read with diligence and devotion the holy Scripture to frequent the hearing of the Word preached and to meditate often on the Contents of Sacred Writ how can it otherwise be but that he should by so doing acquire a firm and stedfast pious Belief of Divine Truths revealed by Christ and his Apostles 13. And in regard that he whose Petition to God is unfeigned and ardent and withal frequently used for obtaining of Hope and putting his Trust and Confidence in God that he will be graciously pleased to excite his Desires and prosper his Endeavours for the attainment of Bliss will doubtless be induced thereby to refrain from those things which he knows must destroy all hope of Salvation and to addict himself to a stricter Course of Life than he had formerly led and so by the daily Use and Exercise of such Ways and Means as are conducible to Felicity he 'l increase his Hope till it grow by degrees into an Habit. 14. And as for Charity whosoever heartily and with earnestness and constancy of Desire to attain to the Love of God above all things makes his humble address to the Heavenly Throne for the same it cannot otherwise fall out but that he must often be put upon the serious consideration of the unmerited great Love of God to Man in creating preserving and redeeming him of the transcendent value of the immense and endless Joys of Heaven and of the Vanity of the short and transitory Pleasures of this World which if pursued will bring him to intolerable and perpetual Misery whence he 'l learn to despise all sublunary fading Delights in comparison of the everlasting enjoyment of his most gracious Maker Sustainer and Saviour the greater and greater desire of which in his Heart cannot chuse but grow by an ardent constancy in Prayer for the same till Charity be habitually seated in the Soul. 15. Thus we see that Prayer if it be such as God commands doth certainly as a subordinate Cause under himself who is the principal Author of all good whatsoever always prove an effectual Means of instilling every Virtue both Theological and Moral into the Soul of Man so that all other Virtues not here particularly treated of as Humility Patience c. are as effectually got by fervent and frequent Prayer proceeding from a sincere affection and desire of them as those which have been handled be Yea and temporal Blessings both for our selves and others are also obtained of God by devout Prayer when the Divine Wisdom sees the bestowing of them will be a Means to improve in Godliness for the Prayers sake the Souls of those for whom the Prayer is made 16. And if Prayer rightly made be so potent and prevalent to procure the Habits of Virtue as we have seen it is how much more easily will it preserve them being once obtained since every time we seriously pray after the Soul is possessed with the habitual Love of God we are exercising and cultivating Faith Hope and Charity whilst he that loves God above all things firmly resolves that the grand and main Design of his whole Life shall be a continued Tendency through God's gracious Assistance towards the perpetual Fruition of him in Heaven so that whenever he makes his pious Addresses to God in Prayer they are always performed in Faith or a stedfast Belief of the Truth and faithful Performance of all Gospel Revelations and Promises and in an assured Hope and Confidence in the Mercy and Goodness of God towards him from the unfeigned Love he finds he has to God so that the more a pious man pray the more he exercises the Graces of Faith Hope and Charity whence their Habits must needs be confirmed and strengthened accordingly 17. The like is also true of the Moral Virtues whose Habits are corroborated and more firmly fixed by the devout Prayers of a godly person for the better one is established in Faith Hope and Charity the greater Vigilancy and Diligence will he use to subdue and keep under by Temperance his carnal appetite to do right by Justice to every one and to strive through Fortitude against all sinful Temptations and the practice of those Virtues cannot fail to invigorate and fortifie them proportionably to the measure thereof Object 1. Why may not you 'l say the meer Consideration of the necessity of Virtue for the obtaining of Blis put men upon the practice of all such things as are apt either to procure it or to keep it when it is procured And if it may what peculiar Excellency or benefit is there in devout Prayer Solut. That the sole Consideration if serious and frequent of the necessity of Virtue in order to Felicity will excite men to desire and seek after it and if already acquired to preserve it there 's no doubt to be made But nevertheless there is a Benefit peculiar to Prayer above and beyond the Utility of such Consideration For First in applying our selves to God who is our sole supream Good we fix our Thoughts more steadily on the Means available to the gaining thereof when we earnestly beg them of him to that end yea and the very Consideration of the Necessity of Virtue will it self be much improved and heightned thereby Secondly Whenever we devoutly pray we comport our selves with great reverence and Humility as before the Throne of God which rendring the Action of Prayer serious and sacred makes it to work a deeper impression of the Virtue prayed for in our Thoughts than the bare consideration of the Virtue without such Prayer would do Thirdly When with earnestness of Desire we petition our heavenly Father to grant us his merciful Assistance for the obtaining any Virtue we on our parts plainly engage our selves thereby to him to employ our own Care and Endeavours towards the acquiring thereof which must needs cause a stronger inclination in the Soul and a more sedulous diligence in our Actions to obtain the Virtue petitioned for than the sole Consideration of the Benefit thereof towards Bliss could possibly do Fourthly There is nothing more quickens the Desire and encourages the Endeavours after any thing we highly value than a well grounded Hope to obtain it by the Means used to obtain it by and we have his Promises who is no less faithful than able to perform that if we ask not amiss as we never do when we pray for Virtue with Sincerity Fervency and Constancy of Mind as is clear by what has been said in this Section we shall most certainly have our Request Object 2. If Sincerity Fervency and Frequency of Prayer be necessary for the acquiring of Virtue it is but rarely I fear attain'd unto for although many pray frequently and with a real desire of what they pray for yet are there but few that do it with much earnestness or fervency of Spirit Solut. There are several degrees of Fervency or Earnestness the lowest of all which and Sincerity of Affection always implies some degree thereof if
it hinders the same and not as it meerly crosses the Will of the Legislator Every Breach of them is more or less Evil as it is more or less prejudicial to the General Good and has in that respect a greater or less Penalty assigned thereunto Penal Laws are made for preventing of Evils that might happen for want of them and not to take Revenge on the Transgressor of the Law for neglecting to observe or for opposing the Law-givers Mind p. 111 SECT XI Faith Hope and Charity are necessary Means for procuring everlasting Bliss Sincere habitual Charity formally expels Mortal Sin and is therefore formal but incompleat Righteousness Perfect Charity formally expels all Sin and is therefore compleat formal Righteousness or the absolute falfilling of the Divine Law. p. 128 SECT XII Neither by the Light of Nature nor by the Law of Moses without Christ could ever any either Jew or Gentile be eternally saved and come to Glory but through him both of them might The Christiam Religion is in many respects preferable to the Law of Nature and the Law of Moses The Injunction of the Judaical Ordinances Rites and Ceremonies had a farther Tendency than than the exacting of bare Obedience p. 163 SECT XIII Nothing is available to Felicity but as it contributes to Charity The Nature of the two Theological Virtues Faith and Hope and how they become useful to the obtaining and augmenting the Habit of Charity p. 176 SECT XIV The Moral Habits Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance are truly Virtues in that respect only as they promote Charity What the Office of each of them in particular is in the way of subserviency unto Charity p. 184 SECT XV. Prayer offered to God for all things absolutely necessary to Salvation whether the Theological or Moral Virtues or Remission of Sins is evermore effectual if it be made aright and it is then made aright when it is unfeigned fervent and frequently performed p. 194 SECT XVI Praise and Thanksgiving to God are proper and efficatious Means whereby to get and increase Charity Vocal Prayer Music and Gestures of Body betokening Humility and Reverence towards the Divine Majesty are beneficial for the obtaining of everlasting Felicity p. 219 SECT XVII The two great Sacraments instituted by Christ for the Benefit of his Church Baptism and the Lords Supper were ordained to be serviceable to Charity the one in procuring it the other in preserving it Yea and all other Divine Institutions and Ordinances whatsoever are only so many designed ministerial Helps and Furtherances thereunto p. 225 SECT XVIII In the Exercise of the hearty Love of God or Charity consists the sincere Observance of every Precept of the Decalogue But the absolute entire fulfilling of the Moral Law is not accomplished till Charity have attained its ultimate Perfection in Heaven p. 235 SECT XIX There is not any one Precept of the latter Table of the Decalogue truly kept but when it is observed out of Love to God nor is there a real Breach of any of them but when the Soul is either deprived of the Love of God or has the same abated and weakned in it by the Omission of something which is required or by the Commission of something which is forbidden in the Precept p. 247 SECT XX. Charity or the unfeigned fervent Love of God above all things proved by Scripture to be Righteousness or the sincere keeping of the whole Law of God. p. 265 RELIGION AND REASON Adjusted and Accorded OR A Discourse wherein Divine Revelation is made appear to be a congruous and con-natural Way of affording proper Means for making Man eternally Happy through the perfecting of his Rational Nature SECTION I. There is an absolute perfect Being which is self-existent Eternal only One Infinite Immutable a pure Act entirely Simple one Formality and a Spirit 1. WHatsoever has Perception the same has a Being for what is not can have no Perception And that there is Perception the very Denyer of it if there be any one so vain as to contradict the rest of Mankind may be convinced from his own denyal For the denyal of it if the denyer be serious must proceed from this that he thinks there is no such thing as Perception which Thought of his he cannot otherwise chuse but grant to be either true or false if he grant it to be false he owns in effect there is Perception But in case he will have his Thought to be true he must yield that his very Thought it self is a right Perception and so either way he 'll be necessitated to acknowledg that there is for certain Perception 2. Perception then most certainly there is and consequently something that perceives or that has an actual Being which is the Subject of Perception And whatsoever has an actual Being or doth Exist the same must have it's existence either intrinsecal of it self or from some other thing that is extrinsecal to it Whatsoever receives its existence from any thing that is extrinsecal to it that same it not the perfectest Being that is because it depends upon another for its existence provided there be any Being at all which has nothing of Existence from another 3. And that there is some Being which has nothing of existence from another is clear from hence that since the reason of a things existing by virtue of another is because there is some other thing which causes it to exist and that an endless Series or infinite number of things causing others to exist is impossible to have been because a by-past Series of things may be encreased by a new addition made unto it and a Series of things which may be encreased is not infinite for otherwise there might be something that would be more or greater than infinite which questionless cannot be there must of necessity be some first cause which receives nothing from another but exists wholly of it self and is thereupon the most perfect Being 4. That which is the most perfect Being or first Cause must of necessity have always existed or been from Eternity because if there had been a time when it was not it must of nothing have become something seeing it self was first And in case it should of nothing have become something it would have been or existed before it had a Being or Existence and consequently have been and not have been or existed and not existed at once which is impossible For being supposed to be the first Being if ever it had a Beginning it must have been as well the Producer as the thing to be produced and so as it was the Producer must be supposed to have had a Being and as it was the thing to be produced to have had no Being and both at the same Instant which is a manifest Contradiction 5. The prime or first Being then is necessarily eternal à parte antè and what is necessarily Eternal à parte antè is likewise so à parte pòst because having nothing of
will his Love to God be excited till at length if his Faith continue operative it grows into an Habit by which he is put into a State of Salvation or the direct Way to everlasting Bliss Sect. 11. Nor is this the whole benefit of an active Faith for when Charity is thus by its means wrought in the Soul Faith doth not straight give over its Function and begin to be idle but grows more vigorous and lively whilst the Soul being enflamed with the Love of God sets it a fresh on work about the Object the Motives and other Helps of Bliss whence Charity becomes not only confirmed and strengthened but augmented also For although it have frequent need of the Exercise of Faith only to maintain and preserve its Habit that it be not lost by reason of the many Temptations alway ready to ensnare the Affections of the Soul yet in regard the more that Faith is conversant about the Object and Means of Bliss it will from thence be obvious to the Intellect to discover still farther Excellencies in God and greater Love and Kindness in him towards wretched Man it cannot churse but that fresh Representations of Loveliness in God being often made the Soul will become more vigorously affected towards God especially when Charity is in good plight having no present Adversary or Temptation to encounter with 4. After Faith Hope lifts up its Head and 't is twofold either such as precedes Charity or is subsequent to it even as we have seen Faith to be Paragr 3. The Hope which precedes Charity is subservient to Faith in assisting it to beget the Love of God in the Soul in manner here following When Faith has begot some imperfect desires of Bliss before Charity be habitually seated in the Soul some slender hope will arise from the glowings whereby the Soul perceives herself to grow warm in Affection towards God that he will be graciously pleased to perfect the good Work he has already begun in her This Hope tho weak contributes something to Charity if not choaked by fresh Sin for while the Soul hopes for what she desires her desires of what she hopes for is quickned thereby Nevertheless till an habitual Love to God above all things or Charity be throughly framed in the Soul there 's no Spiritual Life therein but only previous dispositions preparing for it Such Hope is therefore by the Schools termed informis and the other Hope which follows Charity is called formata because Charity gives Live and Vigor to it for no man has a firm well grounded Hope that he shall ever inherit Bliss till he find within himself that he has an hearty unfeigned Love to God and really persues the known Means appointed by him to procure a full Fruition of him Thus is Charity the Parent of a true and lively Hope and to this intent that she may be a Stay and Comfort to her Mother for while men rationally hope to enjoy what they love they are cherished confirmed and strengthened thereby in their Love because they have confidence arising from a well-grounded Hope that their Love is not in vain Wherefore the greater our Charity is till perfect that it excludes Hope through possession of the thing hoped for the stronger will our Hope be and the stronger our Hope is the greater Encouragement will be given to Charity which perfected is Felicity Object 2. The Love of God in Heaven may be an adhering with delight to the Object of Felicity or a Complacency Joy and Satisfaction arising from the Beatific Vision or Contemplation of the Divine Excellency But the Love of God upon Earth seems rather to be a Desire only to enjoy him eternally than any the least real participation of Bliss or the Enjoyment of God. Solut. Every true hearted sincere Desire to enjoy God eternally is an Effort and vigorous striving of the Soul to be throughly satisfied with the full fruition of him for ever which since it is caused by the Delight it finds in the solid and devout Consideration and Meditation of the Divine Excellency or of Gods wonderful gracious Kindness to man apprehended by Faith or of both the greater inward Joy and Spiritual Contentment men have in thinking of Gods transcendent Excellency and of his stupendious Kindness shown to Man the stronger will their Desires grow to obtain a full Possession of him to Eternity whence it appears that the Desire to enjoy God is an effect of Charity or Delight taken in him and not Charity it self but is a very great Advancer of it in that it puts men upon the exercise of all things which are known to be available to the Fruition of God and indeed is so like to Charity that it is not without a near Inspection discernable from it yet certainly is distinct from it as may be farther gathered from the constant answer we use to give to one demanding of us why we so earnestly desire this or that thing which is because we have a great Love for it or take much delight in it but do not ever say we love a thing or are delighted with it because we desire it In fine then I take it to be cleared that Charitas viae and Charitas patriae the Love of God here and hereafter differ only as the less and more perfect whence I conceive arose that common Saying of Divines Gratia est semen Gloriae and the occasion of calling aswell Grace as Glory the Kingdom of Heaven in Scripture SECT XIV The Moral habits Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance are truly Virtues in that respect only as they further Charity What the Office of each of them in particular is as 't is subservient unto Charity 1. HAving shown after what manner the Theological Virtues Faith and Hope are useful and serviceable unto Charity it follows to be considered of how the moral Virtues Prudence Justice Fortitude and Temperance minister help thereunto in respect of which alone they are truly Virtues and not otherways For since Charity here and hereafter is Felicity the one begun the other perfected Sect. 13. and that Felicity is the ultimate End of Man Sect. 4. it certainly follows that not any thing at all is virtuous or good to man as man or a Rational Creature made to inherit Bliss but what is in some respect or other advantagious and beneficial to Charity so that although he be commonly esteem'd a Prudent Man who discreetly orders his actions to some honest end proposed a just man whose care it is to do uprightly in the Affairs of the World a stout man who behaves himself couragiously against his Countries Foes a temperate man who regularly moderates his Appetite about Meat and Drink yet is not any of these truly virtuous by so doing except he do it out of Love to that End whereunto all his Actions ought either mediately or immediately to tend because in the obtaining of that alone Humane Nature is perfected the Man made happy whereas other
Conjunction and Union with the Soul has such an Influence on it that it certainly inclines it to all manner of Affections which the animal Parts excites it to except when Reason prevails with the Will to resist the Motions of the sensitive Appetite which cannot be while the Intellect is uncapable of the Exercise of Reason 't is manifest that seeing Children in the Mothers Womb have not at all the use of Reason there will be in their Souls an Inclination or Habitude agreeable and correspondent to the Disposition of their corporeal Part which in that it is begot and conceived of Seed issuing from disordered Bodies will it self be in disorder and thereby cause an unanswerable disorderly Disposition in the sensitive Faculty inclining it to Objects of sense and that again work a proportionable inordinate Habitude in the Will which bereaving it of the due Inclination it ought to have towards the true Object of Felicity causes a Want of that Original Disposition of Soul which should and would have been in Children if so be Man had continued in the State of Integrity which Want is that Malady of the Soul Men call Original Sin or Privation of Original Righteousness and is the Consequent in the manner above explain'd of eating the forbidden Fruit. 3. By this Explication of Original Sin God is justified and cleared from all Suspicion of being cause thereof whereas if the Sin of Adam was transferred to his Posterity because their Wills are included as some say in his I see not how the Almighty could be cleared from being the Author of it For since the Wills of Children are not really and truly by Nature in the Wills of their Parents for otherwise all Children should of Right be guilty of all the Sins of their Parents the Wills of Adams Progeny could not be included in the Will of Adam unless God in whose Power the Wills of all Men are would for his Preasures sake have it so If therefore by Gods meer voluntary Constitution the Wills of Adams Posterity be included in Adams Will it follows that by the same Constitution the Sin of Adam is his Posterities Sin also in that the very Reason why the Sin of Adam becomes the Sin of his Posterity is because their Wills are voluntarily constituted by God in his Will which if it were true would make God the Author of Original Sin. Object 1. If Original Sin be derived from Adam by Propagation it cannot be a Privation of Original Righteousness because Privation is the meer want of a thing and not a Positive thing which may be propagated Solut. There are two things to be considered in Original Sin an Habitude or Proneness in the Will towards the Enjoyment of the Creature and a Want of Original Righteousness or Disposition of the Soul towards God which it had by Creation Now although the Want of Original Righteousness be truly and properly Original Sin because if there were no want of that there would be no Original Unrighteousness yet in that the native Habitude or Proneness of the Will towards the Creature Par. 2. instead of God is the reason why the Soul becomes deprived of Original Righteousness that Habitude or Proneness of the Will is also called Original Sin which that and how it proceeds by means of natural Generation was shown in Par. 1. 2. And it is so in all manner of Vice that the irregular Act or Habit is not Vice formally taken but the Privation of the opposite Virtue which ensues upon that irregular Act or Habit and yet nevertheless the irregular Act and Habit are both called Vice Metonimically because it is a necessary Result of each For instance an intemperate Act or Habit is said to be a Vice and yet the formal Reason of their Vitiousness confists in this that the one at least weakens the other destroys the Virtue of Temperance or in case a Man be intemperate before they render it more difficult for him to become Temperate by strengthening or encreasing his Intemperance for it is impossible that any thing should be morally evil but as it deprives of some moral Good or weakens it or puts a Man farther from it for if by Intemperance a Man were not a whit the less Virtuous he would not be one jot the more Vitious than if he were not Intemperate at all And the like may be as truly said of any other irregular Act or Habit of the Will. If it be urged that in case Original Sin descend in the manner before described by propagation it would rather be derived to us from our immediate Parents than from our First since another Temper of Body is communicated by them to us then what was derived from Adam to his own Children as is evident from the manifold different natural Dispositions we meet with in young Children and yet Original Sin is solely fixed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit my Answer is that though it be very true that Infants receive another Disposition from their more immediate Progenitor than what has been perpetually derived from Adam and consequently that some of them also have a greater propensity to Vice through the personal Faults of their nearer Ancestors and Parents yet in that the whole Stock of Mankind ever since Adam has had a proneness from their Conception to the Creature in room of the Creator by reason of the first Transgression Original Sin is rightly imputed to the eating of the forbidden Fruit it being certain that from that Fault alone though there had never been any other therewould have ensued a Want of Original Righteousness in all Mankind Object 2. If Original Sin proceed from a Proneness in the sensitive Appetite towards the Creature and that from the unequal Temper or male Disposition of the body unless the Body be restored to its primitive Constitution which is not to be expected no Man shall ever be quit or clear from Original Sin in this Life Solut. Although Concupiscence be never totally rooted out of the sensitive Faculty in this Life yet it doth not always as it does Infants who have not the use of Reason necessarily so influence the Will as it does the sensitive Appetites and the Will is the only proper Seat of Sin but may through a virtuous Course of Life be so far mastered and subjugated to the Power and Command of the Will that it shall be able to give but small and ineffectual disturbance to the Rational Faculties which actually falls out so often as the Soul acquires the Habit of Virtue whereby it obtains a sincere Affection to God as its Sovereign Good for such Affection or Charity as shall be shown afterward Sect. 11. not only frees the Soul from Original but all other mortal Sin likewise whilst it is thereby formally justified and put into a State of Grace and Salvation 4. The mentioned Difficulties about Original Sin removed I go forward to shew that as Original Sin proceeds from our first Parents eating of the Tree
hearty Affection unto God Par. 6 7 8. Object 2. The sincere habitual Love to God above all things cannot of it self alone justifie any one because the Divine Law requires that a Man love his Neighbour also as himself Solut. True it doth so but since it is impossible but that he who cordially desires and accordingly stedfastly endeavours to enjoy God eternally should also unfeignedly wish the like to his Neighbour which comprehends all Mankind and assists him when occasion serves in what is necessarily conducible thereunto so far as he well can in doing of which the Duty of loving a Mans Neighbour as himself is fulfilled as will be at large set forth in the Explanation of the Decalogue Sect. 18. and 19. 'T is plain that he who loves God above all things doth in consequence thereto of necessity love his Neighbour like as himself If a Man love me he will keep my Words John 14. 23. And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also 1 John 4. 21. But of this more hereafter in the three last Sections Object 3. If Men be formally justified by their own habitual Righteousness then are they not formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them But Men are formally justified by the Righteousness of Christ imputed to them Christ is made unto us Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. Therefore Men are not formally justified by their own habitual Righteousness Solut. In answer to the proof of the Minor Proposition viz. That Christ is made unto us Righteousness I return that in the same Text he is likewise said to be made unto us Wisdom and Sanctification and Redemption and therefore if Christ's Righteousness can be proved from thence to be the formal Cause of man's Justification or that man is formally just thereby by the same Text it may be equally and as well proved that man is formally wise and formally holy by the Wisdom and Holiness of Christ which if he truly were then would a justified Person be as just wise and Holy as Christ himself and consequently he ought to have no remorse for any thing he ever did nor to crave pardon for his Sins and by consequence since Sin is a Transgression of the Law unless he no more transgress God's Law than our Blessed Saviour himself did he 'l be a Transgressor of the Law and not a Transgressor of the Law a Sinner and no Sinner at the same time which is impossible Christ's Righteousness therefore in the quoted Text is Metonymically to be understood for the efficient Cause of man's Righteousness even as his Wisdom and Holiness likewise are in respect of our being wise and holy In this sense all the meritorious Doings and Sufferings of Christ may be rightly said to be ours whilst by virtue of them Grace is wrought in our Hearts by which we overcome the Temptations of the World the Flesh and the Devil so that the Benefit of them really redounds to us and whatever Righteousness we have here or shall have hereafter it is the very effect of the righteousness of Christ For since rational Arguments Motives are the proper inducements whereby a Rational Creature is inclined to Good whilst through them the Understanding is illuminated with Truth and the Will excited to the love of it 't is evident that nothing possibly besides except the immediate irresistible Will of God could so effectually work on mens rational Souls to cause them to forsake the love of the World for the love of God as Arguments and Motives fetcht from the consideration of Christ's love to man his Incarnation Doctrine Conversation Passion Resurrection Ascension Session at the right hand of his Father and his coming to Judgment Whence in very truth those men who in attributing man's formal Righteousness to the Righteousness of Christ made his by imputation through Faith think they attribute more to Christ and give him greater honour than they do that hold the sincere habitual love of God to be the formal cause of Justification are under a manifest Mistake For since Christ is personally God and not personally Man and that the infinite value of his precious merits is from the hypostatical Union of his Manhood with the Deity 't is plain that it is far more excellent and glorious that Christ's righteousness which comprehends the whole merit of all his active and passive Obedience should be the efficient Cause of man's Justification by producing a real habitual Righteousness in his Soul than the formal cause thereof by a meer imputed Righteousness because such imputed Righteousness in case it were possible would be the Righteousness of Christ as man for otherwise a righteous person would be infinitely righteous and consequently be God since nothing is infinitely perfect in any respect whatever but he alone whereas if his Righteousness be the efficient Cause of man's Righteousness it is proper to him as he is both God and Man. But indeed it is impossible that Christ's Righteousness should become formally man's for seeing it is personal and thence a thing extrinsecal to every one but himself 't is not possible to become a formal Cause to others in that a formal Cause whether it be substantial or accidental is an internal Cause and essentially constitutive of the thing whereof it is a Cause For instance Man's Soul is the formal Cause and a substantial essential part of man as man or a rational Animal Prudence is the formal Cause and an accidental essential part of man as he is prudent and so is Temperance of a temperate man and every Abstract else of the Concrete to which it is appropriated For what is a prudent man but one habitually indued with Prudence or a temperate man but one whom the habit of Temperance formally makes such And must not a righteous person by parallel Reason be one habitually possessed of Righteousness If it were not thus but that on the contrary a prudent man could be prudent by the Prudence of another without the Habit of Prudence within himself then were it possible that a man might be prudent though really imprudent in all his doings and so be prudent and utterly imprudent at once And if a man could be temperate without the Virtue of Temperance inherent in him he might possibly be temperate when he wallowed in the Sink of all filthy Pleasures and thence be temperate and not at all temperate at the same time And so in like manner if a man could be righteous by the Righteousness of another without any inherent Righteousness of his own he might possibly at the same instant be righteous and a notorious Transgressor of God's Law and consequently be a just and unjust person a Sinner and no Sinner both together If it were replied that God always in the very moment wherein Christ's Righteousness through Faith is imputed to any man infuses entire holiness into his Soul so that he exactly keeps every Divine Precept I would make this
inferior Ends beneficial in their kind to some particular purposes may be attained and yet everlasting Misery not be prevented thereby This then being apparent that Charity is the Scope and Aim which the moral Virtues ought to look and level at let 's see in what way they compass their designed End. 2. Prudence which because it is conversant circa agibilia is reckoned with the moral Virtues is the practical Knowledg of things to be desired or shunned in respect of some honest end sought after whence it is manifest that Prudence is deeply engaged in every moral Virtue and therefore how much soever Charity is advanced by any of them Prudence always plays its part in contributing thereunto 3. Justice is said to be a Virtue whereby we give to every one what is due or right for them to have the Discourse whereof I 'le therefore omit till I come to the Decalogue or Moral Law. 4. Fortitude is that Virtue which strengthens the Soul to overcome Difficulties that would avert the Will from the Prosecution of Good for fear of Evil to be encountred with before the Good can be obtained 'T is apparent therefore to see that considering a Christians Life is a continual Warfare where daily Enemies that would hinder Mans Love to God above all things are stoutly to be combated if Victory be desired and expected Fortitude is a Virtue primely useful unto Charity 5. Temperance is a Virtue which regulates the desires of the Will about the Objects of Tast and Touch as Meat Drink and Venery and is hugely serviceable to Charity For whereas the Will through the Corruption of Mans vitiated Nature is prone to follow the Gust of the sensitive Appetite in the immoderate persuit of whatsoever is grateful to it and is apt thereby to be drawn from the Love of its chief Object the Supreme Good which is God Temperance by restraining the sensitive Appetite from excess in its desire of Meat and Drink doth thereby reduce the animal Spirits to a more moderate Quantity and Temper which otherwise through their too great abundance and activeness are wont to excite the sensitive Faculty to a violent lusting after all such things as are pleasing to it and that again disturbs and blunders the Rational Powers of the Soul and by eagerly pressing upon them averts the Understanding from the due Consideration of things and thence totally gains the Phantasie and thereby ensnares and captivates the Will. Besides Temperance is very serviceable ut Causa removens prohibens to Prayer and Meditation the two faithful Ensurers as I may well call them of Charity for they never fail to ensure it to us as will be made appear in the next Section if we fail not to make sure of employing them in their Office. Object 1. By what hath been said of the moral Virtues if true they are not bona per se good in themselves which is contrary to the Opinion of most men Solut. Whatsoever is bonum per se good in it self is of it self the Object of Desire and so having no Reference as such to any farther good in consideration of which it is desirable it ought to be desired for its own sake without respect had to any other good whatsoever to be obtained by it and consequently to be acquiesced in either as the edequate End and Perfection of the Soul or at least as a coordinate part and proportion thereof The former the moral Virtues are not otherwise God would be totally excluded from being in any sort Man's ultimate End and Sovereign Good. Nor can they be the latter First because it is impossible but that the Soul which is fully possessed of God should have all Good and Perfection whereof it is capable and Secondly for that the moral Virtues are Dispositions of the Soul for moderating the Affections of the Will about such Objects as shall have no Being in Heaven and if there be no Objects for the Virtues to be concerned about there will also be no Virtues because they receive their different Natures and Species from the diversity of the Objects they are exercised on Justice indeed seems to be eternally necessary in that we must give for ever to God Angels and Men what is their due but Charity abundantly supplies that forasmuch as to love every one of them as they ought to be beloved eminently contains in it whatsoever is to be rendred to them Object 2. Although a man that deals uprightly to obtain the Reputation of a good Name or defends his Country for Honours sake or lives temperately out of regard to his Health or that does all these for the mentioned or any other such like End be not properly a virtuous man yet he that exercises Justice Fortitude and Temperance for Honesties sake or because it is agreeable to the Principles and Dictates of Reason and so conformable to mans rational Nature to do it is certainly a moral honest man or else there is no such thing as moral Honesty in the World. Solut. He that does a thing for any End be it what it will has his Reward or all he desires in the obtaining of it if so be he have not an Eye to a farther end to be acquired by it and therefore in case every Man did exercise Justice Fortitude and Temperance for the pure Love of them only because they are agreeable to human Nature he had his Reward in doing it and thence fell short of Felicity or his chiefest Good the Fruition of God and consequently he did not act virtuously For he that acts virtuously acts rationally and he that acts rationally acts for a good End which must either be Mans ultimate End or else some intermediate End conducible to the obtaining of it because Mans ultimate End alone is desirable for its own Cause and other things only as they are in order to it as was proved before Par. 1. and in the Solut. of the first Object in this Section Such a Man indeed as is said in the Objection I am now answering to be a moral honest man if there were any such would be less miserable by what he did but so will every one be accordingly as he is less vitious Sect. 7. although he be not in any sort truly Virtuous Is there then you 'l reply no such thing as meer moral Virtue or Honesty I answer yes Meer moral Virtue or Honesty is when a man without the Direction or Help of any other Law save only of the Law of Nature doth from the Consideration of Gods transcendent Excellency in himself of the Creation of the World and especially of Man all demonstrable by Reason as is to be seen by the first third and fourth Section and from the Beauty Order and Preservation of the Universe manifest to sense raise his Thoughts from poring on Earthly things to the Contemplation of the Divine Majesty and Goodness and by frequent admiring and adoring him together with giving Praise and Thanks unto him for
no influence at all from them but is wholly miraculous as every Effect immediately produced by God is To me it seems more rational to say that as those Children who live till they be of years capable of understanding the Reason and Use of Baptism are appointed by the Church to be informed thereof that they may make good the Engagement of their Sureties without doing of which their Baptism will not avail them to Salvation so Infant-Children upon the separation of Soul and Body are illuminated by their Angels for are they not ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. And that Baptized Children are such we be taught by the Answer to the second Question in our Catechism where the Word Inheritor is rendred in the Latin Haeres and in the Greek κληÏονόμος with the Knowledg of their Baptism for then they are capable of apprehending any thing offered to the intellect it proceeding from the disposition of their Bodies and not from the nature of their Souls that they are ever uncapable of actually understanding And seeing the inclination to the Creature through Original Sin is not by far so strong as that which is contracted by frequent Acts of sinning their affections will be instantly turned to God by virtue of their Baptism signified unto them But however the Truth in this obscure Point stand this is certain that in regard Felicity consists in the Love of God sect 4. par 13. baptized Infants must some way or other obtain Charity before they arrive at Bliss or at least upon the very instant of being possessed thereof And how their Baptism should be useful to them for the obtaining of Charity except they have Knowledg of it and by whom it should be made known unto them but by their Angels unless miraculously and Miracles are not wrought where there 's no necessity of them I do not understand Yet since I know of no Divine Revelation nor of any clear demonstration after what manner their Love of God depends upon their being baptized I do not presume to affirm that my delivered Thoughts are positively true SECT XVIII In the exercise of the hearty Love of God or Charity consists the sincere observance of every Precept of the Decalogue But the absolute entire fulfilling of the Moral Law is not accomplished till Charity have attained its ultimate Perfection in Heaven 1. WHen treating of the Moral Virtues I shewed the Assistance which Prudence Temperance and Fortitude exhibit to Charity sect 14. par 2 4 5. I said I would defer my intended Discourse on Justice till I came to the Explication of the Ten Commandments whither being now come I shall endeavour to make it appear that every Precept of the Decalogue tends to the causing a firm establishment of Charity in the Soul of Man and that in the exercise thereof when it is acquired the sincere observance of the whole Law is practised albeit the absolute exact fulfilling of it be not accomplished till Charity have obtained its utmost Perfection which human Frailty will not permit the attainment of while Men carry about them a Body of Flesh 2. For since to love God with all the Heart with all the Soul with all the Mind and with all the strength Mark 12. 30. is required to the compleat exact fulfilling of the Law and that such Love would perpetually take up all the Powers of the Soul it is plain that in regard while we live in this world our Thoughts must be often employed in taking care for the necessary accommodations of Life and in using Means to further our own and others Welfare here and hereafter we cannot in this mortal state so fully fix our Affections on God as to have our Souls fully possessed of him 3. And yet forasmuch as to give God the pre-eminence in our Affections and to despise all other things in comparison of the fruition of him to eternity so as that when we are tempted to violate any of his holy Commandments the ardent desire we have for the enjoyment of him enables us to resist and overcome the Temptation forasmuch I say as thus to love God permits us not wilfully and advisedly to break any of his Precepts but engages and puts us upon the keeping them all in sincerity of Affection and unfeignedness of heart it is apparent that in the exercise of Charity is virtually contained the sincere unfeigned Observance of the whole Moral Law. 4. Which Law consists of Ten Commandments the four first whereof totally respecting Man's Behaviour towards the supream Being the only Object of these is God whom therefore they command us to look up to as he is the Author and Finisher of Eternal Salvation in which respect we are to esteem him as he truly is the prime Verity whom we are to believe the sovereign Power in whom we are to trust and the chiefest Good whom we ought to love above all things or the Object of Faith Hope and Charity 5. And seeing neither Faith nor Hope are available to Salvation save only as they contribute to Charity either in helping to produce the Habit thereof or being obtained to confirm and strengthen it sect 13. 't is clear that the Precepts of the Former Table are not observed till we love God as our Sovereign Good or be endued with Charity 6. Whosoever therefore exerciseth the Grace of Charity he is all the while employ'd in the sincere keeping of the Four first Commandments the whole design of God's forbidding us to have any other Gods besides himself to make any graven Image to fall down before it and worship it to take his holy Name in vain and to do any unnecessary worldly Business at Times appointed for Divine Offices being totally accomplished in this to cause us to fix our Souls Affections on God and to pursue with earnestness the eternal Fruition of him as our sole Sovereign Good. Object 1. If Faith and Hope be not absolutely necessary to Salvation in themselves abstracting from this that they are Ministerially beneficial to Charity then are the opposite Vices to them Infidelity and Apostacy Presumption and Despair not Sins damnable in themselves or as destructive of the contrary Virtues but only as they cannot consist together with the Grace of Charity But Infidelity and Apostasie Presumption and Despair are Sins damnable in themselves or as they are destructive of the contrary Virtues Faith and Hope abstracting from this that these are Ministerially beneficial unto Charity Ergo Solut. The Minor Proposition must be denied and justly I conceive may for although it be most certainly true that Infidelity and Apostasie Presumption and Despair debar Men of Felicity yet the Reason thereof is not because of their immediate opposition to Faith and Hope but for that they are totally inconsistent with Charity For since that no Habit is truly virtuous but in virtue of the End whereto it serves and that the End of all Virtues is Charity