The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 1, Part 2 · Chapter 1

The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 1 · Part 2 · Chapter 1

p. 1CHAP. I. Concerning the Being, and Nature of Moral Goodness.

ALL Humane Actions are either Necessary, or Sinfull, or Indifferent. The Necessary are such as are commanded, the Sinful such as are forbidden by God, the Indifferent such as are neither commanded nor forbidden, but left entirely free to our Choice and Discretion. Again, the necessary and the sinful actions are either such as are necessary and sinfull in themselves, and are commanded and forbidden upon the account of some Good and Evil that is inseparable to their Natures; or such as are indifferent in their own Natures, as to any good or evil inherent in them, but are made necessary or sinful by p. 2some positive Command or Prohibition superinduced upon them. Of the first sort are those which we call Moral Actions; as being the subject matter of the Moral Law, which commands, and forbids nothing but what is essentially and immutably good and evil: and whilst there was no other Law but this, every Action which did not oblige by some eternal Reason, or which is the same, by some inseparable good or evil, was left free and indifferent. But in process of time God superadded to this Moral Law a great many Positive ones, whereby he obliged men to do, and forbear sundry of those indifferent things, which were left to their liberty by the Law of Nature. For such we call the Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaick Law; all which were indifferent before they were imposed, and as soon as ever the Imposition was taken off from them, did immediately return to their Primitive Indifferency; so that by the abolition of their Ceremonial Law, the Jews were restored to all the Liberties of the Moral; excepting only the matter of the two Sacraments, and of maintaining a visible Communion with the Church, which are determined by positive Laws of Christianity. And of this later sort of necessary and sinful Actions, are, not only all p. 3those indifferent ones which God himself has commanded and forbidden immediately, but also all those which he commands and forbids by his Vice-roys and Representatives, in this World. For whatsoever he hath not commanded or forbidden by his own immediate Dictate and Authority, he hath Authorized his Vicegerents to command or forbid, as they shall judge it most expedient for the Publick. So that when they command what God hath not forbidden, or forbid what he hath not commanded, their will is God's, who commands us by their Mouths and stamps their Injunctions with his own Authority.

And of this distinction between actions that are morally and positively Necessary, the Scripture frequently takes notice, and particularly, Mich. vi.6.7, 8. Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God? shall I come before him with Burnt-Offerings, with Calves of a year old, &c. No, these are not the things that will render me acceptable in his eyes, and procure me a welcome Admission into his Presence; and yet it is certain that these things were then required and commanded, and therefore were positively necessary; but that they were not necessary in themselves upon the account of any intrinsick p. 4Goodness that was in them, is evident from what follows, He hath shewed thee O man what is good; as much as if he should have said, the things above named are in their own nature indifferent, having neither good nor evil in themselves; and are made necessary meerly by positive Command, upon which account they are insufficient to recommend you to God: but there are other things that carry an intrinsick Beauty and Goodness in their Nature by which they strictly oblige you to imbrace and practise them, and do thereupon recommend you by their own native Charms, to the Love and Favour of God; and what these good things are he hath sufficiently shewn or discovered to you, viz. To do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God, which are the main and principal Duties that he requires of you. Which plainly implies that there are some Actions which are morally, that is, in their own Natures, eternally good, and therefore eternally necessary, and some that are necessary only because for some present Reason God Wills and Commands them. For no account can be given why he should be more pleased with Justice and Mercy and Humility, than with Sacrifice, unless we suppose the former to p. 5be good, and therefore necessary upon immutable Reasons, and upon that account to be immutably pleasing to him; and the latter to be necessary only upon mutable reasons which therefore were to lose their Necessity as soon as those reasons did alter or cease. For had Sacrifices been good in their own Natures, their goodness had been as unalterable as their Nature; whereas, on the contrary we find, that whereas their Nature neither is nor can be altered, yet their Goodness or Necessity is. For as before God adopted them into the Rubrick of Religion by his own positive Institution they were indifferent things; so after this Institution was repealed by a contrary Command, they became unlawful. So that it is now as necessary that we should not Offer them in the Worship of God, as it was before that we should. And the same may be said of all the other Rites of the Mosaick Law: which being in their own Nature Indifferent, could no otherewise be converted either into Necessary or Sinful, but by God's express Command or Prohibition. Whereas Justice and Mercy, &c. are good in themselves abstractly considered from all Will and Command; and are not good meerly because they are Commanded, but are commanded because they are good; because p. 6they carry with them such unalterable Reasons as do in themselves render the practice of them eternally necessary. For tho there be very good reason why men should not offer material Sacrifices, notwithstanding they were once injoyned; yet it can never be reasonable for them to be unjust or cruel or proud, because the contrary vertues carry such fixed and immutable Reasons with them as will bind and oblige us to eternity; insomuch that tho we had a Dispensation to be proud under the Broad-Seal of Heaven, yet 'twould still be very absurd and unreasonable to be so. And as things that are only positively necessary or sinful, derive all their necessity and sinfulness from God's direct or express Command and Prohibition; so they cannot be commanded or forbidden by Consequence. For if the Matter of them be antecedently Lawful or Indifferent, it must necessarily remain so till it is directly commanded or forbidden; there being no other Reason to bound and limit it, but only the Will of the Law-giver in whose disposal it is: and therefore till he directly signifies his Will either for or against it, it must remain as it is, i. e. Free and Indifferent. But you will say▪ Suppose God hath commanded such an indifferent thing for such a Reason, p. 7doth it not thence follow that he thereby commands every other indifferent thing that hath the same reason for it? I answer, No; for if the Reason why he commands it be necessary and eternal, it is not a thing indifferent, but morally necessary, and so is every thing else that hath the same Reason for it; and consequently the reason of the Law, tho it be applyed but to one thing, extends to every thing of the same Nature; because in all moral Cases the Reason of the Law is the Law. But if the thing commanded be in it self indifferent, the Reason why it is commanded cannot be necessary; and therefore tho there be the same Reason why another thing of the same Nature should be commanded, yet it doth not necessarily oblige unless it be commanded actually; because in such Cases it is not the Reason but the Authority of the Law that obliges: and therefore where there is only the Reason and not the Law, it lays no obligation on the Conscience.

From the whole therefore it is evident what is the difference between things that are positively and morally Necessary and Sinful; which I thought very necessary to explain at large for the giving a fuller light to the ensuing Discourse; in which I shall endeavor to shew,

p. 8First, THAT there is such an intrinsick Goodness in some Humane Actions as renders them for ever necessary and obliging to us.

Secondly, THAT God hath sufficiently discovered to us what those Humane Actions are which carry with them this perpetual obligation.

Thirdly, THAT these Actions which carry with them this perpetual obligation are the main and principal parts of Religion.

SECT. I. That there is such an Intrinsick Good in some Humane Actions as render them for ever Necessary and obliging to us.

GOOD is twofold, Absolute, or Respective, or the Good of the End and the Good of the Means. The good of the End is that which is the Perfection and Happiness of any Being; the good of the Means is that which tends and conduces thereunto. As for Instance, the absolute Good of a Brute Animal consists in p. 9the Perfection and Satisfaction of its Sense, or in having perfect Feeling and Sensation of such things as are most grateful to its Appetite and Senses. Its respective Good is the Means by which its Senses are perfected or rendred lively and vigorous, and by which it's provided for with such things as are grateful and pleasing to them. For there being in every animate nature a Principle whereby it's necessarily inclined to promote its own Preservation and Well-being, that which hath in it a fitness to promote this End is called Good, as on the contrary that which is apt to hinder it Evil. Now Man being not only a sensitive but a rational Creature, hath a twofold Good belonging to his Nature, the first Sensitive which is the same with that of brute Animals, consisting in the Perfection and Satisfaction of his bodily Senses and Appetites, and in those means which conduce thereunto; and this for distinction sake is called his Natural Good: the second Rational, which consists in the Perfection and Satisfaction of his Rational Faculties, and in those means which tend thereunto; and this is stiled his Moral Good, though in reality 'tis as much Natural as the former. For Man being naturally as well Rational as Sensitive, that which promotes his Rational p. 10Perfection and Happiness, is no less naturally good for him than that which promotes his Sensitive: Nay his Rational Nature being the much more noble and excellent part of him, that which naturally promotes the Perfection and Happiness of it, is in it self a much greater good to his Nature and ought to be preferred by him before any of those Natural goods, which conduce only to the happiness of his sensitive Nature; and he who indulges his sensitive Part in any Pleasure which his Rational disallows, doth thereby create a torment to himself, and raise a Devil in his own mind. For tho Reason and Religion doth allow that the Sensitive nature should be gratified in all its natural Appetites and Desires, yet neither allow that it should be pampered and indulged in any such Excsses as are prejudicial either to it self or to that Rational Nature whereunto it is joyned; and he who indulges his Sense in any such Excesses, renders himself obnoxious to his own. Reason, and to gratifie the Brute in him displeases the Man, and sets his two Natures at variance. So that there is nothing can be naturally good for us, that is any way inconsistent with what is morally so, i. e. with what conduces to the Perfection and Happiness of our rational Nature; and p. 11tho this Natural and Moral Good are no way inconsistent with one another, yet it is the Moral that is the Supreme Good of a Man, because it is the good of his most excellent Nature. Having thus premised what I mean by Good in general, and particularly by Moral Good, I proceed to shew that in some Humane actions there is such an intrinsick moral Good as renders 'em for ever obliging to us. And this I shall endeavour in these following Propositions.

First, THAT the Happiness of Humane Nature is founded in its Perfection.

Secondly, THAT the Perfection of Humane Nature consists in acting suitably to the most perfect Reason.

Thirdly, THAT the most perfect Reason is that wherein all reasonable Beings do consent and agree.

Fourthly, THAT there are certain Rules of Moral Good, wherein all Reasonable Beings are agreed.

Fifthly, THAT to act suitably to those Rules hath been always found by universal experience conducible to the Happiness of Humane Nature, and the contrary mischievous thereunto.

I. THAT the Happiness of Humane Nature is founded in its Perfection. For p. 12the Perfection of Beings consists in their being compleatly disposed and adapted for the End whereunto they are designed. Now the End of all Beings that have Life and Sense, is that sort of Happiness that is sutable to their Natures; for 'tis thither that they all of them naturally tend, and therein that their Faculties do all concenter. When therefore their Faculties or Powers of Action are compleatly disposed to enjoy the proper Happiness of their Natures, then are they perfect in their Kind. Thus for instance, the End of Brutes which have only Bodily Sense, is Sensitive and corporeal Happiness; and thererefore then is the Brute Creature perfect in its kind, when it hath not only all the Parts and Senses that are necessary to procure and enjoy its Happiness, but hath them also perfectly sitted, tempered, and qualified to pursue and relish it. And supposing that all the pleasure or happiness of a Beast consisted in the Taste and Smell of its Pasture, it could never be compleatly happy so long as the Organs of its Smell or Taste were imperfect. So that the perfection of every Sensible Nature consists in being perfely disposed to enjoy its Natural Happiness. And accordingly herein consists the Perfection of Humane Nature, in being perfectly p. 13fitted and disposed to enjoy and relish Humane Happiness. For this being its proper End, it is impossible it should ever be perfect in its Kind till 'tis compleatly contempered and adapted thereunto. So that our Happiness must necessarily be founded in our Perfection, which is nothing else but the perfect Disposition of our Natures to relish and enjoy those Goods wherein the Happiness of our Nature consists; and till our Nature is perfectly disposed to enjoy them, all the good things of Heaven and Earth will be insufficient to render us perfectly happy.

II. THAT the Perfection of Humane Nature consists in acting sutably to the most Perfect Reason. For Reason being the top and Crown of Humane Nature, hath a natural Right to Command and Dispose of its Motions; to be the Eye of its Will, and the Guide of its Affections, and the Law of all its Powers of Action. And indeed, for what other use serves the Reason of a Man, but to prescribe Rules to his unreasonable Affections, to light and direct them to their proper Objects, and as they are moving towards them to moderate their Excesses and to quicken their Defects and to lead them on to true Happiness in an even Course through all the wild Mazes p. 14of popular Mistakes? And unless it be thus imployed, the man is Reasonable in vain, and his light like a Candle inclosed in a Dark-Lanthorn burns out in wast and spends it self in an useless and unprofitable blaze. And whilst to please our Appetites and Passions we run counter to the advice of our Reason, we forsake the rule of our Natures and act like Beasts and not like Men; in which course of Action if we persist, we must necessarily degenerate from our selves, and sink by degrees into the most sordid Brutality. For when once our Appetites have gotten the Command of our Reason, and not only dethroned but inslaved it, the very Order of our Nature is transposed and we are become our own Reverse and Antipodes. If therefore we would arrive at our own Perfection it must be by following our Reason, and submitting all our Affections and Appetites to its Government. For what else can be the Perfection of a Rational Nature, but to be perfectly Rational; and what is it to be perfectly Rational, but to have our Minds throughly instructed with the Principles of Right Reason, and our Will and Affections intirely regulated by them? For herein consists the Supream Perfection not only of Men, but of Angels, yea and of God p. 15Himself, the Crown and Glory of whose Nature it is, that he always knows, and chuses and acts what is fittest and best and most reasonable. And when once our Understanding is so far inlightned as that it always dictates right Reason to us; and our Will and Affections are so far subdued as that they always freely and chearfully comply with it, we have arrived to the very top of our Nature, and are Commenced perfect Men in Christ Jesus.

III. THAT the most perfect Reason is that wherein all Reasonable Beings do consent and agree. For if there be any such matter as True and False, Reasonable, and Vnreasonable in the Nature of things, and if there be any such thing as Vnderstanding among Beings, whereby they are capable of distinguishing between the one and the other; either that must be True and Reasonable which all Understandings do consent and agree in, or all the Understandings that are in the World must be under a fatal Cheat and Delusion. Which later being supposed inevitably destroys all Knowledge and Certainty, and lays a foundation for the wildest Scepticism. For supposing all Understandings to be deceived and imposed on, it is impossible for us to be certain of any thing, and for all we know, a Part p. 16may be bigger than the Whole, two and two may make twenty, and both parts of a Contradiction may be true. Nay we can never be certain whether we are not Dreaming when we think we are Awake, and whether we are not Awake when we think we are Dreaming. Either therefore we must renounce all Certainty whatsoever, and fluctuate in eternal Scepticism, or allow that to be True and Reasonable which all Understandings do unanimously vote so.

IV. THAT there are certain Rules of Moral Goodness concerning the immutable Reason whereof all Understandings are agreed. For such are all those which prescribe the Dueness of Worship and Veneration to God, of Obedience and Loyalty to our Parents and Superiours, of Temperance and Fortitude to our selves, and of Justice and Charity to one another; to the Goodness and Reasonableness of which Rules, all Understandings do as unanimously consent, as to the truth of any Proposition in the Mathematicks. Now of all the orders of Reasonable Beings, that which we most converse with and with whose Consent and Agreement in any matters we are best acquainted, is that of Men; and therefore if among Men we can discover such an Universal p. 17Agreement concerning the Goodness of these Rules as will warrant us to conclude all other Rational Beings to be consenting with them, this will be a sufficient Demonstration of the Truth of the Proposition. These two things therefore I shall endeavour to make out, 1. That the Reason of Men is Vniversally consenting in this matter, viz. That there is an immutable Goodness in these Rules of Morality. 2. That this Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other reasonable Beings are consenting with them.

First, THEREFORE there is nothing more evident than that Men are Universally agreed in this matter, that to Worship God, to Honour their Parents and Superiours, to be temperate in their Passions and Appetites, and just and charitable towards one another, are things in their own nature immutably good; that this is not an Opinion peculiar to such an Age, or to such a Nation, or to such a Sect of Religion, but the Vniversal Judgment of all Mankind of whatsoever Age, Nation, or Religion. For 'tis upon this judgment that all that Conscience is founded which approves of or condemns mens actions; which Conscience is nothing else but a Sense or Feeling p. 18of Moral Good and Evil; and is every whit as natural to Mens minds, as the Sense of pleasant or painful touches to their Bodies. Since therefore general Effects must spring from general Causes, it necessarily follows that the Pain and Pleasure which Mens minds generally feel upon the Commission of bad and good Actions, must be resolved into some general Cause; and what else can that be, but the general Consent of their Reason concerning the immutable Evil of the one and Good of the other? I know 'tis pretended by some of our Modern Navigators that there are a sort of People in the World who have not the least sense of Good and Evil, and do own neither God nor Religion nor Morality. But considering the short Converse and imperfect Intercourse which these our new Discoverers have had with those Barbarous Countries, it is fairly supposeable that the Inhabitants may have Notions both Religious and Moral, of which Strangers who understand not their Language and Customs, and Manners, can make little or no Discovery. But suppose that what they report were true; yet by their own confession these wretched Barbarians are in all other things so extreamly Brutish, that they discover no p. 19other token of their Humanity but their Shape. For they live altogether regardless of themselves; of the Conveniences of their Lives, and of the Dignity of their Natures; without making any Reflections on their own minds, or any Observations from their own experience. Since therefore all Knowledge is acquired by Attention, it is not at all impossible for Creatures so utterly supine and negligent to be ignorant of the most common Notions. But for any man to question the truth of this general Rule, because there are a few Exceptions from it, is every whit as absurd as if he should question whether Men are generally two-legg'd Animals, because there have been some Monsters with three. And what if among men there are some Monsters in respect of their Minds, as well as others in respect of their Bodies? This is no more a prejudice to the standing Laws of Humane Nature, than Prodigies are to the Regularity of the constant course of Vniversal Nature. Specimen naturae cujuslibet, saith Tully, à natura optima sumendum est, i. e. The true sample of every Nature is to be taken from the best Natures of the kind. Since therefore the men of all Nations and Ages and Religions who have in any measure attended to the Nature of p. 20things, and made but any tolerable use of their Reasons, are, and always have been universally agreed that there is an immutable Good in Vertue, and Evil in Vice; it is no Argument at all that this is not the general Sense of Mankind, supposing it true which is very questionable, that there are some few such inhumane Barbarians in the World as make no distinction at all between 'em. But then

Secondly, THIS Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter, is a sufficient Demonstration that all other Reasonable Beings are consenting with them. For it shews that God himself is of this mind; and if He be, we may be sure that all other Reasonable Beings are. For if we believe that God made us, we must believe that he made us for some End; and if he made us for any End, he must esteem those Actions good which promote it, and those evil which obstruct and hinder it. And what other End can an infinitely happy and blessed Being have in making other Beings; but only to do 'em good and according to their several Capacities to make them partakers of his own Happiness? And if this be the end for which God made us, to be sure those Actions must be good in his esteem that are beneficial, and those evil that are hurtful p. 21and mischievous to our Nature. And therefore since he hath implanted in us not only a natural Desire of Happiness; but also a rational Faculty to discern what Actions make for our Happiness and what not, we may be sure that whatsoever this Faculty doth Vniversally determine to be good or evil for us, is good or evil in the Judgment of God. 'Tis true when the Reason that is in one man judges contrary to the Reason that is in another, there must be a Disagreement on one side or the other from the Reason and Judgment of God; but when all mens Reason is agreed that this is good and that evil, it is plain that this is is the Judgment of the Rational Faculty which naturally makes such a Distinction of things. For there is no man that uses his Reason can possibly think that Truth and Falshood, Justice and Injustice, Mercy and Cruelty are equally good in themselves; his Rational Faculty being so framed as that at the first glance and reflection, it naturally distinguishes 'em into Good and Evil. When therefore God hath created us with such a Faculty as naturally makes such a Judgment of Good and Evil, that Judgment must be Gods as well as the Faculty which made it. That therefore which is the unanimous Judgment of p. 22all Men, must be the Natural Language of the Rational Faculty; and that which is the natural Language of the Rational Faculty must be the Language of the God of Nature. For he who created me with such a Faculty as naturally judges this Good and that Evil, must either have the same Judgment himself, or create in me a Contradiction to his own Judgment; and that Judgment which he hath created in me, he must be supposed to create in all other Beings that are capable of Judging; otherwise he would be the author of Contradictory Judgments. For, should one Rational Faculty naturally judge this, and another the contrary, they must necessarily be so framed as to contradict each other, and consequently he who framed both must be the Author of the Contradiction. So that this universal Consent of Men concerning the Good and Evil of Humane Actions is a plain Evidence that God and all other Rational Beings are consenting with 'em.

V. AND Lastly, that Mens acting conformably to these Rules of Moral Goodness, in which they are thus universally consenting, hath by long and constant Experience been found most conducive to Mens Welfare and Happiness. For the p. 23Proof whereof I shall need urge no other Argument than this, that the great Design of all Humane Laws and Constitutions hath been to secure and inforce these Rules of Morality; which is a plain Argument that Men have always found by Experience that they are naturally good and productive of their Happiness and Wellfare. For how can it be thought that after men have had so many thousand years Trial of Piety and Justice and Mercy and Temperance, they should still be so solicitous to fence and guard 'em with Laws, had they not found 'em highly advantagious, and their Contraries as mischievous to Mankind. For do but suppose that the Contraries to all Vertue were for Experiment-sake imposed for some time upon Mankind, and it were made as Penal by the Laws of Nations to be Pious, and Just, Merciful, and Temperate as it is now to be the contrary; is it imaginable that that which we now call Vice should in process of time acquire the same Universal Reputation that Virtue hath always had among men? Or at least, is it probable that after some thousand years Trial and Experience of such a Law, Men should still be as much concerned to guard and inforce it, as they are and always have been to secure p. 24the Laws of Piety and Virtue? No, it is most certain they would not. For the very injoyning of Impiety, Injustice, and Cruelty would be in effect to injoyn men to render themselves most wretched and miserable; to surrender up all the Supports of their Hope, the Peace of their Consciences and the Tranquillity of their Minds; to live in everlasting Broils and Discords, and turn Robbers and Cut-throats to one another, and utterly deprive themselves of all the Comforts and Securities of Humane Society. So that there is no doubt but after a few Years Experience of the mischievous Consequents of such a Law, the whole World would groan under it as an insupportable Tyranny, and even the most Vicious would soon grow quite weary of it, and heartily wish that it were for ever Repealed, and the good old Laws of Piety and Virtue restored and inforc'd upon Mankind. And if so, it is plain that Virtue and Vice are distinguished by their Natures into good and evil; and that the Obligations we lie under to practise the one, and abstain from the other, are not founded in any Arbitrary Constitution, but in the essential Goodness and Malignity that inseparably adheres to them.

p. 25AND if we consult the Experience of particular Men, we shall always find, that whereas Impiety and Injustice, Fraud, and Malice do naturally torment mens Minds with Anguish and Confusion, haunt their Breasts with fearful Thoughts and dire Expectations, harrass their Souls with perpetual Malecontentedness, and intricate their whole Lives with everlasting Shifts and Intrigues; Piety and Justice, Truth and Benevolence do as naturally sooth and ravish their Minds, fill 'em with blessed Hopes and▪ chearful Reflections; compose their Passions, strengthen and invigorate their Hearts, and render the whole Course of their Lives plain and direct, even and easie. And hereby Vertue doth sensibly recommend it self to our Natures in all its Capacities, as being suted to the Satisfaction of all its reasonable Desires, and so by consequence designed to make up the compleatest and most intire Enjoyment. All which is as plain and obvious to the Reason of Mankind as any Matter of Fact that is before us. So that 'tis not only the Reason, but also the Experience of Mankind that universally agrees and consents in this great Truth, that there is such a Good in Virtuous and such an Evil in Vicious Actions, as doth p. 26eternally and inseparably cleave to their Natures.

AND therefore since our Nature is to continue the same for ever; the same Vertues and Vices which are now the Perfection and Depravation, and consequently the Happiness and Misery of it, will be so for ever. From whence it necessarily follows, that our eternal Happiness and Misery is founded in the Course of our own Actions. So that as in the Course of a virtuous Life we are growing up into a State of fixed and everlasting Vertue, wherein we shall be everlastingly Perfect and Happy; so on the contrary, in a course of vicious Actions we are sinking into a state of everlasting Viciousness, wherein we shall be everlastingly wretched and miserable. For since Virtue is good for and Vice evil to us in its own Nature, it necessarily follows that according as we remain Virtuous or Vicious for ever, our Condition must be good or evil for ever. And this being so, of what unspeakable Consequence are the Actions of Men, that thus draw after 'em a Chain of Joys or Woes as long as Eternity? And how careful ought we to be, to what course of Life we determine our selves, considering that our eternal Fate depends upon what we are now p. 27doing; that every Moral Action we perform is a step Heaven or Hell wards; that in every bad or good Choice we make, we are planting our Tophet or our Paradise; and that in the Consequents of our present Actions we shall rue or rejoyce to eternal Ages? O would to God men would at last be so wise as to consider these things before it be too late, and not live at Random, as they do, without any Regard to the certain and unavoidable Fate of their own Actions! For doubtless would they but throughly weigh the Nature and Event of things, and look before they leap into Action, they would see infinitely more Charm and Terror in that Good and Evil which inseparably adheres to virtuous and vicious Actions, than in all the Temptations in the World. Wherefore in the name of God let us look about us, and for once resolve to act like Beings that must for ever feel the bad or good effects of our own Doings. Which if we do, we shall not only live well and happily here, but to all Eternity experience the blessed Consequents of it.

p. 28SECT. II. That God hath sufficiently discovered to us what those Humane Actions are, which are Morally Good, and upon that account perpetually obliging.

THE Truth of which will evidently appear by considering the Particulars, what it is that God hath done in order to the making this great Discovery to us; the most considerable of which are reducible to these six Heads,

First, HE hath implanted in us a natural Desire of Happiness.

Secondly, HE hath given us Reason to discern what Actions they are that make for our Happiness, and what not.

Thirdly, HE hath so contrived our Natures as that we are thrust on by our own Instincts and Passions, to those Actions which make for our Happiness.

Fourthly, HE hath taken care to excite and oblige us to those Actions by annexing natural Rewards to them and entailing natural Punishments on their Contraries.

Fifthly, To strengthen and inforce this Obligation, he hath frequently superadded to these natural Rewards and Punishments supernatural Blessings and Judgments.

p. 29Sixthly, THAT to enforce all this he hath made sundry supernatural Revelations wherein he hath plainly told us what those things are that carry with 'em this intrinsick Good and Necessity,

I. GOD hath taken care to discover to us what is Morally Good by implanting in us a natural Desire of Happiness; which is so inseparable to Humane nature, that 'tis impossible for us to forbear desiring what is good for us, or at least what appears so. For tho through our own Ignorance and Inconsideration we many times mistake Evil for Good, and Misery for Happiness, yet such is the Frame of our Nature, that we cannot desire Evil as Evil, or Misery as Misery; but whensoever we imbrace a real Evil, 'tis either under the Notion of a less Evil, or of a real and substantial Good. Now by this unquenchable Thirst and Desire of Happiness which God hath implanted in our Natures, we are continually importuned and excited to search out and enquire by what Ways and Means we may arrive to be happy. So that as Hunger and Thirst and the sense of bodily Pain and Pleasure forceth men upon the invention of Trades and civil Occupations to supply their Necessities and Conveniences: So this vehement Hunger and Thirst after Happiness, which God hath created in our p. 30Bosoms, doth almost necessitate and constrain us to pry into the Nature of our Actions; that so we may discover what Trade and Course of life it is that tends most directly to our own Felicity. And by thus importuning us by our own self▪love to enquire into the Nature of our Actions and into their natural tendencies to our Weal or Woe, he hath not only expressed his good will towards us by taking Security of our selves for our own Welfare, and obliging us to be happy by the most tender and vigorous Passion in our Natures, but hath also taken an effectual Course to discover to us the Good and Evil of our own Actions; Considering,

II. THAT he hath given us Reason to discern what Actions they are that make for our Happiness and what not. 'Tis true, had he only implanted in our Breasts a blind Desire of Happiness, without any Eye of Reason in our Heads to guide and direct our Actions towards it, we must have wandered in the dark for ever, till we had pined away our wretched Beings with a hungry and unsatisfied Desire. But by giving us a quick-sighted Faculty of Reason to guide and conduct this our blind Desire, he hath taken sufficient care not only to excite our Enquiry after the Way to Happiness, but also to inable p. 31us to find it. For the natural tendencies of our Actions to our Happiness or Misery are so very obvious and visible, that we can scarce open our Eyes and look abroad without observing them. For how can any man who makes any observations upon things, be so stupid as not to discern the vast Difference there is between Truth and Falshood, Justice and Injustice, as to their natural tendency to the Good and Hurt, Happiness and Misery of Mankind? 'Tis true, if men will neglect using their Reason, they may be ignorant of the plainest Propositions; but if they be, 'tis their inexcusable Folly. But if men will be so true to their own Interest, as calmly to reflect upon their Actions, their Sense cannot more readily distinguish between Honey and Gall, than their Reason will beween Virtue and Vice; the fundamental Reasons of which are so legible in all the Appearances of Nature, so necessary to the Being and Preservation of Mankind, and their equity is so apparent, and their Convenience so obvious, that a man can hardly reflect upon any thing either within or without him, without being convinced of their Force and Obligation. So that for a man that hath the use of his Reason not to observe the Difference of his Actions, as p. 32to their intrinsick Good and Evil, and necessary Tendency to his Happiness and Misery, would be as gross and unexcusable a Stupidity, as if he should pass through the World without ever taking notice that two and two make four. God therefore by giving us a Reasonable Faculty to discern the nature of things, upon which the Differences of Good and Evil are so plainly and legibly imprinted, hath hereby taken sufficient Care to shew us the difference of our own Actions. For, to inspire us with a Faculty of Reasoning, by which we can form true Notions of things from single Experiments and infer one truth from another, and immediately to inspire this Faculty with Divine Truth, are only two different Modes of Divine Revelation; and God did as really reveal himself to us when he gave us Reason to understand his Will, as when he sent to us his Messengers from Heaven to make known his mind and Will to us. For God hath so framed our Understandings, as that whensoever we impartially reason about things, we are forced to distinguish between Good and Evil, and cannot persuade our selves without doing infinite Violence to our own Faculties, that to Blaspheme God or to Reverence him, to lie or speak Truth, to p. 33honour our Parents or to scorn and despise them are things of an indifferent Nature; but as soon as ever we open the Eye of our Reason we discern such an essential Difference between them, as forces us to condemn the one and approve the other. And accordingly as for the great strokes of Iniquity, we find they have as much the Universal Judgment of our Reason against them as any false Conclusion in the Mathematicks; whilst the Goodness of their contrary Vertues is as universally acknowledged by us as the Truth of any first Principle in Philosophy. Since therefore God hath so framed our Understanding as that it cannot calmly reflect upon our Actions without distinguishing between the good and bad, he hath hereby sufficiently revealed to us what that good is that immutably binds and obliges us.

III. GOD hath so contrived our Natures as that we are thrust on by our own Instincts and Passions to those Actions which are morally Good and do make for our Happiness. For we are framed and constituted with such Passions and Affections as do naturally point and direct us unto vertuous Actions; and tho by the Constitution of our Natures, our Passions are subjected to our Reason, and all our Vertue p. 34consists in being reasonably affected, yet in the very Nature of our Passions there is a certain Tendency and Direction to Vertue, antecedent to all our Reasoning and Discourse. Which Theages the Pythagorean stiles a foreign, a certain natural Impetus or Enthusiasme by which without any previous Discourse or Deliberation we are forcibly carried on towards vertuous Actions. For some Affections there are in our Nature, which do in the general plainly signifie to us that there is such a thing as Moral Good and Evil in Humane Actions; and others that do as plainly point out what those Actions are wherein this moral good and evil is subjected. Of the first sort are the Affections of Love and Hatred, Complacency and Horror, Glory and Shame, Repentance and Self-satisfaction; which plainly declare that there are answerable Objects in the Nature of Things and Actions; that there is a Good to be beloved and an Evil to be hated; a Deformity to be abhorred and a Beauty to be delighted in; an Excellency to be gloried in and a Filthiness to be ashamed of; a Well-doing to be satisfied … an Ill doing to be repented of. For … the…e were no such real Distinctions in p. 35the Nature of Things and Actions, all these Affections in us would be utterly vain and impertinent. And as these Affections of our Nature do signifie in the general that there is a moral Good and Evil in our Actions, so there are others which do particularly point out what Actions are morally Good and what Evil. Thus for Instance, the Passions of Veneration and Disdain do plainly direct us to Honour God and our Superiors, and to be constant in good Courses out of a generous Scorn of all Temptations to the contrary. Thus Commiseration and Envy direct us to Charity and Justice, to lament and assist those who are undeservedly unfortunate, and to be displeased with the Advancement of base and undeserving People; and consequently to be just and equal in our Distributions, and to proportion them to mens Merit and Desert. For by this Passion of Envy Nature teaches us that there is such a thing as just and unjust, equal and unequal, and that the former is to be embraced and the latter to be shunned. And to name no more, thus Sorrow and Joy doth by a silent Language disswade us from injuring and perswade us to benefit one another. For so by the mournful Voice, the dejected Eyes and Countenance, the Sighs and p. 36Groans and Tears of the sorrowful and opprest, (all which are the powerful Rhetorick of Nature) we are importuned not only to forbear heaping any further Injuries upon them, but also to commiserate their Griefs, and by our timely Aids to succour and relieve them. As on the contrary the florid and chearful Looks, the pleasant and grateful Air which we behold in those that rejoyce, are so many Charms and Attractives by which Nature allures us to mutual Vrbanity and Sweetness of Behaviour, and a continual Study to please and gratifie one another. By these and many other Instances I might give, it is evident that tho by our own ill Government we too often deprave our Affections and corrupt them into Vices, yet their natural Drift and tendency lies towards Vertue. Thus by their own natural Light which they carry before us, they direct our steps to the Way we are to walk in, and point out all those Tracts of eternal Goodness that lead to our Happiness. For since these Affections are in us antecedently to all our Deliberations and Choices, it is evident they were placed there by the Author of our Natures; and therefore since 'tis He who hath inclined them to all that they naturally incline to, He doth in Effect direct p. 37and guide us by their Inclinations. So that their natural Tendencies and Directions are the Voice of God in our Natures, which murmurs and whispers to us that natural Law which our Reason indeed doth more plainly and articulately promulge. And from this natural Tendency of our Affections to Good proceeds that pleasant and painful Sense of good and bad Actions which we experience in our selves before ever we can discourse. For thus before we are capable of reasoning our selves into any Pleasure or Displeasure, our Nature is rejoyced in a kind or just Action either in our selves or others, and we are sensibly pleased when we have pleasured those that oblige us, and as sensibly grieved when we are conscious of having grieved and offended them. We love to see those fare well who we imagine have deserved well; and when any unjust Violence is offered them, our Nature shrinks at and abhors it. We pity and compassionate the miserable when we know not why; and are ready to offer at their Relief when we can give no Reason for it; which shews that these things proceed not either from our Education or deliberate Choice, but from the Nature of our Affections which have a Sympathy with Vertue, and an Antipathy to Vice implanted p. 38in their very Constitution. And hence it is that in the Beginnings of Sin our Nature is commonly so shy of an evil Action; that it approaches it with such a modest Coyness, and goes blushing to it like a bashful Virgin to an Adulterers Bed; that it passes into it with such Regret and Reluctancy, and looks back upon it with such Shame and Confusion; which in our tender years, when as yet we are not arrived to the Exercise of our Understandings, cannot be supposed to proceed from Reason and Conscience, and therefore must be from the natural Sense of our Affections, which by these and such like Indications do signifie that they are violated and offended. Now this natural Sense of Good and Evil which springs from the Frame and Nature of our Affections, was doubtless intended by God to be the … guide of Humane Nature; that so when as yet 'tis not capable of following Reason and Conscience, it might be directed to what is Good and be preserved from wicked Habits and Prejudices by its own Sense and Feeling, till such time as it's capable of the Conduct of Reason; that so when this leading Faculty undertakes the Charge of it, it may find it … to its … and p. 39be able to manage it with more Ease and Facility. And thus by the natural Drift and Tendency of our Affections God hath plainly revealed to us what is good and what not.

IV. GOD hath also entailed upon our Actions natural Rewards and Punishments, and thereby plainly declared which are good and which evil. For it is easily demonstrable by an Induction of Particulars, that every Vertue hath some natural Efficacy in it to advance both our publick Good and our private Interest. That Temperance and Charity, Righteousness and Fidelity, Gratitude and Humility are not only convenient, but absolutely necessary to our Joy and Comfort, our Peace and Quietness, our Safety and Contentment; to the Health of our Body and the Satisfaction of our Mind, and the Security and Happiness of our Society with one another. Whereas on the contrary, Vice naturally teems with mischievous Effects, and is ever productive of Horror in the Conscience, Anguish in the mind, Discord in the Affections, Diseases in the Body, and Confusions and Disturbances in Humane Society. Since therefore the Divine Wisdom and Contrivance hath thus inseparably coupled good Effects to good Actions and evil ones to evil, it hath hereby very plainly and p. 40sensibly declared to us what it would have us do and what not. For seeing it hath so constituted things as that in the Course of Nature such Proportions of Happiness do necessarily result to us from such Actions, and such Proportions of Misery from their Contraries, what can be more evident than that its Design was hereby to encourage us to the one and affright us from the other? So that by these natural Rewards and Punishments which in the Course of things God hath chained to our Actions, he hath as expresly prescribed us what to do and what not, as he could have done if he had spoken to us in an audible voice from the Battlements of Heaven. For since the whole Train of Natural Effects is to be resolved into the Providence of God, and since his Providence hath so ordered and contrived things as that in the ordinary Course of them good Effects do spring out of good Actions and evil out of evil ones, what else could he intend by it but to allure us to the one, and terrifie us from the other? For it is by Rewards and Punishments that all Lawgivers declare their Will and Pleasure concerning those Actions which they command and sorbid; and therefore since God in his Providential Government of the World hath p. 41thought good to link natural Rewards to such Actions, and natural Punishments to such, these are to be lookt upon as the great Sanctions of the Law of Nature, whereby he commands what pleases and prohibits what displeases him. For when God had no otherwise revealed himself to the World than only by the establsht Course and Nature of things, that was the great Bible by which alone Mankind was instructed in their Duty; and there being no revealed Threats or Promises annexed to good and bad Actions, Gods Will and Pleasure concerning them was visible only in the good and bad Consequents which they drew after them; which are so plain and obvious to the Observation of Mankind, that 'twould be the most inexcusable Inadvertency not to take Notice of them. So that the moral Good and Evil of all Actions, finally resolves into the natural Good and Evil that is appendant to them; and therefore are our Actions morally good because they are naturally beneficial to us, and therefore morally evil because they are naturally prejudicial and hurtful; and those which in their own nature are neither good nor evil, are indifferent in themselves, and left altogether undetermined by the Law of Nature, which commands p. 42and forbids nothing but under the Sanction of those natural Rewards and Punishments which in the Course of things are made necessary to Humane Actions.

V. TO these natural Rewards and Punishments which God hath entailed upon good and bad Actions, he hath thought good many times to superadd supernatural Blessings and Judgments. For tho he had before sufficiently expressed his Will concerning Humane Actions in the great Bible of Nature, and by their natural Effects had plainly enough distinguished the good from the bad; yet considering what heedless and inobservant Creatures we are, and how apt to overlook the ordinary Consequents of our Actions, he hath not altogether abandoned us to the easie Instructions of Nature, but out of his superabundant Care to shew us what is Good and lead us to our Duty and Happiness, he hath from time to time seconded the natural Rewards and Punishments of our Actions with supernatural Favours and Judgments; that so by these he might awake our drowsie Attention, and revive in us the languishing sense of our Duty. Of which we have infinite Instances in the several Ages of the World; there being scarce any History either Sacred or p. 43Prosane that abounds not with them. Several of which both Blessings and Judgments do as plainly evince themselves to be intended by God for Rewards and Punishments, as if they had been attended with a Voice from Heaven proclaiming the Reasons for which they were sent. For how many famous Instances have of we miraculous Deliverances of Righteous Persons, who by an Invisible Hand have been rescued from the greatest Dangers, when in all outward appearance their Condition was hopeless and desperate; and of wonderful Blessings that have hapned to them not only without, but contrary to all secondary Causes; of some that have been so eminently rewarded in kind, as that the Goods which they received were most visible Significations of the Goods which they did; of others who have received the Blessings which they have asked, whilst they were praying for them, and obtained them with such distinguishing Circumstances as plainly signified them to be the Answers and Returns of their devout Addresses to Heaven? And so on the contrary, how many notable Examples are there of such miraculous Judgments inflicted upon unrighteous Persons, as have either exceeded the Power of secondary Causes or been p. 44caused by them contrary to their natural tendencies; of men that have been punished in the very Act of their Sin, and sometimes in the very Part by which they have offended; that have had the evil of their Sin retaliated upon them in a correspondent Evil of Suffering, and been struck with those very Judgments which they have imprecated on themselves in the Justification of a known Falshood? All which supernatural Judgments and Blessings of God are only his Comments on the Text of Nature, by which he farther explains to us the Meaning of those natural Rewards and Punishments which Vertue and Vice draw after them, and shews us what clear Indications they are of his Almighty Pleasure and Displeasure. For when he rewards men supernaturally it is for those Actions that carry a natural Reward with them, and when he punishes them supernaturally it is for such Actions as do carry a natural Punishment with them; so that his supernatural Rewards and Punishments do speak the same Sense and Language with his natural, only they speak plainer and louder to rouse and awake those stupid Souls that are deaf to and regardless of the soft and still voice of natural Rewards and Punishments. Thus when the old p. 45World by not attending to the natural Consequents of their own Actions had almost extinguished their Sense of Good and Evil, God by a supernatural Deluge in which he drowned the wicked and preserved the righteous, consigned to all future Generations a standing Monument of his Hatred of Sin and Love of Righteousness; that so by the Remembrance of it he might keep Mens heedless Minds more attentive to the natural Rewards and Punishments of their Actions. And when the Remembrance of this was almost worn out, and with it mens natural Sense of good and evil, God by raining down Fire and Brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorra, and rescuing the Righteous Lot from that dire Conflagration, alarmed the World with a new Declaration of the wide Distinction he makes between Vertue and Vice. And lastly, when the Vertue of these great Examples was almost spent, God raised up the People of Israel, and by the miraculous Blessings he bestowed on them when they did well, and the stupendous Judgments he inflicted when they did wickedly, exposed them to all the Nations round about for a standing Demonstration of the vast Difference he makes between Good and Evil. For so the Psalmist tells us, p. 46Psalm 98. verse 2. compared with Psalm 102. verse 15. The Lord hath made known his Salvation, his Righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the Heathen; that the Heathen might fear the Name of the Lord, and all the Kings of the Earth his Glory. Thus by frequent Examples of supernatural Rewards and Punishments God hath been always instructing the degenerate World in the essential Differences between Good and Evil.

VI. AND lastly, To inforce all this God hath made sundry supernatural Revelations, wherein he hath plainly instructed us what Actions are good and what evil. That he hath made sundry Revelations to the World is evident in Fact, because there are sundry Revelations extant, which by those many miraculous Effects of the Divine Power that attended the Ministration of them, have been sufficiently demonstrated to be of a divine Original. And such are those contained in the five Books of Moses, and the Prophets, which have been all most amply confirmed, both by the Miracles which were wrought by their inspired Authors, and the exact Accomplishment of the several Predictions contained in them. And such is also the last and best Revelation contained in the New Testament; which p. 47both by the Types and Predictions of the Law and Prophets, and the infinite Miracles wrought by Jesus and his Followers, together with its own inherent Wisdom and Goodness, hath been so effectually proved a divine Revelation, that nothing but Ignorance or inveterate Prejudice can cause any man to disbelieve or suspect it.

NOW if you consult these several Revelations, you will find that the main Drift and Design of them is to detect and expose what is morally evil, and explain and recommend to us what is morally good. For thus the several Revelations made to Abraham and his Children, were only so many Repetitions of that Covenant of Righteousness which God had struck with them, to encourage them to persevere in Well-doing. Thus the Law of Moses consisted partly of Ceremonial Rites, which were either intended for Divine Hieroglyphics to instruct that dull and stupid People in the Principles of inward Purity and Goodness, or else for Types and Figures of the holy Mysteries of the Gospel: and partly of Precepts of Morality, together with some few of Policy, suited to the Genius of that People; and partly of such Promises and Threats as were judged most apt to oblige them to the Practice of Piety. p. 48And as for the Prophets, the substance of their Revelations was either Reprehensions of Sin together with severe Denunciations against it; or Invitations to Vertue and Piety together with gracious Promises to encourage them to practise it; or Predictions of the Messias and of that everlasting Righteousness which was to be introduced by him. And then as for the Gospel, all the Duty of it consists either in Instances, or Means and Instruments of Moral Goodness; and all the Doctrins of it are nothing but powerful Arguments to oblige us to the Practice of those Duties. Thus the great Intendment of all Gods Revelations is to explain and enforce the Duties of Morality; to discover the Nature, and lead us on to the Practice of them by the most powerful Obligations. And in this most perfect Map of the Road to Happiness, all the Tracts of Piety and Vertue are so plainly described and delineated to us, that no man can possibly miss his Way, that sincerely inquires after it. For tho in matters of Opinion men may be innocently mislead and deceived, yet there is no Article either of Doctine or Duty upon which our Happiness necessarily depends, wherein it is possible for an honest and diligent Mind to be mistaken. And thus you p. 49see by how many excellent Ways God hath discovered to us which of our Actions are good and which evil. So that if after all this we proceed in any sinful and immoral Courses, we are utterly inexcusable. For if after God hath thus plainly made known his Will to us, we still persist to contradict it in our Practice, we do thereby in effect declare that we regard not the Almighty, and that we will do what we list, let him will what he pleases. And what an unpardonable Insolence is it for us who depend upon his Breath, and hang upon his Providence every moment, to treat him as if he had nothing to do with us, and were the merest Cypher and most insignificant ▪ Being in the World? For though 'tis true he hath not made so full a Discovery of his Will to some as to others, yet he hath so sufficiently discovered it to all, that none can pretend to the Excuse either of invincible or unaffected Ignorance. For as for the Heathen, though they have no Revelation of Gods Will without them, yet they have the Bible of Conscience within them, and the large and legible Bible of Nature that lies continually open before them, in which they may easily read the principal Differences between Good and Evil, and all the great p. 50Principles of Morality. And if notwithstanding this they will be so regardless of God as not to attend to and comply with those natural Discoveries of his Will, what Pretence can be made for them why they should not perish for ever in their Obstinacy? For as the Apostle tells us, though they had not the Law, that is, the revealed Law, yet they did, or at least might have done, by nature the things contained in the Law; and therefore as many of them, saith he, as sinned without this revealed Law, shall perish without the Law, that is, by the Sentence of the Law of Nature, Rom. 2.12, 14. And then as for the Jews, besides those natural Indications of Gods Will which they had in common with the Heathen, they had sundry supernatural ones; they had sundry great and notorious Examples of Gods rewarding good men, and punishing bad; and besides they had the Law of Moses, the Moral part of which was but a new Edition of the Law of Nature; as for the Ceremonial Part of it, it was though an obscure, yet an intelligible Representation of all those sublime Motives to Piety and Vertue, which the Gospel more plainly proposes. So that would the Jews but have heedfully attended either to the spiritual Sense of their Law, or to p. 51the Sermons of their Prophets which very much cleared and explained it, they could not have been ignorant either of any material Part of their Duty, or of any considerable Motive by which it is pressed and inforced. And if notwithstanding, they would be so regardless of God, as to take no notice of his Judgments and Mercies; so rude to his Authority as not to mind either his Law within or his Law without them, upon what reasonable Pretence can they excuse themselves? But then as for us Christians we have not only all those natural Discoveries of our Duty which the Heathen had, and all those Supernatural ones which the Jews had, but a great deal more. For in our Revelation the Laws and Motives of Vertue are set before us in a much clearer Light, and are neither wrapt up in Mystical Senses, nor overcast with typical Representations, but laid before us in the most plain and easie Propositions. For that which was the Mystical Sense of the Jewish Law, is the literal Sense of the Christian; in which all those Precepts and Promises and Threats which were delivered to the Jews in dark Riddles, obscure and typical Adumbrations, are brought forth to us from behind the Curtain, and proposed in plain and popular Articles. So p. 52that if we still continue in our sinful Courses, we are of all men the most inexcusable. The Heathen may plead against the Jews, that their Law of Nature was not so clear in its Precepts, nor yet so cogent in its Motives as the Law of Moses; the Jews may plead against us Christians, that their Law of Moses was neither so express in its Precepts, nor yet so intelligible in its best and most powerful Motives as our Gospel; but as for us Christians, we have nothing to plead, but by our own Obstinacy against the clearest Discoveries of our Duty do stand condemned to everlasting Silence. So that when it shall appear at the dread Tribunal of God, that we have persisted in our wickedness notwithstanding all these Advantages, we must expect to be reproached by all the Reasonable World, to be exploded and hiss'd at, not only by Saints and Angels, but by the Jews and the Gentiles, and the Devils themselves, who will all conspire with our own Consciences to second our woful Doom with the Loud Acclamation of Just and Righteous art thou O Lord in all thy Ways. Wherefore as we would not perish for ever without Pity and Excuse, let us make hast to forsake all ungodliness and worldly Lusts, and to live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present World.

p. 53SECT. III. That those Actions which carry with them this perpetual Obligation are the main and principal Parts of Religion.

THE truth of which is most evident from the abovenamed Text, Mic. 6.8. and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Which Interrogation tho it implies not an absolute Negation, viz. that the Lord required nothing else of them (for under the Law he required Sacrifices and sundry other positive Duties, as under the Gospel he requires Sacraments and Reading and Hearing his holy Word, &c. which are positive Duties as well as those legal Institutions of Moses;) yet it plainly implies a comparative Negation, viz. that the Lord requires nothing else so principally and affectionately, so for the sake of the things themselves and upon the account of their own inherent Beauty and Goodness, as he doth these Moral Duties here specified. He did indeed require the Jews to offer Sacrifice to him and to perform those other Ceremonial Rites specified in the p. 54Law of Moses; and for them wilfully to have neglected those Duties would have been such an avowed Defiance to his Authority as would have rendred them justly obnoxious to all the Judgments threatned in their Law; but yet he did much more earnestly require them to be just and merciful and humble, and manifested himself to be far better pleased with one Act of Moral Goodness than with a thousand Sacrifices. And thus he requires of us Christians that we should communicate with him and with one another in our Evangelical Sacraments, and dutifully conform to all those sacred Institutions and Solemnities of Religion which are contained in the Gospel; and if we wilfully neglect them we justly incur all that everlasting Vengeance which is there denounced; but yet our sincere compliance with the immutable Obligations of Piety and Vertue, is a thousandfold more acceptable to God than our strictest Observation of these his positive Institutions. So that the Question in the Text what doth the Lord require of thee plainly implies this Proposition, that tho God doth exact of us certain Duties which are not moral, i. e. have no intrinsick necessity in them, yet it is the Moral Duties, such as Justice and p. 55Mercy and Humility which he principally requires at our hand. Thus concerning Sacrifice, God plainly tells us, I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice, i. e. I will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice, Hos. 6.6. And the Wise man assures us that to do Justice is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice, Prov. 21.3. And to the same purpose our Saviour himself pronounceth, even before that Ceremonial Worship was Abolished, that to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our understanding, with all our Soul, and with all our strength, and to love our neighbour as our selves is more than all burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices, Mark 12.33. But for the clearer Demonstration of this great and necessary Truth, I shall endeavour, First, to prove the Truth of it by some Scripture Arguments, Secondly, to assign the Reasons of it. As for the Proof of it, the following Particulars will be abundantly sufficient,

First, THAT the Scripture plainly declares that the great Design of all the Doctrinals of Religion hath always been to move and perswade men to the practice of Moral Goodness.

Secondly, THAT the main Drift and Scope of all the positive Duties of Religion hath been always to improve and perfect men in Moral Goodness.

p. 56Thirdly, THAT God expresses in Scripture a great Contempt of all the positive Duties of Religion when ever they are separated from Moral Goodness.

Fourthly, THAT where ever we find the Whole of Religion summ'd up in a few Particulars, they are always such as are Instances of Moral Goodness.

Fifthly, THAT wherever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described in Scripture, their Character always consists of some Instances or other of Moral Goodness.

Sixthly, THAT the Scripture plainly declares that at the great Account between God and our Souls, the main Inquisition will be concerning our Moral Good or Evil.

I. THE Scripture expresly declares that the great Design of the Doctrins of Religion is to move and perswade men to Moral Goodness. For so the Apostle speaking of the Grace of God, i. e. the Gospel, assures us that its great Design is to teach men to deny all ungodliness and Worldly Lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and Godly in this present World. Tit. 2.12. And if we consider the Doctrines in Particular, we shall find that they all conspire in this great Design. For so the Doctrine of eternal life is proposed by God to perswade us to p. 57cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God, 2. Cor. 7.1. So also the Doctrine of our future Punishment is levell'd against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men, Rom. 1.18. And as for those Doctrines which concern the Transactions of our Saviour, they are all proposed to us as Arguments to perswade us to Piety and Vertue. For 'twas for this cause that Christ was manifested, to destroy the works of the Devil, 1 John 3.8. 'twas for this purpose that he bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live to Righteousness, 1 Pet. 2.24. 'twas for this end that he rose from the dead, that thereby he might prevail with us to walk in newness of life, Rom. 6.4. and 'tis for this end that he intercedes for us at the right hand of God, that thereby he might encourage us to come to God by him, Heb. 7.2. and in a word, for this cause he hath told us he will come to Judgment, to reward every man according to his works, that thereby he might stir us up to Sobriety and Vigilance and to all holy conversation and Godliness, Mat. 24.42. compared with 2 Pet. 3. verse 11. Thus you see all the Doctrines of Religion are only so many Topics of divine Perswasion, whereby God addresses himself to our p. 58Hope and Fear and every other Affection in us that is capable of Perswasion, to excite us to comply with the eternal Obligations of Morality; and there is no one Article in all our Religion, that is matter of mere Speculation, or that entertains our Minds with dry and empty Notions that have no Influence on our Wills and Affections. For since the Design of Religion in General, is to bind and fasten our Souls to God, we may be sure that there is no Part of it but what doth in some measure contribute hereunto. Since therefore 'tis moral Goodness that God chiefly recommends to us by the Perswasions of Religion, we may be sure that what his Arguments do chiefly perswade us to, that his Commands do chiefly oblige us to.

II. FROM Scripture it is also evident that the main Drift and Scope of all the positive Duties of Religion is to improve and perfect men in moral Goodness. We find the Jewish Religion exceedingly abounded with positive Precepts; for such were all those sacred Rites and Solemnities of which the Bark and Outside of that Religion consisted; of all which 'tis true what the Psalmist saith of Sacrifices in particular, thou desirest not Sacrifices, thou delightest not in burnt Offerings, Psal. p. 5951.16. that is, thou takest no delight in them upon the score of any internal Goodness that is in them, but desirest them merely as they are instituted means and Instruments of Moral Goodness. For so many of the Rites of the Mosaic Law were instituted in opposition to the Magical, Vnclean and Idolatrous Rites of the Eastern Heathen. As particularly, that Prohibition of sowing their Fields with mingled Seed, Lev. 19.19. in Opposition to that Magical Rite which the Heathens used as a Charm for Fructification. So also that Command of sprinkling the Blood of their Sacrifices upon the Ground like Water and covering it with Dust, in Opposition to that Idolatrous Rite of gathering the Blood into a Trench or Vessel, and then sitting round it in a Circle, whilst they imagined their gods to be licking it up. And to name no more of this kind, the Prohibition of seething a Kid in his Mothers Milk, Exod. 23.19. was in Opposition to a Custom of the Ancient Heathen, who at the Ingathering of their Fruits were wont to take a Kid and seeth it in the milk of its Dam, and then in a Magical Procession to sprinkle all their Trees and Fields and Gardens with it, thereby to render them more fruitful the following Year. Besides all p. 60which you may find a World of other Instances in Maimonides More-Nevoch. lib. 3. who tells us, that the Knowledg of the Opinions and Customs of these Eastern Heathens was porta magna ad reddendas praeceptorum causas, the great Rationale of the Mosaic Precepts; and that multarum legum rationes & causae mihi innotuerint ex cognitione fidei, rituum & Cultus Zabiorum; i. e. that by being acquainted with the opinions and customs of those Eastern Heathens he understood the grounds and reasons of many of the Laws of Moses, More-Nevoch. lib. 3. cap. 29. So that tho these Precepts were not Moral, yet were they set up as so many Fences by God, to keep his People from stragling into those Heathen Immoralities.

AGAIN, there are other Rites of their Religion, which were instituted to shadow out the Holy Mysteries of the Gospel; the great Design of which Mysteries was to invite and perswade men to comply with the eternal Laws of Morality. Thus their Laws of Sacrifice were instituted to represent to them the great Transactions of their future Messias; his Incarnation and immaculate Life, his Death and Resurrection, Ascension and Intercession at the right hand of God. So also their Festival Laws, p. 61and particularly their Laws of Jubilee, were made to shadow out the Doctrines of our Redemption and eternal Life; and their powring out Water in their Sacrifices, and their Ritual Purgations from uncleanness, were intended for obscure Intimations of the Effusion of the holy Spirit, and the Doctrine of Remission of Sins; all which Doctrines carry with them the most pregnant Invitations to Piety and Vertue.

Lastly. THERE are other Rites of that Law which were appointed to instruct them in Moral Duties. For God finding them not only a perverse but a dull and sottish People, as those generally are that have been born and bred in Slavery, apprehended that the most effectual way to instruct them would be by Signs and material Representations, even as Parents do their Children by Pictures. And accordingly in Isaiah 28.10. he tells us that he gave them line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, with a stammering tongue; i. e. he look'd upon them as Children, and so condescended to their Weakness, and spake to them in their own Dialect. And this way of instructing them by outward and visible Signs, being much in use in the Eastern Countries, and more especially in Egypt, whose manners p. 62they were infinitely fond of, was of all others the most probable and taking. And accordingly a great part of the Jewish Rites consisted of Hieroglyphics, or visible Signs, by which their minds were instructed in the Precepts of Morality. Thus by Circumcision God signified to them the necessity of mortifying their unchast Desires; by their Legal Washings he intimated to them their Obligation to cleanse themselves from all Impurities of Flesh and Spirit; yea this, as St. Barnabas in his Epistle tells us, was the Intent of all that Difference of Meats in the Jewish Law, which pronounced Swines flesh unclean, to instruct them not to live like Hogs, that wallow in the Mire while they are full, and whine and clamor when they are empty; which forbid them to feed on Eagles and other Birds of Prey, to instruct them to live by honest Industry, and not by Rapine; which prohibits Fish without Scales, that generally live in the Mud, to teach the evil of Sensuality and earthly-mindedness, &c. From all which it is evident that Moral Goodness was the constant Mark at which all the positive Precepts of their Law were levelled.

AND then as for the Christian Religion, all the positive Precepts it contains are directed to the same End. It requires us p. 63to believe in Jesus Christ, and in his Mediation to draw near unto God; the Design of which Faith it expresly tells us is to Sanctifie our natures, Acts 26.18. and to purifie our hearts, Acts 15.9. It enjoyns us to be Baptized into the name of Jesus; and for what purpose? but to oblige us thereby to die to sin and to walk in newness of life, Rom. 6.4. It requires us to commemorate our Saviour's Passion in a Sacramental Communion of his Body and Blood; and to what End? but only to excite us to Love and Thankfulness to God, and Charity towards one another, 1 Cor. 5.7, 8. In a word, it requires us to live in Vnity with the Church, and not to separate our selves from her sacred Assemblies; and for what other reason? but that we might become an holy Temple, and an habitation of God, by being compacted together into an uniform and regular Society, Eph. 2.21, 22. Since therefore all the Precepts both of the Old and New Testament which are purely positive, do bear a Respect to Moral Goodness, and were imposed by God in subserviency thereunto, it is evident that that is the principal Mark which he designs and aims at.

III. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal p. 64Matter of our Duty, is the great Contempt which God expresses of the positive Duties of Religion when ever they are separated from moral Goodness. For thus concerning the Positives of the Jewish Religion, we are told that the Sacrifice of the wicked is an Abomination to the Lord. Prov. 15.8. And concerning the Whole of their positive Religion, the Prophet thus pronounces in the Name of God, to what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices to me saith the Lord? I am full of the burnt-Offerings of Rams, and of the fat of fed Beasts, i. e, so full as that I loath them; and I delight not in the Blood of Bullocks, or of Lambs, or of He-Goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required these things at your hands, to tread my Courts? bring no more vain Oblations, Incense is Abomination to me; the new Moons and Sabbaths, the calling of Ass…emblies I cannot away with; it is Iniquity, even the Solemn meetings. Your new Moons and your appointed Feasts my Soul hateth, they are a trouble to me, I am weary to bear them. And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes, yea, when ye make many Prayers I will not hear. And what I beseech you is the reason that God should thus dislike his own Institutions? why he plainly tells you, your hands p. 65are full of blood, your Cruelty and Oppression doth prophane your Worship, and turn it all into Impiety, Isai. 1.11. to the 16th. For so Isai. 66.3. he plainly tells them, he that killeth an Ox, is as if he slew a Man; he that Sacrificeth a Lamb, as if he cut off a Dogs neck; he that offereth an Oblation, as if he offered Swines blood; he that burneth Incense, as if he blessed an Idol; and why so? why they have chosen their own ways, i. e. of Impiety and Wickedness, and their Soul delighteth in their Abominations. Nor doth God express a less Contempt of the Positives of Christianity, when separated from Moral Goodness. For thus St. James tells us even of our Faith or Belief in Jesus, that without Works it is dead; that is a sensless, squalid thing that hath neither Life nor Beauty in it, James 2.17. And S. Peter compares Baptism to the washing of a Swine when it is separated from Purity of Life and Manners, 2 Pet. 2.22. And our receiving the Lords Supper without Charity and Devotion is by St. Paul stiled coming together to Condemnation, 1 Cor. 11.34. All which is a plain Demonstration that moral Goodness is the principal matter that God insists on; since 'twas this that sanctified the Sacrifices of the Jews, p. 66and crowned all their Ceremonial Observances with the divine Acceptation, and without this all their other Services were noisom and offensive to him; and it is this that perfumes our Faith and our Sacraments, our Prayers and Religious Assemblies, and renders them a grateful and sweet smelling savor in the Nostrils of God, and without this they are all a hateful stench and Annoyance to him. Doubtless therefore the principal Matter of Duty which God requires of us, is that which he esteems the Grace and Fragrancy of all our other Duties.

IV. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal matter that God requires of us, is, that where ever we find the Whole of Religion summed up in a few Particulars, they are always such as are Parts and Instances of moral Goodness. Thus in the above cited Mic. 6. what doth the Lord require of thee? but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. Thus also the Prophet Isaiah giving an account to his People what they were to do in order to their Reconciliation with God, thus directs them, wash ye, make ye clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well, p. 67seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judg the Fatherless, plead for the Widow; come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord, Isai, 1.16.17, 18. So also our blessed Saviour sums up the Whole Duty of Man into two Particulars, and what are they? why thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; this is the first and great Commandment. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self; on these two Commandments hang the Law and the Prophets, Mat. 22.37, 38, 39, 40. Thus St. James, True Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the Word, James 1.27. And elsewhere the Apostle sums up the whole Law into one leading Head of Morality, and that is Love, for love, saith he, is the fulfilling of the Law, Rom. 13.10. So this Observation generally holds true, that in all those Summaries of Duty mentioned in the holy Scripture, only such Duties are taken Notice of as are Parts and Instances of Morality. Which is a plain Demonstration that 'tis this which God principally requires, since 'tis this which he most takes notice of; and it may be reasonably supposed p. 68that in those Summaries of our Duty wherein but a few Parts are enumerated, they are such as are the Chief and principal; it being contrary to all Rules of Language to express the Whole of any thing, by the meanest and most inconsiderable Parts of it.

V. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of Duty that God requires of us, is, that wheresoever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described, their Character is always made up of Instances of Morality. Thus the Description of Job is, that he was a man perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil, Job 1.1. And in the 15th. Psalm the Description which David gives of the man who should abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord, is this, that he walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart; that he backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour, &c. he that doth these things, saith he, shall never be moved. And the greatest Character that is given of Moses the Darling and Favorite of God, is, that he was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the p. 69Earth, Numb. 12.3. Thus also the Character of Cornelius by which he was so indeared to God, is, that he was a just and devout man, one that feared God with all his house, who gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God always, Acts 10.2. And in a word, the general Character of those whom God accepts, is, in every Nation he who doth righteousness is accepted of God, Acts 10.35. Thus moral Goodness is the great Stamp and Impress that renders men current in the Esteem of God; whereas on the contrary, the common Brand by which Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion are stigmatized, is their being zealous for the Positives, and cold and indifferent as to the Morals of Religion. For so our Saviour Characters the Pharisees; woe unto you Scribes, and Pharisees, Hypocrites; for ye pay tyth of Mint, Annis, and Cummin ▪ which yet was a positive Duty, and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law, Judgment, Mercy, and Faithfulness; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind Guides, ye strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel, Math. 23.23.24. plainly implying the Morals of Religion to be as much greater than the Positives in weight and moment, as a Camel is than a Gnat in bulk. Since therefore p. 70Moral Goodness is always mentioned as the great Character of Gods Favourites, and the Neglect of it out of a pretended zeal to the positive Duties of Religion is always recorded as a Mark of the most odious Hypocrites; this is a sufficient Argument how high a Value God sets upon the Moralities of Religion.

VI. and Lastly, ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal Part of Religion, is, that at the great Account between God and us, his main Inquisition will be concerning such Actions as are morally good or evil, For so Rom. 2.6. we are told that God will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for honour and glory and immortality, eternal life. But to them who are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, tribulation and wrath, indignation and anguish. And accordingly Enoch as he is quoted by St. Jude verses 14.15. declares this to be the Occasion of the Lords coming with thousands of his Saints, viz. to execute Judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them, of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken p. 71against him; all which are matters of Fact against the eternal Rules of Morality. And our Saviour himself in that Popular Scheme and Description he gives of the Proceedings of the Day of Judgment, plainly declares that one of the principal Matters, he will then inquire into, will be our Neglect or Observance of that great moral Duty of Charity towards the poor and needy, Mat. 25.32, 46. Which is a plain Evidence that our obeying or disobeying the eternal Laws of Morality, is that by which we do most please or displease God; since 'tis upon this that he will most insist in his final Arbitration of our eternal Fate. For since his last Judgment is only the final Execution of his Laws, we may be sure that whatsoever it is that he will principally insist on in his Judgment, that is the principal matter of his Laws. And now having sufficiently proved the Truth of the Proposition, I proceed to the Reasons of it; upon what Accounts it is that God hath made moral Goodness the main and principal Part of our Religion. The chief Reasons of which are these four.

First, BECAUSE 'tis by moral Goodness that we do most honor him.

Secondly, BECAUSE 'tis by this that we do most imitate him.

p. 72Thirdly, BECAUSE 'tis by this that we advance to our own Happiness.

Fourthly, WHEN all our positive Duty is ceast, this is to be the eternal Work and Business of our Nature.

I. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Religion, because 'tis by this that we do him the greatest Honour. It is an excellent saying of Hierocles foreign, i. e. the best honour we can do to a self▪sufficient being is to receive the good things he holds forth unto us; and therefore 'tis not by giving to God that you honour him, but by rendring your selves worthy to receive of him; for, saith he, foreign, i. e. whosoever gives honour to God as to one that wants, doth not consider that he thereby sets himself above God. For by his own self-sufficiency he is infinitely removed above all Capacity of Want, and so can never need any additional Contributions of Glory and Happiness from his Creatures. For Glory being nothing else but the Resplendency of Perfection, which always reflects its own p. 73Beams upon it self, where ever there is infinite perfection (as to be sure there is in the Nature of God) there must an infinite Glory proceed from it; and therefore being infinitely glorious in himself, it is impossible that any thing we do should add any further Glory to him. So that if we would truly honour and glorify him, it must not be by giving to, but by receiving from him. Now the best thing we can receive from God, is Himself; and Himself we do receive in our strict compliance with the eternal Laws of Goodness. Which Laws being transcribed from the Nature of God, from his own eternal Righteousness and Goodness, we do by obeying them, derive Gods Nature into ours. So that while we write after the Copie of his Laws, we write out the Perfections of his Being; and his Laws being the Seal upon which he hath ingraven his Nature, we do in obeying them take Impression from him and stamp his blessed Nature on our own. For all those virtuous Dispositions of mind which we acquire by the Practice of Virtue, are so many genuine Signatures of God, taken from the Seal of his Law, and Participations of his Nature. For so Holiness which consists in a Conformity of Soul with the eternal Laws of Goodness, is in Scripture p. 74called the Signature or impression of the Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of Redemption, Eph. 4.30. and such as do righteousness, are said to be born of God, 1 John 2.29. which implies their deriving from him who is their divine Parent, a divine and Godlike Nature, even as Children do their humane Nature from their humane Parents. So that by the Practice of moral Goodness we receive from God the best thing he can bestow, viz. a divine and Godlike Nature; and consequently by so doing, we render him the highest Honour and Glory. For since we can no otherwise honour him but by receiving from him, we doubtless do him the greatest honour when we receive Himself, by partaking of the Perfections of his Nature, which are the greatest Gift he can communicate to us. Herein, saith our Saviour, is my Father Glorified, that ye bear much fruit, John 15.8. foreign, saith the aforenamed Philosopher, i. e. he only knows how to honour God who presenrs himself a Sacrifice to him, carves his own Soul into a divine Image, and composes his Mind into a Temple for the Entertainment of God, and the Reception of the divine Light and Glory. 'Tis then therefore that p. 75we best honour God, when by the Practice of true Godliness we conform our Wills and Affections to him; and derive into our selves his Nature and Perfections; and should you erect to him a Temple more magnificent than Solomons, and load its Altars with Hecatombs of Sacrifices, and make it perpetually ring with Psalms and resounding Choirs of Halelujahs, it would not be comparably so great an Honour to him, as to convert your own Souls into living Temples, and make them the Habitations of his Glory and Perfections. For he values no Sacrifice like that of an obedient Will, delights in no Choir like that of pure and heavenly Affections, nor hath he in all his Creation an Ensign of Honour so truly worthy of him, as that of a divine and God-like Soul; a Soul that reflects his Image, and shines back his own Glory upon him. Wherefore since 'tis by the Practice of moral Goodness that we receive God, and copie his Nature into our own, it is no wonder he should make it the principal Part of our Duty. For how can it be otherwise expected but that he should exact that chiefly of us, which most conduces to his own glory. Since then nothing we can do can conduce to his Glory but only our receiving p. 76Benefits from him, and since no Benefit we receive from him can so much conduce to it as our receiving Himself, and since we can no otherwise receive himself but by practising that Goodness which is the Perfection of his Nature, we must hereby doubtless render him the greatest Honour and Glory.

II. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Duty, because 'tis by this that we do most truely imitate him. For so you find in Scripture, that wherever God is proposed to us for a Pattern of Action it is by some Act or other of Morality that we are required to transcribe and imitate him. So 1 Pet. 1.16. be ye holy, for I am holy; and Luke 6.36. be ye merciful as your Father is merciful; and Mat. 5.48. be you perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect. And indeed 'tis only in Moral Goodness that God can be the Pattern of our Imitation; as for those Perfections of his which for Distinction-sake we call natural, viz. his Omniscience, and Omnipresence, Omnipotence and Eternity, they are all beyond the Sphere of our Imitation, and therefore were never proposed to us as the Copies of our Action. But as for his moral Perfections, viz. his Goodness, and Righteousness, and Purity, p. 77and Mercy, they are the Fundamental Rules and Standards of all moral Action. For the Nature of God, as it is infinitely good and righteous, is the eternal Fountain whence all the Laws of Morality are derived; and all those moral Precepts by which he governs his rational Creation, are only so many Exemplifications of the moral Perfections of his own Nature. For the Holiness of God, which comprehends all his moral Perfections, consists in that essential Rectitude of Nature, whereby he always chooses and acts conformably to the Dictates of his own infallible Reason; and 'tis to this Rectitude of choosing and acting that all his moral Laws do oblige us. For moral Laws are only the Dictates of right Reason, prescribing us what to do and what to avoid; so that in our Complyance with them, we follow the Rule of Gods own Will and Actions, and thereby imitate the eternal Rectitude of his Nature. For tho in those different States and Relations of God and Creature, right Reason cannot be supposed to oblige him and us to all the same particular Choices and Actions, yet it obliges us both to act reasonably in our respective States and Relations; it obliges God to act reasonably and as it becomes the State and Relation p. 78of a God and Creator; and it obliges us to act reasonably and as it becomes the State and Relation of men and Creatures. And as for God, He is invariably inclined to do all that right Reason obliges him to, by the essential Rectitude of his own Nature; and herein consists all his moral Perfection, which is nothing else but the immutable Inclination of his Nature to do whatever is just and good and reasonable. So that while we live according to the Dictates of Reason, or, which is the same thing, the eternal Laws of Morality, we trace and imitate the moral Perfections of God; and in our Place and Station, live at the same Rate and by the same Rule, that He doth in his. We do what God himself would do, if he were in our Place, and what the Son of God did do when he was in our Nature; and there is no other Difference between his Life and ours, but what necessarily arises out of our different States and Relations. Since therefore Moral Goodness is an Imitation of God, 'tis no wonder that he so much prefers it before all other matter of Duty. For he must needs be supposed to love that above all things, which is the true Copie and Image of those Perfections of his Nature, for the sake of which he loves Himself p. 79above all. For he loves himself not merely because he is Himself, but because he is in all respects morally Good, and his Will and Power are perfectly compliant with the infallible Dictates of his own Reason; and hence arises his infinite Complacency in himself, that there is nothing in him but what his own Reason perfectly approves, no Inclination in his Will or Nature but what is exactly agreeable to the fairest Ideas of his own Mind. And since it is for his own Goodness-sake that he loves himself as he doth, we may be sure that there is nothing without him can be so dear to him, as that in us which is the Image of his Goodness. Every like, we say, loves its like, and the righteous Lord, saith the Psalmist, loveth Righteousness, Psal. 11.7. i. e. being righteous himself, he loves Righteousness in others by an invincible sympathy of Nature. His greatest Heaven and Delight is in his own most righteous Nature, and next to that in righteous Souls that imitate and resemble him. foreign; God hath not a more grateful Habitation upon Earth than in a pure and vertuous Mind; foreign saith Apollo that Mimick of God, by his Pythian Oracle. i. e. I rejoyce as p. 80much in pious Souls as in my own Heaven. Which is much what the same with that gracious Declaration that God himself makes by the Prophet Isaiah 57.15. thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose Name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble Spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Since therefore moral Duties are all but so many Copies and Exemplifications of Gods Nature, this is a sufficient Reason why he should prefer them before all the Positives of Religion.

III. GOD principally requires moral Goodness, because 'tis by the Practice of this that we advance to our own natural Happiness. For the natural Happiness of reasonable Creatures, consists in being entirely governed by right Reason; i. e. in having our Minds perfectly informed what it is that right Reason requires of us, and our Wills and Affections reduced to an entire Conformity thereunto. And this is the Perfection of moral Goodness, which consists in behaving our selves towards God and our selves and all the World as right Reason advises, or as it becomes rational Creatures placed in our Circumstances p. 81and Relations. And when by practising all that true Piety and Vertue which moral Goodness implies, we are perfectly accomplished in our Behaviour towards God, our selves, and all the World, so as to render to each without any Reserve or Reluctancy what is fit and due in the Judgment of right Reason, we are arrived to the most happy State that a reasonable Nature can aspire to. 'Tis true, in this Life we cannot be perfectly happy; and that not only because we live in wretched Bodies that are continually liable to Pain and Sickness, but also because we are imperfect our selves, and have none to converse with but imperfect Creatures. But were we once stript of these natural and moral Imperfections, wheresoever we lived we should necessarily be happy. Were I to live all alone, without this painful Body, I should necessarily be in a great measure happy while I followed right Reason, tho I lived in the darkest Nook of the Creation. For there I should still contemplate God, and while I did so, my mind would be always ravish'd with his Beauty and Perfections; there I should most ardently love him, and while I did so, I should sympathise and share with him in his Happiness; there I should still adore and praise p. 82him, and while I did so, I should feel my self continually drawn up to him, and wrapt into a real Injoyment of him; there I should be imitating his Perfections▪ and while I did so, I should enjoy an unspeakable Self-satisfaction, perceiving how every Moment I grew a more Divine and Godlike Creature; there I should intirely resign up my self to his heavenly Will and Disposal, and while I did so, I should be perpetually exulting under a joyous Assurance of his Love and Favour; in a word, there I should firmly depend upon his Truth and Goodness, and while I did so, I should be always triumphing in a sure and certain Hope of a happy Being for ever. Thus were I shut up all alone in an unbodied State, and had none but God to converse with, by behaving my self towards him as right Reason directs me I should always, enjoy him, and in that Injoyment should be always Happy. And if while I thus behaved my self towards God, I took care at the same time to demean my self towards my self with that exact Prudence and Temperance and Fortitude and Humility which right Reason requires, I should hereby create another Heaven within me; a Heaven of calm Thoughts, quiet and uniform Desires, serene and placid Affections, p. 83which would be so many everflowing Springs of Pleasure, Tranquillity and Contentment within me. But if while I thus enjoyed God and my self, by behaving my self as right Reason directs, I might be admitted to live and converse among perfect Spirits, and to demean my self towards them with that exact Charity and Justice and Peaceableness and Modesty which right Reason requires, the Wit of man could not conceive a true Pleasure beyond what I should now enjoy. For now I should be possest of every thing my utmost Wishes could propose; of a good God, a Godlike, joyful and contented Soul, a peaceable, kind and righteous Neighbourhood; and so all above, within, and without me would be a pure and perfect Heaven. And indeed when I have thrown off this Body, and am stript into a naked Ghost, the only or at least the greatest goods my Nature will be capable of enjoying, are God, my self, and blessed Spirits; and these are no otherwise injoyable, but only by Acts of Piety and Vertue, without which there is no good thing beyond the Grave that a Soul can tast or relish. So that if, when I go to seek my Fortune in the World of Spirits, God should thus bespeak me, O man, now thou art leaving all these Injoyments p. 84of Sence, consult with thy self what will do thee good, and thou shalt have whatsoever thou wilt ask to carry with thee into that spiritual State; I am sure the utmost I should crave would be this, Lord give me a heart inflamed with Love, and winged with Duty to thee, that thereby I may but enjoy thee; give me a sober and a temperate mind, that thereby I may but enjoy my self; give me a kind, a peaceable, and a righteous Temper, that thereby I may but enjoy the sweet Society of blessed Spirits; O give me but these blessed things, and thou hast crowned all my wishes, and to Eternity I will never crave any other Favour for my self but only this, that I may continue a pious and a vertuous Soul for ever; for while I continue so, I am sure I shall enjoy all spiritual Good, and be as happy as Heaven can make me. So that the main Happiness you see of Humane Nature consists in the Perfection of moral Goodness; and it being so, it is no wonder that the good God who above all things desires the Happiness of his Creatures, should above all things exact of us the Duties of Morality. He knows that our supreme Beatitude is founded in our Piety and Vertue, and that out of our free and constant, p. 85sprightly and vivacious Exercise of these arises all our Heaven both here and hereafter; and knowing this, that tender Love which he bears us, that mighty Concern which he hath for our Welfare makes him thus urgent and importunate with us. For he regards our Duty no farther than it tends to our Good, and values each Act of our Obedience by what it contributes to our Happiness; and 'tis therefore that he prefers moral Duties above positive, because they are more essential to our eternal Welfare.

IV. and Lastly, GOD principally requires of us moral Goodness, because when all positive Duty is ceast, this is to be the eternal Work and Exercise of our Natures. For Moral Good is from everlasting to everlasting, its Birth was elder than the World, and its Life and Duration runs parallel with Eternity; before ever the Mountains were brought forth 'twas founded in the Nature of God, and as an inseparable Beam of his all-comprehending Reason it shines from one end of the World to the other. For as soon as ever there was a rational Creature in being, the obligations of Morality laid hold on him, before ever any positive Duty was imposed; and as long as ever there remains a rational Creature, the Obligations of Morality will abide on p. 86him, when all positive Duty is expired. For moral Obligations are not founded like positive ones upon mutable Circumstances, but upon firm and everlasting Reasons; upon Reasons that to all Eternity will carry with them the same force and necessity. For as long as we are the Creatures of an infinitely perfect Creator, 'twill be as much our Duty as 'tis now, to love and adore him; as long as we are reasonable Creatures, 'twill be as much our Duty as 'tis now, to submit our Will and Affections to our Reason, and as long as we are related to other reasonable Creatures, 'twill be as much our Duty as 'tis now, to be kind and just and peaceable in all our Intercourses with them. So that these are such Duties as no Will can dispense with, no Reasons abrogate ▪ no Circumstances disanul or make void; but as long as God is what he is, and we are what we are, they must and will oblige us. So that what the Psalmist saith of God, may be truly applied to moral Goodness, the Heavens shall perish, but thou shalt remain, they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and be folded up and Changed, but thou art the same yesterday▪ to day, and for ever, and thy years shall have no end. But as long since the positive Parts of the Jewish Religion were cancell'd and repealed, the Vail p. 87of the Temple rent in twain, the Temple it self buried in Ruins and all its Altars thrown down and their Sacrifices abolished, whilst the moral Parts of that Religion still stand firm as the everlasting Mountains about Jerusalem; so the time will come whem the positive Parts of Christianity it self must cease, when Faith must be swallowed up in Vis…on, and Sacraments be made void by Perfection, and all the stated times and outward Solemnities of our Worship expire into an everlasting Sabbath; but then when all this Scene of things is quite vanished away, Piety and Virtue will still keep the Stage, and be the everlasting Exercise of our glorified Natures. For as I shewed before, all positive Duty is instituted in subserviency to moral, and like a Scaffold to a House is only erected for the Convenience of Building up this everlasting Structure of Morality; and when this is once finished, must be all taken down again as an unnecessary Incumbrance that now only hides and obscures the Beauty of that Heavenly Building that was raised on it, and shall abide without it for ever, to entertain our Faculties through all the future Ages of our Being, and to be the everlasting Mansion of our Natures. Wherefore since positive Duties must all p. 88cease and expire, and only moral Goodness is to be our Business for ever, 'tis no wonder that God, who is so good a Master, takes so much Care in ths short Apprentiship of our Life to train us up in that which is to be our Trade for ever. He knows it is upon Piety and Vertue that we must live to Eternity, and maintain our selves in all our Glory and Happiness; and that if when we come into the invisible World we have not this blessed Trade to subsist by, we are undone for ever; and therefore out of a tender Regard to our Welfare, he makes it his principal Care to train us up in this everlasting Business of our Natures.

WHAT then remains but that above all things we take care to apply our selves to the Practice of moral Goodness: to contemplate and love and adore and imitate God; to depend upon him and resign up our selves to his Disposal and Government▪ to be sober and temperate in our Affections and Appetites, and just and Charitable and modest and peaceable towards one another. These are the great things which God requires at our hands, and without these all our Religion is a fulsome Cheat. 'Tis true the positive Parts of Religion are our Duty as well as these, p. 89and God by his Sovereign Authority exacts them at our hands; and unless when Jesus Christ hath been sufficiently proposed to us we do sincerely believe in him, unless we strike Covenant with him by Baptism, and frequently renew that Covenant in the Lords Supper; unless we diligently attend on the Publick Assemblies of his Worship, and use an honest Care to avoid Schism and to persist in Vnity with his true Catholick Church, there is no Pretence of Morality will bear us out when we appear before his dread Tribunal. But then we are to consider that the proper Use of all these positive Duties is to improve and perfect us in moral Goodness; and unless we use them to this Effect we shall render them altogether void and insignificant. Wherefore as we would not lose all the Fruits of our positive Duties, let us take care to extend them to their utmost Design, to improve our Sacrifice to Obedience, our Sacraments to Gratitude and Love, our Hearing to Practice, our Praying to Devotion, and our Fasting to Humility and Repentance. For if we rest in these Duties and go no farther, thinking by such short Payments to Compound with God for all those Debts we owe to the eternal Laws p. 90of Morality, we miserably cheat and befool our own Souls, which notwithstanding all this Exactness about the Positives of Religion are by their own immoral Affections still enslaved to the Devil; to whom it is much one what our outward Form of Religion is, whether it be Christian or Heathen or Mahometan, provided it doth not operate on our minds or give any Check to the Current of our depraved Natures. For whether we bow to God or to an Idol, is all one to the Devil, so long as our souls remain Profane and indevout; whether we Communicate in the holy Sacrament of Christ's Death, or in the impure Rights of Venus and Priapus, is indifferent to him so long as our Hearts continue putrid and corrupt, steaming with unchast Desires and Affections; whether we Celebrate the Christian Festivals or the bloody Saturnals or Barbarous Bacchanalia is no great matter to him, provided our Minds be but canker'd with Wrath and Malice and Cruelty and Revenge. These are the Sinews of his Goverment, and the Bands of our Allegiance to his Throne; and whilst they are preserved, he knows his Kingdom is safe, and so long he doth not much regard what our outward Religion is. Nay there is nothing can be a higher Gratification to p. 91his Ambition, than to behold Himself served in Christs own Livery and Worship'd in a Form of Godliness; by which he hath the Pleasure of dividing Empires with God, and ravishing the better share from him; of beholding his hated Creator mockt with the Shell and Outside of a Worshiper, whilst himself is treated with the Kernol and Inside. For whilst we continue wicked under an outward Form of Religion, we do in Effect Sacrifice our Beast to God, and our selves to the Devil; who above all things loves those unnatural Commixtures of Hearer and Slanderer, Worshiper and Deceiver, Communicant and Drunkard, Sacrificer and Oppressor; by which we only exalt and sublimate Impiety, which never looks so Glorious as when 'tis Gilded with Fasts and long Prayers. Wherefore as you will answer it at your eternal Peril, do not Cheat and abuse your selves with the Name and Shadow of Religion; lest when you have superstructed your Hopes of Happiness on a rotten Foundation, it should finally miscarry and sink underneath you into everlasting Wretchedness and Despair.