superadded to the reason of our Minds is of strength sufficient to subdue all the Temptations to evil if the Creation below us by natural instinct doth those things that are regular shall not these higher Principles do the like always preserve us from known evil and determine us to that which is morally good This is the course of things in Nature every Habit begun is greatly weakened by a forbearance of Acts for every thing must be kept up in the way it was produced a Disposition is first wrought by some Acts and if Act be not continued upon Act the Disposition will fail for things that are not brought to a State of Perfection will go back again if they be not maintained in the same way that they were produced Wherefore it will be worth the while to enquire what our most holy Religion aims at and after what manner it doth affect the Person in whom it is lodged Now Religion makes us live up to our highest Faculties and teaches us to practise such Virtues as become rational Beings who bear the Image of the Immortal God and are exalted above the Inferior Creation prompts us to scorn all Actions that are base unhansom or unworthy our State and Relation in which we stand to our Creator forbids us to do any thing that will make us like Beasts or that would sink us into a lower order by Sensuality and Carnal-mindedness or that would transform us into the likeness of Devils by Pride Presumption and Self conceit makes us God-like in Wisdom Righteousness Goodness Charity Compassion in forgiving Injuries pardoning Enemies and in doing hurt to none but good to all as we have power and opportunity advises us to follow the conduct of true and sincere Reason tames the Extravagancy of our Passions and regulates the Exorbitances of the Will permits us the pleasures of our Bodies so far as they may give no disturbance to the Mind produces a sweet and gracious Temper of Soul calm in it self and loving to Mankind begets in us freedom of Spirit and banishes groundless Fears foolish Imaginations and dastardly Thoughts teaches us to have right Conceptions of God that he doth transact all things with Mankind as a loving Father with his Children creates in us a rational Satisfaction and the joy of a good Conscience advances the Soul to its just Sovereignty over inferior Appetites which would disable it for all good and vertuous Acts and render us weak foolish and unfit for any thing that is generous or noble strengthens our Reason against the Onsets of the World Flesh and Devil which is effected chiefly by stifling all manner of Intemperance for it is this that frustrates the Work of Religion either by stupifying or imaging the Spirits or by putting them into irregular Motions 16. An Exhortation to the Practice of Religion Now therefore let us consider whether or no this Religion doth govern our Lives which we must learn not by our acquaintance with Systems and Models of Divinity but by our keeping its Commandments For unless Christ be inwardly formed in our Hearts the Notions of Religion can save us no more than Arts and Sciences whilst they lye only in Books and Papers without us can make us learned For Christ Jesus did not undergo a reproachful Life and Death merely to bring in a Notion into the World without the changing mending and reforming it so that Men might still be as wicked as they were before and as much under the Power of the Prince of Darkness Indeed Christ came to expiate and attone for our Sins but the end of this was that we might forsake all Ungodliness and worldly Lusts 'T is true there be some that dishearten us in this spiritual Warfare and bring an ill Report upon that Land which we are to conquer telling of nothing but strange Giants the Sons of Anak that we shall never be able to subdue others would suggest that it is enough for us if we be but once in a state of Grace we need not take so great pains to travel any farther or that Christ hath done all for us already without us and nothing need more to be done within us Hearken not to them I beseech you but hear what Caleb and Joshua say Let us go up at once and possess it for we are able to overcome them the hugest Armies of Lusts not by our own Strength but by the Power of the Lord of Hosts hear also the wholsom Words of S. Peter Give all diligence to add to your Faith Virtue and to Virtue Knowledg to Knowledg Temperance and to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness and to Godliness brotherly Kindness and to brotherly Kindness Charity for if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus Christ For Holiness hath something of God in it and therefore it must needs be a victorious and triumphant thing And as the Devils are always active to encourage Evil so the heavenly Host of blessed Angels are as busie in promoting that which is good for we cannot imagin but that the Kingdom of Light should be as true to its own Interest and as vigilant for the enlarging it self as the Kingdom of Darkness But then by Holiness is not meant a mere Performance of the outward Duties of Religion but an inward Soul and Principle of divine Life that enliveneth the dead Carcast of all our outward Devotions For this is the vulgar Error of Mankind they have dreadful Apprehensions of Fire and Brimstone whilst they feed in their Hearts a true and living Fire that is the Hell of Lusts which miserably scorches their Souls and they are not concerned at it they do not perceive how Hell steals upon them whilst they live here And as for Heaven they gaze abroad for it as for some great and high Preferment that must come from without and never look for the beginnings of it to arise within in their own Minds Whereas nothing without us can make us either happy or miserable nothing can either defile or hurt us but what goeth out from us I shall now shut up all with these two Considerations to persuade you farther to the Love of Virtue From the desire we all have after Truth which is not held up by wrangling Disputes and syllogistical Reasonings but by the Purity of our Hearts and Lives neither would it fail of overcoming the World did not the Sensuality of our Dispositions and the Darkness of our false Hearts stop its passage And from the Desires we have of a true Reformation which must be begun in our own Hearts and Lives for all outward Forms and Models thereof are of little worth without the inward Amendment of our own Souls For the baser Metals are not changed by their being cast into a good Mold or by being made up in an elegant Figure neither will adulterate Silver pass when the Touch-stone tryes it neither can we
Imprimatur Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Nov. 20. 1690. A TREATISE OF Moral and Intellectual VIRTUES WHEREIN Their NATURE is fully explained and their USEFULNESS proved AS BEING The best Rules of LIFE AND The Causes of their Decay are enquired into concluding with such Arguments as tend to revive the Practice of them WITH A PREFACE shewing the Vanity and Deceitfulness of VICE Est modus in rebus sunt certi denique fines Quos ultrà citráque nequit consistere rectum By JOHN HARTCLIFFE B. D. and Fellow of Kings College Cambridge London Printed for C. Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against S. Dunstan's Church Fleet-street 1691. To the Right Honorable CHARLES Earl of Maclesfeld Lord President and Lord Lieutenant of the Principality of Wales Lord Lieutenant of the Counties of Gloucester Hereford and Monmouth and of the City and County of Bristol and one of the Lords of Their Majesties most Honorable Privy Council May it please your Lordship THE Cause of Virtue belongs to great and brave Men therefore I thought it my Duty to lay this Treatise at your Lordships Feet it will not much enlarge your Thoughts or acquaint you with any new things but I hope it may please the Generosity of your Temper to read the Characters of Virtues the greatest Ornaments of that pure Religion which your Lordship hath laboured so much to recover from the Knavery and base Corruptions as well as Bondage of Popery For the Jesuits Morals are as destructive of a good Life and as pernicious to human Society as their Plots and their Gun-Powder I am very well satisfied that if I had sought a Patron in all the List of Noble Persons I could not have found a more proper or competent Judge in a Discourse of this Nature because your Lordships Case and that of Virtue it self have been much alike you have been both persecuted for your Integrity and Truth but like Truth you must and shall prevail in spight of the malicious and the false the Parasite or the Detractor I have not troubled your Lordship with the fine and nice Speculations in Divinity because they have done our Religion much Dis-service by raising a multitude of Questions which neither advance true Piety nor good Manners But I present your Lordship with the Rules of naked Truth and Reason the free Use whereof is as much our Birthright as any thing else Therefore your Lordships Name and the Names of all those shall be had in everlasting remembrance who have placed Their Majesties upon the Throne whereby not only our Properties but our Understandings are secured to us and an healing Plaister is laid upon all our Maladies For we must needs say our Nation was in a very distempered Condition before it came into the hands of this wise and great Prince WILLIAM the Third whose Breaches in its Manners as well as in its Laws may be made up by his seasonable Application of the most proper Remedies as its Greatness and Glory will ever be maintained by His Wisdom Power and Courage under the Influence of these Royal Virtues England methinks begins to recover its just Temper apace and the old British Genius revives so that in time it may be restored to a perfect Health as strong Bodies will work out the Poyson they take by degrees That this Deliverance which hath been so wonderfully wrought for us may have the same effect upon our Country which the Christian Religion had at its first entrance into it when it did so quickly turn the first Inhabitants of this Island who were uncivilized and barbarous into humble affable meek charitable modest prudent tender and compassionate Creatures That the Practice of Virtue may be establish'd in these Kingdoms without which the firmest Government must dissolve because a regard to that will ever have an Influence upon the Honour and Authority of those who rule as well as upon the Happiness and safety of those who obey And that your Lordship may long enjoy the only Sweetness of Life a retreat from Noise and Disturbance that nothing may break or interrupt your Thoughts in the ways of Virtue and Goodness is the Prayer of May it please your Lordship Your Lordship 's most humble and most obedient Servant J. HARTCLIFFE THE PREFACE To the READER THE reason which moved the Author to publish these short Characters of Moral Virtues was a desire he had to revive the Practice of them as much as he could in a very degenerate Age The World we know has ever had its Vicissitudes and Periods of Virtue and Wickedness and all Nations have advanced themselves to their Power and Grandeur by Sobriety Wisdom and a tender regard of Religion This very Remark hath filled us with hope that upon this our late wonderful Revolution the English Nation may recover its ancient Virtues that have been too long under the Oppression of Debauchery which hath been an Evil of so great Malignity as to threaten ruin to the very Constitution of the Government Therefore the Providence of God hath sent us a Prince for our deliverer whose Piety is set off with the whole Train of Moral Virtues whose Temperance is so great and impregnable amidst all those Allurements with which the Palaces of Kings are apt to meet even the most resolved Minds that at the same time he doth both teach and upbraid the Court whose Fortitude is more resplendent in the Conquest of himself than when he strewes the Field with the Armies of Rebels whose Gentleness and Mercy is so remarkable that if ever the Lion and the Lamb dwelt together it is in the Breast of this Royal Person whose personal Virtues will in a little time render all vicious Courses unexcusable and will shed a suitable Influence upon his Government that not only the Honour and Plenty but the Virtue and Goodness of the English People may spread it self even to the Envy of all Neighbour Nations 1. Irreligion the Cause of Ruine to a Nation But whenever men contemn the Laws of God and are loose in all their Conversation they will certainly decline into Softness and Effeminacy on the other side when they are virtuous and upright in their Actions they are unmoveable like a House built upon a Rock for this is the Circle of human Affairs And when Atheism or a neglect of Virtue hath been at the greatest height as it was very lately they have certainly brought on Changes and Dissolutions because the Principles of Irriligion do unjoynt the Sinews of all Government If this be so methinks all Mankind should be ready to weigh and examin all the Arguments for Virtue should carefully enquire into the Grounds of the Christian Faith and take an account of the Truth and Credibility of the Scriptures when they have done this I am confident they will think themselves as effectually obliged in Prudence to the Duties of Virtue and Religion by the Possibility as by the Certainty of things for whatever they
therefore consists the true Gallantry of Spirit when it controuls all those lower Powers that ought to obey Reason when it defends the Authority thereof against all the rebellious Attempts of Passion and Concupiscence For unless our Souls had been lodged in Bodies full of unreasonable Inclinations they would not have been capable of exercising many Choice Virtues such as Temperance Sobriety Chastity Patience Meekness and all the rest that consist in the Empire of Reason over Appetite For Virtues of this sort are never attributed to God because He being of a Nature purely Spiritual hath no unruly Appetites to govern But because the Nature of Virtue is placed in the Minds ruling the Affections Providence hath furnished it with Instruments for that purpose for the Soul having its principal Residence where the Nerves have their Original that convey all Motions backward and forward it is able by an immediate Influence to command all the animal Motions of the Body For if the Superior Part should not be strong enough to govern the Inferior it would destroy the very Being and Existence of Good and Evil and render Mankind utterly uncapable of Goodness and Morality Although sensual Inclinations false Principles vicious Examples and wicked Customs are the inducements and occasions of much Vice yet the Superior Powers of the Mind are able to give check and control to our brutish Lusts and Passions so that it is much in our own Power to attain to Virtue and Happiness were it not for a wilful inconsiderateness the spring and head of that Torrent of Wickedness that has always overflown the greatest part of the World for if every Man be endued with rational Faculties if he can reflect upon the Essential Differences of Good and Evil together with their natural products if he can observe what things tend to his damage and what minister to his advantage and if it be most apparent that vertuous Practices are infinitely more conducive to the Interest and Happiness of Man than Vice and Luxury then no other Reason can be given why Men are so unanimously vicious but only because they are wilfully or carelesly unreasonable especially when the Rules and Directions of Religion are all sober and practicable when it doth not flatter Men with Romantick degrees of Happiness upon fond and fantastick Principles but complies with the Conditions of Human Life for we have no high-strain'd Paradoxes such as the Stolcks had against the Convictions of Sense and Experience but we are allowed to esteem of every thing as we find and feel it above all we are charged to purge our Minds of froward Humors and to sweeten them with mild Principles to moderate and command our Passions and in all Circumstances to govern our selves by the Laws of Wisdom and Moderation with which when the Mind is furnished it is able to extract something beneficial to its own Interests from the most malicious Accidents and may be Serene in the midst of Storms Contented in the midst of Disappointments But suppose there were nothing in Virtue but Hardships and Difficulties a perpetual Force and Violence to Nature a constant War with the World and the Flesh cannot we endure all this for an endless Reward for we must have a very mean Opinion of Heaven if we do not think it worth the Obedience and Service of a few years how difficult soever that were for the Expectation of a future Happiness hath been that Principle from whence that Confidence and Courage hath arisen whereby vertuous Persons have been supported in their Sufferings for that which is good But besides the future Reward that doth await them the Lovers of Virtue are the happiest Men upon Earth for these two Reasons First Because their Virtue tends to the Preservation and Continuance of the World Secondly To the bettering of the Condition and Manners of Mankind For the World would crack about our Ears 13. The world is kept up by Virtuous Men. and sink under the weight of its own Wickedness did not virtuous Men put in their Shoulders to uphold the Fabrick Cardan indeed is very inquisitive how Human Societies were kept up and affirms the Cause why they did not disband and run into Confusion to be the mutual Vices and Wickednesses of Men one Ambitious Man opposing another and checking him in his Designs one Knave discovering another one Cruel Man keeping another in awe And the Politicians think that the World is sustained by their little Arts and Devices in Government But these are but like Anticks in a Building that seem to crouch and bend under the weight of it as if they bore it up when they do nothing less but have as much need of being prop'd up themselves as any other part of the Structure 'T is not the Wise the Noble and the Strong that are sufficient Pillars to bear up the World but the weak things the holy righteous and good Man upon whom the whole stress and weight of it lies For wicked Men be they never so high and great are but rotten Supporters they are so far from contributing to its Preservation that they are continually soliciting God's Judgments and drawing down his Vengeance upon the Earth Thus the corrupt Conversation of the Men of Sodom was the Vapor that did ascend to Heaven and gather into a Cloud of Wrath which did for a long time hang over those Cities And Righteous Lot only hinder'd its being poured out upon them and when he was removed they fell into Desolation as in a Moment So the Places where Virtuous Men dwell are enriched with many Blessings for their sakes and the Persons with whom they converse are happy as it were by Concomitancy they enjoy much Prosperity and are freed from many Evils by reason of their Neighborhood to good Men for the Psalmist hath told us that God blesseth the habitation of the righteous nor shall any plague come nigh his dwelling Thus the Lord was with Jacob and prospered Laban for his sake and He was with Joseph and blessed the Aegyptian's House for his For the World must needs be the better for such as are ever ready to relieve those that are in Want to feed an Enemy if he be hungry to give Drink to the Thirsty to pity the Miserable to bind up the Wounds of the Lame and to cloath the Naked to do any Man a Kindness and reconcile all Differences And if a Virtuous Man be in a more publick Capacity then the Effects of his Goodness will be more large and diffusive He will be of a more publick benefit and advantage And we must take notice that nothing doth conduce more to the Happiness of the World than the bettering Mens manners now this Virtuous Men do these two ways 1. By their Counsel 2. By their Example 14. The condition of Mankind is made better by the Counsels of good Men. Their Lips preserve the soundest Knowledg and they are ever instructing others in the ways they take themselves hence they
among some Greek Divines and in them nothing more is meant by it than that Power which Man hath over his Moral Actions This is that Spirit of our Minds as the Apostle terms it which makes our Actions virtuous For we are not moved as natural Agents are but it is in our power to leave the things we do undone neither can there be any Choice unless the thing which we take be so in our power that we might have refused it and we must take special care that we distinguish between the Will and the Appetite the Object of the first is whatsoever good we may be lead to by Reason the Object of the latter is The Will and Appetite distinguished whatsoever good may be desired by Sense Now Affections such as Joy and Grief Fear and Anger being as it were the sundry Modes of of Appetite can neither be stirr'd by a thing indifferent nor forbear being moved at the sight of some other things so that it is not altogether in our power so to moderate these Affections as never to be moved by them but we may command the Actions that issue from the Disposition of the Will And to our Wills only our Passions are subject not that it is in our power wholly whether we will be angry or not Passions are subject only to the Will whether we will be moved by Lust or Fear but only when they are up and would hurry us into evil Actions it is in our power to restrain their force and to do 〈…〉 their command For wherein we 〈…〉 hindred there only are we free 〈…〉 whatsoever we may be hindered there we have not this Liberty So small a matter it is called Free-will that hath kindled so much Controversie and raised so great a stir amongst Men. AND here cometh in a third thing which we are to observe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Consultation wherein we see the necessity of having Free-will For since in many important Cases of Human Life it doth not appear what is to be done upon the sudden it is necessary to take some time to advise and consult Beasts because they see upon the sudden what they have to do have not this benefit of Advice but as soon as ever they see what to avoid and what to pursue immediatly act accordingly But with Man it is not so many things there are which at first sight seem fair and desireable that upon examination prove otherwise and many things are harsh unpleasant or dangerous at first sight which upon tryal are fitted for our use and therefore ought to be pursued HENCE it is that our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Inclination to act must be frequently suspended and not presently be set on work but upon serious Consideration what is most fit and convenient for us to do And here comes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Election which is as it were the Conclusion from the Premises WHATSOEVER therefore offers its self to us is first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for some reason to be desired secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it must admit of Consultation and in the third place it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fit upon good advice to be chosen This is the just meaning of what Aristotle says of Virtue that it is habitus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel electivus The Art oâ—â—iâ—ing wâ—â—â— consists much in the welâ—â—â—dering 〈◊〉 Pa … BEFORE we come to consider further of his Definition wherein the very Form of Virtue doth consist it will not be amiss to speak somewhat of the Passions of the Mind in the due framing of which into order the very Art as it were of living well doth consist NOW the mind of Man from whence they come hath two principal parts the one proper to Man the other common to Him and Beasts the first we call the Intellectual Part or Reason the second is Sense or sensual Appetite Reason is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Guide to Sense whose Virtues are Prudence Science Art and such like which because they are not Moral but Intellectual Vertues we shall not at present speak to For Sense is our Subject as being the proper Object and Matter of Moral Virtue Which inferior part of the Soul is divided by Philosophers into concupiscible and irascible the former tends to that which is good and delightful the latter arms the Soul against whatsoever is disagreeable and difficult BETWIXT these two all the affections are divided and are chiefly employed in their Business Concupiscence Desire Lust Hunger Thirst Hatred and others of the like Nature belong to that which we call the concupiscible part Pride Contempt Impatience Anger Fear Boldness and the like generous and brave Passions belong to what we say is the irascible part of the mind Whatsoever it is that strikes the Soul touches it to the quick The Office of Moral Virtue is to govern the Passions and moves it to Action or Passion must needs proceed from one of these wherefore to give these their just measure and proportion to mould and temper 'em well is the proper Office of Moral Virtue NOW all the Passions of the sensitive Soul are apt to offend in being either too much or too little and the prudent choice of just what is enough is the chief work of Virtue Which Mediocrity is call'd by those who love to talk learnedly or rather obscurely Arithmetical and Geometrical Arithmetical Mediocrity is that which is equally distant from both extremes is ever one and the same as the Mean between Two and Ten is unalterably Six which by Four exceeds Two and by Four fails of Ten For if we add Four to Two it makes Six but if we add Four to Six it makes Ten. Geometrical Mediocrity is so placed betwixt the extremes as the matter requires to which it is refer'd therefore it is sometimes more sometimes less and not always the same Such a medium as the Taylor observes in making your Apparel he requires not the same measure of Cloth for all but only so much as is necessary for your Person For the Physician if Two Drams of Rhubarb will not serve for his Potion What the Mediocrity is in which Virtue is â—aid to be placed doth not forthwith infuse six or ten more but he examines the Niture of the Disease the Strength and Constitution of the Patient and accordingly he makes up his Dose Such a kind of medium is Vertue sometimes inclining to the less sometimes to the more as it is in temperance where the Mediocrity is not still the same but changes according to the variety of Persons A Student who is but of a thin body or a sickly person eats not so much as a Day-Labourer but eats in proportion to the ability of his Stomach the liberal man gives not always the same Alms the wealthy give more men of meaner Estates less So the Widows two Mites were sufficient because she gave according to her Condition
gentle Rain be by degrees distilled on the growing Plant the riper Age is like to bring forth a more plentiful harvest for Vertue only prescribes to a man a true and certain end to all his Endeavours which is the Glory of God in the first place then the doing as much Good as he can to himself and others This being the most high and noble End the sooner one sets about it the better 't is for thereby we avoid all lowness of Spirit confusion in our Actions and all inconstancy in our Resolutions And that Youth is best prepared for this work is manifest because it is an Age very inquisitive equally capable and possibly inclined to Good as Evil and many of those Sins which owe both their Birth and Growth to the Senses are not yet sit Temptations the Passions are not yet ready to catch fire at every spark the feign'd but false Beauty of Vice is not alluring the Virgin Purity of the mind is not defloured nor its native Modesty laid wast But if this Age be not used to the severity of Labour and the strict exercises of Virtue sensual Pleasures will break in and then is kindled that continual Combat so much spoken of by Philosophers and Divines between Sense and Reason the Body and the Soul Pleasure and Wisdom WHEN the Blood therefore is warm the Passions run high and are powerful but Reason is weak when the Body like an unruly Beast is untame and unbroken when Reason and Judgment are like the Morning Star stifled and overcast with Vapours then it is proper to put on a Bitt and Bridle to keep strong Reins and a steddy Hand Then Youth is to be held in from those Delusions that hinder the true Understanding and real Notions of things from all ill Company and Writings least they should be taken with the beautiful but false colours that are put upon vicious and bad manners FOR Young Men naturally think they can do and may do every thing as they list they are blind therefore the more bold they are impotent but yet presumptuous Fancy is now as active as the Wind but withal it is disorderly and tempestuous Youth is not idle and yet seldom well imployed it is restless and very impertinent it being that part of our time Youth is in the greatest danger of Temptations wherein we are most exposed to the Snares of the Devil these are troubled Waters in which his Baits are seldom seen and therefore they are the more greedily swallowed Upon this account it concerns men much in their Youth to remember their Creator because he only can protect them from their Enemies of all sorts Their Clay is as it were but just formed into Human shape it is but as yet scarce dry from the Potter's hand And as it is now in the best manner fitted for the Signatures of Virtue so it is most lyable to the Impressions of Sin and the Father of it They are now as Tradesmen newly set up their Souls are well furnished with a common stock of Natural Principles and their Bodies are adorn'd like the richest Shop in which the Trade of Life and Happiness is to be driven They should therefore be careful in a special manner that they do not break at the first setting up as unwary Merchants are wont to do for their rational Faculties the choicest Goods of the mind will wast and decay if they are wrapt up in Idleness and the Devil will gain Advantages over them So that it behoves them to resist his Temptations at first to set the strongest Guard in the weakest place and to double the security where they expect the sharpest Assaults to oppose his Craft with Watchfulness his Subtilty with strict and unwearied diligence to study God's Service in the first place and to do their actions the bestway And since in every Age the same Faculties are employed only the Objects changed and the Actions of those Faculties are not many it must needs be that our whole Life is but the Reacting the same things over upon divers Subjects and occasions in Infancy little quarrels with our Brethren and peevishness are afterwards Anger 's Hatreds Envies Prides Jealousies and a sensibleness in Youth for a frivolous Play-thing is the same afterwards for Honour or Interest If it be so then He that begins early to love and fear God will so increase in virtuous Deeds which are consequent thereupon that his Conversation will be in every respect as becomes the Gospel of Christ AND since a seasonable time is a circumstance requisite both to the Essence and Ornament of every Action in that time therefore in which the abilities of our Minds are fresh and lively those of the Body also vigorous and strong it is pity we should be idle and do nothing and yet more that we should be active and do evil we must think it a very unjust as well as unreasonable thing to spend the flower and fruit of our Age upon this when Vertue and Religion have only broken Intellectuals dead Affections a slippery Memory and a tired Judgment besides all other infirmities that necessarily attend the ruin of Nature in old Age when men do every thing less earnestly than is fit when they are of poor and mean Spirits as having been humbled by the chances of Life when they have weak or no desires The unfitness of old Age for the services of Vertue and Hearts to execute nothing when they are full of murmuring and complaint as ever thinking themselves not far from some evil or danger So that this is an Age too much a burden to its self and to all about it than to be able to go through all the services of Vertue For who can expect Grapes of Thorns or Figs of Thistles the morose and froward time of our Life the Frost Snow and Winter season being not for Fruit any more in the workings of Vertue than it is in Nature it being very difficult to begin the Christian Race when that of Nature is almost finished which good Fight is a hard warfare far old and decrepit Limbs NOW the Prudence of old Age consists in a deliberate knowledg of Men and Business founded upon long experience but the Folly of it is the ignorance of Vertue and Religion which at last will appear the only true and real Wisdom Therefore the Moral Philosopher chastises the neglect and indiscretion of those Men who then begin to live when they are to die there being little support and less comfort in declining years besides a sober reflection upon what we have done well and nothing can sweeten a sour and crabbed Age but the calling to mind a good Life passed For as Vertue and Goodness is the most excellent accomplishment of Youth so the innocency thereof is the joy and Crown of gray Hairs which are then truly honourable when they are found in the way of Righteousness WHEREFORE let us not deceive our own Souls but with all our might
follow the services of Vertue as soon as we are able to distinguish between true and false good and evil Let weak and diseased Persons present themselves to their Prince and see if they can persuade him to turn his Court into an Hospital make up his Guards with Cripples and be attended with nothing but Age and Impotency If the King will not do this how can we expect that God should as if the business of Religion were to be done when we are capable of doing nothing as we should do and God were to be satisfied with those poor remainders of Strength and Spirit which the hard services of Sin and the Devil have left us No sure This is an undertaking far more noble and difficult the work of Angels in Heaven and of the wisest Men upon Earth and then is most acceptable when it is the Employment of our first and best Age. FROM what hath been said then this Inference may be made that Youth must be taught to moderate their Passions and not be left undisciplined till Age and Experience have wrought it in them And the way to learn Vertue is to watch over our Passions betimes and to make choice of that degree which befits us For the actions before the Habit and by which the Habit is created differ not specie but only in perfection from those which follow the Habit and it is a general Law which is laid upon all things that are acquired by Study to arise from Imperfection to Perfection from Weakness to Strength WHICH Perfection consists in this to demean our selves upon all occasions prudently wisely and advisedly insomuch that some Moralists have doubted whether all Moral Vertues may not be summ'd up in one namely Prudence nullum numen abest si sit Prudentia Wherefore that multiplicity of Vertues which is delivered by Aristotle was only for our more easie learning the division of this one into sundry parts that so we might as it were eat by spoonfuls where we cannot swallow at once the whole Mess But before we treat of the Vertues in particular it will benecessary to consider certain Rules and Observations which Aristotle hath made because they do not a little conduce to the practice of Vertue FIRST Lest we should flatter our selves in thinking that we have attained unto Vertue before indeed we have we must learn to distinguish between the doing of what is Good and the doing it well betwixt bonum agere benè agere For in all kinds of Vertue we may do that for good which proves at the last an evil Action through the defect of some Circumstance Secondly THAT we may not only do that The circumstances requisite to every virtuous Action which is good but do it well we must consider that a multitude of Circumstances attend every virtuous Action that we do the first thing to be known is who it is that doth the Action for every thing becomes not every Man as for Example when in the Council of Sparta a wicked Person had given good Advice the Senators took care that a Man of better Credit should give the same lest the Council which was good and wise might be suspected and have ill success through the bad Character of him who gave it So in receiving Courtesies we must take heed we receive not every thing of every Man in every place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it is a disgrace to be obliged by an unworthy Giver And Abraham would accept no gift from the King of Sodom that he might not say I have made Abraham rich again we must consider what it is that is done For as Circumstances require so Actions are censured either for good or bad We are bound also to consider where an Action is done For all Actions are not in all places alike These three considerations are very well expressed in the Advice which Q. Cicero gave to his Brother Marcus when He sued for the Consulship For He exhorts him thus to think Novus sum Consulatum peto Roma est in the words Novus sum is signified the Person who made the Suit for an Upstart was to bear himself otherwise in his Petition than vir Patricius an ancient Nobleman in Consulatum peto is implyed the second Circumstance what it was He sued for the supreme place of Government in the Commonwealth and Roma est shews the Place where his Suit lay not in ulubrae a petty Market Town but in that Chief City of the Empire MANY other Circumstances there are by which our Actions are to be managed the chief whereof are contained in that known Verse Quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis cur quomodo quando He that can carefully observe all these Circumstances and shall do what they require that Man only shall discreetly discharge every part of Virtue and behave himself according to to the best Reason What Reason is For by Reason we mean nothing but the Mind of Man making use of the wisest and most prudential Methods to guide it self in all its Actions and therefore it is not confined to any sort of Maxims and Principles in Philosophy but it extends it self to any knowledg that may be gained by Prudence Experience and Observation Thirdly HAVING already asserted that Virtue is lodged in the middle between two Extremes which are both Vices and both its Adversaries we do now say that the two Extremes are not for the most part alike repugnant to it but the one approaches nearer than the other As for instance profuseness one extreme of Liberality doth much more partake of that Virtue and comes nearer it than the other extreme which is Avarice for this reason Men usually pity the Prodigal but abominate and hate the Covetous In this case therefore our Rule must be to decline that Extreme which is the more hateful and lean rather to that other which is more friendly and like the Virtue which we design to practise But we must carry our selves so circumspectly that we do not fall into the Crime censur'd by the Poet Dum vitant Stulti vitia in contraria currunt Fourthly WE can do nothing well or virtuously unless we diligently look into and try our own natural Inclinations What our natural inclinations are and how they are to be governed which are nearer to us than all things else and yet nothing is farther off from our Acquaintance we must examine all the windings and Labyrinths of our whole Frame and see by what Pullies and Wheels all the operations of our Minds are performed so that we may follow her workings from the first impressions of Sense then of the Imagination and Judgment into the Principles both of Natural and Supernatural Motions Then we may as in a Glass perceive how the Soul arbitrates in the Understanding upon the several reports of Sense and all the varieties of Imagination how pliant the Will is to her Dictates and obeys her as a Queen doth her King who both acknowledges a Subjection and
yet retains a Majesty How the Passions move at her Command like a well governed Army not for Fighting but for Rank and Order from which regular composure of the Faculties all moving in their due Place each striking in its proper Time there arises a Complacency upon the whole Soul infinitely beyond all other pleasures BUT there is no Man that hath his Faculties so equally balanc'd or his Affections so justly poised as that he doth not incline to one of the extremes of Virtue more than to the other Whosoever then would walk in the middle path of a good life must take particular care to avoid that Rock upon which he is most apt to fall FOR when a Person skilful in Physiognomy was asked to give his judgment upon the natural temper of Socrates Socrates his great Mastery over himself and had declared him to be prone to Lust and Sensuality the Company about him grew angry and young Alcibiades brake out into a Laughter But Socrates replied that the Opinion of the Man was right for such indeed he confessed he was by Nature but by assiduous care and pains he had corrected those Inclinations So much the more industrious ought we to be in watching over our own natural Dispositions not only because we slide very fast and easily into Vice where we find our selves strongly inclined to it but because we are apt to offend on the other Hand and pronounce our selves virtuous when there is little or no cause so to do HENCE it is that many Men as Nazianzen observes attribute that unto Grace Some things ascribed to Grace which are due to Nature which is indeed due to Nature For a man who by his natural disposition is Phlegmatick and Cold soon flatters himself with an Opinion of Chastity whereas in truth his Constitution doth not minister to him such lustful Heats as are found in others of a more Sanguine Complexion where the flame of Lust or Anger breaketh out and other potent Allurements to evil make their Assaults there is the trial of Virtue For what commendation is it to stand upright and unshaken where no Resistance is made In fair and calm Weather an ordinary Pilot may steer the Ship but he acts the part of a skilful Mariner who can govern the Helm and hold his Course when the Seas work the Winds are high and the Tempest strong So it is with Virtue in Human Life She must rule all those Passions that raise so many Tumults in our Veins and then she is most glorious when she prevails where the Temptations are most powerful these Victories are not to be gotten by the Starts and Sallies of the Mind but by a resolute and constant Habit For it deserves much more praise to lead an unblameable life by our own study and labour than to be so by our natural Condition Wherefore upon discovery of our selves where we find Passion strongest and most apt to be inflamed there is the greatest occasion for the exercise of Virtue to subdue its outrage and to make it an Instrument of doing well Lastly There is one Rule or rather Counsel more given by Aristotle and it is this That in all the Negotiations of Life we take heed especially how we do admit as Counsellours our Pleasure or our Pain For Pleasures sollicit only unto Vice and Pains deter us from Virtue The danger of Pleasure the former we ought to be as suspicious of as the Trojans were of Helena when they saw how handsom she was they presently began to think it better to send her home than suffer their Country to be destroyed for her sake No less hazard do we run in yielding to Pleasures which for the most part begin in Folly grow up in trouble and conclude in shame For when we step out of the way of Virtue if we aim at Mirth that will presently end in Grief if Ambition then we are killed with Affronts if it be Lust then it wounds us with the loss of our good name In short Pleasures of all kinds wear the disguise of Beauty and Loveliness like the Harlot in the Proverbs they entice with wanton Kisses as she decks her Bed with the covering of Tapestry and perfumes her House but all this while 't is the Road to Hell and leads to the Chambers of Death so whorish and impudent is the face of pleasure it makes use of loose Gestures smooth and Amorous Addresses to draw in the unwary Sinner all this while she is but a painted Snake which is no sooner taken into the Bosom but the fatal sting appears it strikes and wounds with an everlasting Venom and besides the deadly gashes it makes in the Consciences of Men it infects all the present Joys of humane Life In the right Government therefore of our Actions it behoves us not to stoop for such golden Apples that are cast in the way to hinder our work That great Sophist Leontinus Georgias arrived in good health to an hundred and eight Years of Age and being asked What Cordial that was which had preserved him in health to so great an Age answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod nihil unquam voluptatis gratiâ fecerat So great a preserver of Life and Health and of all the good things consequent thereupon is abstinence from Pleasures from the Excesses of Eating and Drinking for He that eats too much dozes away his Life turns his over-charged Body into a Statue of Earth and seems to live in a continual Lethargy He who drinks to Excess drenches his Brains in unwholsom Clouds of moisture and washes away the principles of common Reason and Discretion He that is lacivious is punish'd for it with noisom Distempers and the peace of his Mind is quite destroyed by mad and ungovernable desires HITHERTO we have discoursed of such matters as concern all Virtues in General it remains that we explain the Nature of them in particular The Ancients were wont to divide Virtues into Cardinal or Principal and Virtues less principal The Cardinal Virtues they accounted to be four Prudence Fortitude Temperance and Justice because as they thought all others of an inferiour Order as Magnanimity Magnificence Liberality c. were reducible unto these Four BUT we need not tie our selves up to the strict Rules of Method because it is not of any moment upon what peculiar Virtue we discourse first We will therefore follow Aristotle and begin with FORTITUDE HARDINESS becomes Virtue and it shews it self then most illustrious when it atchieves difficult Things Fortitude despises Dangers and Death Now no Virtue pretends to this more than Fortitude which incites us to undergo all manner of dangers and Death it self for our Liberty our Country or Religion Therefore we give it the name of Virtue as Aeneas doth in that Instruction to his Son Ascanius Disce puer virtutem ex me verum â—e laborem Fortunam ex aliis Tho perhaps it is no Passion because a Man may have it who doth
Stake this excites Active Courage and fits out undaunted Soldiers and Generals for the Field For hereby we know where and when and in what Cases to offer our selves to dye which is a thing of greater Skill than many of them suppose who are most forward to do it bruitishly to run upon and hasten unto death is a thing that many can do as we see Beasts oftentimes rush upon the Spears of such as pursue them But wisely to look into and weigh every Occasion and as Judgment and true Discretion shall direct so to entertain a Resolution either of Life or Death this is true and real Fortitude Of TEMPERANCE IN the Catalogue of Virtues we have given the highest Seat to Fortitude according to Truth peradventure we might Truth peradventure we might have given the precedency to Temperance as being the Ground and Foundation or as the Greeks call her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Storehouse of all Virtues In outward Shew and Glory Fortitude outshines the rest But that which enables and prepares us for all Moral Good Temperance prepares us for all Moral Good is in reality Temperance upon this as upon a sure Basis the whole Building of of a good Life is erected therefore it is very properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being that which preserves our Wits entire and all whatsoever fits us for prudent or regular Actions First BY the way we are to understand that Temperance and Continence which is a part of it is by Moralists taken in a larger signification When a man hath been an old Offender hath by long Custom grown familiar with wicked Practices insomuch that he hath lost as it were all sense of Sinning or is such a man as Divines say is hardened for Hardness of Heart and being given over to a reprobate Sense in Divinity is the same with this Senselesness or Loss of feeling in Sin we call such a one intemperate let his Vice be what it will So the Man that is but a young Offender he that sins indeed but with scruple and Reluctancy him we call incontinent let his Fault be what it will In Liberality he that gives but sore against his Will we call an incontinent Giver but such a one as lasheth out and without any sense or reason is unmeasureably prodigal we say he gives intemperately THIS we note that we may understand the Language of Moralists otherwise Temperance is a peculiar Virtue and hath its own peculiar Object Temperance therefore is that Virtue which teacheth us to keep a moderation in Meats and Drinks which we call Abstinence and Sobriety contrary to which are Gluttony and Drunkenness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates being asked from what things we should chiefly abstain answered from all filthy and unlawful Pleasures there is a moderation therefore to be used in that delight men take in the continuance of their Species which we call Chastity whose contrary is Luxury All this we comprehend under the name of Temperance which is in truth nothing else but the Government of our Touch and Taste NOW since every Virtue is conversant in the moderation of two Extremes of the one of these we cannot doubt it is so common and so often met with For who knows not Gluttony and Drunkenness they seek no sculking Holes but tho they are the most filthy and spotted Crimes yet every day they dare appear in the face of the Sun But of the other Extreme we have no Name it being a thing so seldom seen for a Man to offend in the too sparing use of Meat and Drinks For few there are that love to give themselves away through refusal of Meats and Drinks or to do as that young Man did of whom Ficinus speaks who languishing of an unknown Distemper and being at length told by a skilful Person that there was no Remedy for him but Marriage made choice rather to die than to use the Antidote whence it comes to pass that when we meet wtih such a Person we know not what to call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Stock or a senseless Man one that hath lost his Wits or some such Name we give Him who offends this way He that is guilty of the Excess is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abstinence the best Cure of Lust unrestrained and let loose to all Debauchery For those that transgress in being tempted by Lust there is no better Cure than Abstinence For it is a certain Rule sine Cerere Baccho friget Venus give to the Body so much as Nature requires it will leave no matter for Superfluity FOR suppose the Palat be entertained with all the dainties of the most witty and Artificial Luxury yet can we taste them but by the measures of a Man and when we have satisfied those slender desires all that remains becomes as tasteless to us as Dirt and Gravel so that whatever is eaten or drank above what a man can rellish turns into Surfeits loathing and uneasiness For so long as he is confined to this short Span and hath but the wonted necessities of a Man which are so soon and so easily provided for he should be as well pleased with the common supplies of God's Providence as with the richest Banquets For he who is not content with Natures cheap and easie provisions runs a thousand Risques to get a needless Abundance and to possess more than is requisite to make him happy For him therefore whose Errour consists in excessive use of Meats and Drinks the Ancient Monks have prescribed a Cure in this Verse Praeproperè lautè nimis ardenter studiosè First Preproperè Make not too much haste to your Diet but expect the time and hour fit to eat Secondly Lautè Let not your Table be loaded with costly Dishes but let your Food be plain and ordinary Thirdly Nimis Not too much for even dainty Dishes touched but sparingly may well pass for sober Eating but Bread and Water taken in Excess may be called Gluttony Fourthly Ardenter Not overhastily for swallowing your Meals by gobbets makes hard digestion and may bring Surfeits therefore the Teeth were given and contrived to mince and grind your Meat small so as to ease the labour of Concoction Fifthly Studiosè The danger of provoking the Appetite too much after it is well satisfied Be not curious in making high and luscious Sauces which provoke the languishing Appetite and create a new Stomach after it hath been well satisfied which is very destructive of Health but to rise from Table with an Appetite not fully allayed above all things conduces to soundness of Body and long Life For if the Stomach be stretched beyond its natural Tone and true extent it will require to be filled but will never digest what it receives Whereas He that lives temperately needs not study the wholesomness of this Meat nor the pleasantness of that Sauce the punctilio's of Air Heat Cold Exercise or Lodging Nor is he critical in Cookery but
takes thankfully what God is pleased to give him BUT against all this that hath hitherto been alledged two bad Customs are kept up and maintained THE first is Solemn and chargeable Feasting THE second is immoderate Lust Feasting an Enemy to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 FEASTING by long Usage and the Customs of living loosely hath gained so highly against all Rules of Temperance that on Sacred and Civil Occasions it cannot now be omitted nor reflected upon without giving offence to the greatest part of Mankind For if we look through all the solemn Acts which pass in the World whether they be Civil Meetings Congratulations or friendly Entertainments whether it be sadness or mourning at Funerals or jollity at Marriages whether it be the Celebration of Commencements in the University the Sacred Installation of Bishops or the Innaguration into publick Offices the principal part of all the Pomp and Business is the Feast Indeed in Civil and Temporal matters this loosness might be tolerated but in honour of the Saints that the name of the Action should be termed a Feast is very improper So that Castruccio Castracano being gently reproved by some of his Friends for his frequent Feasting and Entertainments had cause enough for Apology when he answered If Feasting were not a good thing men would not so much honour God and the Saints with it But much better Counsel is given by St. Hierom if we could take it when he tells us Stultum est nimiâ saturitate honorare velle Martyrem quem constat Deo placuisse jejuniis it is a foolish thing for men to think they honour a Martyr by feasting on his Festival who in his life-time pleased God chiefly by his fastings Unto all these holy Gormondizings Sacrifice it self may seem to have given the first occasion For what is a Sacrifice if we truly describe it but a merry Meeting and what was in old time more Celebrated more extolled for Honour unto the Gods than the Caenae Pontifiâ—ae and such were the Lupercalia the Eleusinian Mysteries the Feasts of Bacchus Flora Venus all which were but so many Festivals of Lust and Debauchery in which the Votaries imagined their Deities were pleased as the Salvage and bloody Sacrifices to Saturn Bellona Moloch Baal peor and all the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the ancient Paganism supposed the Divine Being to take pleasure in the miseries and tortures of his Creatures Drunkenness the most filthy Vice AND to this Day Intemperance by publick Approbation hath gain'd upon all sorts of men Drunkenness is by every one declaimed against and not without reason For there are Vices as Montaigne observes wherein there is a mixture of Knowledg Diligence Valour Prudence Dexterity and Cunning but this is altogether Brutish and earthly and the dullest Nation in Europe is that where it is most in Fashion But this Defence may be made for this dull Nation as He is pleased to call it that when Wine to hot Brains is like Oil to Fire and makes the Spirits by too much lightness evaporate into Smoak and perfect aiery imaginations or by too much Heat to break out into Frenzies yet this very Wine may improve the Abilities of cold Complexions may be necessary to rouze sleepy thoughts and perhaps to animate the spirits of the Heart as well as enliven those of the Brain Therefore the old Germans seemed to have some reason in their Custom not to execute any great resolutions which had not been twice debated and agreed to at several Assemblies one in the Afternoon and t'other in the Morning because they thought their Counsels might want Vigour when they were sober as well as Caution when they had drank BUT Drunkenness must be reckon'd a Vice Drunkenness hath a very ill influence on the Mind that hath a very ill influence upon the Soul the worst condition of Man being that wherein he loses the knowledg and government of himself Notwithstanding this Gluttony is a Vice far more frequent and dangerous Gluttony is also a dangerous fault For had Meats that intoxicating property which Drinks have how many of our grave and serious Persons as they would be thought should we find hardly able to pass the Streets For Gluttony being the more secret and retired Vice is generally practised with more security but with no less guilt In this Case therefore it will be of use to us to consult the most excellent Grotius and to hearken to his Censure of this Sin who says assidua convivia etiamsi absit ebrietas culpâ tamen non carent that daily Banquettings tho no man be drunk in the Company yet are very blameable The Abuse of Natural Lust is the most pleasing part of Intemperance THE second and most hazardous tho the most pleasing part of Intemperance is the gross abuse of natural Lust It is somewhat difficult to extend the pleasure of Drinking beyond Thirst and to fashion in our Imaginations an Appetite artificial and against Nature whereas the most regular and most perfect Mind hath but too much to do to keep it self untainted from the follies of natural Lust from being overthrown by its own weakness on this side For it is unavoidably planted in our Nature made up with our Constitution it is fomented and put into a flame upon every small occasion and by every spark of a Temptation it breaks out many times with that violence that it is a great part of our strength and wit which serves to restrain it The Providence of God hath kindled that fire in our Veins as neither Precepts of Virtue Rules of Temperance recess from all Opportunities strength of Youth and scarcely the weakness of old Age can prevail to extinguish it WERE all the Offences of mankind amassed and heaped up together at least two thirds of them were accountable upon that score submission to the Will of God hath bounded our thoughts and confined them within the limits of Humility else we might justly expostulate and contest with the Divine Providence which hath been pleased to subject mankind to so perpetual to so importunate so vexatious a trouble and punish them afterwards for transgressing IT was a favourable and merry Conceit of a Cardinal of Rome that there was no Law beneath the Girdle but both he and we to our cost shall find it otherwise yet notwithstanding all this so madly hath mankind been affected that even the finest Wits and most commendable for Eloquence most abounding with Precepts of Morality and Policy and all Elegancy of Literature have laboured to give entertainment to nay to improve this troublesom Guest There hath for some hundred Years passed a sort of Writings which we call Romances the subject whereof is the strange Adventures many Dangers Fights and wonderful Atchievements which Knights Errants have undergone in pursuit of their Mistresses which Books are the greatest fomenters of Folly Lust and Idleness that have appeared upon the Stage of Human madness Romances the great fomenters of
Lust The Ancients for this is no new Device have prosecuted this part of obscene Story under the name of Fabulae Milesiae and lest perchance it might have fallen to the ground some that have born the Christian Name have made themselves Panders to publick Lust and by no meaner Authors than Christian Bishops have continued the course of these Speculative Lusts The first that opened the way to this Wickedness was Heliodorus whom in our time the famous Author of the Arcadia hath fully imitated nay for Wit and Elegancy hath not much failed if he hath not fully equalled him For this reason some Moralists resolve that young Persons must not be suffered to look into lascivious Books and some pieces of Poetry because tho they are fittest to learn Virtue by the Precepts of Morality yet they are most apt by the Arts made use of in these Discourses to be drawn into Vice being set forth in the most charming postures and in the most taking colours THE idle Monks have spent their time in furnishing the World with abundance of this Trash in all Languages I forbear to mention any because I would not serve as an Index to others to make enquiry I wish the Authors of these Books had all acted like him who made Amadis de Gaul for he gave order at his death that his Books should be burnt as being conscious of the mischief they had done upon which our Brittish Martial hath left this Distich Si meruit poenas quod flammam accendat amoris Mergi non uri debuit iste Liber Howsoever it had been whether by Burning or Drowning these Works had been abolish'd it is not of much moment so the World had been fairly rid of them What hath been said of Cavaliero Marini who at his death left all his Bones to be Glyster-pipes that there were more things to be praised and more to be condemned in his Works than in any whatsoever That may be affirmed of many of these Milesian Impurities for smart Wit smooth Elegancy pleasant Conceits and much fair Discourse have served as Salt for this insipid Stuff the better to excuse and draw it on And where we meet with polite Language and quaint Inventions without one good moral Saying those compositions are wholly unprofitable and besides their uncleanness is many times so foul and shameless that no modest Person can look into them whence we may conclude that Feasting and Romances have been the two main Props which have supported Gluttony and Lust the two principal parts of Intemperance THE last of which doth this mischief in the life of Man that it is sometimes like a Syren tempting with amorous Addresses sometimes like a Fury turbulent and ungovernable for many lustful persons are so impatient of any Bridle that they seem to think their Girdles and Garters to be Bonds and Shackles to them The contempt of Marriage most pernicious to Society But among all the Evils which the indulging of Lust doth bring forth the despising of Marriage is the most pernicious to Human Society for certainly Wife and Children are as my Lord Bacon observes a kind of Discipline of Humanity WE might inlarge our selves far more amply should we speak of all those things which by publick warrant plead for the sin of Lust under the soft and specious Name of Love which Passion when once it can take Men off from their serious Affairs and Actions of Life it troubleth their Fortunes and makes them that they can no ways be true to their own ends Something should be said concerning the abuse of Musick and Dancing to the same purpose Musick abused For excepting the practice of the former in our Devotions and religious Assemblies most other uses thereof are merely to be a Bawd to Lust For if we look upon the Subjects of those Lessons that are taught in the ordinary Education of Youth in this Art we shall find that there is scarce any Argument expressed but what plainly tends to the spoiling their Manners for either the Person boasts himself in the good success of his Love or lamentably bewails the Coyness of his Mistress or is profuse in the praises of her Beauty which none commonly sees but himself Love being the Architect of Beauty or he runs out in description of the Symmetry of her parts or despairs of ever enjoying his Wishes These and the like Fancies full of languishing and flattery are the usual entertainments in the practice of Musick AS for Dancing Dancing very Ancient the Antiquity of it may make us think it a branch of the Law of Nature which every Nation both Civil and Barbarous have expressed their mirth by whereof so much may be safely learned as may give a good and graceful motion to the Body But the use now made of it since it is become a difficult Study serves only to chaff the Blood and to set the Mind upon such pleasures as will corrupt the very Being and Essence of all Moral Virtues SHOULD we prosecute farther this and the other like publick provocations unto Lust it would appear unto most Men nothing else but affected Stoicism However ere we take leave of the Virtue of Temperance it will not be amiss to speak something concerning the moderate use of Sleep Somne quies rerum placidissime somne Deorum IF then it be so sweet it must belong to our Sense it were improper to attribute it to the Touch or Taste for no Man could ever tell us of what Taste it is yet certainly it belongs to all the Senses For in the definition thereof we say it is ligatio sensuum externorum a binding of the outward Senses by reason of the ascent of vapours from the Stomack or otherwise by which the passages from the Heart or the Brain are obstructed and cannot give a supply of Spirits to the outward Senses as for the inward Senses of the Mind they suffer not by Sleep which is the privation of the Act of Sense the Power remaining which is evident in the case of Dreams when the Brain is as it were benumm'd and having not its motion in every part alike its Thoughts appear like the Stars between the flying Clouds not in the order which a Man would chuse to observe them but as the uncertain flight of broken Clouds permits NOW the Natural end of Sleep is the refreshing of our strength when it is exhausted we therefore usually say that it is Sleep The end of Sleep which to make one part of our lives profitable makes the other unprofitable wherefore our King Alfred divided the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into three parts eight hours he allotted for Study and Business eight for Eating and Recreations and as many for Sleep So that moderate Sleep takes up one third part of our life which moderation of Sleep can appertain to no other Virtue than to that which is the Moderator of all sensual Pleasures Temperance And we have great reason to follow moderation in
being so much an instinct of Nature that tho too many make a shift to suppress it in themselves yet they cannot so darken the notion in others but that an immodest Person is look'd on as a kind of Monster a thing distorted from its proper Form as Women are when they become prostitutes who must break all the restraints of their very Nature Shameless and immodest men can do nothing well before they can be made so Thus it is with shameless Men in adventures where courage is necessary they will not be constrained by any prudential consideration but will run upon the Mouth of a Cannon to gain the name of bold and daring Heroes in the fury of their Lust they will violate all the obligations of Morality to fulfil these vehement desires in common Life they Laugh at the ties of fair dealing that they may grow rich and contemn their poorer Neighbor in their Politicks they will betake themselves to the most desperate Counsels that they may trample upon others and force them to draw their Yoke In their Speculations they will sink themselves into the grossest Heresies that they may boast of their skill and wit above the rest of inferiour Mortals In their daily Commerce they will strive to over-reach their unwary Brethren that they may shew themselves more expert Gamesters at the intricate Cheat of Trading in the World THUS if you examine all the stations that the several Degrees of Men are placed in we must attribute most of their deviations from Virtue to an impudent Humor that cannot endure any moderation and is impatient of all those Precepts that would render every Man an humble and a modest Creature NOW on the other hand too much shamefacedness is a clog and a kind of a dead weight upon Virtue to stop its progress that it may not exert its power with that advantage which otherwise it would do This makes it look as if it were too dull a Principle for the Happiness of Life which is ever in motion INDEED if we consider the nature of our Passions they are perhaps the stings without which they say no Honey is made yet I think all sorts of men have ever agreed they ought to be our Servants Passions must be kept within due bounds and not our Masters to give us some agitation for Entertainment or Exercise but never to throw our Reason out of its Seat Perhaps I would not always sit still or would be sometimes on Horseback but I would never ride a Horse that galls my Flesh or shakes my Bones or runs away with me as He pleases so as I can neither stop at a River or a Precipice better no Passions at all than have them too violent or such alone as instead of heightning our pleasures afford us nothing but vexation and pain BUT in the case of Virtue we had as good have none at all as have it too bashful For this one bad Quality will bring upon us the just Censure of being either idle or cowardly in its Warfare whose Exercises we must undertake with the same resolution and undaunted Spirit We must not be too bashful in the exercise of Virtue as we see sensual men to pursue every pleasure they can start without regarding the pains of the Chase the weariness when it ends or how little the prize is worth All the World is perpetually at work about nothing else but only that our wretched Lives should pass the easier and the happier for that little time we possess them or else end the better when we lose them Upon this occasion Virtues came to be admired because they are the best means to this End He therefore must bid defiance to mankind must condemn their universal Opinions and Designs if instead of practising these Virtues with constancy and courage He shall offer to sneak out of the Field and by too much bashfulness betray the Fort that He should maintain against the assaults of Vice Not that we are to presume too much or think our selves so safe that we may venture into all sorts of bad Company without danger of being infected A man may as well upon confidence of a sound Constitution enter a Pest-house and converse with the Plague whose Contagion doth not more subtlely insinuate it self than the temptations of evil Converse Neither must we think to sequester our selves out of the World which never can be drawn into use neither will it mend our condition for if every action which is good or evil in Man at ripe years were unavoidable or compelled What were Virtue but a Name What praise could be then due to well-doing What commendation to be sober just or continent But God left Adam free and set before him a provoking Object ever almost in his Eyes and herein consisted the right of his Reward No Virtue without freedom to act or not to act and the merit of his abstinence To what purpose did he create Passions within him and Pleasures round about him but that these rightly temper'd are the very Ingredients of Virtue This justifies the Providence of God who though he command us Temperance Justice Continence yet He pours out before us even to a profuseness all desireable Things and gives us Minds that can wander beyond all Limit and Satiety It is not necessary then to affect a Rigour contrary to the manner of God and of Nature by flying from the Delights or any other Enjoyments of this World which are freely permitted both for the trial of Virtue and the exercise of Truth In the case therefore of Conversation in general and especially of that which is mixt Male and Female together we must put on such a Modesty as may guard our Virtue against the strongest persuasions to Evil 'T is said of Philopaemen that the Lacedaemonians finding it their interest to corrupt him with Money Virtue an awful thing they were yet so possest with the Reverence of his Virtues that none durst undertake to attaque him Such an Authority there is in Virtue that it will discourage the most impudent Assailant Such a Sovereignty appears in its very blushes as is able to controul all loose Desires Of TACITURNITY or the Government of our Speech THE great Work and business of a Christian is to act wisely and to govern himself discreetly and it is one difficult part of that Government to rule his Speech as he ought For the Tongue is a very nimble and versatil Engine which the least breath of Thought doth stir yet it turns the whole World about because all the affairs of Conversation and Commerce are managed thereby whatever is done in the Court or in the Hall in the Church or at the Exchange in the School or in the Shop NOW there are four Questions that may here be put 1. What it is to rule or bridle the Tongue 2. Wherein it is to be governed 3. Why or for what Reasons 4. How this is to be done FIRST to rule our
before he is fully possess'd of the End he drives at his Prudence must be concluded to de defective BUT put these three all together and in whomsoever they are found I may affirm that he is a Person well qualified with Prudence either for this or the other World FOR as the prudent Man for this World is ever busie in contriving the most probable Ways of gaining the most precious things of it his Head is ever at work his thoughts are watchful and intent his whole mind is in this very matter to promote his Fortune and to settle his Interest so the prudent Man in the Exercises of Virtue casts off all sloth and negligence The behaviour of a prudent Man in Religion spends his hours in Meditation upon the transitory State of the best Things here and the certainty of Death and Judgment so that He is constantly employed in stating his Accounts for this great Day and in examining himself how he is prepared for it As the prudent Man for this World who resolves to be Rich considers that He must then be very industrious in his Calling and very frugal in his Expences that He must deny his Ease and his Appetites and exactly keep his Accounts For He who indulges his Belly and his sleep takes not the right way to encrease his Estate And as He who hath an Ambition to be highly honoured or prefer'd will take care to offend no Body but demean himself Civilly will put up and conceal many Affronts will do all acts of Courtesie and beneficence that He can As another whose Genius leads him to search for Knowledg knows the directest way to it is sedulous Study to peruse good Books frequent the best Company and to render all useful to himself by sober Contemplation So the prudent Man in Virtue aims at the Enjoyment of God's Favour and Eternal Life with him therefore He applies himself heartily to the fittest Means for this End which is to be holy and to do good to serve God faithfully and to make use of all Opportunities of redeeming his time therefore thinking much of Heaven and hoping to land himself safely there He will never steer his Course by a false Compass by imagining that he is in the right way when he is of such a Party when He can dispute hotly for this and that Opinion or when He spends all his Zeal upon those things that perish in the using and never go beyond this present State As the prudent Man for this World doth not content himself with chusing proper Means to the Ends he follows but when he is satisfied that the Means he hath chosen are fit and suitable he is never discouraged or baffled out of them by any difficulties whatsoever For instance No hardship disheartens the Man who designs to get Riches He slights all the Labours and Cares in his Way because he is stedfastly bent upon the acquisition of his Desires And as another Man who is strongly inclined to become Eminent in all sorts of Learning and to understand all Matters that have been before him knows well that his Candle must never go out that by pains and watchings he must contract pale Looks and a sickly Body yet he is not cast down by any of these considerations So the prudent Man in the business of Virtue is sure that if he doth good and lives well A virtuous and prudent Man values not Reproaches he shall be happy therefore he values not the Reproaches of bad men nor the Afflictions that are to be endured For he will never be beaten off from his intended purpose by any such or greater discouragements As a Wise Man for this World looks upon it as a notorious Mark of Folly for a Man to run upon any thing at all Adventures as He is wary and suspicious so that he will not trust his Fortune in every Bodies hands nor take the Counsel of a Man whom he thinks not to be Honest or that he imagins will impose upon him So the prudent Person for the cause of Virtue builds his Faith and Hope for a better World with as much care and caution therefore He is not apt to be misled by every Impostor but contemns those Mountebanks in Religion A Religious prudent man is not easily misled who by fair Stories and specious Gulleries wheedle men out of their Sense and Reason This he doth because He is as careful of his Religion and as watchful against Cheats as the cunning man for this World is wont to be for advancing his secular Ends and Interests For which purpose he will watch the proper Season of doing any thing and will never let it slip So the prudent Man in the Warfare of Virtue lays hold of all opportunities for the benefit of his Soul He makes use of the present time and considers if his Work be not done now it will never be done at all So far the Parallel goes between a prudent Man for this World and for Virtue But here we cannot but bewail the ill State of things that Men should strive to be more discreet in the little Affairs of this Life than they are in matters of much more importance to them the unreasonableness of which will appear in these four particulars First it is manifest The unreasonableness of being more prudent for this world than for virtue that a good Man hath a nobler End to pursue than the Men of this World can pretend to for how low a design is it how unworthy a rational Being to heap up Wealth when he knows not how soon he may be taken away from it or that waste away and leave him With an ambitious Person it is just so he hath laboured all his days to become Great and Honorable when he hath effected it his Name is only toss'd too and frô by the envy of the World but supposing that Riches could be durable or that Honor were a certain thing yet the Possessions of this Earth in their most flourishing condition are not to be compared with the enjoyments of a virtuous Man which are chiefly to have peace with God and with his own mind Now if a Virtuous Man hath a greater and more desirable End of his Actions it is very unreasonable that he should be outdone in prudence or care in the working out his Salvation Secondly As a virtuous Man hath the best end so the means that he hath to it are much more certain than all the methods of the World are For Solomon hath assured us that here the Race is not always to the swift nor the Battel to the strong one in all likelihood would think that the swiftest should winn the Race and the strongest the Battel yet the wisest Man and the best Judge of the true valuation of all things below hath determined quite otherwise the best humane means tho never so well fitted to their ends do often miscarry for after a Man hath run the utmost dangers and hath
exspected from those special Advantages which they enjoy in those places is because they are not so careful to improve the benefit to be had by prudent Conversation For the Men of Reading do very much busie themselves about such Conceptions which are no where to be found out of their own Chambers the Sense the Custom the Practice the judgment of the World is quite a different thing from what they imagine it to be in private and therefore it is no wonder that when they come abroad into Business they abound so much with Fears and Doubts and mistaken Idea's of things which happens to them because they have kept out of the way in the shade of their Libraries Arguing Objecting Defending concluding with themselves and would never look out and by Conversing see what is acted on the Stage of the World FROM what I have said may be gather'd that Prudence will teach Men not to spend their thoughts about empty Contemplations The prudent Man is more for practice than Contemplation by turning them to the practices of a virtuous and an useful Life thus their minds will be cured of all their swellings when all things are represented to them just as large as they are For the nearer men come to the Businesses of Life all those shadows grow less and less which did either enlarge or darken Human Affairs And indeed of the usul Titles by which men of Business are wont to be distinguished the Crafty the Formal and the Prudent the Crafty may answer to the Emperick in Philosophy who has a great collection of particular Experiences but knows not how to use them but to base and low Ends the Formal man may be compared to the mere Speculative Philosopher who vainly reduces every thing to some grave and solemn general Rules without discretion And the prudent Man is like him who proceeds on a constant and solid course of Experiments which do not rest upon empty Knowledg but are designed for Action And it is the active Life of Virtue which it is our Interest to begin betimes because 't is a hard task for him who has only thought much for the greatest part of his days to turn a man of practice as He that can paint the Face of a Lion will much sooner come to draw any other Creature than He who has all the Rules of Limning in his Head but never yet used his Hand to lay on a Colour I have nothing more to add concerning Prudence only this that it is the best preservative we have against all false Religions and those Prudence the best preservative against false Religions that promote them wherewith unless a man be well guarded he will be ever exposed to Impostors who have an Art of presenting falshood for Truth with as fair Colours and Pretences with as exact and regular Proportions with fanciful Consequences and artificial Connexions for want of a due discretion in governing their Lives by the plain Rules of the Christian Doctrine Men have run headlong into very absurd and gross Opinions For when once Religion is made a Tool to advance the Ambition or the Interests of designing men then they broach swarms of supposititious Writings and sophistical Arguments to maintain corrupt Opinions then they pretend to Visions and Dreams to gain credit to their fond inventions But a prudent Man who makes a good Life his only purpose acts as one in his Wits should do For holiness of Life restores him to his Primitive state to the perfect and healthful Constitution of his Nature in the mean time it is a hard matter to persuade the Enthusiastical and the superstitious to be really good The Enthusiastical and superstitious are hardly brought to be really good it is no easie thing to work upon their disordered Tempers and Passions or to reduce 'em to the forsaken and untrodden Paths of Virtue NAY a prudent thoughtfulness hath a natural power in it to work in a sincere Person a sense and acknowledgment of his Sins when he retires into himself and takes a true estimate of his Condition For the workings of the mind are active and restless it will always be employed one way or another and when it hath no external Object to entertain or divert it then self-Reflection the best means to an impartial judgment of things will take place and the true voice of Conscience will be heard ALL Men therefore who act wickedly forget the very nature of their own minds but He who guides his Affairs with discretion looks forward to the end of his Actions examines the Reasons upon which his Religion is founded because most of the Errours among Men are such Whence most Mens Errours do arise as their own Reason might have corrected had they in time bethought themselves and most of the dangers they incur proceed from hence that they have a great indifferency upon their Spirits as to the truth or honesty of the Religion they are engaged in IT cannot be expected considering what fallible Creatures we are that we should always walk according to the precise Rules of Prudence However seeing that most of the Faults of Men proceed from irregular Humours and Desires which they are apt to be too Fond of we are by the Law of our Creation bound to use that Principle in us we call Reason that it may guide all our Operations and direct them to some good End For God governs rational Beings by the Principles of Reason as He doth the material World by the necessary Laws of matter and brute Creatures by the instincts and propensities of Nature Of Understanding Science and Wisdom THESE Three may be handled together because they are alike concerned in the search after Truth For the Vnderstanding perceives and apprehends the Objects by the Ministry of the Senses the resemblances of these Objects being conveyed to the Vnderstanding do there make their own Image which we call Science or Knowledg in which two things are implied What Science is the one is Truth the other is Evidence For what is not Truth can never be known and Evidence is to Truth as Sap to the Tree which so far as it creepeth along with Body and Branches keepeth them alive where it forsaketh them they die For this Evidence which is Meaning with our Words is the Life of Truth and that which hath much experience of Fact What Sapience or Wisdom is and much evidence of Truth that is much Vnderstanding and Science hath usually been called both by ancient and modern Writers Sapience or Wisdom whereof Man only is capable OF whose Soul the Vnderstanding is the highest Faculty which judges of the Reports of Sense Vnderstanding the highest faculty of the Soul and detects all their Impostures resolves all sensible things into intelligible Principles the conceptions whereof are not mere passive Impressions upon the Soul from without but they are actively exerted from the mind its self no passion being able to make a judgment
and goodness of Divine Providence that we were not left to take our own course but were rescued from Sin and misery ignorance and darkness by so kind an Hand ALL that we have to do is to obey his Commandments and this is the best way to encrease our knowledg in Religion For the practice of a Trade shall give a Man a truer knowledg of it than reading all the Books that ever were writ about it and so we shall better know a Countrey by travelling into it than by poring upon all the Maps that ever were made of it In like manner Obedience to the Will of God doth dispose us for the knowledg of it by freeing our Minds from prejudice by making our Understandings more clear and taking away the great Obstacles of Wisdom which without the practice of Religion will be so far from being any furtherance to our Happiness that it will be one of the saddest and most unhappy aggravations of our misery For when we come into the other World no reflection will more enrage our Torments than to think that we chose to lead vitious Lives and to make our selves miserable when we knew the way to Heaven and Happiness For after all that hath been said upon this Head S. Paul's Judgment is undoubtedly true 1 Corin. 8.1 That Knowledg puffeth up but Charity edifieth Now when the Apostle said this Corinth the Metropolis of Achaia was as all other rich and populous places excessively proud and luxurious softness and ease had expell'd all the thoughts of the Laborious Exercises of Virtue Yet as it often happens the men were ingenious though they were wicked In a word all the World condemn'd them for their Debaucheries but admired them for their Parts Wherefore St. Paul tells them very truly that their knowledg was the Original of all their Errours they might be blown up with Science but they must be Edified with Charity In like manner did the Gnosticks dote on the Mysteries of Words did pride themselves about Fruitless Genealogies and the unintelligible methods of Science for which reason St. Paul did severely reprehend these vain-glorious Sciolists and declare that a little Charity towards an offended Brother was more valuable than all their subtle Theorems or the Positions of any the most celebrated Dogmatists So the Philosophers of old gave another Interpretation to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know thy self and improved it into Self-conceit and Arrogance their Principles and their Dictates seem always to be framed rather to oppose than to establish Truth If from them we pass to the times of Christianity we find Julian and Lucian Arrius and Socinus all of them in a several way despising the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel for the sake of their own trifling Opinions which must not submit to the teachings of Fishermen Nay how many Volumes are there in the World whose Subject is little else but breach of Charity which Charity and not great Words nor the phantastical Hypotheses of those that call themselves Wise must set a lustre upon all we do For neither Happiness here nor Heaven hereafter is to be gotten by haughty Looks or Suppositions but by a constant Tenour of Bountifulness in our Lives and integrity in our Actions Supposing therefore we were set upon the highest Mountain of Metaphysicks and had thence the ravishing Prospect of all the Kingdoms of human Learning all the Glories of Philosophy yet we will not worship one Notion that cannot be brought into the practice of a Holy Life An Enquiry into the Causes of the decay of MORAL VIRTUES A Manifest decay hath been brought upon Moral Virtue First BY Hypocrisie or Formality when Men follow a Form of Godliness and deny the Power thereof Secondly BY Licentiousness of Living whereby Debauchery and ill Manners have much prevailed Thirdly BY decrying the use of Reason in Matters of Religion Fourthly BY making Morality and Grace opposite to one another MEN of all Ages have been industrious to elude the practice of Moral Virtue by some trifling childish and unprofitable shews thereof How can we but stand amazed at the folly of Mankind that love to be their own Impostors Hypocrisie condemned and that when they may be truly good at so easie and advantageous a rate labor to be but seemingly so at the expence of a great deal of pain and trouble and with the Pharisees take twice as much pains to scour the outside of the Dish only that it may shine and glister than is needful to keep the inside neat and cleanly Thus they change wise Notices of things for childish Conceits freedom of Spirit for narrowness of Soul chearfulness of Mind for slavish Fears a sweet and obliging Conversation for cynical Zeal Temperance and Sobriety for harsh and Monkish Mortifications in a word they change all the Branches and Fruits of a holy Mind and virtuous Actions for Forms and Gayeties It will not therefore be unseasonable to caution Men against this Formality as a most dangerous Cheat that secretly enervates all the Power and Efficacy of that Goodness it makes a shew of that whilst it pretends highly to advance Religion undermines it This I shall endeavour to do First BY laying down some of its most peculiar Characters Secondly BY discovering the Arts it makes use of to overthrow the power of Moral Virtue Thirdly BY explaining what the Power of Moral Virtue is and wherein it consists FIRST then the Formalist serves God barely out of a Principle of Fear and not at all out of Love he only looks upon Him as a great and austere Being that sits in the Heavens demanding harsh and arbitrary Homage from his Creatures he apprehends Him as an imperious Almighty One that because He hath bestowed upon us these little imperfect Beings takes upon Him to impose severe and unreasonable Laws and exacts for the few pleasures He hath granted to the Life of Man to be paid with sharp and troublesom Penances But all this while he has not tho least thought of gaining his Favor by divine and virtuous Qualities Whereas if we would attain to the Spirit and Genius of true Holiness we must look upon it as a wise and gracious Design of Heaven to fill the Souls of Men with all Excellencies perfective of their Natures Religion no Trick for Religion is no Trick or Artifice but its natural design is to make Men truly good it is no Contrivance of Heaven to bring advantages to it self but it was graciously intended for the sake of Men to carry on their Creator's Work in compleating those things which He made and to make 'em more like Him than He left them But the Formalist or Hypocrite is utterly unacquainted with all inward Sense of Goodness and so he can please God as he thinks by giving him his due of Religious Performances he is not at all concerned for solid and essential Righteousness THUS the degenerate Jews in the time of the Prophets were
and conformity to the Divine Will accomplish them with all Godlike Virtues and Perfections We must be sure to obey the Fundamental Laws of Justice Mercy Tempeperance Humility Meekness Patience and Charity We must live up to all the Rules of Real and Essential Equity and build all our hopes upon an unmaimed and solid Religion IN the second place we must observe That licentiousness of Living hath brought a great decay upon Moral Virtue The Christian Religion rightly understood and sincerely practised serves no doubt to make men more morally virtuous than any other that at this Day is or since the Creation hath been profess'd in the World not only in regard of Justice and Temperance but of Wisdom and Fortitude But it will be said The dâ—generaâ—y of Mankind lamented that since the first Plantation hereof Men have from time to time degenerated so as the farther they are removed from the Primitive Christians who shined in good Works they have grown worse and worse Since their times Zeal for Virtue hath decayed as if it had not been the intrinsick Excellency of Religion but the Fires of Pagan Persecution that kindled that Heat in the Breasts of Christians What shall we take to be the reason of this decay have the Principles of Christianity lost their Efficacy like the Gentile Oracles that all the motives of Virtue and Holiness have now so little influence upon men's Tempers or Lives or rather this must be the reason that of old Christianity was rooted in the Hearts of Men and brought forth the Fruits of good Works in their Lives Whereas now it is only a barren Notion in Mens Heads and their Actions are not governed by it then it was the Employment of their Souls in Meditation of their Hands in Beneficence Now it is become a disguise for Covetousness Ambition Malice and all that 's Evil It is true in the ancient Authors which studious Men turn over they find descriptions of Virtues more perfect than really they were the Governments are represented better and the ways of Life pleasanter than they deserved upon this these bookish Men compare what they read with what they see and here beholding nothing so Heroically transcendent because they are able to mark all the spots as well as beauties of every thing that is so close to their sight they presently begin to despise their own times and exalt the past to contemn the Virtues and aggravate the Vices of their Age But such is the condition of Religion Debauchery a great Impediment to the growth of Religion that the Moral part of it suffers much by reason of the Debauchery and ill Manners of Men And when lewdness hath gotten a habit and Men's Foreheads are Brazen in their wickedness they will not receive a check from disarmed Religion but rather harden themselves against it and account that their Enemy which they are sure will not give countenance to the Vices they are now settled in Besides when a Licentious course of Life hath brought Men to disuse the Duties and Offices of Religigion all its Obligations are antiquated with them then instead of Prayers they learn to Curse and Swear and from not going to Church for a time grow to plead a Priviledg not to come at it at all Secondly NOT only loosness of Life but also a wrong apprehension of Christian Liberty hath much obstructed the Practice of moral Virtue for some Men have thought themselves discharged thereby from all the obligations of the Moral Law and have been so absurd as to take the Gospel to contain nothing else properly but a Publication of God's Promises and that those Promises are absolute without any Condition of our Obedience so that neither men's Justification nor Salvation do depend upon it Libertinism a pernicious Principle THIS is the Doctrine of modern Liberties and is a Perswasion fit to Debauch the whole World about the Apostles times it was much pleaded for by the Gnosticks to excuse their revolts from Christianity in Times of Persecution and their beastly Sensualities as if the knowledg of the Truth gave a Priviledg neither to profess nor practise it when the one proved too incommodious to their secular Interests or the other too disgustful to their sensual Inclinations WHEREAS the contents of the great Character purchased for us What the Liberty is which Christ hath purchased for us and brought in by the Lord Jesus are these that besides the freeing us from the Dominion of Sin which the Law of Moses could not do and the Tyranny of Satan which the Gentile World lay under He hath set our Consciences at liberty from Judaick Rites to pursue our own Reason and to serve all the interests of Peace and good Order in the World hence it is that we find liberty and condescension or self-denyal joined together by St. Paul Gal. 5.13 ye have been called unto liberty only use not liberty as an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another and by St. Peter 1. Eph. 2.16 as free yet not using your liberty as a Cloak of maliciousness but as the servants of God But if Religion should set us free from the Rules of Virtue all the duties of it would be uncertain and precarious things nay it would destroy it self and the Societies of Men would be so far from being the better for it that their happiness would be undermined thereby but this is so expressly contrary to the whole design of the Christian Doctrine and goes so cross to the very Sense of every honest Mind that I shall not spend any more words about it IN the Third place we are to consider how the progress of Moral Virtue hath been discouraged by decrying the Vse of Reason in Matters of Religion as if Reason was not as much the Word of God as Revelation as if whatever contradicts Reason was not opposite to Faith For Abraham's Reason was a great confirmation of his Faith two Revelations were made to him Our Reason confirms our Faith that seeemed to clash one with another and if his Reason could not have reconciled their difference he could not have believed them both to have been from God for Divine Revelation doth not give new Faculties to Men but propounds new Objects to those Faculties so that when God reveals any thing to us He reveals it to our Understandings that we may judg concerning it that we may not believe every Spirit but try whether they be from Him or no now that which hath spoiled the Lives of many Men is there assenting to such Doctrins as never came from the Fountain of Truth therefore to preserve our integrity and keep the Truth we must try the Spirits and compare the evidences Men bring for what they assert which it is not possible to do but by the Use of our Reason But to be confident and peremptory in any thing without Reason is nothing but obstinacy of Mind WHEREAS if we turn off Reason we level the
being so much in our own power WHEREFORE let not Men think they can be Holy without Moral Vertue which they will be apt to do whenever Grace is set in Opposition to Virtue they may as well think they may be godly without Religion Devout and Pious without all sober and sincere use of their Understandings in spiritual matters for this mischief will certainly ensue upon it that Men will embrace Metaphors and Allegories fancies and forms of Speech instead of the Substance of true and real Righteousness 'T IS certain then The Duties of Morality are the most weighty concerns of Religion that the Duties of Morality are the most weighty and material Concerns of Religion and as in the Ordinary Generation of Mankind that vital principle the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical Nature of Man and never gives over till it has worked the whole bodily Mass into a full Complement of parts so by a new Principle of Life called Grace and derived from God through Christ into the mind true Wisdom Righteousness Justice Holiness Integrity and all the instances of Moral Vertue are fashioned by this quickning spirit in the thoughts and actions of good and pious Men This makes the whole mystery of Regeneration intelligible so that any Nicodemus may discern the manner and reason of it for to be born again signifies in its utmost meaning to become a sincere Disciple of our Lord Jesus and to be his Disciple is to believe and obey as we are ingaged by Baptism this being the clearest proof we can give to our selves or others that we own him in good earnest to be our Lord and Master if for his sake we love Truth and Goodness above all worldly interests What is meant by the New Creature NOW to be Regenerate is to be the sincere Disciples of Christ which will qualifie a Man for the Kingdom of Heaven and if that be true it follows that Regeneration and all those other Metaphors which express the state of a Man fitted for eternal Happiness do mean nothing else but his being such a Disciple of Christ as to believe in him to love and obey him when the word of God that Divine Seed hath wrought its due and proper effects upon his Soul by its Precepts the temper of his Mind and the disposition of his Will are agreeable to the Laws of God therefore we use to say of a meek spirited Man that he cannot be furious and of an honest Man that he cannot deceive and of a generous Man that he cannot do a base or unworthy Action that is it is Morally impossible that he should it being directly contrary to the Genius and Sense of his Soul so to do just so it is with him who is born of God he cannot sin because it is repugnant to the inclination and bent of his Nature which being Holy will produce a godly and vertuous Life THIS Notion of the new Creature will not suffer a Man to reckon himself Regenerate who doth not amend his Life according to God's Holy Word this will keep Hypocrites from pretending to be so who are apt to think their hearts are good when their manners are naught But the state of a Regenerate person is called Spiritual as being caused by the Grace of God's Spirit so it may be called Moral as consisting in the conformity of our Minds and Actions to the Divine Laws NOW he who makes a distinction between Grace and Vertue a Spiritual and Moral state must think that to disbelieve any of the Revelations and to disobey any of the Commands of God are not immoralities or that a Regenerate state doth not consist in Faith and Obedience WHICH state is called Regeneration a Metaphor taken from a Natural Generation because there is so great a change that a Man is as it were another Creature For first the understanding must be informed with the knowledge of truth concerning God themselves and a life to come then this belief of the Gospel will so work upon their Wills that they shall be turned from Sensuallity to the love of Goodness and this will produce a suitable change in their lives which are not now led according to the Lusts of the Flesh and the examples of ill Men but the Laws of God and the Example of Christ And thus we come to the true use of all our Faculties as an Infant after it is born falls into those Natural Motions which are hindred by its imprisonment in the Womb Nay by reason of that Divine temper which is wrought in good Men by the Holy Spirit they have such a sense of Good and Evil with regard to their Minds and Consciences as all living Creatures have with respect to their Natures For as in the Natural Life we apprehend what is contrary to it so that we will not run into the Fire nor down Precepices so in the Regenerate state we shall look upon all kinds of wickedness to be what they are detestable and pernicious to our Souls but the Doctrine and Example of Christ do communicate to us a new sense of things whereby we are so much altered for the better as if we had never lived till then and we have infinitely more reason to think of this alteration in our state than to remember the day of our birth with joy and gladness FOR now God worketh in us both to will and to do wherefore the fear and love of God and godly Sorrow and true Repentance and the hope of Eternal Life together with all Christian Vertues such as Righteousness Mercy Patience Love Joy Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith All Moral Vertues are produced by the Grace of God Meekness and Temperance are the Graces of the Spirit From hence it follows that God hath not left the success of the Gospel to depend upon that force only which the bare Revelation of the motives to Obedience hath to persuade us if it should be so it would be now lost labour to call upon God to help us by his Grace but seeing all Vertues and qualifications necessary to Salvation are produced by the Grace of God it follows that all Christian Vertues are the Graces of the Holy Spirit For saith S. James every good and perfect gift is from above and cometh from the Father of Lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of Turning AND S. Paul saith that Grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world this one Scripture comprehends all that Men ought to account Religion that they live godlily which is the Vertue of humble gratitude towards God Soberly which contains the Vertues of Temperance Chastity Modesty and all others that consist in the dominion of Reason over our Sensual Appetites Righteously which implies all the Vertues of Justice and Charity as Affability Courtesie Meekness Candour and Ingenuity Let Men
concurrence of supernatural strength For notwithstanding our many weaknesses through Christ we may do all things He alone gives us a will to use his Grace and knowledge to discern the want of more THE proper Inference therefore from the whole is that we resolve to go on in a good Course of Life because by this means our Work will be easier to us if we be diligent in governing our Conversation by the Rules of Vertue the difficulty of Religion will still grow less because our strength will increase and God hath promised to give greater degrees of assistance to them that use what he hath already bestowed then our endeavours must concur with this assistance which God gives for the Spirit doth usually work insensibly upon the minds of Men and therefore it is compared to the Wind which no Man sees whence it cometh nor whether it goeth even so is the Spirit of God Men feel motions upon their Hearts but how these are produced is altogether together invisible to them when the Doctrine of the Gospel is propounded and the Word is Preached they find themselves convinced of the truth of it and as their Minds are enlightned so their Wills and Affections are warned to a complyance therewith NOW when the Spirit of God hath begun this Work upon our Hearts our business is to cherish those Motions and to act accordingly which if we do and pray to God for his aid we shall find supplies coming in from him that will increase our strength unto that which is good and vertuous for we must know that the greatest difficulties in Religion are met withal at first because at first God doth not usually bestow a great measure of his Grace but he gives us a taste of his goodness and if we relish it he sends forth continually larger measures of his Grace and Favour The Conclusion drawn from all the Premisses SEEING then all the Precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our Passions in the just regulation whereof we have placed the very Essence of Vertue seeing this was the end which all Philosophy aimed at as the utmost felicity that was attainable in this World Let us make it our business to work out our Salvation by living according to these Rules which we have here set down for as they are not hard to be understood so the performance of them is easie and pleasant THEY Are not hard to be understood because God hath shewed us the difference between Good and Evil Vertue and Vice First BY Natural Instinct Secondly BY Natural Reason Thirdly BY the common consent of Mankind Fourthly BY External Revelation FIRST there is a secret impression upon the Minds of Men whereby they are naturally directed to approve some things as good and avoid other things as evil Natural Instinct teaches us what is Good and what is Evil. just as the Creatures below Men are by a natural Instinct led to their own preservation and to take care of their young ones In like manner we find in human Nature a propensity to some things that are beneficial and a loathing of other things that are hurtful to them the former appear beautiful and lovely the latter ugly and deformed NOW these inclinations do not proceed from Reason but from Nature and are antecedent to all Discourse as it is manifest from hence that they are as strong and do put forth themselves as vigorously in young persons as in those that are older they do shew themselves as much in the rude and ignorant sort of People as in those who are more refined and better instructed which is a plain Argument that they come from Nature and not from Reason for if they proceeded from Reason they would appear most eminently in those persons who are of the best and most improved Understandings and would be very obscure in such as exercise their Reason but a little whereas experience shews us that the most ignorant sort of Mankind have as lively a sense of Piety and Devotion as great a regard to all kinds of Sobriety as tender Affections to their Children as much honor for their Parents as true a sense of Gratitude and Justice as the wisest and most knowing part of Mankind AND these are the Duties that are of greatest importance to us so that the Providence of God appears herein to be wonderfully careful of the happiness and welfare of Mankind in that he hath wrought such inclinations into our Natures as to secure the most material parts of our Duty in planting in us a natural sense of good and evil so that in many cases if we do but consult our own Natures we need no other Oracle to tell us what we ought to do and what to avoid how we ought to reverence the Divine Nature honor our Parents love our Children be grateful to our Benefactours and those that have obliged us to speak the Truth to be faithful to our Promises to restore the thing that was intrusted with us to pity those that are in Misery and to deal equally with other Men as we would that they should deal with us There is no need of any subtle reasoning to prove the fitness or unfitness of these things because it is prevented by the very Instinct of Nature which teaches us what we ought to do in these cases FOR Men are naturally innocent or guilty in themselves according as they do or omit these things so the Apostle tells us in Rom. ii 14 15. When the Gentiles who have not the Law do by Nature the things contained in the Law they are a law unto themselves their own Consciences in the mean time or by turns either accusing or excusing them according as they do or omit the doing of these things If Men obey the natural Dictates of their Minds their Consciences give them a comfortable testimony as having done what became them to do on the contrary when we affront Nature by acting against its suggestions what trouble and uneasiness do we find in our own Breasts nay when a Man hath but a design to commit an evil deed his Conscience is disquieted and perplexed at the thoughts of it and he is as guilty as if he had really acted it So Cain when he contrived the murder of his Brother the very imagination of the wickedness changed his Countenance and filled him with Wrath and Discontent for as soon as we have consented to any iniquity our Spirits receive a secret wound and will make us restless because guilt doth not only fill the Mind with vexations but puts it into an unnatural Fermentation as the Prophet Isaiah describes the wicked person he is like the troubled Sea that cannot rest and I appeal to that which every Man finds in his own Breast if he doth not feel a trouble within him upon his acting contrary to any Principle of Nature or any Notion of good and evil The Virtuous Man is the most bold and undaunted BESIDES Men
are naturally full of Hope or Fear according as they follow or go against these Principles who is so confident and bold as he who hath behaved himself well and virtuously who is so strong and well armed against the force of the Powers of Darkness against the apprehensions of a dreadful Judgment these things are so terrible that they must needs raise our fears but the honest Man who is not conscious to himself of any guilt is secure in his own Mind from any harm or prejudice from the Divine Justice either here or hereafter whereas guiltiness creates fears of danger without any other reason for it and so the Scripture informeth us that the wicked flyeth when no Man pursueth him nay when a Man hath done a secret fault which no Eye is privy to nor no human Law can punish yet even then he is constantly under the torment of his own thoughts and hath a natural dread of a superiour Being to whom the most hidden Actions of Men are known and whose Justice will not spare to punish FOR Men have naturally the Notions of good and evil within them which in the plain cases of Right and Wrong will tell them what they ought to do and what they ought to avoid so that in acting well they will be justified and acquitted in their own Minds but in doing the contrary they will be condemned BUT yet there is a considerable difficulty in this matter because the Opinions of Men have been much divided about Virtue and Vice the different Laws and Customs of several Nations seem to argue that they are not so well agreed about these things consequently the difference between Good and Evil is not so well known more than this there is in Mankind a propension to evil and Men are generally vicious which seems to contradict that natural Instinct which shews us as we say what is Virtue and what is Vice To this Objection we answer that all Mankind are agreed that those Moral Virtues before mentioned ought to be practised and that the contraries to them are Vices and ought to be rejected if any one particular person happen to be of another mind he is as rarely to be met with as Monsters and no more to be drawn into an Argument against the truth of this Assertion than a Man being born with three Legs can be an Argument that Men naturally have not two All Men have agreed that God is to be worshiped though they differ much about the particular circumstances of his Worship keeping of Faith all Men have held to be a Duty though some say Faith is not to be kept with Hereticks but this is no prejudice to the Truth it must be granted that there is not the like evidence in all things that there is in some and many things are not so clear but that partial and inconsiderate Men may have wrong conceptions about them but these may be remedied if Men will be wise and consider things as they should do if they will lay aside violent prejudices and self-Interest for if they will govern themselves like Men and not be hurried away with Passion It is one thing to know what Virtue is and another to live according to that knowledg they may come to understand what is good and what is evil it must be confessed there is a great corruption in human Nature and we must consider that it is one thing to own the difference between Virtue and Vice another thing to live and act according to this judgment Although Men have the Notions of Good and Evil yet after all they may choose the Evil and refuse the Good and this the Apostle speaks of in Rom. vii 27. I delight in the Law of God in the inward Man that is my mind consents to it as Holy Just and Good but here he tells us he felt another Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death according to that of the Poet Video meliora proboque Deteriora sequor For a Man may be convinced of his Duty but not act accordingly FOR by natural Instinct we know what we ought to do antecedent to all Reason and Discourse Secondly Natural Reason tells us what is our Duty OUR Duty is also discovered to us by natural Reason for the force of moral Actions are planted in Mens Minds and woven into the frame of their Natures but to make our Duty more plain God by the light of Reason hath shewed us what is good and what is evil and not only so but he stamps upon them the Authority of Laws for these two are very different to apprehend a thing good for us to do and to be under the Obligation of a Law to do it for to this it is necessary we should apprehend it to be the Will of our Superior that we should perform it NOW our Reason doth discover to us what is Virtue and that the Lord our God doth require our Obedience to it First BY shewing us how convenient and agreeable it is to our Natures Secondly BY the tendency of it to make us happy and to free us from Evil and Misery NOTHING is more suitable to our Natures than to have an esteem of what is great and excellent and Mankind being taught that all Perfection is in God we must adore him for that which is good doth naturally beget Love and Reverence so it is agreeable to our Natures to honor our Parents to be grateful for Benefits received to be just and righteous to be charitable compassionate and temperate to be meek humble and prudent Those that act contrary to these Duties offer an Affront to their own Natures and feel a pain in themselves however they may carry it to others BESIDES these things tend to make us happy and to free us from Misery for Reason considers the consequences of things and we call that Virtue or Good which will bring some benefit to us and that Evil or Vice which is like to bring upon us some Inconvenience upon this account Reason doth shew us what is good and what is evil to begin with Piety towards God nothing is more reasonable than to make him our Friend who is able to make us happy or miserable and the way to make him our Friend is to observe all the Vertues of a good life on the contrary Impiety or a neglect of Vertue is plainly against our Interest for this is to disoblige him who is more able to make us miserable than all the World besides and without whose Favour nothing can make us happy so that our Reason will require us to live vertuously as for instance If Nature did not teach us Gratitude Discretion would it being the only way to obtain a second Favour to be thankful for the first Humility may seem to be a thing of no great Advantage but he that shall consider what contempt Pride exposeth a Man unto will be
arise These are the rubs in our way which make a virtuous course so difficult at first because to cast off old Habits of Vice and Folly to which they have been long accustomed is That at which men are generally galled For a State of Vice and of Virtue are not like two Ways that are just parted by a line so as that a Man may step out of the one full into the other when and how he pleases but they are like two Ways that lead to two very distant places one where Happiness is the other where Destruction so that they are as far separated as Heaven and Hell are For the farther a Man hath travelled in the ways of Vice he is at the greater distance from those of Virtue so that it requires time and much striving too to pass from the one to the other it being a long and severe Conflict to master evil Habits the Temptations of the World and of the Flesh will rally and make head again after they have been beaten off NOTWITHSTANDING these Difficulties the seeds of Virtue under the Influences and Care of the Divine Spirit will get the better and grow up to such a strength as will conquer them It is indeed a very unpleasant sight for a vicious Person to look into himself or to consider on his bad courses therefore he labours all he can to stifle his Reason that he may not think A vicious Person is a very unpleasant sight to himself what will be the sad issues of an ungodly Life Hence it is that all Men find some bitterness in casting off their Lusts according to the progress they have made in Vice For if we intend to lead a vertuous Life we must consider that many Virtues are to be practised before the contrary Vices will be subdued We have many irregular Passions to bring into order and must root out all the power of evil Customs We have a Body of sin to put off which clings close to us and are bound to cleanse our selves from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God to encrease and improve our Virtues that is add to our Faith Knowledg Temperance Patience brotherly Kindness and Charity to abound in all the fruits of Righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God THIS Change cannot be wrought without some trouble this New-birth cannot be brought about without some bitter Pangs a thorow Reformation of Manners being a work that requires much time deliberation and labour to effect it However we should not be discouraged For so soon as we have begun a good course of Life A good course of Life is always under the influence of God's Spirit we are in such a way as God will help us in and if we pursue our advantages we shall every day gain ground and the work will grow easier upon our hands and though we may be a little disheartned at first at the hardships of Virtue yet after a little while we shall be enabled to run the way of God's Commandments with pleasure FOR nothing is more hurtful to a virtuous and holy Life than to believe that God requires those things of us that He hath not given us strength to perform whereas God takes delight in bestowing the gifts of his Spirit upon us nothing being more pleasing to him than that we should partake of his Divine Nature and be made Holy as he is holy that we should be brought back to that State wherein we were when we came out of his hands Therefore one of the greatest discouragements to a virtuous Life is a false and unworthy representation of God A false Notion of God is a great discouragement to a virtuous Life as if the greatest part of the World were really destitute of any ability to do those things which his Gospel requires and yet should be condemned for not doing them These are hard things to be said of the best Being in the World of one whom we believe to have infinitely more goodness in him than is among all the Sons of men So that S. James 1.5 says If any Man lack wisdom let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upraideth not By which Wisdom are meant all the Fruits of the Spirit for so S. James hath described it that it is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good works Indeed when we think of our own weakness the corruptions of our Natures the strength of our Lusts and the malice of our Spiritual Adversaries we are apt to despond like the Children of Israel when they heard of the Sons of Anak in their passage to the Holy Land But if we would look beyond our selves and our Enemies as Caleb and Joshua did to the power of the Lord we should as the Apostle saith of weakness become strong and put to flight the Armies of the Aliens For we read 2 Kings 16.13 of Elisha's Servant that he came to his Master in great perplexity of mind and said unto him alas Master what shall we do Behold an Host hath encompassed the City both with Horses and Chariots But when he had opened the Eyes of the young Man he beheld the Mountains full of Horses â—â—d Chariots of Fire about Elisha Thus if our Eyes were opened to view the secret Aids that are ready to join us in the course of Virtue our Fears would soon vanish and we should take courage against all the Enemies that do assault us not only flesh and blood but Principalities and Powers and spiritual wickednesses in high places For saith our Saviour S. Luke 19.26 To every one that hath shall be given and from him that hath not shall be taken away That which He hath which was a proverbial Speech among the Jews and signifies thus much that He who improves the Grace of God shall have more and from him who makes no use of it shall be taken away That which he hath made no improvement of For no Man who enjoys the Gospel is destitute of sufficient means of Salvation The Gospel affords to all sufficient means of Salvation if he be not some way or other wanting to himself To what end else do we persuade Men to submit to the Terms of it to repent and believe to deny ungodliness and wordly Lusts When we know they have no power to do what we exhort them to and God hath resolved to withdraw from them that Grace which is necessary for these purposes For if a Man thought that God gives that Grace whereby we may be saved only to a few and that he always works upon those to whom he gives it in such a manner as they cannot resist Why then should we do any thing in Religion because unless we be of the number of those whom God hath decreed to work effectually upon we can do nothing towards the getting Salvation and if we be of that number we need
in his Morals to refuse evil and to do good wherein consists the goodness of his Mind Now the Doctrine of our Blessed Saviour tends to purge out of the Mind all vicious and depraved Affections and to sow therein the Seeds of Grace and Virtue for his whole Sermon on the Mount tends to implant in us a pure Heart a right Mind clean Affections an obedient Will and a sound Vnderstanding for the effecting of which observe the admirable contrivance of the Divine Wisdom after Mankind was broken and lost by the fall of one that another should be raised out of his Root who should satisfie the offended God should beget a new Generation of Men out of the old Stock and advance the new Nature to a higher degree of Holiness than before for sin is the greatest pollution exorbitance and degeneracy of an intelligent Agent Sin is the greatest degeneracy of an intelligent Being it is worse than rottenness and corruption in natural things for these act according to the course of their own Natures but we as we are intelligent Beings are under the obligation of a Rule and to vary from that Law is a violent and and monstrous thing for all the departures from right Reason in Understanding Beings are privatively Evils and therefore most highly displeasing unto God because all iniquity and sin is a contradiction to the unchangeable Laws of Goodness and Truth which is the Law of Heaven from which God in the fulness of his Liberty and the greatness of his Power doth never depart therefore we may say that all Vice doth offer violence to the Principles of God's Creation and that which is unnatural in the inferior World is nothing so horrid as that which is irrational in the superiour Now see what the consequence is of unnatural things in the lower World Should the Sun leave its Course and instead of being the Fountain of Light should send forth nothing but stench and darkness how prodigious and how terrible would this be Yet whosoever acts against the Divine Will and the Dictates of right Reason doth a thing more frightful than all this more violent and mischievous than if the Fire should cease to burn or the Course of Nature should fail But our Saviour both by his Precepts Our Saviour teaches us to act according to the Reason of things and by his Example hath taught us to act according to the Reason of things so that we must love that which is Equal and Right that which is true and good in its own Nature that which is just and fit according to the Mind and Will of God these are such certain Laws and Principles of Action that it is not in the power of Men or Angels to control any of them and if we vary from them we expose our selves to endless misery we spoil our Natures and the best Principles thereof which are recovered by Christ Jesus his being Sanctification to us which cleanses us from all filthiness and sets the dispositions of our Minds right the Principles of whose Religion do not appear as Spells and Charms but they operate by the illumination of the Mind and Understanding for in the intellectual World the Principles of Knowledge and Understanding are every way as vigorous as the properties and qualities in Nature are only these Act by the way of Reason and information of the Mind for in all the Virtues that are charged upon us by our Saviour there is an agreeableness to the innate Notions of our Minds and Consciences they do all accord with the natural Conceptions we have of what is just and fit to be done therefore all his Commandments are the resolutions of true Reason and when once they are received into the Temper and Constitution of our Souls they will make us to be of the same Mind as he was that is truly Wise Holy and Good for his Doctrine and his Example are Arguments of Reason sufficient to make us wise to deliver us from the power and habits of Vice and to rescue us from the Usurpations of the Devil Now these are as true Principles of Action upon an intelligent Being as any natural Qualities are in inferiour Nature and they will produce Invisible but vital and Spiritual effects with a power much above what natural Agents can exert for as he who gives himself up to Wickedness will never want a Superiour Agent to carry him on and make him more villanous and wretched so on the contrary whosoever watches over himself and employs his faculties to the doing of good shall ever have the assistance of the Divine Spirit to help him and indeed the Christian Religion doth that which is solid and substantial permanent and lasting if it do not obtain this effect in us of Reconciling our Minds and Dispositions to the Mind and Will of God and when the same Mind is in us which was in Christ Jesus of what strong and firm a temper will our Hearts be made What courage shall we have even when few comforters scarce any but Enemies are near us Goodness gentleness patience which are the Mind of Christ by all true Philosophy are esteemed to proceed from the greatest strength of Nature by all true Christianity from the highest Degree of Grace Nay when we have the same Mind with him what Bravery of Spirit will the World discern to be in us We shall not then be afraid of the most exact and severe observations of what we do nothing will appear in our Discourses but Truth and Sincerity nothing in our Lives but Honesty and Plain-dealing in all our private Actions will be seen the most unaffected modesty in all our publick a good Conscience and a love of Virtue A pure Mind thus established and firmly rooted in us will never be discomposed nor shaken by ungovernable Passions we shall feel the comforts of the Evangelical Doctrin our lives will shew the excellencies of it Our Saviours example leads us into the practice of all manner of Virtue May we all therefore endeavour to express our Affections to our Saviour by living comformable to the most perfect Example of Virtue and Piety for from his Example we fetch the most useful Instructions how to submit to the hardest conditions of Life to endure mildly the rigours of the worst State to Pardon and bear the Affronts of Enemies in the various Turns of the World always to practise Righteousness and Mercy Meekness and Long-suffering To implore Gods help by acknowledging our Obligations to Him for all that we have and do enjoy to moderate our appetites and desires in reference to the pleasures of this World and to use them according to Reason and Nature to be True and Faithful Just and Righteous in all our Actions to be kind and merciful ready to do good to all and to relieve them that are in want to be satisfied in every condition whether it be high or low to be meek and gentle because the Meek Man hath always
of another mind Temperance tends to our Happiness in this that it tends to our Health without which all the Enjoyments of this Life are but little worth on the other side the intemperate Man is an Enemy to himself continually making Assaults upon his own Life the Apostle adviseth that we should abstain from fleshly Lusts that war against the Soul and it ought to be no small Argument to us that they war against the Body also so for Kindness and Love besides that they are good to others they are of much use and benefit to our selves for there is unspeakable pleasure in Love a great deal of ease in a charitable Temper on the contrary how fretting and vexatious to the Mind of Man are Malice Envy and Hatred they do not only raise Enemies abroad but they set a Man against himself and deprive him of the Peace of his own Mind Compassion and Mercy is profitable to others and delightful to our selves so Compassion and Mercy are not more profitable unto other Men than they are delightful to our own Souls and we do not only gratifie our selves by doing Services to others but we thereby provoke Mankind by our Example to the like Kindnesses and so turn the pity of others to our selves when it shall come to be our turn to stand in need of their help In like manner our Reason directs us to the practice of Truth Fidelity and Justice as the surest Arts of thriving in this World these beget Confidence and give Men a Reputation in their Neighbourhood and these Vertues our Reason tells us have the force of a Law and there needs nothing to give the force of a Law to any matter but the stamp of divine Authority upon it Now God that made us and all other Creatures and by virtue of his Authority over us hath imprinted on our Natures the Principles of Good and Evil and hath so wrought 'em into the frame of our Souls by which as by a natural instinct Men are carried to approve what is good and disapprove what is evil and supposing that our natural Reasons do tell us that it is for our Interest to live in the practice of what we call Vertue and to dislike and avoid what we call Vice this is a sufficient declaration that we should do the one and avoid the other and if we live contrary to this we violate the Law of him that made us for there needs nothing to make a thing become a Law to us but that it is the Will of our Sovereign who hath Right to require it of us And this God hath declared to Mankind by the frame of their Natures and by those principal Faculties he hath endued us withal for no Man can imagine but that we should follow the Instruction of our Nature and be governed by the natural Notions of our own Minds And those natural Passions of Hope and Fear Hope and Fear are two very strong Passions that are so rooted in our Souls we cannot without great force to our selves act contrary to them And this is all the Law that great part of Mankind comes under and which is no other than that which the Apostle calls the Work of the Law written upon their Hearts and they having no other Revelation made to them shall be judged by it and those that offend against this Law shall be found guilty before God as well as those that have sinned against an express Revelation which is a plain Evidence that these natural Dictates have the force of a Law otherwise Men would not be guilty of any Crime by acting against them for it is a Rule universally true that where there is no Law there is no Transgression and this I take to be the meaning of that obscure Passage of the Apostle Rom. v. 13. for until the Law Sin was in the World that is before the Law was given unto Moses Men were capable of Sinning and therefore there was another Law against which they offended for Sin is not imputed where there is no Law But Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's Transgression that is tho they did not sin against any express Law of God as Adam did Thus Reason discovers to us how that the natural Dictates of our Minds have the force of a Law HENCE we may infer that Mankind would have been under the Obligation of Religion tho God had never made any immediate Revelation of his Mind and Will unto them if this was not so the Heathen who had no supernatural Revelation from God could not have been guilty of Sin nor liable to his Judgment for if nothing were Vertue or Vice but what was either expresly commanded or forbidden by God then all Actions would have been alike to the Heathen But there are some things naturally good and some things naturally evil and Men are bound to do the one and fly the other tho God had never made any supernatural Revelation of his Will to them For if God had never forbidden Hatred and Malice with Deceit Oppression Violence and the like Passions they would have appeared evil in themselves and ought not to have been done by us because they are inconsistent with the Peace of Human Society and contrary to the Nature and Reason of Mankind so on the other hand the Vertues opposite to these as Love to God together with Truth and Justice one towards another have such Goodness in them that they are commended to the liking of Mankind without the need of any absolute Declaration to oblige Men to the practice of them If these things were not so the Tables might have been turned and all that which we now call Vertue might have been forbidden by God and things would have been every whit as well and there would have been no difference only the Names of things would have been changed The nature of Good and Evil is unalterable BUT I appeal to any ones Reason whether he can think it as vertuous an Action to hate God as to love him to contemn as to honor him and whether Malice Envy Hatred and Ingratitude would have made as much for the Peace of Mankind as the practice of Love and Goodness would have done if they would not then it is manifest that there is something in the Nature of Things that made the difference and so long as the Nature of God and Man remain what they are some Things will be in their own Natures unalterably good and some things evil which doth not depend upon any arbitrary Constitution but is founded in the Nature of the Things themselves The general consent of mankind shews what is Virtue and what is Vice Thirdly WHAT is Virtue and what is Vice is shewn to us by the general vote and consent of Mankind which we do not extend to all the instances of Virtue and Vice but only to the great and more essential parts of it
such as Piety to God Adoration of the Divine Nature Gratitude to Benefactors Temperance Meekness Charity Justice Fidelity and such like these are agreed upon by mankind to be good and the contrary to these evil for they are generally had in esteem by Men and their opposites are evil spoken off now to praise any thing is to give testimony to the goodness of it and to dispraise any thing is to declare it to be evil and if we consider the Customs of the World and the instances of all Ages we shall find that the Things that have been praised in the lives of Men are the Piety and Devotion of Men towards their Gods their Temperance and Gratitude their Justice and Fidelity their Humanity and Charity The contraries to these have been ever condemned as Atheism and Profaneness contempt of God and Religion Ingratitude Falsness Oppression Cruelty Nay so steddy hath mankind been in commending Virtue and censuring Vice Vicious Men speak well of Virtue that we shall find not only the virtuous themselves giving their testimony to Virtue but even those that are vicious have so much Justice as to speak well of Moral Virtues not out of love to them but because their Affections are prevented by the Conviction of their own Minds and the testimony of these persons is the more valuable because it is that of an Enemy for Friends are apt to be partial but the acknowledgement of an Enemy is of great weight because it seems to be extorted from him and that which he is even forced to do against his will And it is a clear evidence that Vice is generally cryed down by Mankind because those that are so kind as to spare themselves are yet very quick-sighted to spy a fault in any one else and will arraign Vice in another with very much freedom HENCE it is that the Scripture commands that our Light should so shine before Men that they may see our good works Matth. v. 13. Charges us to promise things honest in the sight of all Men Rom. xii 17. To have our Conversation honest among the Gentiles that is to do those things which the Light of Nature cannot but approve of 1 Pet. ii 12. By well doing to put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men for this saith the Apostle is the Will of God by which it is intimated that there are some Virtues so good in themselves and so owned to be such that the worst of Men have not the face to open their mouths against them BESIDES Mankind do generally stand upon their Justification when they are conscious to themselves that they have done well but are ashamed when they have done ill Some indeed are such Monsters of Impiety that they can glory in their Shame but these are but few in comparison and they attain to this Temper by a long habit of great and enormous Vices But generally Men are Modest and are apt to Blush at what they do amiss Now Shame is a Trouble arising from a Sense What Shame is that we have done amiss and have forfeited our Reputation Guilt is a Passion towards our selves but Shame is with respect to others so that he who is ashamed of an Action doth thereby declare that he hath acted amiss and that what he hath done is accounted so by others for if he did not believe that Men had a bad opinion of such actions however he might be guilty in himself he would not be ashamed in respect of other Men But when Men have walked by the Rules of Virtue the Conscience of their Integrity lifts up their Heads because they are satisfied that other Men have a good esteem of their Actions And the Men sometimes will declare their dislike of the Ways of Virtue yet they have a secret reverence for those that do well and when their Passions are over they cannot but declare their Approbation and frequently do so All Men have a secret reverence for those that do well And this is a great evidence of the Consent of Mankind about Virtue and Vice for that those that do their Duty act above Board and live in the Practice of Goodness need not hide their Faces nor seek dark corners to do their work in as they who are forging evil deeds must do For no Man is ashamed to meet another with whom he has kept his Word and performed his Trust as he who hath done otherwise is wont to be Glory and Shame being an appeal to the Judgment of Mankind concerning the Good or Evil of our Actions NOW Vices such as Murder Adultery Drunkenness Rebellion Sedition Fraud Perjury and breach of Trust are provided against by most Nations and severely punished by the Laws of most Countrys which is a demonstration what opinion all Nations have had of these things No Law ever made against Virtue but there was never any Law made against Virtue no Man was ever forbidden to honour God tho particular Ways of Worship have been prohibited no Man was ever forbidden to be grateful faithful temperate just righteous honest charitable and peaceable which is an acknowledgment that Mankind always thought 'em good and were never sensible of any harm or mischief to come by them for had they done so they would at some time or other provided against 'em by Laws but as the Apostle saith against these things there is no Law as if he had said turn over the Laws of Moses search those of Athens read over the Twelve Tables of the Romans and you shall not find one of those Virtues that are commanded in the Scripture condemned or forbidden a sure and clear proof that Mankind never took any exception against them but rested in the goodness of them that they were necessary and profitable for all things NOW this general consent of Mankind about what is Good and Evil is a very good Argument of their being so in Truth and reality for the Consent of Mankind is the Voice of Nature and the Voice of Nature is the Voice of God the Author thereof for Tully tells us that God would not have planted these Notions in the Minds of Men had they not been agreeable to the Truth of Things there is no better way to establish what is Natural than if the whole kind agree in it and if it be Natural it is from God and whatever is from God is Real and True Now I have proved that God hath planted in Humane Nature a Sense of the difference between Virtue and Vice and hath made us able to judg what is Good and what is Evil. BUT besides this there are but two Causes into which this general Consent of Mankind can be resolved Tradition and humane Policy not Tradition because that is insufficient for so large and long a Conveyance of so many particulars as the Law of Nature consists in throughout all Ages and Nations for the Traditions of particular Nations which are supposed to be Arbitrary and to have no