Affections to correct the Errors of our Imaginations and bound the Extravagances of our Passions and Appetites and to regulate the whole Course of our Actions so as that we may demean our selves as becomes such Beings as we are and placed in such Relations and Circumstances God therefore having compounded us of contrary Natures viz. Rational and Sensual which are pregnant with contrary Inclinations and Affections from hence arises the Necessity of all those Heroic Virtues which consist in the Dominion of our Reason over our Sensitive Affections and Appetites such as Chastity and Sobriety Meekness and Equanimity and the like all which are proper to us as Beings made up of contrary Principles from whence spring those contrary Inclinations in the good or bad Government whereof consists the Nature of Virtue and Vice Whilst therefore we keep our Brutal Passions and Appetites in Subjection to our Reason we follow the genuine Current of Humane Nature in which our best and noblest Principle rules and all our inferiour Powers are regularly subordinate to it But when we degenerate into a State of Sin we thereby discompose the Harmony of our Natures and put all our well-ranked Faculties into a strange Disorder and Confusion For every Sin is a Rebellion either of our Passions or Appetites against our Reason and we never commit any known Evil but we wilfully affront our own Understandings and offer open Violence to those superiour Faculties that should rule and govern us So that when by a Custom of sinning our Passions and Appetites have been train'd up for a while in Disobedience to our Reason they will by degrees grow so head-strong and ungovernable that it will be a hard matter to restrain them within any Compass of Reason and Sobriety and unless we take a world of pains to suppress them they will never leave rioting and tumultuating within us till they have broke through all their natural Confinements into a licentious wild and boundless Anarchy and having thus got head within us and beaten our Reason from its native Throne they will hurry us headlong into all manner of Follies and Extravagances For now we shall act no longer from Reason but from Sense our Nature being turn'd upside-down and the Cardinal Points of our Motion chang'd into quite contrary Positions so that our Reason will stand us in no other stead but only to cater for our Flesh and sensitive Affections and to make us Brutes with greater Luxury and Relish And being thus wholly acted by our brutish Sense and led only by the blind Instincts of the Flesh our Reason will have no hand in the Government of our Lives but like the Beasts of the Field we shall live at random and do things not because they are reasonable in themselves but because they are pleasing to our unreasonable Affections and Appetites Such a strange Disorder doth Sin bring upon our Natures so miserably doth it blend and confound our Faculties that were it not for our Speech and Shape it would scarce leave us any remaining Character of Distinction from the Beasts that perish For it dissolves our Reason into a meer sensual Sagacity and enslaves that high-born Power to every base Passion and Appetite and so reduces our well-formed Natures into an undistinguish'd Chaos where Sense and Reason Brute and Man are shuffled together in a heap of rude and undigested Ruins So that methinks had we any Reverence for that excellent Nature that we carry about with us that Nature by which we are allied to Angels and do border upon God himself we should never endure to harbour those inhumane Lusts that do so disorder and confound it that make such Spoils and Devastations within us that do so disturb the Harmony of our Faculties and disjoint the very Frame of our Beings III. SIN disturbs the Tranquillity of our Minds and this naturally follows from the former For the Mind of Man can never be at Ease so long as its Bones are out of joint and all its Faculties so wofully disorder'd For thus every thing is at Ease so long as it is in its own natural State and Condition but when once its Parts are displaced or put into a Disorder or distorted into an unnatural Figure it is in restless Motion till it returns again to the specifick State and Posture of its own Nature And so it is with the Mind of Man which while it preserves its own natural Station and Superiority over our Affections and Appetites is calm and quiet and serene and enjoys within it self perpetual Ease and Tranquility But being thrown out of its native Throne and led into Captivity by its own Vassals it can find no Rest in this preternatural State but like a disjointed Member is in perpetual Anguish and Anxiety and having like all other Things an inward strong Propension to its own natural State and Condition it will be perpetually struggling and contending towards it till it hath quite wearied and tired out it self with its own vain and ineffectual Efforts and then it will sit down and bemoan it self and pine away with Grief and Diffatisfaction And hence it is that in the Course of a wicked Life we feel such Contentions between the Flesh and the Spirit such perpetual Broils between the Law in our Minds and the Law in our Members which proceeds from this natural Struggling and Conatus of the Mind to recover its native Empire over our Affections and Appetites From which it will never wholly surcease till it is wholly subdu'd to the Will of the Flesh and when it is so it will be perpetually torn and distracted by those various wild and inconsistent Affections whereunto it will be subjected For so long as our Passions are subject to our Reason there can be no Division among them because nothing can divide our Passions but only our proposing to our selves different and contrary Ends But the Ends of Reason are all consistent with and subordinate to one another it s lesser and inferiour Ends being only the Inns at which it baits upon the Road towards its superiour ones and whilst we are under the Power and Conduct of one Sovereign End our Passions must necessarily joyn hand in hand and walk together like Brethren in Unity But when once they have shaken off the Yoke of Reason and submitted themselves to the Dominion of Sense among that great Variety of Ends and Objects which Sense proposes to them they must needs be torn and divided one from another For such is the Scantiness of Sensual Goods that we not being able to content our selves with any one of them are fain to walk the Rounds in a constant Succession and Circle of Varieties and then every one of these various Goods will create within us a various Desire And so as
no such thing as future Rewards and Punishments it is a Folly for any Man to concern himself about any thing but his present Interest and in reason we ought to judge things to be good or evil only as they promote or obstruct our temporal Happiness and Welfare Now though it is certain that in the general there is a natural Good accruing to us from all vertuous Actions as on the contrary a natural Evil from all vicious ones and it is ordinarily more conducive for our temporal Interests to obey than to disobey the great Law of our Natures Yet there are a world of Instances wherein Vice may be more advantageous to us than Virtue abstracting from the Rewards and Punishments of another World It is ordinarily better for me to be an honest Man than a Knave it is more for my Reputation yea and usually for my Profit too and it is more for the publick Good in which my own is involved But yet pro hic nunc it may be better for me with respect only to this World to be a Knave than an honest man For whensoever I can but cheat so secretly and securely as not to fall under the publick Lash nor to impair my Reputation and I can but gain more by the Cheat than I shall lose in the Damage of the Publick it will be doubtless more advantageous for me as to my worldly Interest to cheat than to be honest And how often such fair Opportunities of Couzenage do occur no Man can be insensible that hath but the least Insight into the Affairs of the World So that if God had not reserved Rewards and Punishments for us in another World we should not have sufficient Motives universally to observe that great Law of Righteousness which he hath given us For whensoever we could cheat or steal securely it would be highly reasonable for us to do it because thereby we might promote our own temporal Happiness which would be the only End we should have to pursue And the same may be said of all other Laws of Nature which without the great Motives of a future Happiness and Misery could no longer induce any reasonable Man to obey them than it is for his temporal Interest to do so For suppose I can secretly stab or poison a Man whom I hate or dread or from whose Death I may reap any considerable Advantage What should restrain me from such a barbarous Fact If you say the Law of Nature pray what Reward doth the Law of Nature propose sufficient to compensate the Dissatisfaction of my Revenge or the Danger I run in suffering my Enemy to live Or what Punishment doth the Law of Nature denounce that is sufficient to balance the Advantage of a thousand or ten thousand Pounds a year that may accrue to me by his Death If you say the Law of Nature proposeth to me the Reward of a quiet and satisfied Mind if I forbear and denounces the Punishment of a guilty and amazed Conscience if I commit the Murder I easily answer that this Peace or Horror which is consequent to the Forbearance or Commission of Murder arises from the Hope and Dread of future Rewards and Punishments which being taken away to murder or not murder will be indifferent as to any Peace or Horror that will follow upon it And this being removed what Consideration will there be left sufficient to restrain me from the bloody Fact when I have an Opportunity to act it securely and am furiously spurred on to it by my own Revenge and Covetousness So that if there be no Rewards and Punishments in another Life to enforce the Commands of the Law of Nature it is apparent that no such Rewards or Punishments are annexed to it in this Life as are universally sufficient to oblige Men to observe it And is it likely that the All-wise Governour of the World would ever impose a Law under an insufficient Sanction That he would ever give out his Commands to his Creatures and then leave it indifferent to them whether they will obey him or no As he must needs have done if in all circumstances it be not far better for us to obey him than to disobey him And if our Nature is so framed as not to be effectually persuaded to Obedience without the Motives of everlasting Rewards and Punishments it is at least highly credible that there are such Because it would be unworthy of God so to frame the Nature of one of his noblest Creatures as to render it incapable of being governed by him without Falshood and Deceit II. THAT there is a future Happiness reserved for Good Men in the other World is highly probable from those Desires and Expectations of it which do so generally and naturally arise in pure and vertuous Minds We rarely if ever read of any vertuous Man of whatsoever Nation or Religion or Sect of Philosophers whose Mind hath not been wing'd with earnest Hopes and Desires of future Happiness and I know none that have ever denied or despaired of it but only such as have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and vitiated the Principles of their own Nature Such were the Sadducees and Epicureans Sects that had drowned all that was humane in them in Sensuality and Voluptuousness and are branded upon Record for their shameful Indulgence to their own brutish Genius And such are no Standards of Humane Nature but ought rather to be looked upon as Monsters of Men and therefore as we do not think it natural to Men to be born with six Fingers upon one Hand though there have been many such monstrous and unnatural Births so neither ought we to judge either of what is natural or unnatural to Men by those humane Brutes who by their perpetual wallowing in the Pleasures of the Body have monstrously disfigured their own Natures and dissolved all that Reason by which they are constituted Men into a mere sensual Sagacity of catering for the Appetites of the Flesh. If we would know therefore what is humane and natural to us we must take our Measures from those who are least depraved and are most conformable to the Laws of a Rational Nature who have preserved the natural Subordination of their Faculties and reduced their Passions and Appetites under the Empire of their Reason And these are the Men whom we call vertuous and who because they live in the Exercise of those noble Virtues which are proper to us Men are to be looked upon as the Standards of Humane Nature by whom alone we can judge of what is natural and unnatural to us Now Virtue and the Desires and Hopes of Immortality are so near allyed that like Hippocrates's Twins they live and die together For though while Men live a brutish and sensual Life their future Hopes are usually drowned in their present Enjoyments yet when once they recover out of this unnatural State and begin to live vertuously like reasonable Beings immediately they feel great Desires and Expectations of a future Happiness