CHAP. I.

Sect. 1 WHen we distinguish our selves from the Heathen World by a Profession of the Christian Religi­on, it is to be supposed we believe the Christi­an Religion to be the best in the World, or we are fools to be what we profess: But the Excellency of this Religion doth not lye in a supercilious condemning of whatsoever may be found good and laudable elsewhere, but rather on the other side; for the Doctrine of the Gospel (though it have this principally to glory in, that it doth reveal the Mystery hid [Page 2] from ages and generations, viz. the redemption ofCol. 1. 2 [...]. the world by a Crucified Saviour; yet withal) doth owne and comprehend within it self, yea and further improves, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, &c. and if there be Phil. 4. 8. any vertue or any praise doth require us to think on these things. There have been some Notices of God, and some acknowledged principles, tending to the bettering of the lives of men, ever since there were m [...]n in the world: But if it be lawful to allude to a fable; as some have seigned the Sun all night to be clipt into Stars, which in the morning do re-unite in the body of the Sun, so hath it been in this case: The knowledge of God and those precepts of the Law of Nature, which grew up in the world, by being propagated from Adam to Noah, and so downwards; after the multiply­ing of Languages and dividing of Nations, were as the Sun broken into Stars; for the further they scattered, the weaker and fainter they grew, till at last the Gentile world was be [...]ighted; for the Gentiles did walk in the vanity of their mind, Having their understanding Eph [...]. 4. 17. 18. darkned, &c. Thus it continued to be, the world for the greatest part of it, was governed by dim lights, or indeed shadows rather than lights, till the Sun of righteousnesse arose: Yet [...]l. 4. 2. still there was some star-light in this night of Ignorance, there did remain a Conscience of good and evil; the Gentiles who had not the Law of Moses did by Nature the things contained Rom▪ 2. 14. in the Law. The more sober Heathens did [Page 3] believe themselves to be under an obligation of being vertuous, and accordingly we find in many of their writings, good precepts that di­rect us in our behaviour in the world; which though of themselves they cannot attain the end for which the holy Scriptures are profita­ble,2 Tim. 3. 17. that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works: yet are not these precepts of Morality to be despised, in as much as our Blessed Saviour himself, from whom our Religion takes its name, doth frequently urge and inculcate those very rules of a good life, which were acknowledged among the Hea­thens; and as he did himself assume our hu­mane Nature to his divine at his Incarnation, so doth he assume Morality and incorporate it in­to Divinity: so that the Gospel doth require of every one that names the name of Christ to de­part 2. Tim. 2. 19. from iniquity. That is as much as to say, he that pretends to be a Christian (though he must be somewhat else; yet withal) he must be a Moral man: which is the position I under­take; It is necessary for a Christian to be a Moral man.

Sect. 2 That is: He who professeth faith in Jesus Christ, and therefore is called a Christian, whe­ther he be so onely by outward profession, or also by an inward participation of the Divine Nature; this man is not at his liberty, but he is bound up, he is under a necessity (of what kind will hereafter appear) of practising moral vertues; (i. e.) He owes obedience to the Mo­ral law. There is a certain manner of life, which the law directs to, and is therefore called [Page 4] the moral law, because circa Mores, it is concern­ing the manner of a mans conversation, his be­haviours towards other men; or his carriage to­wards himself: A Christian should be moral as well as Religious, he must live soberly and [...]it. 2. [...]2. righteously as well as godly: He must be just and honest, and temperate and meek; and in a word, fullfil the whole law by an universal ob­servation of that comprehensive precept, Thou Mat. 22. 39 shalt love thy neighbour as thy self. Which is enough to be said for the explication of the Terms, they are plain to any one that is willing to understand them.

Sect. 3 3. That I may the more orderly proceed in the proof of what I have undertaken to prove; namely, that it is necessary for a Christian to be a moral man, I comprehend all my subse­quent discourse within these two Propositions.

Prop. 1 Whatever reasons may have induced some men to speak slightly and undervaluingly of morality, yet none of them all conclude against the necessity of it in a Christian.

Prop. 2 When we have yeilded to these as much as safely we may, yet do there remain great and strong, and unanswerable reasons, why it is ne­cessary for a Christian to be a moral man, and abound in moral vertues.

By the first of these we shall gain an answer to all those objections that may be made on the other side, and shall proceed thus far, that there doth not appear any thing to the contra­ry, but that it may be so; the second will be a more full demonstration of the case, tha [...] not onely it may be, but so it is, and so it must [Page 5] be, and cannot be otherwise, because it is ne­cessarily so.

CHAP. II.

Sect. 1 THe first Proposition will take up the first Book; and that is, Whatever reasons may have induced some men to speak slightly and undervaluingly of morality, yet none of them all conclude against the necessity of it in a Christian.

In the making good of which Proposition, it must be enquired what may have been the rea­sons that have induced men thus to speak: in each of which it will be found that they do not conclude moral vertues unnecessary; for they are such as these.

1 An extream opposition to the doctrine of the the Papists concerning the merit of good works.

2 A sense of the insufficiency of moral vertues for Salvation without the addition of Faith and Repentance.

3 A desire to save the prerogative of the Scrip­tures, and to prefer them before the writings of all Heathen Moralists or Philosophers. To these three there is much to be yeilded, but not so much as to prejudice the cause; but in the two following there is a great deal of danger, as in these a great deal of truth. They are;

4 An opinion that the obligation of the Moral Law is not consistent with the perfection of a Gospel-state; and as Antinomianisme, hath fre­quently [Page 6] ushered in Libertinisme.

5 The vitious inclinations of men of corrupt affections, have prompted them to break all these bands of humane societies, that they may range and rant without controll, who have therefore cast off the yoke of all goodnesse, be­cause it is too heavy for their flesh and blood; yea and sometimes have embolden'd themselves to say, as they who have said, with our tongue Psal. 12. 4. will we prevail: our lips are our own, who is Lord▪ over us?

Sect. 2 An extream opposition to the Doctrine of the Papists concerning the merit of good works.1 Indeed it is easie for opposition to be extream▪ when two adversaries have turned their backs upon one another, they will be ready to think, that whatever is contrary to error must needs be truth, and therefore though they go never so far from each other, yet still they are in the right way: whereas commonly truth lyes▪ in the middle between both, and doth frequently suffer as Christ did, with a Thief on each hand; for whether we add to truth or diminish from it, on both sides an injury is done to it. Thus is it between the Papists and some of their eager adversaries: for the most part the Papists erre by adding to the word of God, by being wise above what is written: To the Scriptures they add Traditions, and make them of equal Autho­rity. We acknowledge a power in the Church Artic. 20. to de [...]ree rites or ceremonies, and authority in con­troversies of Faith; they add Infallibility to that Authority. We acknowledge a superiority of order and jurisdiction; they add the supremacy [Page 7] of their Pope. We own two Sacraments; they add five more. We believe in one Mediator between 1 Tim, 2, 5 God and man, the man Christ Jesus; they make many. And so in many other cases: particular­ly to our present purpose, we acknowledge a necessity of good works; they adde▪ that they are meritorious. Now because the Papists go so far to ascribe so much to good works; there­fore some unwary men have adventured in con­tradiction to them, to ascribe too little: if they be necessary, the Papists make them meritorious; on the contrary, l [...]st they should be thought me­ritorious, some have judged them little or not at all necessary. The extream opposite to the Papists in this case is the Antinomian, whom yet I reserve for another Head afterwards, their Doctrine being of so dangerous concernment, that it doth deserve a distinct con [...]ideration; now I onely consider them as those who in con­tradicting the Papists have run themselves into as great a danger on the other side.

Ʋtrinque in contrarias partes velus in extremi­tates Holds [...]. Lect. 19 P. 158. s [...]induntur adversarii: Hinc Pontificii plus aequo ad dextram vergunt, dum causam salutis nostrae in legis operibus ponunt; illinc Antinomi ad sinistram, dum legis usum omnem & obligationem explodunt. On either hand adversaries run into extreams: The Papists erre too much on the right hand, by making good works the cause of our sal­vation: The Antinomians on the left, by denying that there is any use of, or obligation to the law.

Sect. Thus it appears to have been in the diffe­rence between George Major and Nicholas Am­sdorfius, two German Divines. Major de­fends [Page 8] this Proposition according to Scripture,Melch. A­dam. in vi­tis corum. Bonorum operum studium est necessarium ad salutem. The study of good works is necessary to salvation. Against this Flacius Illyrious and Amsdorfius cry out amain, It is a Popish Doctrine, and would introduce merit; and therefore they oppose this bold and wicked speech to it, Bona opera sunt noxia & perniciosa ad salutem. Good works are hurtful and per­nicious to salvation. Which proceeding, out of a dislike to the Popish Doctrine of merit, had been just if it had gone no farther; for it is Usher answ. to Jesu. challenge. p. 498. a doctrine which (as a very Learned and Reve­rend Prelate saith) from our very hearts we de­test and abhor. But see how easie it is for men to contend for victory rather than truth, and rather than not oppose an adversary, they will condemn him though he be Inno­cent. Many men contend for the truth as men run for the ball; when they come at it, they step over it or kick out of the way, to wrestle with their adversary: whereas the truth of the case is, we do not merit by good works, yet we are obliged to them; we do not merit, so we acknowledge. Good Artic. 12. works which are the fruits of Faith and fol­low after justification, cannot put away our sins, and endure the severity of Gods judge­ment; yet we believe them to be necessary for us; for it follows in the same place, Yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith.

And surely these have been thought by [Page 9] learned men to be very consistent; though good works do not merit, yet they are ne­cessary, else a Reverend Doctor, afterwards a Prelate of our Church, did little understand himself in his disputation upon this argu­ment, where this is one conclusion; Bona Davenant de justit. actual. Cap. 31. Con. 7. opera justificatorum, sunt ad salutem neces­saria, necessitate ordinis, non causalitatis, vel planius ut via ordinata ad vitam aeternam, non ut causae meritoriae vitae aeternae. That is in few words. Good works are ordained as a neces­sary means to eternal life, but they do not de­serve eternal life.

Sect. 4 This Objection hath hitherto been con­sidered as concerning good works in the ge­neral; but it doth manifestly relate to the Argument in hand; for moral vertues so qualifyed as shall afterwards be said, works of Justice, and Mercy, and Sobriety, &c. these are exercises of morality; and so far as good works are necessary, so far will these be found to be: the necessity of which is not now to be proved, but asserted, and vindicated from this Objection, which vulgar people that do not know how to distinguish, are ready to burden it with: when we are in­dustrious to urge upon men the duties of ho­nesty, and righteous and just dealings between man and man, let it not be suspected that this is done out of a secret design to symbolize with the Papists. For may not a man go 10. mile unlesse he go 20.? True it is we do go on part of the way with the Papists for the truths sake; that is, to assert good [Page 10] works and moral vertues necessary, and here we [...]ix: they would draw us on further to a perswasion that they are meritorious; that doth not at all follow upon the necessity we a­scribe to them: there is a necessity upon other accounts; as shall be demonstrated in due time.

And this is enough to be yeilded to this plea, whereupon some speak but meanly of moral vertues; and there does not yet appear any thing to the contrary but they may be ne­cessary for a Christian.

CHAP. III.

Sect. 1 Object. 2 A Sense of the insufficiency of moral vertues to salvation, without the addition of faith and repentance, hath been another rea­son why some other men have attributed less to moral vertues, than otherwise they would have done, if they had been considered out of that competition. The merit of goodDavanant, [...] supra. works, and the perfection of them, are two different things, and diversly and apart hand­led by a fore-cited Author; although therefore they be not supposed to merit, yet if they be thought so perfect, as that faith and repentance may be laid aside; no wonder if sometimes they be lightly made of and seemingly dis­paraged; for it is to preserve our due esteem of faith and those spiritual graces which are required in us over and above those Moral Vertues, which the Heathens at any time could attain to. We do not wonder when we [...]. Ch Princ. [...]. 4▪ 3. read, Moral Principles to such as rely upon them, [Page 11] and seek no further, prove Mortal Principles: or as another likewise of our own: If Moral Ver­tuousness Bolton's Discourse of True Happiness p. 14. were able to put on the greatest Magni­ficence and applause that ever it antiently enjoyed among the precisest Romans, whereby it might worthily draw into admiration and just chal­lenge, even these times of Christianity; yet in respect of acceptance with God, and conformity to his will, and being not guided and sanctified by supernatural grace; it is but at the very best the very filthiness of a menstruous clout. For if this be true, it may be said, and be no prejudice to the necessity of Morality; for the same Au­thor in the same place, in words a little before saith, I deny not, but that Moral Vertuousness is good and excellent in it self. Yea in the Arti­cles of our Religion we do profess thus much: They also are to be had accursed, that presume to Artic. 18. say, that every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law and the light of Nature. For holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus, Christ whereby men must be saved. Wherefore, as St. Paul could preach Faith in Jesus Christ without making void the Law, Do we then make void the Law Rom. 3. 31. through Faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the Law. So can we and ought we to say, do we then make void the Righteousness of God V. 22. which is by Faith (which is the phrase in the same Chapter) through the Law, or through our preaching of Vertue? God forbid: yea, we establish Faith.

Sect. 2 Yea, far be it from a Sinner to undervalue [Page 12] Faith and Repentance, there being no other way of freedom from guilt and recovering our Innocency. Yet those whom God hath joyned together let no man put asunder; to­gether with Faith and Repentance must go holiness in all manner of Conversation, which cer­tainly1 Pet. 1. 15. includes Morality. He that hopes to climb to Heaven by a Ladder of bare Moral Vertues will do it as soon as build a Castle in the Air; that is, he goes about a work, which because it wants a foundation, can never be brought to perfection: So that Vertue is so far from destroying Faith, that it doth suppose it as that without which, howsoever it be ne­cessary, yet without Faith it is insufficient to at­tain its End. Yet notwithstanding it is true, though a man cannot build without a founda­tion, a bare foundation is no perfect building; wherefore Faith and Vertue do mutually re­quire one another: There must be Faith, and Vertue added to this Faith, as we are directed: And besides this giving all diligence▪ add to your 2 Pet. 1. 5. Faith Vertue; of which words more hereafter. Together with this let it be considered that, that which pretends to be Faith, if it be with­out works, is not Faith univocally and pro­perly so called; It is but a dead Faith; It mayJames 2. 17. Revel. 3. 1. have a name to live but is dead, and therefore in truth is no justifying saving Faith: which makes it the more evident, that though Mora­lity be insufficient without Faith, yet together with Faith it may be necessary. I say it may be, because however there may be somewhat of Argument already hinted, in what is before [Page 13] said to prove it; yet it is not my present business to prove that it is necessary, only that it may be notwithstanding its insufficiency without Faith and Repentance. There is then no great diffi­culty in reconciling these two; the Dignity and Excellency of Faith, and the necessity of Moral Vertues: Yea without any disparage­ment to Faith, after that we have given it its due preheminence, yet we may safely say, that though it be more excellent in some kind, yet it is not so in every respect; for there are some excellencies of a good, upright, sober Con­versation, which cannot properly be affirmed concerning either Faith or Repentance, of which sort are these two.

Sect. 3 Faith and Repentance are rather Conditional duties then Absolute; 1 they are our duties upon supposition that we have sinned against God, but not otherwise; they are necessary sinful Creatures, else if man had never sinned, what need he repent? And there being no Attone­ment to be made for that which never was, what Saviour would there have been for man to have believed in for Justification? Where­fore Faith and Repentance suppose man fallen into sin, and then indeed they are altogether necessary; but not necessary to man as a Crea­ture: But now Justice, and Charity, and Meek­ness, and Humility, &c. are absolute perfections belonging to our Nature; and such as our In­nocence (which would have made our Repen­tance needless) would so little have exempted us from, that we could not have been innocent without them. Now though we are Sinners, [Page 14] we do not cease to be men; therefore as because we are Sinners, we must repent and believe; so because we are men, we are obliged to Vertu [...].

2 Moreover Faith and Repentance are but purgative Vertues (as the Platonists speak) but Charity, &c. are paradeigmatical; that is, by Faith and Repentance we are purg'd from Sin, and so prepared for Communion with God; but by the other we do properly resemble God. It is therefore to be observed, we are commanded to be holy as God is holy, particu­larly to be Merciful, to Love and do good as God doth, to be Meek and Lowly as Christ was: But we are not commanded to believe as God believes; for Faith and Repentance in that notion in which we now speak, as supposing sin to be repented of, and by Faith to be ju­stified from, cannot without Blasphemy be at­tributed to the infinite and holy God: yet those other things are resemblances of the Di­vine perfections, as might be at large shown; but I reserve it to another place.Book 4th.

Sect. 4 So that now laying these things together; as when we preach Morality, we do not go about to undermine Faith; so neither on the other side, when we extol Faith, may we be so under­stood as to deny the necessity of these Moral Vertues; nay if I should say yet a little more, I should but speak the mind of a very Learned and holy man, whose words I will therefore use, that I may be sure to express his meaning. True profession without honest Conversation not Hales Re­mains p. 39. only saves not, but increases our weight of punish­ment: But a good life without true profession, [Page 15] though it bring us not to Heaven, yet it lessens the measure of our Judgement; so that a moral man, so called, is a Christian by the surer side. So then, though our morality will not save us without Faith and Repentance; yet for our immorality we may be damned for all our pretences to Faith, which is dead without works, and to Repentance, which must be again repented of, if it be not a forsaking of sin together with a confessing of it. And this is the answer to the second Objection; Notwithstanding the insuffi­ciency of moral vertues for salvation, without Faith and Repentance, yet this doth not prove them unnecessary.

CHAP. IV.

Sect. 1 Object. 3 A Desire to prefer the holy Scriptures be­fore the writings of Heathen Philosophers, hath been another reason why some have spo­ken but meanly of morality, to magnifie Divi­nity properly so called. Upon which account, they that shall be lavish in the commendation of Moral vertues, and for that purpose do fre­quently make use of Heathen Authors, may be suspected thereby to undermine the credit of the Scriptures. For did not Abraham knowGen. [...] Sarah to be barren when he turned in to his hand-maid Hagar? and shall we not be thought to blast the authority, or disbeleive the sufficien­cy of the Scriptures, when we quote and turn to Plate and Aristotle together with or instead of the Apostles: wherefore it may be judged [Page 16] safe to keep to Scripture-language: Yea, it hath sometimes been given out of the Pulpit (and that in no mean an Auditory) as a sign of of a false Teacher, to teach the Law and Moral Mr. Dell at St Maryes Cambr. Vertues, Philosophy and Philosophical subtleties, which the Apostle long ago forbad; the greatest mystery in the World is in Christ, and what have we to do with Philosophy? Now lest this appre­hension should get into some less understanding minds, that this preaching Morality (which the Heathens likewise urge) is a prejudice to the Scriptures, it will be worth our while to vin­dicate it in this particular; and to shew, that though the Scriptures be highly to be honour­ed and admired above any other writings whatsoever; yet this is no argument but there may be a necessity of morality: and those Heathens did well to recommend to the world the practice of those vertues, which the light of Nature taught to be such. Yea there will be a further advantage by making stay upon this argument; for by comparing the word of God and the writings of Heathen Moralists together, there will be found so great a defect in all them, that it will be necessary for us even upon this account to search the Scriptures: for the moral Vertues that we now recommend, though they be the same for substance with those that found praise among the Heathens; yet we enforce them after another manner then they did: It is a more Divine, Evangelical Morality; we preach Divinity and Morality both together: we do not think that Abare and Pharpar, rivers2 Kings 5 of Damascus, are as good as the waters of Israel. [Page 17] We draw water out of the wells of Salvation, fromIsa. 12 3. the word of God we derive our authority, and urge commands for sobriety and righteousnesse; and thus doing it ought not to be wondred at: if we sometimes make use of Heathen Authors, as Christ himself though he had greater wit­nesse than that of John, yet did not deny hisJohn 5. Testimony altogether.

Sect. 2 I must therefore go on here in the same man­ner as before, (but more distinctly and largely because the matter in hand requires it:) 1. Grant what is to be granted, and discover the faulti­nesse and imperfection of all Heathen Moralists; and yet shew that, that very morality which they have (though not advantagiously enough) commended, (it being a diviner thing than they were aware of) is necessary for us to practise. In which undertaking I am not much discou­raged by the observation of a man otherwise Learned and Wise; who conceits, that the Phi­losopher Charron preface to his book of wis­dome. handles this subject more sweetly and pleasingly, the Divine more austerely and drily: again the vertue and honesty of Divines is too anxi­ous, scrupulous, deject, sad, fearful, and vulgar: Philosophy is altogether pleasant, free, bucksome, and if I may so say, wanton too, and yet notwith­standing puissant, noble, generous, and rare. These words I take to be the lash of a Lawyer against men of another profession. However if there be any truth in it, it is the fault of the Divine not of the Divinity; and possibly it may presently be found, that this puissance and no­blenesse of Philosophy is one of its faults, and an [...]warrantable Luxuriancy in their pens; [Page 18] whereas the Morality of the Scriptures is, though more humble, yet certainly more safe. I proceed therefore,

1 To acknowledge that our rule of Morality of a well governed and orderly Conversation, is that Regula vitae & morum, which we have in the holy Scriptures; the word of life is the rule of life: for there is some fault to be found with the best of Heathens and their best wri­tings. We must dress Vertue in another fashion than either Plato, or Plutarch, or Seneca have done, before we can become Proxenetae for it, and bespeak men that live in the Christian world to fall in love with it. For not to men­tion their gross ignorance and manifold er­rours concerning the right worship and ser­vice of God, even here, where their excellency chiefly lay; it is easie to observe a double fai­lure among them, which because they them­selves have not sufficiently corrected, we may not take their writings as a just and adequate rule of Moral actions. They are, 1 1. An excess in their boastings. 2 2^ly A defect in their attain­ments; they have been unmeasurably confident in their pretences; they have slenderly per­formed, what they have so pretended to; they have boasted of a perfection of degrees, but they have not attained to a perfection of parts: The discovery of these will be a full discharge of my first task under this Objection.

I am therefore first to shew, that they have been too presumptuous and bold in some Ca­ses, for which I give these Instances.

1 The Apathy of the Stoioks is one great Ar­gument [Page 19] of their vanity in assuming to them­selves a perfection, which neither Humane Na­ture is capable of, nor would it properly (rebus sic stantibus) be a perfection if it were attained, but rather a stupid debasement of those who glory in it: And so some Philo­sophers yeild; Plutarch for one, [...] De. virtu. morali. [...]. To cast away our passions altogether is neither possi­ble nor Expedient for us. Wherefore Lactan­tius hath passed this Censure upon them, that they are furious and mad men; in these two pas­sages, to omit others of the like nature: Sto­ici De vero cultu. Cap. 2. 15. furiosi qui (affectus) non tam temperant quam abscindunt, rebus (que) à Naturâ insitis ca­strare hominem quodammodo volunt. And again a little after. Quare nihil aliud dixerim quàm Ibid. Cap. 17. insanos, qui hominem mite ac sociale Animal orbant suo nomine; qui evulsis Affectibus quibus omnis constat humanitas, ad immobilem stuporem mentis perducere volunt. It is a madnesse to boast of a freedom from all manner of passion, which is so connatural to us. Neither is this the onely instance of their Arrogance.

2 There is a kind of a self sufficiency they at­tribute to themselves, because of which they need not make those applications to God by Prayer, which is so great and so excellent a part of our Religion. So says Seneca in those infamous words of his often quoted: Turpe Epist. 31. est etiamnum deos fatigare. Quid votis opus est? fac te ipse faelicem, It is a shameful thing to weary God with your prayers, make your self happy. It may be those words are not so proud as some would make them, especially [Page 20] if compared with another passage before in the same Epistle: Si vis esse faelix deos ora, &c. If you would be happy pray to the Gods, &c. which last words by their Connexion do suppose the pro­vidence of God to order events for us; but there is a great suspition, that the former con­tain an opinion, That if man will he cannot but be happy; because he hath the free use of his faculties so much in his own power, that as Epictetus sayee [...]. God himself cannot conquer Dissert arri. Cap. 1 the choice of our wills. Wherefore wee shall find that the Stoicks parallel the case of a good man to that of God. So Seneca, this Philoso­phy promises me, that I may be Par Deo, equalSen. Ep. 48. to God, and he repeats it in other places: I add but one more; Deus non vincit sapientem faelicitate, etiamsi vincit aetate, &c. God is longer Jb. Ep. 73 happy than a wise man, hut he is not more happy, & other expressions to the same purpose. He that would see more of this Argument, may read Gatakers Annotations on Antoninus. If I listedP. 65. to be censorious I might observe the method of Antoninus his first Book; wherein he doth make all his other acknowledgments of grati­tude to his friends, before he gives his Thanks to God. But it shall suffice to pass him with this observation, though he seem freely to ac­knowledge where he got good, whether from God or man; yet I do not remember, that he is sensible of humane frailties, but he seems to be of the same mind as to the whole carriageCap. 1. Vers. Finem. of his life, as in the case of his anger towards Rusticus: though he were often angry, yet he [Page 21] did nothing to make him repent. From such instances as these I gather that the Philosophers had too great an opinion of themselves, & did not wel understand their dependance upon God, and how necessary it is to pray without ceasing.1 Thess. 5. 17.

Sect. 4 It is true Seneca makes a handsome excuse not onely for the Stociks but for other Philo­sophers (who have been vain-glorious enough to see it in one another, though not to acknowledge it in themselves; witnesse the retort of Plato upon Diogenes, Calco Platonis Fastum, at cum Majori fastu.) In his Book ofDe vi tâ Beatâ. Cap. 18. a happy life: Aliter loqueris aliter vivis &c. If you object thus to me, you discourse better then you live: I answer, this hath been objected to Plato, to Epicurus, to Zeno, all these did not so much tell us how they lived, as how vertuous men ought to live. An excuse which Mr. Gataker makes in favour of Antoninus who hath beenPra loq. observed not to be without a Tincture of this same fault, though may be not [...] as his own phraise is. But let us consider, if they did really beleeve what Se­neca says of himself in the foresaid Book:Ibid. C. eodem. Ego in alto vitiorum omnium positus sum: I am sunk into all manner of Vice: how infinitely did they shame themselves who beleved it was in their own power to be good and happy, and yet they were guilty of all manner of sin? And moreover how shall we understand their Paradox, That vices and vertues are all equal, if not by Tullyes explication, Pares esse virtutes nec bono viro meliorem nec temperanti tempe­rantiorem Tully parad. & facile potest perspici? Vertues are [Page 22] equal; if one be good, another cannot be better, &c. Now did they not believe Socrates and Cato, &c. to be good men, if so they must by this rule be perfectly good or not at all so. They did ascribe a perfection of Vertue to vertuous men; which is enough to be said of the Stoicks, who were but one Sect of Philosophers.

Sect. 5 It would be tedious to insist as largely of other Sects: of the Platonists especially much may be said, and not a little of the rest. Let it suffice to say this of them all; none of them were sufficiently sensible of the weakness of humane Nature; none of them but did believe their Philosophy was their perfection and the way to Happiness; they had too high an opi­nion of that Morality which will by and by appear to have been deficient in many things: and one of them seems to speak for all, who might have been a happy man if he could have made his words good; for none needed it more then he, who did so violently oppose the Christian Religion; his first words upon Py­thagoras Hierocles. are, [...]: Philosophy is the purgation and perfection of humane life: and he gives the reason of both in the next words; which being spoken of Philosophy in general, may be sup­posed to be the opinion of all Philosophers, and is the first thing laid to their charge; they are too Thrasonical in their boasting; they do assume too much to themselves, and though their expressions in this kind may be look'd up­on as generous, puissant, and noble, a thing be­fore observed they have been commended for; [Page 23] yet were they never the better men for all this, for the second errour is worse; then the first, and helps to make the first worse, for when it shall be considered that they who have brag'd of more then they needed, have yet performed less then they ought, it will then be so much the more evident, that all this is with good reason brought to prove what it intends; viz. That the writings of the Heathen are not a sufficient rule without the Word of God of Moral Acti­ons.

CHAP. V.

Sect. 1 THey are chargeable as to have exceeded in their boastings, so to have been deficient in that, of which they did boast. 2 When Zeno Illustr. de Philosop. profest that piece of Stoicism, to be free from passion and so from grief, Antigonus caused a report to be raised that his house and lands were spoiled, and his Wife and Children car­ried Captives; [...], sayes the story, the man betrayed by his sorrowful looks, what he denyed with his tongue, that he was of like passions with other men. So would ano­ther Philosopher be above all fear; but an unreasonable Creature was enough to con­vince an unreasonable man; he run away at the barking of a Dog, and acknowledged Diffi­cile est hominem exuere, It is hard to be more than a man. Such a [...] there is be­tween the presumptuous confidences of these men, and their slender performances, an Ob­jection [Page 24] which Christians to their great shame are lyable to; but then it is to be observed that it cannot be objected against Scripture Morality, that which we object against the Institutions of the Heathen, for we do not now only tax them for their unanswerable lives (which yet might be done,) but there is a defect in their very Philosophy it self, it doth not sufficiently instruct a man, how he should be a good man, which because it cannot be said against the Scripture, doth give this force to our present Argument, that therefore we must fetch our instructions for a Moral life from the Scriptures, not from Heathen moralists. The thing then to be proved is, That none of the Philosophers have perfectly instructed us in moral Vertue, for which there will be a double proof, if we consider the matter of their precepts and the manner of them: 1 1 They have recommended some things for good and Vertuous which are not so: 2 2^ly those things which we acknowledge to be Vertuous, yet they have failed in the manner of their recommendation. It will be most methodical to bring all the first instances into this Chapter, which will make it so much the larger, for there are many things to be said under this head.

Sect. 2 They have erred concerning Vertue, they have thought some things to be so, which we who are taught by Scripture dare not allow; 1 for such and some things they charge for viti­ous, which we own for good and warrant­able; concerning which latter, Lactantius hathDe vero cultu Cap. 17. a Chapter on purpose to prove; Quod ea qua [Page 25] Philosophi putant vitia, virtutes funt, si tamen ad finem debitum referantur i. e. ad Deum; wherefore referring to him in that case, the whole of this proof shall be taken up in the former, they have set off some evil things with good names: there are some things which be­cause of their gay appearances and specious pretences they have taken for flowers, but when we come to consider them closely they are stinking weeds; and that which first offers itself to consideration is,

1 Their Suicidium or their Self-Murder: They have thought it lawful if a man be weary of his life, or be urged with some difficulties or troubles, which he knows not how to bear, to dispatch himself out of the World, and this is a great piece of Fortitude for a man to dare to kill himself; whereas we Christians who pro­fess that we ought to have vitam in patientiâ, as well as mortem in desiderio, we ought to be willing to live as well as glad to dye; we who believe we are not at our own but at Gods dis­pose, and withal who think it greater glory to suffer and live patiently, then dye peevishly; we believe it to be nothing less than valour, for a man in discontent to kill himself; it is as sneaking and cowardly, as for a Souldier to run away out of the Field, because he is afraid to fight. Men pretend to be gallant and noble spirited men, and dare kill themselves in a bra­vado, that they may not be thought to be afraid of Death, why is this, but because they are afraid to live? they chuse a short pain of Death (not considering what follows after) [Page 26] before the tedious and uncertain troubles of life. Now this is neither Valour nor Vertue, we come into the world to be serviceable to our Creator, and if it be his will we should serve him by suffering, it is not for us to be Judges in our own Case; we ought to be wil­ling to dye when ever God calls, but we may not run before we be sent: Yet now this hath been look't upon as a great attainment, as an Heroick degree of Courage and greatness of mind, for a man to be able to destroy himself. So did the Romans admire Cato's valour who killed himself at Ʋlica, because he did not like to come into Caesar's hands. It is somewhat that Florus says of him; Acceptâ partium clade nihil cunctatus (ut sapiente dignum erat) mortem laetus accivit; It was wisely done of him to kill himself. But Seneca much more in one of his Books, Non video quid habeat in terris Ju­piter Cur bonis mala fiant. Cap. 2. pulchrius, si convertere animum velit, quam ut spectet Catonem; and afterwards he describes his death; gladium sacro pectori infigit, & illam V. locum sanctissimam animam manu educit, and more to the same purpose in the same place: It was such a glorious fight to see Cato kill himself, that if God should look down from Heaven, he could not have a more pleasing sight. In­deed all the Philosophers were not of this mind, but the Stoicks generally are; and it is a Phrase often used by Epictetus, [...]: The door is open for any man to go out of theDisser lat. Cap. 9. a­libi. Lib. 5. 8. 29. alibi. world when he hath a mind to it. And Anto­ninus to the same purpose, [...], and [...]: This is the valour of the [Page 27] Heathens which we may not imitate because it is cowardlinesse nicknamed.

Sect. 3 If we proceed to another sort of men, 2 we shall find an unnatural sin among the Platonists (at least as some understand it) tolerated and [...] allowed, which the Apostle severely reproves. The men leaving the natural use of the woman, Rom 1. 27. burned in lust one towards another, men with men: or males with males. A sin which Socra­tes himself is supposed to have been guilty of towards Alcibiades. So Diogenes Laertius re­portsDiog. in vitâ So­cratis. it from another Author: [...]. which proba­bly is the reason of that verse in Juvenal, Inter Sat. 2. Socraticos notissima fossa Cinedos. I should be immodest to give a plain translation of those [...]. words. Sure Plato speaks very broadly in one of his Dialogues, and brings in a story between Socrates and Alcibiades to confirm what was before said of Socrates; concerning which dis­course although Fioinus make a mystical inter­pretation in his Commentaries, and quotes a passage in Plato in another place, which seems to detest this wickednesse, in the sum he gives of the Dialogue; yet in that same place he con­fesses, quod autem tam crebram [...] injici­at mentionem abominanda est in ipso audaci [...], nisi eo consilio id fecisset ut eam detestandam esse homi­nibus suis voluisset demonstrare. But there needs abundance of Charity to make a man believe he had this end. Now were this onely Plato's opinion it might be the less charged upon other men, but it seems it did so generally obtain a­mong the Platonists, that so grave and sober a [Page 28] man as Plutarch who lived at the least four hun­dredV. Helvi­cum. years after Plato was in a great doubt whe­ther to affirm or deny the lawfulnesse of this Fact. I do not remember such a doubtful pas­sagePlut. De Liberis educand. p 11. Xyl. in all his morals, as are those words of his in this case, where he could find in his heart to condemn it, but the Authority of Socrates, Plato, Xenophon, Aeschines, &c. incline him to allow, whence I conclude the morality of the Heathens did not enough censure this detesta­ble enormity.

3 To this might be added another opinion of the same kind of men, the Community of Wives Lib. 5. which Plato in his Common-wealth would per­swade to be very advantagious if it were but feasible. But having observed somewhat of the Stoicks and Platonists, it is necessary that somewhat be added of the Peripateticks, who are not without their errors in this kind.

Sect. 4 That [...], that jesting which Aristo­tle makes a vertue, St. Paul reproves as incon­venient.4 In the exposition of which place someEph. 5. 3. there are that think, that which Aristotle called a Vertue, is not here taxed as a vice but the extream of it, and among the rest, one hathZanchy in locum. this note; Haec simpliciter ab Apostolo non dam­natur, cum non dedeceat viros bonos, sed suo tem­pore & loco, sed saepe capitur pro [...] which Aristotle makes the extream of it: like­wise Beza and Heinsius though not often, yet here they do agree, making the third word ex­egetical to the second, then is jesting condemn­ed when it is foolish talking and not otherwise: Now to speak as favourably as may be in the [Page 29] case, if it be not directly a vice, yet sure it may not be reckoned as a moral Vertue; no more than other innocent recreations are to be ac­counted Vertuous: for if it be a Vertue for a man to be witty, then why may not bare knowledge be as well accounted goodness, be­tween which certainly there is a vast difference, but if the words should be more severely inter­preted, there would not want probability for a conjecture, that that very thing which Ari­stotle makes a Vertue is here judged inconve­nient, for the two other words [...] and [...], filthiness and foolish talking, may not unfitly be called the extreams of this Ʋrbanity: If discourse be obscene and filthy on one hand, it exceeds, if it be ridiculous and foolish that is the other extream; now not only these, but even jesting it self may seem to come under censure, as being joyned with them. But be­cause Learned men have given a more favour­able interpretation of it, I do not conclude it unlawful altogether, though I have as little reason to judge it a Moral Vertue, for then cer­tainly it would be a duty, and then it would be a sin for a man not to be witty; and with­al it would be considered, that for a man to make a trade of it, or to be frequent in it, it will be found that Hae Nugae Seri [...] ducúnt in Horace. Mala—

Sect. 5 5 There lyes as great an Objection against [Page 30] the [...] of the same Author, thatAristot. greatness and magnanimity of mind, whereby a man ought to judge worthily of himself, and to aspire to those Honours and greatnesses he apprehends himself to be capable of; which howsoever excusable it may be, if it be possi­ble to keep it from that arrogance and am­bition which is made an extream of it, yet con­sidering the general temper of those Heathens, who were counted most magnanimous, we shall find not only the Philosophers but all other sorts of men that did publickly appear in the world to have been Animalia gloriae. Sure Aristotle would comprehend his Empe­rour Alexanders daring bravery of Spirit, un­der this Magnanimity, and so were all the Usurpations of the Roman State reckoned for Illustrious instances of the greatness of their Spirits; wherefore Livy in the preface to his History says, Caeterum aut me Amor suscepti ne­gotii fallit, aut nulla unquam resp. nec major, nec sanctior, nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit. And if all their unjust encroachments upon their Neigh­bours be instances of Magnanimity, it is ea­sily seen, they mistook glory for Vertue: And the Trophies they erected as tokens of their Triumph are so spoken of by one of their own Satyrists.

Sect. 6 It were easie to give more instances in this kind, but that we may not take a pride or pleasure in discovering the errors of others; and were there not some necessity of all this, as will appear after the next consideration is dispatch'd, I could with as great content have let them alone. So much shall suffice to prove that the Heathen Writers have fail'd in the matter of their Precepts; some things have been judged Vertue which are not so; baser mettals often go currant and unsuspected, be­cause they have the same stamp with Silver: So have some base actions been warranted and allowed among them, because they have lookt like Vertues.

CHAP. VI.

Sect. 1 BUt as it pleased God to give Abraham Gen. 18. leave to argue in case of Sodom: Wilt thou destroy all the City for lack of five? So now [Page 32] may it be said, Shall we despise all morality that the Heathens taught, because five or six or some few mistakes may be found among them: what disparagement was it to eleven of the A­postles, that the twelfth was a Traytor and a Devil? and why should the other precepts of Philosophy suffer, because of some few escapes among them, if the rest be good and sound, it may rather be wondred that they erred no more, then that they did at all erre.

It remains therefore to make good the second part of the charge, that they have failed not onely in the matter but manner too. In some things they have put evil for good, and good for evil; Vertue and Vice have exchanged their names and garbs, and so have deceived the unwary world: But this is not all: In those things which we acknowledge to be Vertues abstractly considered, yet we deny the men that practised them, to have been compleatly ver­tuous and good: which is evidently true, if the Rule be good, Bonum ex integrâ causiâ, ma­lum ex quolibet defectu. To make an action throughly good it is necessary, that all due cir­cumstances should concur, if there be any defect either in matter or manner, the Action is not good; or if it be, it is not well done. Where­fore it is further to be considered that the Gen­tiles not having learned Christ as we have done being ignorant of some misteries which theEphes. 4. Gospel reveals to us, have by this ignorance been alienated from a Godly life. And two things especially (to name no more) they have been ignorant of, which serve to our present purpose.

Sect. 2 They knew not what our Blessed Saviour Je­sus Christ hath done to redeem us, and what the Holy Ghost doth to Sanctifie us; without which two we are unable to any thing that is good, without which our best Vertues, could not be pleasing to God, and therefore must needs have some imperfection in them. Works done before Ar [...]ic. 13. the grace of Christ, and the Inspiration of the Spi­rit are not pleasing to God, forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Jesus Christ. Indeed the Heathens did well to follow their Reason so far as it was right, but they did not know that their Reason was to be rectified before it could be right; That they were to be created in Christ Eph. 2. 10▪ Jesus to good works before they could walk in them: For how can the fruit be good till the Tree be so? that therefore a man may live justly and righteously, he must first be just; and what Mortal man can be just till he be ju­stified? We have all sinned, and if we be ju­stified, it is by Faith in Christ, and then we may be bold to say our works are good, when we put in this condition, as Mr. Herbert did, It is a good work if it be sprinkled with the blood of Christ. When likewise together with Christ dying for us; The holy Spirit of God lives within us; we are now put into a State to1 Thes. 4. 1. walk so as to please God. Upon which accounts the Morality, Justice, Honesty, &c. which the Scripture obliges us to, is more perfect, then that which the Heathens by the light of Na­ture attained to.

Sect. 3 In prosecution of this Argument much might be added; but I consider I have been more [Page 34] large upon this third Objection, then upon ei­ther of the former, and also that somewhat hath been already said in the Case, under the second Objection where it was declar'd, that our Christian Morality doth necessarily sup­pose Faith in Christ; and Christ without us would be little to our advantage, without the work of the Spirit within us; wherefore it ha­ving been supposed already, I inlarge not up­on it, but conclude, that what hath been said is enough to discover an imperfection, in the Heathen Philosophers and Moralists, notwith­standing they have been so vain glorious in their boasting of perfection, yet have they had no such Cause; for they have failed in many things, and we also should fail, if we had not a better and surer rule to walk by, viz. the Word of God.

Which was the thing to be granted to this Objection; though we urge Morality, Integri­ty, and Honesty, and a good Conscience to­wards man; yet we do not refer our selves to the writing of the Heathen, as to our only or perfect Rule; but we believe the Scriptures teach us much better.

Sect. 4 Object. To all this it may be said, It is a thankless office to tell men of their faults; so may it seem, yea and unmanly too, to insult over the dead, who are not able to plead their own Cause: Wherefore it will in likelyhood, be enquired; for what Reason are all these things produced against a sort of men, who ought ra­ther to be pittyed, and it may be thought much better to bury their faults in silence.

Answ. To this I Answer, that they who least under­stand these things, yet do most need them, and this is principally for their sakes, that they may not mis-understand the design of that which they call preaching of Morality: something I can by experience say, that when Ministers have thought it necessary sometimes to insist upon the Doctrine of good works, as well as up­on Faith at other times, when they have urged upon their Auditors a just, and honest, and peaceable Conversation, and for these purposes may have had occasion to Quote Heathen Au­thours, that have recommended the same thing; presently there hath this prejudice ari­sen against such Sermons: These men are sure better studied in the Philosophers than the Scriptures. They talk of Plato and Aristotle and we cannot tell who, and doe not seem to make any difference between their writing and the word of God. (And it is very likely there have been some who have been over-lavish in this kind.) Now as Elijah said to the Messengers of Ahaziah, Is it not because there is no God in 2 Kings 1. Israel, that ye gae to inquire of Baalzebub the God of Ekron? so will it be suspected: Is it not because these men slight the Scriptures, or it may be understand them not, that they speak so much in the Language of the Heathen? as they speak half in the speech of Ashdod, be­cause Nehem. 13 they could not speak the Jews Language. At least it will be thought that such men doe too much magnifie the light of Nature, and give too much honour, to those men, who were without Christ (unless revealed unto them by a [Page 36] miracle) and so without hope and without God Eph. 2. in the World. And it is very likely this Trea­tise may meet with the same fate; For I doe not think so well of my self, as to expect more Candor than other men have found; Yet am I willing to prevent mistakes if it may be, and for that purpose have I made all these acknow­ledgments of the Errours and Imperfections of the Heathens, that it may not be thought we attribute too much to them, or refer to them as to perfect guides.

Let it not therefore trouble any whose leisure and want of better books, may give them leave to look into this; I say let not this be a scruple, that I have chose a subject, wherein it is not improper to make use of Heathen Authours; for it is already confessed, that they have er­red and failed in many things, and are not to be compared to the word of God: And what more to say for the satisfaction of such persons, I cannot tell. So then at last I have done with those concessions which are to be made, in this Case to preserve the Honour and Esteem of the Scriptures inviolate, and to prefer them to all other writings whatsoever; which was the first thing promised uuder this head, to grant what is to be granted to this Objection: In all which, I should doe very vainly if I thought I did contradict my self, or that any of these things did signifie any thing against the practise or necessity of morality; which was the second thing to be confidered under this head, but that which need not take up so much time as the former.

CHAP. VII.

Sect. 1 THough the Heathens did fail in many things yet they did not fail every where; 2 sometimes they do give good precepts yea ma­ny times, and those very rules of Vertue which they gave, so far as they are according to the Scriptures (but not where they contradict) are fit for us to take notice of, and being improved by Scripture they are necessary for us to con­form to. To argue that because they erred in some things, therefore they are not to be be­lieved in any thing, is as vain as to say because a man sometimes tells a lye, therefore we will not believe him, where we know he speaks true. There are some things in which we know the Philosophers have spoken true, for the Scri­ptures speak the same: As God ba [...]e witnesse to the Israelites, they have well said in all that Deut. 5. they have spoken, though there wanted in them an heart to do it: so verily though in their lives these men be weak as other men, yet they have well said in many things, they have spoken ve­ry selfe-denyingly and like mortified Christi­ans, concerning the contempt of the world and worldly things: They have given good rules for the government of a mans selfe, both as to his passions within, and outwardly for his dis­course and actions; they have disparaged wick­edness and vice, and they have done what they could to represent Vertue amiable and lovely, that if it might be, that might come to pass which Plato speaks of it as Tully quotes him: [Page 38] Formam ipsam, Marce Fili, & tanquam faciem Tully Offic▪ l. 1. honesti vides quae si oculis cerneretur, mirabiles amores (ut ait Plato) excitaret sapientiae. Were it possible to see Vertue in an humane shape, she would wonderfully, draw all mens eyes and affections after her. That Moral Vertues are so excellent is not now to be prooved, but here­after, when these disadvantages are all remoov­ed, for the present it is sufficient to say, that be­cause we have the Scripture to supply the defect of all other Authors, it argues nothing against the necessity of morality, that others have been imperfect in the descriptions and recommenda­tions of it.

Sect. 2 Yea moreover it may not be amiss to adde for a conclusion of this Argument, that, sup­po [...]ing we have the word of God to correct their errors, there may be very good use made of the writings of Philosophers and if it be done without arrogance, or affectation of be­ing thought to have read a great deal, it may be lawful and convenient to imitate St. Paul whom we find to have inserted into the body of the New Testament three sentences out of three several Heathen Authors, Aratas, Menan­der, Acts. 17. [...] C [...]r. 15. Tit. 1. and Epimenides, and that for these three Reasons.

That we may justifie the Scriptures as to a [...]. main part of them, the severe precepts they give for the right ordering our conversation ought not to be lookt upon as strange things, for they are such as the world hath been long acquainted with, where the light of the Gospel hath not come: yea as Balaam had a desire to [Page 39] curse the Children of Israel, yet did altogether bless them; so have some Heathens unwittingly given an honourable Testimony to Christian Religion and the Gospel, though they have persecuted the Professors of it, in as much as they themselves have said many the same things; though they could not lay so sure a foundation for a good life, nor build so high towards perfection, as the Scriptures have done; yet somewhat they have done, in the same kind, by which rude and imperfect Mo­dells they have justified that excellent platform of a new Creature, created to good works, that God hath given us in his

Sect. 3 It is lawfull to quote Heathens, that we may shame our selves, where we fall short of those Vertues, to the knowledge and practise of which, the more Ignorant Heathens have at­tained: with what astonishment may we look into the Christian world to see, how many there are, that know more and better then the Heathens, but do worse: we Christians that ought to follow the Example of Christ and the Apostles, are many degrees below the more sober Heathens. This is to the shame of many that name the name of Christ, and yet depart not from those iniquities, that Cato or Socrates would have been ashamed of. Solomon expresses his indignation against idleness, by sending the Sluggard to School to the Ant, who having no Prov. 6. 6. 7. 8. guide, overseer nor ruler, provides her meat in the Summer, &c. Now if so ignoble a Creature be fit by its Example to teach a man, as it is Par­vulanam Horace. Exemplo est magni formica laboris.

Then may a Heathen be fit to teach a Chri­stian. Go to the Philosopher thou degemerate Christian, thou hast the word of God for thy Rule, the Spirit of God for thy guide, which they wanted; yet did they better provide for their credit while living, and for their safety after death: Would Aristides have played the Knave, and have cheated his Neighbour who was firnamed the just? Were Fabricius and Curius so [...]ordid and covetous as many Chri­stians are, of whom the Roman Storyes report how little they car'd for gold and Silver, or the bribes of Pyrrhus? Would Regulus have been Treacherous to his own Country, who was resolved to be true to his Enemies? How was Luxury and riot discouraged among the Lacedemonians, when the places where they used to feast together, were called [...] Plutarch. because of their frugality in their expences. And so in other cases, It is good to see what they have said and done, that the Man may shame the Christian; for it is a very shame for us who have better helps than they, if we doe not go beyond them in all Vertue and good­ness.

Sect. 4 It may be worth the while to borrow some passages from these Authours; 3 because though the Scripture be more perfect, yet in some things, where it is not so particular, instances from others may help to illustrate, what is [Page 41] more closely couched in them: It is no defect in the Scriptures to be short, but their glory, that in so little a compass, so much should be contained: But in regard they are so much shorter, then many discourses of the Heathens, it cannot be imagined, but that some things should be more dilated on elsewhere, which may help to convey what is here commanded, with the greater force to our understandings and affections: The gay addes nothing to the sense and meaning of the book; yet it encou­rages the Child to take the book into his hand, and so he may learn the sooner. So are those illustrations, and similitudes, and examples, and apposite sentences, which we bring out of other Authours, not by way of supplement to the word of God; but to try if by any way or means, we can make any impression upon the minds of men. And this is Apology enough for the use of Heathen Authours, in the use of which it is to be acknowledged it is easy to over-doe: And it is a witty comparison of a Learned man, That to stuff a Sermon with Ci­tations Wilkins Ecclesia­ [...]es. of Authours, and the witty sayings of others, is to make a feast of Vinegar and Pepper; which may be very delightful, being used mode­rately as sauces, but must needs be very improper and offensive, to be fed upon as dyet.

So much (if not too much) in answer to the third Reason, why some have spoke so slightly of Morality, to save the prerogative of the ho­ly Scriptures, by preferring them above the writings of all Heathen Moralists.

CHAP. VIII.

Sect. 1 Obj. 4 THere is another sort of men, with whom I have next to deal, to whom I must not be so facile and yielding as in the former cases: They are the Antinomians, who are of opinion that the Obligation of the Moral Law is not consistent with the perfection of a Gospel state; and therefore no wonder if they during that perswasion, undervalue Morality. Who first gave these men their denomination, and of how long standing they have been in the World, is almost as hard to find, as the Head of Nilus. A Learned Doctor of our Church hath takenHoldsw. pains in it, to whom I dare add nothing. He finds Antinomianisme among the Manachees, and higher a great deal: In hoc▪ se speculo in­tueantur Lect. 19. Antinomi, & agnoscant prosapiam suam, Quis Pater ipsorum? Manes. Quis Avus? Ta­tianus. Quis Proavus? Marcion. Abavus? Cer­don. Tritavus? Simon. Yea further then Simon Magus he pursues the Serpent to his first Den. The Devils first temptation was to make our first Parents Antinomians. Sect. 2 How this wretched sort of men, are the opposite extream to theCh. 2. Papists, hath been observed before out of this same Authour, but no more then said of them, because this is their proper place: Certainly they are direct Adversaries to this Doctrine of the necessity of Moral Vertues, for they own no Obligation to the Moral Law; and so they say if we may credit those who have perused their writings: There is a Sermon extant [Page 43] with this Title Gods eye on his Israel, which is inMr. Gata­ker. the design of it a resutation of the Antinomi­ans; in the Preface to which, the Author re­ports one of their positions in these very words: That the Moral Law is of no use at all to a Be­liever, no rule for him to walk or examine his life by, and that Christians are free from the manda­tory power of it. Another borrowing this fromEdwards Gangr. the foresaid Author, addes this to it as another of their sayings. Neither Faith, nor Repentance, nor Humiliation, nor Selse-denyal, nor use of Or­dinances, nor doing as one would be done, to are dutyes required of Christians, or such things as they must exercise themselves in, or they can have no part in Christ.

Sect. 2 Yea foreign Authors have quoted as bad pas­sages, as these, though some of them to our griefe from English mouths. Lex non est digna Hoornb. sum. con­trov. ut vocetur verbum Dei. And again Non admit­tunt Antinomi, quod nos de bonis operibus dici­mus, esse ea viam ad regnum non causam regnan­di. Afterwards he reports Richardson to say, condemnamus nos ali [...]uid agere ad nostram salu­tem. Yea it seems there is a Book written byEaton peacem▪ one (whom Bishop Hall bewails, to have belong­ed to his Diocess of Norwich,) and set out byLancaster. another, the same man I suppose who was used to such midwifery, for it was such a name, that set out Dr. Crispe (whom I dare not joyn with the worst Antinomians) which Book hath this Title: The Honey▪comb of free justification by Christ alone. In which he discourses of the great priviledges of Believers: That now since Gataker ut supra. the death of Christ upon the Cross, sin it self and [Page 44] guilt and punishment, are so utterly and infinite­ly abolished, that there is now no sin in the Church of God, and that God sees no sin in us, and who­soever believes not this point is undoubtedly damned.

Sect. 3 Surely if this were all the Scriptures were good for, give me the sting rather than the Ho­ney; These sweet allurements of men to licen­tiousness, plus Aloes quam Mellis habent. The sting the severity of threatnings is more safe for us to lye under. It is better to be terrified to obe­dience than to bee flattered to sin: But blessed be God we find Honey in the Scriptures too, yea that which is sweeter then the Honey and the Psa. 19. Honey-comb. There are glorious priviledeges we hope to partake off, but then it must be by keeping in Gods way; that is the way of obe­dience to Gods commands, some of which will hereafter be found to require good works and Moral Vertues. It ought not to be expected that I should now undertake to confute these dange­rous and blasphemous positions; that will be sufficiently done, if the second Proposition be proved, which will give good reasons for the necessity of Moral Vertues, where it will ap­pear, that what this wretched generation of men hath filthily devised, hath proved nothing to our prejudice; they have spoken swelling words, but they are words of vanity, and none of them conclude against the necessity of Moral Vertues. So I dismiss these men likewise onely with this one Observation.

So many Antinomians as have proceeded to be Fift-Monarchy-men, as they are commonly [Page 45] called, must needs contradict themselves: For that man that believes Christ will come to raign personally upon the Earth, and introduce the Glorious Kingdome of the Saints; and yet, shall not at the same time believe himself obli­ged to be an honest man, and Morally Vertu­ous; he must not think that the Kingdome of Christ will be like the new Heavens and the new 2 Peter 3. Earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Which yet the Scripture sayes: And surely if Christ be Head of this Kingdome, either he must Countenance Unrighteousness or be unable to suppress it, or there shall be no unrighteousness there, or if there be, it will be no glorious Kingdome nor any such great advance, from the present Administration of things in the World.

CHAP. IX.

5 Obj. 5 THere is but one sort of men more to be considered, and they are such as make good the words of St. Paul, Evill men and se­ducers 2 Tim. 3. wax worse and worse: Antinomianisme is the high way to Libertinisme: Wherefore it is not to be wondred at, if those corrupt prin­ciples have given occasion to rotten and abo­minable practices: Hence have proceeded those Ranters in Religion, that late years have a­bounded with, who have made themselves truly lyable to those criminations, that were falsly objected to the Primitive Christians. viz. Promiscui Concubitus, and the like; yea there [Page 46] are some that have extinguished all sense of Re­ligion; that laugh at Conscience, and will not perswade themselves either of Heaven or Hell: Yea they will scarce profess to believe a God in the World but that by their execrable Oaths they doe out of their own mouths damn them­selves. This is their Motto:

And if God do not give them Repentance and amendment of Life, they will find the lat­ter to be too True; for then comes wailing and gnashing of Teeth: They will not be con­vinced now, to be sure not perswaded; but then comes an unanswerable proof, and an in­tolerable Argument, The wrath of God exe­cuted upon Unrighteous men, is the greatest, but dreadfullest demonstration in the world, that it was necessary for them, to have lived sober and Righteous lives. In the mean time some of them possibly, scarse believe themselves Reasonable Creatures, and then it will be in vain to argue with them; if they pretend to Reason, I will endeavour to speak pertinently to the case, by producing Arguments of several sorts, to prove it necessary for them, and all the rest of mankind, to he good and Vertuous, and presuming upon the strength of them (to which I am now approaching) I may confi­dently say, that these evill imaginations of men [Page 47] of corrupt minds, add no more disadvantage to the Cause, then any thing that was before pleaded: Wherefore I conclude this first part of my discourse, and I hope I have prooved my first general Proposition, which was this; whatever Reasons may have induced some men to speak slightly of Morality, yet none of them all conclude, that it is not necessary for a Christian to be a Moral man.

CHAP. I.

2 THe second Proposition follows: Ha­ving now yeilded as much safely may be yeilded; there do yet remain great and strong, and unanswerable Reasons to prove the affirmative: viz. It is necessary for a Christian to be a Moral man.

Two wayes an Action may become necessa­ry: Necessitate praecepti, or Medii: Some things are necessary because they are com­manded; other things may likewise be com­manded, yet in their own Natures they are necessary as means to an End, and would be so if there were no other command for them, but what is included in the Law of Nature; ac­cording [Page 49] to which distinction there is this double proof of the forementioned proposition.

1 It is necessary for a Christian to live in the exercise of Moral Vertues, because God hath commanded him so to do.

3 Together with these commands the nature of the thing requires that so it should be.

The first of these will not take up so much time as the second, yet to make the method more clear, I assign to each a distinct Book.

1 The first way of arguing is from the Testi­mony that God himself in his Word bears to Vertue: God hath in Scripture commanded us to abound in Moral Vertues; to be just and ho­nest; to be temperate, sober and chast; to be charitable and meek, &c. These are things which we may be bold to press upon the consci­ences of men, for we may adde a more autho­ritative ipse dixit then the Scholars of Pythago­ras contented themselves with, we say Thus saith the Lord to all of them. Concerning which Commands these four things are worthy to be considered: they are many, plain, parti­cular, peremptory commands.

1 The Commands of Scripture for Moral Ver­tues are many, that we may easily find them.

3 They are plain, that when found we may easi­ly understand them.

3 They are particular, that when understood we may easily apply them.

4 They are peremptory, that we may not easily shift off that application.

CHAP. II.

Sect. 1 1 THe Scripture doth contain many precept for the right ordering of our Conversation the Old Testament not a few, the New Testa­mentPsa. 50. very many.

1 The Old Testament is Canonical, as in ano­ther, so in this sense; for it contains rules of Life, such are especially the Ten Commandments, whereof the six last directing our behaviour towards our Neighbour, comprehend Moral Vertues. As we are Creatures we owe our selves to God, who made us for his own glory and service; but this same God hath made us fellow Creatures, and some of the service he re­quires of us, is to keep a good conscience to­wards man: Wherefore as it hath pleased God to direct us in his worship, to those duties, which we call the duties of the first Table; so withal the same God, at the same time, in the same extraordinary manner, did speak all those words as we read: so that the latter are20. Exod. 1. the words of God as well as the former: Yea there will be found so near an affinity between the first and second Table (a distinction which God himself hath authorized, by writing the Law in two Tables) that unless we obey both we cannot duely obey either. Prima Tabula est magnes ad secundam, secunda est Lapis [...]ydi­us ad primam. Those two Tables which were at first of Stone; The first is a Loadstone to the second, The second is a Touchstone to the first. If we heartily love God we shall be ingaged to [Page 51] keep all his Commandments: And this Com­mandment 1 John 4. 21. have we from him, that he who loves God, love his Brother also. And by way of re­ciprocation, if we love our Brother, it is an Evidence of our love to God, and his to us: If we love one another, God dwells in us, and 1 John 4. 12. his love is perfected in us. But otherwise, if a man say, I love God, and hateth his Brother, he is 1 John 4. 20. a Lyar; for he that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? So that the Motto, which hath sometimes been otherwise applyed, is not improper here: Si Collidimur, Frangimur. As Moses brake bothExod. 32. the Material Tables, by throwing them upon the ground; so certainly the Laws written up­on them, if they be made to clash one against another, they will all be broken: for whoso­ever shall oppose one to the other, and pre­sume that his being Religious to God, will ex­cuse him from being Righteous to his Neighbour; James 2. 10. he that shall thus offend, though it be but in one point, will be guilty of a breach of the whole Law: And though the Reason there added be a little varied, yet it holds good. He that said 11. thou shalt not be an Idolater, or an Atheist, said also thou shalt not be an Adulterer, or Murderer, or Lyar, &c. Now if thou Commit no Idolatry, yet if thou kill or lye, &c. thou art become a Transgressor of the Law, of the same God who re­quires both. That which the Law of God commands is necessary for a Christian man: But to abound in Moral Vertues is that which the Law of God (the Moral Law) commands: [Page 52] Therefore to abound in Moral Vertues is neces­sary for a Christian man.

Sect. 2 To which if it be Objected, that ChristiansObj. or New-Testament Saints, are of a higher dis­pensation; The Law was indeed given by Moses,John 1. 17. but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ, and that such Grace as makes void the works of the Law: Answ. 1 It might be answered, 1. That the Mo­ral Law was given to the Israelites, not as Is­raelites but as men; and then à quatenus ad omne valet Consequentia: So long as Christians continue men, Reasonable Creatures, so long they will be under an Obligation to this Law: And this appears, because before the promul­gation of this Law upon Mount Sinai, Cain Gen. 4. transgressed it in killing his Brother, Ham in mocking his Father, the men of Sodom inGen. 9. Gen. 19. their uncleanness, which hath ever since bore the name of Sodomy from them: Now in those ages they must have this Law, else how could they trangress it; for where no Law is there is [...]o [...]. 4. [...]5. no Transgression?

2 It might be Answered, that a Law once in force, is presumed so to continue, till it cease of it self, or be repealed by the Law-maker; nei­ther of which can be made good in this Case: Upon which Answer I do not in enlarge; partly because (especially in matters of Fact) Assirmantis est probare: If the Antinomians can­not produce how and when it was repealed, we may persist to say it is still valid: But chiefly because a determination of this que­stion, when a Law as to the reason and foundation of it ceases and is null; if it be [Page 53] accurately done, would be some what too specu­lative for every vulgar reader, who I make ac­count are most concerned in what I write, whose practice if I may be useful to direct, I shall the less care to make them wander in spe­culation. Scholars do not want Books that make out this argument.

3 Therefore it is sufficient to say, that those commands of the Old Testament, which are re­peated in the New, are never the more out of date, because they are first found in the Old: such are the precepts of the Moral Law, which have been already named. Wherefore though other precepts and rules of Life might be insisted on, out of the Old Testament, which are not liable to any just exception, yet because there is so very great plenty in the New thither let us go.

Sect. 3 2 There are very many commands in the Gos­pel, that make it necessary for a Christian to abound in Moral Vertues; so many that it would be long to name all; yet that it may help us forward in the practice of them, it may be worth our while to consider, that we have a greater confirmation, then of two or three wit­nesses: There is no Book in the New Testam [...]nt but hath some commands, or something very near commands, for this purpose.

It is no small advantage to our cause to con­sider first, That the first Sermon Christ preach­edM [...]. 5. 6. 7. chap. doth handle much of this Argument, doth enforce many commands of the moral Law be­fore mentioned, and doth require us to love our Enemies, not to be guilty of rash judging, to [Page 54] do as we would be done to: and many the like afterwards in St. Matthew's Gospel. St. Mark Mar. 7. ch. 12. ch. doth likewise repeat some of these, of Honour­ing Father and Mother, and loving our Neigh­bour as our selves.

St. Luke also says the same things, and directsLuke. 6. ch. 10. ch. 11. ch. 12. ch. 21. ch. John. 13. 14. 15. ch. Acts. 5. to shew mercy and to give Alms, and warns a­gainst Covetousness, and elsewhere against sur­feiting and drunkenness. In St. John the same Saviour spoken of in the former Gospels, requires Humility and Love. The Acts of the Apostles being a History is fuller of examples then com­mands;Acts. 4. the judgement on Ananias and Sap­phira for lying, and of the Church for love, and one heartedness: but there are not altoge­ther wanting commands there neither, for Cha­ritableness, Remember the words of the Lord Je­sus, how he said, it is more blessed to give then to Acts. 20. Acts. 23. receive: for submission to Authority: Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people: And we may presume that St. Pauls reasoning with Foelix of Righteousness and Temperance Acts. 24. was in an Authoritative commanding way; for it is an unusual thing for a Prisoner to make the Judge tremble.

If we go on to the Epistles, they have much of the same Argument, Rom. 12. 13. ch. 1 Cor. 13. ch. 2 Cor. 13. 11. v. Galat. 5. 16. v. &c. to the end of that chap. The latter end of the Ep. to the Eph. from the 24. v. of the 4. ch. the greatest part of the remainder of the Ep. Philip. 2. ch. beginning, 4. ch. 8. v. A great part of the 3. and 4. ch. to the Colos. 1 Thessal. 3. 12. v. 4. ch. 5. 6. v. 9. &c. 2 Thessal. 3. 10. 1 Tim. 1. 9. &c. 6. [Page 55] ch. 11. 2 Tim. 2. 19. 22. Titus. 2. 12. 3. 8. The Ep. to Philemon is in the design of it an exhortation to forgive an injury. Heb. 13. ch. 1. &c. 5. &c. 16. The Ep: of St. James, besides that it commends Works together with Faith, directs to the government of the Tongue, to meek­ness, and against Envy, James 3. v. 2. &c. 13. 14. St. Peter hath many such precepts, 1 Ep. somewhat in every Chapter, 2 Ep. 1. 5. &c.

The 1 Ep. of St John is known to commend love; so likewise the 2 Ep. v. 3. he wishes them grace with truth and love; yea likewise the third, as it doth commend the hospitality of Gaius, so doth it adde a precept, v. 8.

St. Jude after he had described the sins of some of his time, v. 8. 9. &c. some of which were Immoralities; he doth not obscurely insinuate the contrary, though not in so many words command it, v. 19. 20.

Yea for a conclusion of all, 22 Revel. 11. when unjust and filthy men are given over to their injustice and filthiness, yet righteous men are established in their righteousness, and bles­sed in it. v. 14.

These are many, but not all the directions that are to be found in the New Testament, which teach us in our behaviour in the world and in the exercise of Moral Vertues. The force of these commands is not now to be considered, but afterwards, when it must be made appear that they are peremptory and admit of no e­vasion or excuse. It is enough now to make an induction and enumeration of particulars, which is sufficient for the purpose, though not [Page 56] so full as it might be made: I have mentioned so many, that I may well give this Advertise­ment to all those who are concerned in it; that they do us great wrong, who despise our preaching of Morality, and do not think it Gos­pel preaching: if we may follow the Example of Christ and the Apostles, we are then certain we do truly preach the Gospel, when we com­mand Moral Vertues; for it is evident they did the like before us, and that not sparingly, but in abundant manner. This is the first part of the Argument from the Scripture: The com­mands for Moral Vertues are very many, and we may easily find them.

CHAP. III.

Sect. 1 THey are likewise plain commands, that when found they may easily be under­stood:2 The directions which the Scripture gives about the management of our Affairs, are not so dark as the Answers that the Heathens had from their Oracles: They themselves called their Apollo [...], because of his ambiguity: we may give him another Epithete, that which the Pharisees without any Reason gave to Christ, [...]. That deceitful Spirit27 Math. 63. (the Devil that took upon him the state of a God) was ambiguous on purpose, that by those riddles he might salve his own credit amongst them, though they should chance to be deceived as Croesus and others were: But the Scriptures are clear and plain, especially as [Page 57] to these matters of practice: The word of God2 Pet. 1. 19. is a light shining in a dark place: Such was the World till Christs time, a dark place, men were much in the dark, and that as to Vertue as well as Religion, as hath been before said, and madeBook 1. an Argument of the insufficiency of the writings of the Philosophers: But here have we a lamp 119 Psa. to our feet, and a light to our paths. So our Di­vine Poet expresses it;

What the Disciples once said to our Saviour. Joh. 16. Loe now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no parable; So may we say of many of the com­mands of Scripture: for what can be more plain, whether for matter or manner, then for a man to Love his Neighbour as himself? who knows not how he loves himself, and he who will not believe he hath many Neighbours, will10 Luke. find that he ought to show himself neigh­bourly to whomsoever shall have need of him, if he understand the Parable; so to recom­pence Evil for Evil, and many others: These are such things, of which we use to say, he that runs may read them: There needs no [Page 58] great intenseness of mind; it is not necessary to dwell long upon them to understand them, they are plain and easie to be understood. This is now another advantage we have by the Gospel; it doth both bring us light and open our Eyes to see that light▪ the directions of the Word, and the teachings of the Spirit, promi­sed in that Word, make our Rule very plain and easily understood.

Sect. 2 3 These many plain Rules of life are not all general, so that the application of them may be easily mistaken, but directed to particular conditions, and Relations, and circumstances of life: we do not only read in the general that we must abstain from fleshly lusts, but we1 Pet. 2. Gal. 5. 1 Thes. 4. have particular Catalogues of those Lusts: we are not only bid to walk so as to please God, but we are told what it is that is well pleasing to him: In so small a Volume as the Scripture is▪ it would be unreasonable to expect particu­lar commands for every Punctilio, for every smaller Occurrence of Life: There are gene­ral Rules of prudence, which may easily be accommodated to particular circumstances; yet evident it is, that there are many commands for persons in such Relations; For Husbands and Wives, Parents and Children, Masters and Servants, Magistrates and Subjects. Moreover there are commands for particular duties; for Meekness, and Humility, and Charity, and Temperance, &c. if the Scripture sometimes speaks in Parables, yet many of them are such which we may easily apply to our selves, as Nathan did his to David, when he said thou art 2 Sam. 12. [Page 59] the man. As John the Baptist gave directions in particular to the people, to the Publicans, and3 Luke. to the Souldiers, as they applyed to him; so will the Gospel answer us, if we come with the same question: And what shall we do? go and search the Scriptures, see what is written, how readest thou? It were a childish fancy to ex­pect to be called by our Names (as once Peter was, Arise Peter, kill and eat) who will dare to say, that when the King issues out a Procla­mation to all his subjects; because I do not find my name there, it doth not concern me? We are all concerned, and we are as good as named, and particularly directed, in many af­fairs of our lives, how to exercise our selves in righteousness, and goodness, and all Moral Vertues.

Here are now 3 things said to prove that the Scripture doth make Vertue necessary, by gi­ving many, plain, particular commands in the case; but that there may remain no question of our Obligation, the 4th. follows.

CHAP. IV.

Sect. 1 4 THese many, plain, particular commands are absolute without any condition that may excuse, they are peremptory and severe, and strict, so that when they are found and understood, and ready to be applyed, there re­mains no evasion to shift off that Application. Certain it is, that where God doth not dispense with his Laws, there man may not; It is a­gainst [Page 60] all Reason, that an Inferiour Magistrate should controul a Superiour; but it is mon­strous, that the head and the feet should change places; that the Common people, whose duty it is to obey Laws, should usurp Authority over the Law-makers, and dispute their commands: And if it be necessary there should be such a distance between man and man, for the safety and preservation of mankind; Is not then the distance greater between God & man? Thinkest Job. 35. 2. thou this to be right, that thou saidst my Righte­ [...]sness is more than Gods? Elihu first puts the question, but afterwards God himself demands the same; I will demand of thee and declare thou Job. 4 [...]. [...]. 8. unto [...]e; wilt thou also disannull my Judgments, wilt thou condemn me that thou maist be Righ­teous? Hast thou an Arm like God, or [...]anst thou Thunder with a voice like him? Where is the power and Authority that dare oppose it self to God, before whom the Hills mel [...] like wax? 97 Psa. [...]. 2. for fear of whom and for the glory of his Ma­jesty, the lofty looks of men are humbled, and the [...]ghtiness of men is bowed down. Yea more­over where is the wisdom that may better in­form God, or alter what he hath once esta­blished?Isal. 40. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Land, o [...] being his Counsellour hath taught him? Out of the [...]outh of the most High, and from infinite wisedom, have proceeded the directi­o [...] we have for our Conversations: And it is Arrogance beyond an Epithete, to offer our selves as Counsel to the Almighty, or to pre­ [...]e or advise a change of that which hath gone o [...] of the Mouth of God. Unless it please [Page 61] God himself first to repeal his Laws, it is not possible that a Creature should have Authority to usurp upon his Creator.

All the question then is, whether God him­self have not annexed some conditions to his commands, whether there be not some reserves and exceptions, which in case they happen, then upon performance of the condition, the obligation becomes void and of none effect. In­deed Christian priviledges, by which we ought to encourage our selves to Christian duties, have been abused (by those that turn the grace J [...]de 4. of God into lasciviousness) to patronize all manner of impiety; and three things especially have been made use of to this purpose, Faith, and Repentance, and Christian liberty; none of all which do give any indulgence to Immo­rality, or vitiousness of life, or do weaken those commands which require Moral Ver­tues.

Sect. 2 1 Not Faith. It hath already been acknow­ledged, that the necessity of Moral Vertues ought not to be understood as a prejudice toBook 1. Object. 2▪ Faith; It must now be considered on the other side, that as Morality doth not make Faith useless; so neither doth Faith bring any ex­cuse for Immorality. If it be said, I believe in Jesus Christ, for the pardon of my sins, and for the Salvation of my Soul, upon his alone merits I rely, who hath promised Everlasting life to me if I believe; therefore what need I do any more? To this I oppose the words of St. Paul, This is a Faithful saying, and these Ti [...]us 3. [...]. things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they [Page 62] who have believed in God be careful to maintain good works; these things are good and profitable unto men. They who have believed in God may not sit down and bless themselves with the priviledges of the Faithful, without any more ado, they must maintain, i. e. they must [...] excel, must be eminent in good works; they must be [...], a word which no body that understands but will allow it thus much, theyAntistites esse, Beza in loc. must be Presidents of good works: And this they must take care of, and be sollicitous about, and lest there should be any that may doubt of it, he will have Titus affirm it constantly, he [...]. must be very firm and resolute in the case, without peradventure it is the duty of Believers thus to do; to all which it is some Emphasis, that he begins the Verse thus, A Faithful say­ing, a word which he doth elsewhere use in weighty matters, It is a Faithful saying, and 1 Tim. 1. 15. worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the World to save sinners. To all which no­thing can be objected by any man, that doth not magnify his own private Spirit before St. Paul, who did more than think he had the Spirit of God; unless possibly this should be imagined, that Moral Vertues are not here comprehended under good works: wherefore let one Apostle interpret another, let us bor­row of St. Peter to explain St. Paul, And be­sides 2 Pet. 1. 5. this giving all diligence, add to your Faith Vertue, &c. Temperance, Patience, Charity. A place beyond all exception to prove, that though we have Faith, yet we may not be without Vertue; for if there be any place in [Page 63] Scripture where we are to understand Faith in the most excellent kind, it is here; for it is that like precious Faith, which the Apostles ob­tained,V. 1. it was a Faith joyned with such a knowledge of Christ, as that by great and preci­ous promises they became partakers of the divine V. 4. Nature; yet this Faith that makes men like God, is not too good to accompany with Ver­tue, nor can it safely be alone; for he that lack­eth V. 9. [...]. these things (i. e. these Vertues) is blind and cannot see a far off. Now if we must give dili­gence to add Vertue by way of supply to Faith (as the word imports) then Faith is no excuse for a failure in Vertue. To these we may add St. James, who speaks as confidently; What doth it profit, my Brethren, though a man say he hath Faith and have no works, can Faith James 2. 14. save him? will such a Faith which is dead with­out works be a saving Faith? no surely, not till these contradictions can be reconciled, that a man may at the same time be an unholy, or an unsanctified Saint, a wicked Believer, an honest Knave. When Judas his kiss can be interpreted friendship, then when he comes to betray his Master, when the way to Heaven lyes through the midst of Hell; when these things come to pass, then may a man hope to be saved by his Faith, though he be and continue to be, the person whom God threatens to damn for the wickedness of his Conversation. Faith is a saving grace, if it be true Faith, but Noscitur ex socio; if it be not accompanyed with good works it is but dead, and will never entitle us to life. Therefore though it be our priviledge [Page 64] that we may believe, yet this is no excuse from Moral Vertues.

CHAP. V.

Sect. 1 NEither doth Repentance disoblige us any more than Faith. It is Mercy that Sin­ners can never enough admire, that upon Re­pentance they may be accepted into favour, so as that their iniquity shall not be their Ruine: But it is a wicked perverting of this Mercy, ifEzek. 18. instead of leading us to Repentance, it encoura­gesRom. 2. 6. us to sin the more, because this grace doth thus abound; yet how many are there in the World, who upon presumptions of Repen­tance some time before they dye, do think it less needful for them to be holy and Vertuous while they live. 1 Whereas in truth this very thing is a sufficient Argument for the necessity of those Vertues, for a failure in which men hope to repent, and so to be excused: A Drunk­ard or Swearer, or any other vitious person, in­tending hereafter to repent and amend, now continues in those evil courses; but what do men mean when they say they will repent? Do they not believe it is sin that must be re­pented of? He that hath not committed a fault must lye if he cry peccavi; why should he be sorry and wish he had not done it? If this sor­row be for that which is amiss, then Drunken­ness &c. are hereby acknowledged to be Sins, by those who say they will repent of them: If Drunkenness be a Sin, then it must needs be a [Page 65] duty to be temperate and sober, and so for the rest; and if these Moral Vertues be our du­ties, then are we under an obligation to them, and they are necessary for us: It is therefore evident that Repentance is so far from excusing us in our Immorality, that it doth suppose the contrary Vertues necessary for us; if they were not, we were fools to repent that we have not practised them; but in regard they are, theirs is the greater folly, that make Repentance a Plea to excuse themselves: and this were enough to be said in the case, but it is not all.

Sect. 2 2 For 2. if the Nature of Repentance be un­derstood, the necessity of that proves the ne­cessity of good works: Repentance in the com­prehension of it, is an exercise of the life as well as of the heart; he that repents must not onely be sorry for his sins, but he must turn from them, and forsake them: Let the wicked for­sake Isa. 55. his way, &c. and let him return to the Lord, &c. and therefore Repentance and amendment of life are put for one and the same thing: The old English Translation did so express it, Amend your lives; for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. And certainly if a man be sincere­ly sorrowful for his former sins, he will take care for the time to come to do so no more, there will be a change in his life as well as in his heart: So there was in his, who would not at first obey his father, but afterwards he re­pented Math. 21. 29. and went. He that repents in earnest, will say, If I have done iniquity, I will do no more. When sorrow is after a Godly sort, itJob 34. 32. makes a man careful, studious and industrious, [Page 66] What carefulness it wrought in you. Now if [...] Cor. 7. [...]. this be necessary thus to amend and change, then so far as Repentance is necessary, instead of being an Argument the other way, it doth clearly prove the necessity of a holy life. He that repents of Drunkenness and dishonesty, must leave it, else he is an Hypocrite; he that must leave it, must practise the contrary; It is not possible a man can leave Drunkenness, if he be not sober: And he that must practise, is there­fore under an Obligation, so that because it is necessary to repent of Immorality: and this wicked men acknowledge; If they under­stood the consequence of the Argument, they must needs acknowledge also the necessity of Moral Vertues.

Sect. 3 Much more might be said to convince of the danger of deferring Repentance, though▪ it be not for us to determine the grace [...]f God: if it please God to accept of a man that is just dying before be repent and return to him (ac­cording as it hath been sometimes said,

Yet certainly the hazard is great that [...]ey [...] who defer Repentance; It is very ha­zardous whether ever they may live to execute their Intentions; They give great provocati­ons to God, to cut the [...] off in their sins, and in Impenitency among the rest: They lay many hindrances and obstructions in their own way, because the longer they live in sin, it is▪ the [Page 67] harder for them to leave it at last, if they do not make themselves incapable: But these things are somewhat more out of my present purpose, and they are Arguments that may be more safely omitted, because they are more copiously handled in their proper places, by those that write particularly about Repentance. So much for answer to the second presumption; the possibility of Repentance is no Argument against the necessity of Moral Vertues; but the necessity of Repentance is a great Argument that they are necessary.

Sect. 4 3 But is not Christian Liberty a salve for all Excesses? may we not understand that voice to Peter (what God hath cleansed, that call not thou Acts 10. common) of things as well as men, and of the Moral as well as the Ceremonial Law? are not all things now lawful to us? is there any diffe­rence between one action and another, now under the Gospel? are we not free so as not to entangle our selves with any yoke of Bondage? so sure they would gladly hope, that say, God sees no sin in his people: But it is a pitiful pre­tence to think, that Christian Liberty should deliver us from a necessity of Obedience. If men will make a Gospel of their own, and a Religion of their own, they must expect to be saved by a Saviour of their own: But then wo be to those men, that neglect that great salva­tion, H [...]b. 3. which Christ hath purchased and procu­red, and will effect in his own way: If we make the Gospel of Christ our rule then, no­thing is more plain then this; that the free­dome which Christ hath purchased for us, [Page 68] though it be from the Curse of the Law, yet itG [...]l. 3. is not from our Obligation to the Law: Being Rom. 6. then made free from sin, ye became the servants of Righteousness. There is more in the same Chapter to the same purpose: Indeed the whole Gospel is a proof to the contrary; there is no Liberty may be called Christian, but what is allowed in the Gospel: It is not imagi­nable, that the Gospel should allow us Liberty to transgress those commands, which it doth so frequently urge; unless we think Christ would be divided against himself, which is the wayLuk [...] 11. (by his own confession) not to have his King­dome stand. Wherefore it is enough to say, that the Gospel being the Rule both of our Li­berty and Duty, though it be true, that we have allowances which the Jews had not, and that is our Liberty; yet we have commands which both Jews and Gentiles had, and that is our duty: And then it must needs follow, that the Liberty which would take us off from good works and Moral Vertues, is Anti-Christian and Devilish. It is not the Seed of God remaining in men, but the Seed of the Serpent, that teaches them to wind, and turn, and roll themselves about any way, so as they may but shift out of the paths of Gods Commandments. The commands of the Gospel for Moral Vertues, are strict and severe; neither the pretence of Faith, nor of Repentance, nor of Christian Liberty, is any sanctuary for men of unhallowed lives.

And this is the proof from Scripture: It isNecess [...] [...] necessary for a Christian to live Righteously and Soberly, because there are many, plain, par­ticular, [Page 69] peremptory commands, whereby God requires these things of us; which was the first necessity assigned, because God in Scripture hath commanded them.

CHAP. VI.

Sect. 1 TO which Argument, in regard it doth depend upon the pleasure and authority of the Law-maker, it will be sitting to adde another Consideration, which will be a great strength to it, and in likelihood may have greater force upon those that are most likely to transgress. And this it is,

As it hath pleased God to command Moral Vertues, so he hath added in the same Word many severe threatnings, to those who shall break these Commands, and be guilty of the contrary vices. Neither would the Laws of God nor Man, signifie much to the greatest part of mankind, if they were not penal Laws. We ought to be Rom. 13. subject not only for wrath but Conscience sake: But did not fear of wrath and punishment scare many Men, little would Conscience of duty prevail with them; for notwithstanding that there are good wholsome Laws made, and pe­nalties annexed; yet how many Robberies, and Murders, and other Enormities are there com­mitted in the world? But if these wild Beasts had not their way hedg'd up with Thorns, they would quickly over-run the world, and make it a desolate wilderness. The execution of the penalty adds life to the Law. So therefore it [Page 70] hath pleased God to provide, the more effectu­ally to engage Men to a godly and righteous life, to declare his wrath against unrighte­ousness; to threaten Hell and Damnation, and Wrath to come, to Immoral, as well as to Ʋn­godly Men. The lake that burns with Fire and Brimstone is very terrible; but such as Murde­rers, Revel. 21. and Whoremongers, and all Lyars shall have their part in; but not only these, Wrath, Galat. 5. Strife, Sedition, Envyings, Drunkenness, Revel­lings, and such like; they that do such things shall not inherit the Kingdome of God. To1 Cor. 6. whom likewise, Covetous Persons, Extortioners and Revilers are added in another place. These and such like places of Scripture there are, whereby prophane and wicked Men are given to understand, what they may trust to, while they presume upon impunity in their wicked courses. As sure as God is in Heaven, these wicked and evil practices lead to Hell: as sure as Hell is dreadful and intolerable, it is neces­sary for Men to leave these sins; yea, because these things being to come are not not so much feared, we find by experience, that God doth (as he threatens Gog) plead against the Ezek. 38. world with Pestilence and Blood: And these now of late have we in England felt, what God can do; when within the space of one year, and1665. London. Westminst within the compass of two Cities so adjoyn­ing that they may go for one, together with their Suburbs and Liberties, have been swept away mostly by the Plague, (though not alto­gether) little less then an 100000 Persons, as by their Weekly Bills we are assured. The good [Page 71] God give us every one to turn from the evil of his Jonah 3. way, that God may turn from his anger, that we perish not: Moreover, God can send divers Plagues and Diseases upon Men, that they may know (what Pharaoh would not be convinc'd of, but by such kind of Arguments) that God Exod. 14. is the Lord; that it is not safe to despise the commands of God, as if he were not in earnest when he gave them.

Sect. 2 Among many instances that all Ages have abounded with, of the many judgements that come upon the world for sin; scarce any Age hath had a sadder proof, then we of late have had: For before one wo is quite past, behold Revel. 9. another wo comes; after the Plague a Fire. Oh thou sometime one of the fairest of Cities, with what Lamentation shall we bewail thee! In what a sad sense may we apply those Words; The Lord hath purged (London) by the spirit of Isa. 4. 4, 5. Judgement, and by the spirit of Burning: The Lord hath created (almost) upon every dwelling place (of the City) yea and upon (the place of) her Assemblies also, a cloud and smoak by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night. How did we hope that that besome of Destruction (the Plague) having swept so clean, there would be no more work for new Judgements? and therefore we hoped those words would not have reached us; For all this his anger is not Isa. 9. turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. But our old and our new sins have plotted to­gether, to provoke God to lay waste the City of our Solemnities, the joy of the whole Nation. For how many Centuries of years, hath the Lord [Page 72] kept that City, and blessed the Labours of the Watchmen, that they have not watched in vain? For how long together hath God appointed Isa. 26. Salvation for walls and bulwarks? How many Fires have been quenched, and the breaches repaired? yea, we read the whole City was once in a manner consumed by Fire, (Anno Godwin Catalogue of Bishops. p. 189. 1086.) yet out of the Ashes did arise a new City, that in succeeding Generations had at­tained to greater Glories and Magnificence, then ever the Original Structures could pretend to. The story or tale rather (for so evenPlinies Natural History. Pliny himself suspected it to be) of the Phaenix, gives him 660 years to live, before he fires his Nest. It is not yet 600 years, since that dread­ful Fire in the latter end of William the Con­querours Reign: So that in this respect, we cannot make London parallel to the Phaenix; God grant we may in another, that we may see a new City grow out of the Ashes of the old. In the mean time, we are very blind, if so great a Fire as this will not light us to see how angry God is with Men for their sins: We would not foresee our punishments in our sins, now God himself undertakes to light us to see our sins in our punishments: And surely our sins are great, for our punishment is so. Me­thinks I find a weak fancy may imagine to it self a representation of this desolate City, be­wailing it self in words to this purpose:

Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by? behold Lamen. 1. 12. and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce arger. Call [Page 73] me not Naomi, call me Marah, for the Almighty Ruth 1, 20. hath dealt very bitterly with me. I was full, but now am empty: full of fair Churches, of goodly Houses, of rich Shops, of stately Halls, of large Streets, of many People, but full of sin too, and now I am emptyed; for see what a void space this Fire hath made. Why then do ye call me pleasant, seeing the Lord hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? Have pity Job 19. 21. upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my Friends, for the hand of God hath touched me. Doth it not grieve you to see these Ruinous Heaps? Have you no compassion for my once Wealthy Citizens, whose Wealth is now below Envy, and they themselves ashamed of their former Pride? The time hath been, when my Poets have thought nothing too much to say of me; and I myself thought, I deserved such an honourable Testimony as this from one of them.

But now I cannot find any hath given me my due so much as he, who after many admi­rations of my glory, and plenty, and popu­lousness, yet adds,

Yet rejoyce not against me, O mine Enemy: for Micah 7. 8, 9, 10. though I fall, I shall arise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgement for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

Then she that is mine Enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her, which said unto me, where is the Lord thy God? mine eyes shall behold her, now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets. But if it must follow, what follows in that Chapter; Notwithstanding the Land shall ver. 13. be desolate, because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. The Lord is righ­teous, and the will of the Lord be done.

Indeed this astonishing providence is a most demonstrative Argument for my purpose; but such an one, as I was not aware of, when I first began to argue. For before it came to pass, who would have believed, that in so short a time, such a flourishing City could have been consumed? Who would not have hoped, that some of those many Engines would have been useful to have quenched the Fire? Some of those many Thousands, that the Plague had spared, might have been able to have stopt the Flames? But the hand of the Lord was lifted up. It hath pleased God by a very severe proof, to chastise us into a belief of the danger of wickedness and sin, and what less can we infer from it, then

Which I a little vary and translate.

My Reader will pardon this digression, oc­casioned by so remarkable an occurrence. I now return.

When God gave the Law upon Mount Sinai, it was accompanied with Thunders, and Exod. 20▪ Lightnings, and the noise of the Trumpet, and the Mountain smoaking, that the people might be afraid to offend such a God. Though the voice of the Gospel be a stiller voice, yet there are as it were Thunder and Lightning: The voice of the Lord in his threatnings, doth loudly proclaim to the World his pleasure, that he will have his commands observed, else wo be to them that shall presume to transgress. Wherefore because some of these commands require Moral Vertues, and some of these threatnings condemn Vice; from the tenor of this Law, I gather my first general Argument, why it is necessary for a Christian to be a Moral Man.

Sect. 2 If it seem strange that I have dwelt so long upon an Argument, that carries with it self a plain and undoubted evidence; I answer, Argu­ments taken from Reason only, though they may be very strong and good, yet may they be liable to more suspition, by those who are not so capable to discern a true Reason from a false one: It is easie to judge of matter of fact, when a testimony is produced out of the [Page 76] Word of God; (if there be first a satisfaction that it is the Word of God) then we may be sure we are not mistaken; especially when the Texts mentioned are so plain as those former­ly insisted on: But ignorant and mean Men may be imposed upon; if falshood be subtilly devised, it may go for depth of right Reason: Men may and sometimes do, pro falso non minus Grotius de Jure Bel▪ & pa­cis prol [...]g. quam pro vero, vires eloquentiae intendere; as is said of Carneades, who could declaim one day for justice with a great deal of zeal, and the next day as much against it: Certain it is, that many Books are written in contradiction to one another; they all pretend to Reason, and it is not always easie to distinguish between strength of Reason, and sleight of Wit: Wherefore I have first premised the Authority of the commands, and by a large explication of them, have endeavoured to free them from all exception; that it may help forward what is further to be said by way of Reason and Argument. So that when it shall be seen, what an Harmony there is between Scripture and Reason, how they do jointly defend the same Cause, it may make the greater impres­sion upon those that shall happen to be my Readers, and more effectually perswade to these Vertues.

CHAP. I.

Sect. 1 2 TOgether with the commands of God, it is evident from the Nature of the thing, that there is a necessity of Mo­ral Vertues, and so there would have been if we should suppose the Scripture not to have been written; though now that we have this sure word of Prophecy, we do not abstract from it, but adde some other considerations to those already named; for which likewise we have Authority from the word of God: It is there­fore further to be proved, that there is a ne­cessity of Moral Vertue, to which (for a further confirmation) I adde there is likewise an excel­lency in it, and such an excellency, as (though [Page 78] it may be considered abstractly from the fore­said necessity, yet joyned to it) will give a fur­ther advantage to this argument; for by how much the more excellent it is, it must needs be more necessary for us to practise it.

The first of these is an argument so worthy to be considered at large, that it alone will en­large this Book to the bigness of both the for­mer; yet I hope I shall enlarge upon nothing im­pertinent or unworthy notice taking.

Sect. 2 1 There is a necessity of Moral Vertue not one­ly out of obedience to a command, but it is necessary as a means in order to an end. So farNecessitas medii. as an end is necessary to be obtained, so far those means must necessarily be used, without which we cannot attain that end. Now there are these four ends and purposes for the ob­taining of which we ought to be vertuous in our Conversation.

1 That our Lives may be good.

2 That our Deaths may be safe.

3 That both may be comfortable to our selves.

4 That by one or both we may be profitable to others. Which are all over and above and besides this, that we may please God, which was the former Argument: for we cannot please God but by obedience to his Commands.

1 We must be vertuous that our lives may be good: for which two things must be proved.

1 That there is a goodness in these Moral acti­ons.

2 Such a goodness as without which we can­not be said to be men of good lives.

Sect. 3 1 There is a goodness in Moral Vertue [...] [Page 79] [...], These Tit. 3. [...] ▪ things are good and profitable to men. The good­ness of an Action consists in its agreeableness to its rule: Now because these Moral Vertues are ac­cording to Rule, therefore they must needs be good. Which is easily proved, if one thing be but supposed, viz. that Man is a reasonable creature: Which proposition if any man shall deny, or profess to doubt of, there is little to be got by arguing with him; for he doth pro­fess himself to be uncapable to discern of an Argument: He must be taught by Correction rather then Instruction: He must be taught as we teach Dogs, Argumento bacillino, with a wood­en Argument. Wherefore supposing this, that man hath some nobler principle in him, then a Hog or a Dog; somewhat above life and sense and motion; he is a Creature endued with Reason, with an U [...]derstanding to discern what is truth, and a Will to chuse what is good; I am then to demonstrate that which if all men were vertuous would need no other demonstra­tion: But the wicked excesses and abominable debaucheries of a great part of the world (not excepting those that live in the Christian world) give occasion to think, that wickedness doth alter mens understandings. (Malitia mu­tavit Wisd. 4. intellectum.) So that they are not sensible of any difference betweeen good and evil: men will not be perswaded (at least they live as if they were not) but that it is as lawful to revenge an injury as to requite a kindness; It is as noble and generous, to inflame their souls by Intem­perance to Lust, as it is to deny themselves and [Page 80] to mortifie those affections. Dolus aut Ʋirtus, they cannot tell which to prefer; it is as credita­ble to cheat another, if it be done hand­somely and ingeniously, as it is to be scrupulous lest they should do any wrong; and so almost in all sorts of Vice.

Sect. 4 It is not like that these kind of persons should leave a wanton play, for a discourse that pre­tends to Sobriety and Morality; if they will forsake the Church to go to the Tavern or Ale­house or worse places, it is not likely they will find themselves in so melancholy retirements, as to be at leisure to peruse an argument of this nature: Yet it is not impossible but out of an humour at least they may: An Epicurean would hear St. Paul; Agrippa and Bernice, very fanci­ful persons, had a great mind to hear what he could say for himself: And I remember a story in Plutarch, that when Plato had perswaded Ti­mothy the Son of Conon to leave his great feasts, and one night to sup with him, the next morn­ing finding himself in a more happy temper of body, then he used to be after his luxurious meals, he acknowledged that [...]: They that sup with Plato are better for it the Plutarch Sympos. [...]. 6. proe­ [...]m▪ Day after: So possibly may it be with these my endeavours, if any body will be perswaded to try, they will find it true, what upon the for­mer supposition I am now to evince, that there is a goodness in Moral Vertues, and an unsuita­bleness, an unbecomingness and naughtiness in every vice.

Which I prove by Propositions founded upon and drawn from one another.

CHAP. II.

THe first whereof is this.

Sect. 1 Prop. 1 Man being a reasonable Creature, must of necessity have another and higher rule to act by, than brute Beasts are capable of. There is a Lex Ʋniversi, or a Law whereby the whole Creation may be said to act, or to be acted by Rule: The Motions of the Heavens we call orderly and regular motions, because they are by Rule, according to the appointments of that God, who hath appointed the Moon for Sea­sons, Ps [...]. 104. and the Sun knoweth his going down.

The changes among the Elements are natu­ral and according to Rule, the growth of Plants, the exercises of sense in Beasts, pursuing that which is convenient, and avoiding that which is inconvenient to their Natures; all these [...] a kind of a Rule to act by. Now how comes it to pass that Man alone above all the rest of the Creation should be lawless? In as much as we are Creatures, we have the Law of our Creation; but in regard we are Reasona­ble Creatures, of a higher and nobler Nature, than any beast of the Field; either our actions must be below our Natures, or we must have an higher and more excellent Rule, than other Creatures have. They have a Rule whereby they eat and drink, &c. They have a Rule for their bodies, which is all they are worth: We have Souls besides, and how can it be, but they must have a Rule proper and suitable to their Natures? Our wills and affections have their [Page 82] proper objects to fix upon, as well as the Eye hath Colours, or the Ear Sounds: Now the objects of our wills being as different, as those of our senses, there must be some way and means whereby the Soul may distinguish be­tween good and bad, as well as the Eye between white and black. It is not possible that every thing should be fitting for us to do; because of the contrari [...]ty that is in actions: If it be fit­ting to be sober and temperate, then it is not fitting to be drunk; If fitting to love others, then not fit to hate and malign them, and so in other cases: But how shall we know what is fitting or not, but by some Rule, whereby we may try and so pass a Judgment upon our actions? Some Rule then there must be proper for us: Man being a reasonable Creature, must act by Rule, and by a higher Rule than Brute Beasts are capable of. Which is the first Pro­position.

Sect. 2 2 The Rule which all men are to frame their actions according to, is the Law of Nature or the directions of right Reason. There is another Rule by which it hath been already proved, that there is a necessity of these Vertues, because they are commanded by the Word of God; it would be Actum agere, now to insist on that, which indeed is our best Rule. But there have been many Nations in the World with whom God hath not dealt as with the Jews of old, as for his Judgments, they have Psal. 147. not known them, or with Christians now: Ma­ny have not the Gospel among them, yet they are not without a Rule; for even these Gentiles [Page 83] shew the work of the Law written in their hearts, Rom. 2▪ &c. the same Law which the Heathens call non scriptam, sed natam Legem, even this Law of Nature, which is an universal Rule all the World over.

If any should be so brutish as to think their sensual appetite, the measure and rule of what is good or bad; they do in effect deny them­selves to have any Reason, because they suffer it to be over-born and over-ruled by sense; for if the actions of a reasonable Creature are go­verned by sense, what is the mans Reason good for? how can he be said to be Reasonable in his Actions, or to have Reason for what he doth? They who are thus enchanted by the pleasures of sense (as Homer fains UlyssesOdyss. 10. followers to have been by Circe.) it is time for them to renounce their Humanity, to go and keep Company with their Relations: Let them joyn themselves to their kinred, and wallow in the same mire with Swine; Let them go to graze with the beasts of the field, till their understandings return to them, as wasDan. 4. said of Nebuchadnezzar; for they are not fit to converse with men. We who profess to▪ have Reason, must make it our Rule, or we can have no Rule worthy of our Faculties.

Sect. 3 Nor is every Reason a sufficient Rule, but right Reason; if every mans apprehensions were his sole Rule, how soon would the world return to its first Chaos? into what a confu­sion would mankind fall? for mens apprehen­sions are many time: either molded by their in­terests, or byassed by their passions, Stat pro [Page 84] ratione voluntas, their will usurps the place of their Reason, and gives a Law to it. Now mens interests and passions so often opposing and thwarting each other, this cannot be a standing Rule for all mankind, because of the manifest inconveniencies, and disturbances, and disorders that would follow hereupon. The former Rule of sense is too short, and there­fore not adaequate, nor proportioned to the vast dimensions of a reasonable Soul: The lat­ter is crooked, a Lesbian Rule, that will bend whither a man would have it; wherefore nei­ther of these is fit to measure our actions by, if we would know when we do well or ill.

We must therefore distinguish between the Reason of the man, and the Reason of the thing: The Reason of the man corrupt sometimes and depraved, and makes men put good for evil, and evil for good: But the Reason of the thing is constant, and certain, and uniform; that is, the Law of Nature and the directions of right Reason, which every man may attain to, if he do not blind himself by prejudice or passion; for it is that we are born with, viz. a Conscience of good and evil: And this Law and Conscience (especially as it is supported and confirmed by the Law of God, & his Com­mands in his Word) is a Rule whereby we are to guide our conversations. So then, if the Vertues we speak of will abide this Test, if they be found right according to this Rule, they must needs be good Actions; for there cannot be any goodness in any Action, if it be [Page 85] not in conformity to its Rule: which makes room for the 3. Proposition.

Sect. 4 Honesty, and Justice, and Moral Vertues, as they have been before proved to be according to Scripture Rule; so are they agreeable to the Law of Nature; and therefore have a goodness in them, because they are so agreeable: which, to save a more operose manner of proof, is sufficiently manifest by this one Ar­gument, which if it be true, must needs be con­vincing to all sorts of persons. The Argument is this; It is universally acknowledged by all men, whether good or bad; whether they practise Vertue or despise it, yet is Vertue ac­knowledged to be a fitting and becoming thing, and agreeable to our Natures.

1 Concerning vertuous and sober men it is no doubt: they would never take the pains to climb the Hill of Vertue, did they not believe, that when they had conquered the first difficulties, they should find afterwards a more suitableness to their Natures, and a pleasure in the attainment: For no man that studies to be Vertuous, but will find the Phi­losophers were not much mistaken in it, when they thought, as Lactantius represents them; Viam, quae sit assignata virtutibus, primo aditu De vere [...]ultu cap. 3. esse arduam voluerunt, & confragosam; in quâ si quis difficultate superatâ, in summum ejus evaserit; habere eum de caetero planum iter, lu­cidum amoenum (que) campum, & omnes laborum suorum capere fructus uberes at (que) jucundos. The first attempts of Vertue are difficult: The bridling of our passions is like the backing of a [Page 86] Colt, it cannot be done but warily and by de­grees, and that not without Labour: Now were not these things Pulchra, as well as Dif­ficilia, were it not an excellent thing thus to do; at least, did not those men that thus be­have themselves believe so, there can no good Reason be given why they should take so much pains to no purpose. Vertuous men believe Vertue and Goodness to be the same thing, or else it would never draw them so powerfully to an admiration of it: [...], evocat ad Sibbs ad Clerum. sui amorem vi quâdam Magneticâ. Men would never follow Vertue for Vertues sake, if they did not believe it carried its reward along with it. Now if the Rule be good, that Credendum est Artifici in suâ arte. Men are to be believed there, where they have most experience; though men of corrupt affections and vitious practices should deny that there is any good­ness in Vertue, yet would it he no great Argu­ment on the other side; for whom should we sooner believe than those who have tasted, and seen and tryed? for thus much is certain, that all men who practise Vertue, believe it to be agreeable to their Natures.

CHAP. III.

Sect. 1 2 BUt what if it be found that those who trample Vertue under their feet, and will not profess to owne any obligation to it, yet their Consciences recoil within them, and they themselves believe what they outwardly [Page 87] and in works deny; namely, that it is best to be Vertuous? this will be a great evidence in the case, and this witness is true: Wicked men bear witness to Vertue commonly when they dye, or if not so, yet certainly sometimes while they live.

1 Death brings Men to a sober sadness: The frolicks of life expire like a flaring Candle in a stink, and leave filthy and troublesome re­membrances of themselves behind them. It is a common conceit of many people, that when the Devil assumes a humane shape, he alwaies betrayes himself by a Cloven Foot; surely so is it in the lives of Men, who are of their Father the Devil: whatever shapes and disguises they have put on, yet the lower end of their life is cloven-footed, they discover a breach that they have made upon their Consciences; they acknowledge at the last that they have been Sinners, they have not done well to be Drunk­ards or Swearers, to cheat their Neighbours, &c. for which they now say, Lord have Mercy upon us: that supposes they are in danger of being Miserable, else they would not need Mercy: If they may be Miserable, then sure they have sinned, else how should they discern it? Now I argue, are these Mens First or Second thoughts like to be Wisest, and neerer to the truth of the case? Their eager pursuits of sin while they lived, have had much of their will and fancy, and corrupt Affections, but little1 Sam: 18. & 20. ch. of their Reason; and so when the Evil Spirit is upon Saul, it is no wonder if he cast a javelin at David, and afterwards at Jonathan, his best [Page 88] Friends; but when his Reason returns to him, he acknowledges his errour, and says that David was more righteous then he. In like man­ner1 Sam. 24. many Men hate those Vertues which are according to Gods own heart, as David was; but this is during the prevalency of the Evil Spirit; when they come to die, as the Soul is loosning from the Body, so by degrees they are wrought off from the deceits of sense and the tempta­tions of the World; when they are at Deaths door, and see it opened for them, then they have another representation of themselves: Sculls and dead Mens Bones, and the Worms that are to feed upon them; and besides, a dismal pre-occupation of their thoughts con­cerning the dreadful day of Judgement; these things alter the case. Then the Men who would sometimes fill themselves with costly Wine and Ointments, and crown themselves with Rose­buds, Wisd. 20. to be partakers of their wantonness, &c. yet shall be afraid and remember their sins, and Wisd. 4. their own wickedness shall come before them to convince them: Yea they shall change their minds, and sigh for grief of mind, and say within them­selves; This is he whom we sometimes had in Wisd. 5. derision, and in a Parable of reproach: We fools counted his life madness, and his end without Honour: How is he counted among the Children of God, and his portion is among the Saints! If this be Apocryphal, yet it is good sense, and the more likely to be true, because Canonical Scripture gives us a like instance; wicked Ba­laam did even before his death desire to dye the death of the Righteous, and that his last end Numb. 23. [Page 89] should be like his. Herein are many wicked men like Balaam, of whom we read this pas­sage: Balaam the Son of Beor hath said, and Numb. 24. the man whose eyes are open hath said. Dixit vir occlusus oculo, says Montanus, according to the letter of the Hebrew: The Margin of our Translation hath this Exposition of it: The Man who had his eyes shut, but now open. There is a beauty and lustre in Vertue, against which Vitious Men shut their eyes, and will not see, but Isa. 26. they shall see and be ashamed: When death is closing their bodily eyes till the Resurrection, then the understanding opens, and discerns the folly of the fore-past life; when it is growing too late to amend, then Men begin to Repent, and proceed thus far at least, to acknowledge they have done ill, and to owne a goodness in Vertue, and an agreeableness to their natures and right reason.

Sect. 2 This observation is common and of easie no­tice taking, that many prophane Men are thus affected when they dye: But it is true withal, that this General Rule among others hath its Exceptions: The Consciences of some Men are past feeling while they live, and are not a­wakened when they dye: As Pope Boniface the 8th lived like a Lyon and dyed like a Dog. So is many a wicked Man in this sense, Primus ad extremum similis sibi,

They live like Beasts, and so they dye: they sin like Lions boldly, and undauntedly, and fiercely; they dye like Dogs wretchedly, and churlishly, and basely; without the under­standing of a Man to consider whither they are going, without Faith in God, or love to Hea­ven, or Fear of Hell: Yet notwithstanding all this, as we say of Brute Beasts, that they have some semblances of Reason in many of their Actions, (of which Plutarch give many instan­ces in his Book De solertiâ Ammalium) so these Brutish Men while they live, have some Can­dle-light of their understandings (The Spirit Prov. 10. of a man is the Candle of the Lord) not extinct, though it be shut up in a dark Lanthorn, and do not discover it self to others, unless it be at unawares.

Sect. 3 2 For 2. There are some certain times and seasons wherein the most vitious persons that are, acknowledge the Vertues contrary to their practice to be agreeable to right Reason; for which there are these Evidences.

1 Many Men who will not leave sin, yet will dissemble it; It is not much more common for a Malefactor at the Bar to plead not Guilty, then for a Drunkard when he is sober, to deny that he was drunk: And so they that will swear, will lye, and deny that they did swear; and he that would revenge himself upon his Neighbour, will not owne it to be Revenge: he that would cheat his Neighbour, would be thought an honest Man, &c. wherefore now is all this, were not these vices contrary to right Reason, and the Vertues they oppose a­greeable [Page 91] thereto? Why should any Man be ashamed of that, which he doth not believe to be unlawful? If it be a Vertue to be Drunk or Kn [...]vish, why do not Men avow and profess it, and make as much conscience of being Drunk, as others do to be Sober? Herein did Gehazi, Ananias, and Sapphira, and others be­tray themselves; when a Man denies a fact which he knows himself to have committed, he is therein a self-condemned Man: He de­nies it, because he is loth to owne it; and there­fore Men do not owne their sins, because they know them to be sins, and the Vertues that are contrary to them to be good and reasona­ble Actions.

Sect. 4 2 If it happen that wicked Men do for some time forbear their excess of wickedness, and do some good action: If a riotous debauched person continues sober, whether for want of opportunity or ability to sin; or if because o­thers are, he be charitable to the Poor, or for­give an Injury, or the like; how quickly doth he proclaim his Righteousness, and take oc­casion to commend himself! As Jehu would2 Kings 10. have his zeal for the Lord taken notice of, when yet he was but a Hypocrite: And the Phari­sees (likewise Hypocrites) would sound a Mat. 6. Trumpet when they gave their Alms: Such Hypocrites still there are, who in a sense but little commendable, would make a Vertue of necessity; because they could not sin, they would be thought Vertuous because they did not. A Knave that is made to be Vertuous a­gainst his will, how ready is he to alledge that [Page 92] as an Argument for himself, and to boast that he did no wrong! This supposeth Vertue to be praise-worthy, else why should they praise themselves for it, when yet they are not Ver­tuous out of love to it, but only because they cannot safely commit vice?

Sect. 5 3 Yea once more: It is evident that wicked Men believe Vertue to be reasonable and good, by the apprehensions they have of it in others, especially when it makes for their own Inte­rest: He whose conscience gives him leave to cheat another, yet would not have another cheat him: He who would not pay his Debts if he could avoid it, yet believes it to be honest and conscionable for another Man to pay him, if he be Creditor: He who scruples not to wrong another, yet would not receive wrong from another; nor doth he think it fair for another to revenge himself upon him. I ar­gue therefore; with what conscience can a Knave expect honest dealing from another Man; why doth he demand a Debt, if he do not be­lieve his Debtor ought to pay him? If he do so believe, then must he needs judge this just and honest dealing; a reasonable and becoming thing; wherefore though he will not practise it himself, yet because he requires it of others, it is a sign he doth in the inward sense of his Soul approve of such practices, and though he follow the worse, yet he allows the better. The case is the same in Revenge; he that will not forgive an Injury, yet will be glad to be forgiven when his Enemy hath an advantage against him: He that will not feed the Poor, [Page 93] yet would fain be fed if he were poor, and will commend the persons that shall so return good for evil. By these and by other such instances, it is easie to observe how these kind of men contradict themselves: As Goliah brought David a Sword to cut off his own Head, so do these Gigantick monstrous sinners, that seem neither to fear God nor regard Man, whose boundless wickedness neither the Laws of God nor Man can restrain; yet an Arrow out of their own quiver pierces them to the Heart: Out of their own Mouths they are con­demned, their own consciences witness against them; their apprehensions of Vertue in others, will rise up to their Judgement and Condem­nation, because they were not Vertuous them­selves; for hereby they joyn in the same ac­knowledgements with Vertuous Men, of its be­comingness and agreeableness to the light and Law of Nature. Which being so universally ac­knowledged, needs not be further proved, though it may be done by other kind of Argu­ments: It is enough that wicked men do owne a goodness in Moral Vertue; I adde no o­ther Arguments under this Head, because I believe it true what Grotius observes to this purpose: Esse aliquid Juris Naturalis, probari De Jure Belli & pac. l. 1. c. 1. solet tum ab eo quod prius est, tum ab eo quod po­sterius, quarum probandi rationum illa subtilior est, haec popularior. To prove any thing to be according to the Law of Nature à priori, from the conveniency or inconveniency of it to our Natures and Reasons, is a more subtle way of arguing, and may be the strongest Argument [Page 94] in it self considered; but Arguments à poste­riori, from the consent of mankind (as he there instances) are more popular, that is, more ta­king with, and more sutable to the apprehensi­ons of ordinary men, and so may be more effe­ctual for their end, that is, to convince and per­swade. Wherefore so much shall suffice to prove that there is a goodness in Moral Vertue; which was the first part of my first Argument, to evince the necessity of these Vertues.

CHAP. IV.

Sect. 1 BUt every thing that is good is not there­fore necessary, for there may be another good to supply its place, or a greater good which may make it useless; wherefore that Moral Vertue may be understood to be neces­sary in order to a good life, it must be added:

2 As there is goodness in Moral Vertue, so is it such a goodness as without which men can­not be said to be men of good lives. It is not with Vertue, as it is with Meats and Drinks; there are many dainty dishes and delicious drinks, yet they are not necessary, neither for the supply of our need, nor for the satisfaction of our appetites: He that must say non habeo, may likewise say, nec careo, nec cupio; he that hath them not, may well be without them, for there are other savory meat he may feed upon. But there is such a necessity of Vertue, as that the defect of it cannot otherwise be supplyed: for if any thing would give a dis­pensation [Page 95] to an Immoral life, it must be Chri­stian Religion; but it hath been before said, that neither Faith nor Repentance, nor Chri­stian Book 2. Liberty; and it might as well be proved of every Christian priviledge; none of these will indulge a man, and give him leave to be wicked and vitious in his Conversation. Christian Religion, and Moral Vertue, are not like two several roads, either of which do in­differently lead to the same place: but indeed they are one and the same thing; not that bare Vertue is Religion; but it is within Reli­gion, as a part is within the whole: for the commands of the Gospel do plainly and pe­remptorily require it, as hath been said; and therefore one and the same thing (for example Charity, Humility, &c.) doth bear both these names of Moral Vertue, and Christian Grace. From whence it might be sufficiently proved, that a man cannot be a man of a good life, if he do not fulfil these Commands: yet for a fur­ther confirmation, let these considerations be annexed.

Sect. 2 1 Though Christian Religion do bring us in­to new Relations, yet it doth not annul and destroy all the old: By Christ we become Friends to God, and Children of God; we come to be Brethren, and all members of the same body whereof Christ is the Head: Yet notwithstand­ing there doth still remain a Relation, be­tween Magistrate and Subject, Husband and Wife, Father and Child, Master and Servant, &c. and this the Scripture doth suppose, by giving distinct precepts to these several sorts of [Page 96] persons: Moreover the Scripture doth require a continuance in these Relations, witness St. Paul: Let every man abide in the same calling 1 Cor. 7. 24. in which he was called. Art thou called being a Servant care not for it, but if thou mayest be made free use it rather. And is not that as much as to say, that our calling (to Christia­nity) doth not make us free from this subjecti­on? Yea (as there is a Jus gentium as well as Jus Naturae, so) there are other Relations be­tween one Nation and another: There is a necessity that one Nation should traffick, should maintain correspondence with another. Non omnis fert omnia Tellus. No Country is a Paradise.

The Scripture tells us of a pearl of greater price, of better Riches then any Merchant can fetch from either of the Indies: but as there will be eating and drinking, so there will be buying and selling in this World, and our Re­ligion doth not prohibit us to have intercourse with other Nations. Blessed be God we live in a plentiful land, where we our selves are more churlish and barren then our soyl; yet it is no disparagement to us, that we are not planted in the Garden of Eden. Every herb doth not grow in our own Garden. There are some things of daily use among us, our Su­gars, and Spices, our Silver, and Gold, &c. which we must go out of doors for, to fetch them in from other Nations; though we have likewise Commodities of our own to export to others. Now if the trade of a Merchant be a lawful calling, this likewise makes it evi­dent, [Page 97] that all Relations between man and man are not dissolved, there where the Gospel takes place. So then there do continue such distin­ctions and Relations as these in the Christian World.

Sect. 3 Wherefore so long as these Relations do continue, there are some duties necessarily re­sulting from these Relations. There is a car­riage and behaviour due from one to the other; every Relation doth connote some duty, else if there be nothing required, they are as Strang­ers that are unconcerned in each others affairs, and not as Relations. A Father must provide and take care for his Child, and the Child reverence and obey his Father, and so in the like cases. It is non-sense for a man to say he owns such a one to be his Child, and yet he hath no more regard to him then to a meer Stranger. Again, the correspondencies of King­doms and States, and the Traffick from Na­tion to Nation, do not these suppose duty? Is it fitting we should rob other Nations to enrich our own? we have just reason to be angry with other Nations that would do so to us; or is it equitable we should import their Com­modities, without making them a compensa­tion? There is somewhat required by way of Duty, whether in war or peace; whether in buying, selling, or exchanging, or any other reference that one man speaks to another, or any business that one hath to transact with another; there is somewhat just, equitable, and due in our carriage and behaviour, that is, every Relation infers duty.

Sect. 4 3 These duties that are required for the due approving of our selves in these relations, are exercises of Moral Vertue. In the systematical or doctrinal part of Moral Philosophy, Ethicks are distinguished from Oeconomicks and Politic [...]; yet evident it is, that the latter do belong to the former generally taken. No man can live mo­rally well according to the rules of the Ethicks, if he do not order himself in his family, and political capacities according to those rules. Subjection to Magistrates and protection of Sub­jects; Obedience to Parents, and respect to Children; and all those other just and charita­ble, and liberal actions which are necessary for us to practise as we are engaged in such relati­ons, these are duties of the second table, com­manded in the Gospel, and are exercises of Moral Vertue. So that the substance of the Ar­gument contained in these premises is this:

For as much as we Fellow-creatures are in some relation one to another, which cannot be fulfilled nor managed unless we be vertuous; It remains that there is such a goodness in Mo­ral Vertue, as that we being as we are, and must continue to be; without it we cannot be said to live good lives.

Sect. 5 This Argument hath proceeded upon the comparison of our selves with our selves, the se­veral respects in which Christians stand to one another. Let one thing more be added, let the Heathen and the Christian be compared to­gether, and it will be found true, that, if Mo­rality were necessary for the Heathen, so that where they failed, their lives were not good; [Page 99] then it must be as necessary for us Christians: Who doubts but that Justice and Temperance were vertues in the Heathen, how shall they be judged but by the not be for Immorality as well as for Idolatry and Irreligion? for wherein is the Light of Nature plainer, and they more inexcusable then in Unrighteousness and Intemperance, and such like Vices, which they themselves sometimes ac­knowledged to be such. Now need not a Christian be as vertuous as a Heathen? un­doubtedly he ought, unless the Gospel exempt him, which hath already been observed to be plain and positive in the case. But further­more, is not vice the same now that it was of old, as abominable and reproveable, and vertue as commendable and necessary? If mens lives may rather give them a denomination then their profession, a great part of the Christian World is still Heathenish. The Devil is a revengeful as well as a malitious spirit: It hath pleased God to spread abroad the Christian Religion far and wide, by his Almighty power. His name hath Malac. 1. been great among the Gentiles from the rising of the Sun to the going down of the same. But if Heathenism hath been dispossest in one kind, hath it not returned in another? Is not the Devils Chappel near Gods Church? Hath every one that hath been baptized into the name of Christ, put on Christ? Why then should it now be thought a strange thing, that Drunkards, and Swearers, and Murderers, and Adulterers, and Lyars, and Thieves, and Knaves, and Re­bels, and Covetous, and Proud, and Peevish, [Page 100] and Uncharitable men, should be reproved for these sins as well as Hypocrites, and Forma­lists, and Unbeleivers, &c. did not David sin in the matter of Bathsheba as truly as Amnon in the case of Tamar? and was he not according­ly reproved for it by Nathan? Would Treason be ever the less crime if one of the Court or Bed-chamber should be guilty of it? was Brutus more pardonable then the rest who conspired the death of Julius Caesar, because of his near relation to him? Surely the Israelites are taught otherwise, You onely have I known of all Amos 3. all families of the Earth, therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. There was a greater Communion between God and the Jews then with other Nations, and more plentiful Com­munications from him; by reason of which they knew more of God then other Nations did: This is now the case of us Christians: We know more of God then the Heathens did, in particular we know what the word of God requires of us in point of Morality. He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Justice, and love Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? and that which is shewed us we do or may know; Wherefore to him that knoweth to do good, James 4. and doth n [...]t, to him it is sin. And if it be a sin to break these commands, then it is good to keep them; and if it be good so to do, then the first Argument is made good: There is a goodness, and such a goodness in Moral Vertue, as that without it we cannot be said to be men of good lives. Which was the first necessi [...] [Page 101] assigned of Morality, that our lives may be good.

CHAP. V.

Sect. 1 End. 2 IT is necessary for us to be vertuous, that our deaths may be safe. I shall be mistaken if I be thought to mean, that bare Moral Vertue will make our lives good or our deaths safe: Faith and Repentance, and the grace of the good Spirit of God have more then once been acknowledged necessary: Yet is it easie to apprehend that Vertue may be necessary for these purposes, though not sufficient. Concern­ing life it hath been already said: It remains to say, that if we desire to die in safety, we must be vertuous while we live, and that for two reasons.

1 Because it is possible that these men of wick­ed and profligate lives may be miserable after death.

2 More then so, it is certain they shall, if so they live and dye in the same state.

1 Wicked Immoral men, such as are Drun­kards, and Lyars, and Unjust persons, &c. cannot dye in safety, because it is possible they may be miserable after death: which possibi­lity hath the force of an Argument, to perswade men to provide better for their safety when they come to dye: The Husbandman makes his best advantage of a fair day, it is not safe to let his Corn lye abroad, if it be fit to take in, because the next day may prove rainy. [Page 102] The Merchant makes use of the wind when it is lyes right; it is not safe to defer, because it is possible afterward the wind may not serve him as now it doth. In all cases about our worldly affairs, a possibility of danger is an effectual Argument for present care: And why should it not awaken our Souls as well? It is at least possible that after death, they who dye in these wickednesses, may perish everlastingly for them.

Sect. 2 Now it may be wondred at, in regard the next part of the Argument pretends to certain­ty, why any time should be spent in this which is not so clear and convincing, and therefore it may not be so much worth the while to stand upon it.

Ans. To which I answer, there are some persons may be more convinc'd and wrought upon by this kind of proof, then any other way. If the times be not made a great deal worse then they are, there are many persons so desperately Atheisti­cal, so devoid of all fear of God, or conscience of sin, or belief of a future state, that they profess to doubt of all these: they cannot tell what will become of them, they acknowledg no reason to make them believe that there is another life after this; and therefore they disowning the Scriptures, and mocking at the threatnings therein contain'd, it signifies nothing to them to sca [...]e them by threatning the wrath of God, and Hell, and Damnation for their sins; they will not profess to believe any of these things: Wherefore though it be not like such persons will think what I have written worth reading, [Page 103] much less will they consider of it; yet to make my discourse as compleat as I can, I have brought in this among other things, and it is pertinent enough: for what Atheist in the world can deny it possible but that these things may be? who can tell any thing to the con­trary? they who will not believe there is a Hell, yet it is not possible they should demon­strate that there is none. The Jewish Doctors do supply that part of Scripture, where it is said, Cain talked with Abel his Brother, thus: [...]en. 4. Ainsw. in Loc. D. Helvic. de Chald. Bib. para­phras. cum Te [...]a edit. Cain said there was no judgement, nor judge, nor world to come, nor good reward for justice, nor vengeance for wickedness, &c. But how could Cain then, or any of his followers now, be assured of it? upon what account is it impossi­ble that our Souls should out-live our Bodies, or our Bodies afterwards be rejoyn'd to our Souls? who can demonstratively answer St.Acts 26. Pauls question? why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? and what contradiction is it to say, that they who do so live in another world, shall be either rewarded or punished according as they have lived in this.

Sect. 3 Plato seems to make Socrates doubt in this case, when almost twice together he says, [...];Apologia Socratis vers. si­n [...]m. and the last words of that Dialogue answers the question, whether it be better to dye or to live, thus; [...]: It is known only to God himself. Yet the Dialogue next but one, Phaedo makes it evident, that however he would not exaspe­rate [Page 104] his Judges by proving of it; yet he did firmly believe the souls immortality, and re­wards and punishments in the world to come. Now put the case, every one doth not yield to his Arguments, (then which we have better elsewhere) yet who is there that can deny but it may be so, and then what if it should be so? what if possibly the lascivious person should roll and stretch himself in a bed of everlasting burnings? what if possibly the drunkard, whose reason is sunk and drown'd in his cups, should sink into a lake that burns with fire and brimstone? what if lyars, and cheaters, and knaves, should be found to have put the greatest cheat upon themselves at the last, when they have irrecoverably destroyed their own souls? were there nothing else to be said then this, It is possible all this may happen, it should be a powerful and dreadful amazement to careless and secure sinners: They are in a road that they do not consider whether it may lead, for ought they know (it is not possible they should know the contrary) all their mirth may end in everlasting bitterness▪ It is possible, they that live vitiously, and so dye, may be mise­rable for ever; therefore it cannot be safe for such men to dye; and if so, it is then necessary men should live vertuously, that they may dye safely.

Sect. 4 2 But that which follows is much more con­vincing; it is certain that men of prophane wicked lives, who do likewise persevere in them till they dye, shall after death be infinite­ly more miserable then ever they were, or [Page 105] thought themselves happy while they lived.

1 Certain from the testimony of the Word of God, as might be largely shown, but that it hath [...]een said already; when the threatnings ofBook 2. [...]he Word were added to the Commands, to [...]rove a preceptive necessity of Moral Vertue; [...]t shall suffice therefore summarily now to [...]peak▪ However there be no sin so great or [...]oul, which the blood of Christ is not of ver­tue enough to cleanse us from, (and therefore this is not to be understood as a prejudice to the free and over-flowing grace of God) yet in regard those men are suppos'd never to have truly and throughly repented and believed, whose repentance doth not proceed to a re­formation of life, and their faith shew it self by good works; therefore they who thus live and dye, are under the curse of the Gospel, as well as of the Law: and the threatnings of the Gospel have been already produced: I on­ly now say, the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven (and shall one day be revealed and executed in Hell) not only against all ungod­liness,Rom. 1▪ but also against all unrighteousness of men; unrighteous, immoral, wicked men, shall suffer for their faults, and how then can it be safe for them to dye?

Sect. 5 2 The thing it self is its own evidence, that they who thus live and dye in enmity to God, without being reconciled to him, it cannot be but they must needs be miserable after death. Indeed these two things must be supposed, that there is a God, and that our souls are immortal: which Atheists will expect should be proved [Page 106] before they will yield. I think I should too far digress if I should undertake to prove these; which I shall the less need to do, because they are so frequently and successfully undertaken by others: there may be the same reason for this as for the former head about the possibility of these things, they are the same persons who deny both. I took that in, because it might be dispatch­ed in few words. But the existence of a Deity and the souls Immortality, cannot be proved convincingly to Reason, without a large dis­course upon them: wherefore in hopes that this Treatise will find all those it meets with ready to yield both these; then supposing them, it can­not be but wicked men who are enemies to God while they live, and dye in the same state, must needs be deserted of God & separated from him after death. If God be not infinitely holy and pure, he cannot be God: his nature being abso­lutely perfect, it must needs follow, that God must infinitely abhor sin, and sinners for sin, where it is not purged away, as it is not in these men. Now how can it stand to reason, that those men who have dishonoured God all their life long, have lived in contradiction to his Na­ture, and Will, and Laws: He is holy, they are unholy; he is light and they are darkness; I say, it cannot stand to reason, that these men should be received into the favour of God: What communion hath light with darkness? 2 Cor. 6. what concord hath Christ with Belial? what love can God bear to his desperate enemies? They Job 21. Luk. 13. that say to God depart from us, why is it strange that God should command them to depart from [Page 107] him? Indeed if God were such a God as the Heathens made their Jupiter, and Venus, and Bacchus to be; then might God entertain such wicked persons into his Court, for it would be but like to like. And it may be feared it was one reason, why the Heathens did so al­low themselves in all manner of wickedness and vice, because they had gods to be their Patrons, whom their Fables report to have pra­ctised the same things. But the Lord is our God, the Lord whose name is Holy and Reverend, andPsal. 111 holiness is his nature: And it may be, it would not be a greater sin to say, there is no God at all, then to say, there is such a God as the Poets speak of: yea, and the more sober Heathens were of this mind; Plutarch for himself affirms as much, [...],De superstitione▪ p. 169. Xyland. &c. What say you, he that believes there is no God, is he not wicked? but he that believes there is such a God as superstitious men fancy him to be, is he not much more wicked? for my own part, I had rather men should say, there was never such a man as Plutarch, then that they should say, Plutarch was an inconstant, passionate, re­vengeful man, &c. It is very dishonourable to God, to think him any thing less then infinite­ly and perfectly Holy; and then what must be­come of those men, who are as unlike to God as the Devil is, or their natures are capable of? they must look to be separated from God, as the Devils are, they must keep company with their own kindred and allies; sin marries the soul to the Devil, and his company, and his [Page 108] torments are the portion of a sinner: Where­fore wo be to the wicked, it shall be ill with Isa. 3. him; for the reward of his hands shall be given him: and men of loose, prophane, debauch'd, vitious lives, are wicked men, whose misery that waits for them in the world to come, will express and enforce this Argument with greater horrour then they are now aware of: Then will it be proved, that it was necessary to live honestly, and vertuously, because they that live otherwise, are miserable when they dye: Which was the second instance of the necessity of Moral Vertue; as that our lives may be good, so that our deaths may be safe.

CHAP. VI.

Sect. 1 End 3 THere is a necessity of Moral Vertue, that both life and death may be comfortable: what the world would be without light, that are our lives without comfort; light is glad­ness, and therefore it would be a melancholy world, if we were all benighted, and left to grope in the dark; and gladness is light: The Jews had light, and gladness, and joy. We [...] 8. should soon be weary of our lives, if we were debarr'd of all the comforts and pleasures of life. But the question is, where is the Palace of Pleasure, and which are the paths that lead to it? where doth Hearts-ease and Comfort grow? how may we come to live in Pleasure, and to dye with Joy? surely there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are Prov. 14. [Page 109] the ways of death. So are the ways of wick­edness and vice, in point of comfort as well as safety; and if ever we hope for comfort and joy, whether living or dying, we must apply those words to this case: Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men, Prov. [...] ▪ avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away. And the reason added afterwards is not impertinent, The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto a perfect day: The way of the wicked is as darkness, they know not at what they stumble. And for the proof of this I offer two things.

1 There is no considerable Comfort to be had in, or from a wicked Immoral life.

2 But in the exercise of Vertue, there is Plea­sure, and Comfort, and Peace, and that in a­bundant measures.

Sect. 2 So long as a man continues wicked, he can expect no considerable comfort in that state; 1 I say no considerable comfort, because it can­not be denyed, but these men presume and boast, that they live the most merry and jovialJob 21. lives: They take the Timbrel and Harp, and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ. They spend their days in wealth, (or properly in good) they good themselves in the pleasures of sense. Had not Belshazzar a merry bout? (as the phrase some­timesDan. 5. is) and have not the generation of Drunkards still the same, that count it pleasure to riot in the day time? yea their pleasures are2 Pet. 2. too great to be confined to a day: Instead of Psa. 119. rising at midnight to give thanks to God, they sit up till midnight to sin against God. By such [Page 110] kind of persons as these, men of more severe principles, that dare not let out so fast to their sinful excesses, are counted melancholy fools, that will not allow themselves to be merry, and brisk, and take the pleasures of life while they last. These things are indeed so, and pity it is that men are so besotted, as not to understand true pleasure, nor to be able to di­stinguish blazing Comets from fixed Stars: that joy and comfort that makes the biggest show, that is most gazed after; whereas true joy is more inward and serious, Res severa est Senec [...]. Epist. 23. verum gaudium, quite another kind of thing then vitious men apprehend; and that which they partake of, is not so considerable, as that they deserve to be said to live comfortably. That appears thus;

Sect. 3 1 The pleasures of wickedness and vice, take them at the best without their inconveniences, and they are but pleasures of sense or fancy, and therefore no great matter; or if they do reach the soul, they are but corrupt affections that are gratify'd by them, and still they do not amount to much; what are the pleasures, and joys of intemperate men, whether [...] Aristot. [...], as they are distin­guished? whether they be Drunkards, or Glut­tons, or Unclean persons, these are carnal sensu­al pleasures, they are tasted and felt, and that is all that can be said of them. What are the pleasures of games, and plays, but to be heard, on seen or fancied? so is Covetousness a lust 1 Joh. 2. of the Eye; for when goods are increas'd, they are increas'd that eat them, and what good is [Page 111] there to the owner thereof, save the beholding of them with their Eyes? And the sweetness thatEccles. 5. is in revenge, and malice, or any like distem­per of the mind, they do but please the fancy, not reason, or judgement, or conscience; these things men do to satisfie their humours, not that by; reason they are satisfyed they are fit to be done: And are pleasures of sense so con­siderable, that men should lay aside consci­ence for their sakes? Was it not a ridiculous thing for an Emperour to raise an Army, andCallgula. send them down to the Sea-side, as if there were some new province for them to go and conquer; but when they come there, all their business is to gather Cockle-shells? so methinks do the men that thirst after the pleasures of wickedness; they awaken and stir up the pow­ers of their souls; their fancy works; they have thoughts, designs, and contrivances, and projects in their heads; to these are joyn'd their busie affections, their longing hopes, and their eager desires; and when all these are muster'd together, they are a great force: And what is all this for? not to conquer an Enemy, but to gather Cockle-shells; not to purge their souls of the remainders of sin, and so to march on Heaven-wards, when they have beat down all that stands in opposition; but to find out some rare inventions to tickle their senses. A goodly errand, for a man to come into the world to contest with the Brutes which shall be most happy! Vain man, dost thou not know, that thy Oxe, and thy Ass, is happier then thy self if thou hast nothing else to glory in but [Page 112] the pleasures of sense? or if not they, yet some other more inconsiderable creatures do out-vye us in all these things. It is observed, there is no sense we have, but there is some unreaso­nable creature hath it in greater excellency then we; unless possibly the Touch, which is the most ignoble of all. And there is an in­stance of all in these two old plain Verses, butV. Char­ron Wisd. p. 38. good enough for my purpose, unless the men they reprove were better.

Is it worth the while for a reasonable creature, to rise in the morning, and so from day to day, for no other purpose, but to be drest fine, and then to sit down to eat, and drink, or rise up Exod. 32. to play? Would Solomon have sent a Fleet to Tarshish for Apes, and Peacocks, if there had been no Silver, nor Gold, or Ivory to be brought 2 Chron. 9 thence? much less would they have brought them, and left their Gold behind them: yet thus do wicked men, they take more pains for toys and fancies, more for what they shall eat, and drink, and put on, then for the Kingdom of Math. 6 God, and the righteousness thereof. This is all men live for, to eat, and drink, and be merry; and if these things be so considerable, let us give the right hand of fellowship to the beasts of the field, who enjoy these pleasures as they [Page 113] are capable, more undisturbedly a great deal then we do. The pleasures of sense are like the wisdom that contrives and pursues them, sensua and d [...]vilish: yea the most spiritual plea­suresJames 3. these men have, the gratifying their cor­rupt affections is no better, for envying and Ibid. strife are named in the same place. This is one instance how mean, and low, and dreggy, the comforts of wicked men are; they ascend but to pleasure the sense, or fancy, or they descend rather; for it is as if a Gyant should put forth all his strength to encounter a Pigmy, when a spirit stretches it self to its utmost ca­pacity, for no other thing, but to please the senses of the body.

Sect. 4 2 It is evident that men of vitious lives have but little pleasure, because they are commonly most melancholy when they are alone: it is no natural pleasure that flows from any foun­tain within, but it is forc'd by outward means; small is their mirth, but when they are in company with men of the same principles and practices with themselves, whereby they check and silence the checks of their own consci­ence: They are jovial and frolick at a Tavern, where, as I may so say (the expression is not so uncouth as their practice) they drink a health, that is, they wish well to the damnation of their souls. Many are their feasts and revels abroad; but how are they, when they are in no other company but God and their own Con­science? then it is with them, as sometimes with Saul, there i [...] an evil spirit upon them,1 Sam. 16. which cannot be charm'd nor lay'd but by [Page 114] Musick, as his was; they are so dull and dumpish when alone, that they must go abroad again to seek for some pleasure to allay the smart of the inward guilt: It is a precarious pleasure that men must stand to the courtesie of others for, whether they will allow it them or no; those comforts are best, that are freest, and most within our own power. The feast of a good Conscience is such, as we may daily invite our selves to, Nemine contradicente: if it please God to allow us the rejoycing testimony of our own consciences, it is not all the world can make us melancholy; and therefore holy men are most merry when they are alone: but so are not drunkards, and swearers, &c. And it is of ordinary observation, that many men cannot abide to be alone, (especially not in the dark) they are glad of any company. And I believe, were it not for this, that men do not know how to spend their time alone, to their own comfort and satisfaction, Ta­verns and Ale-houses would not be so full as generally they are; it is no sign a man lives merrily, because his boon company makes him so: [...] Plutarch. p. 100. John 7. [...].

If we judge of men according to outward ap­pearance, we shall not judge righteous judgment. There are many are counted happy, but their hearts know their own bitterness. Now this pleasure that men are fain to go out of doors for, to get it where they can, to buy it by pen­niworths and small parcels, must needs be little and inconsiderable, in comparison of that [Page 115] which vertuous men have in a full stock within their own Souls. Besides it may be added, the more our pleasure comes from without, it is the more uncertain; for the same causes that give it may withhold it, if they either with­draw, or prove miserable Comforters: Or if all second causes should conspire together to make a man prosperous in his wickedness; yet it is but a forc'd mirth, not natural, and therefore not constant: yea all the noise these pleasures make, cannot drown nor still the clamor of a guilty conscience: but all this while, in the midst of laughter, the heart is sor­rowful. Prov. 14. And it is evident that so it is, be­cause the more men retire from the world, their pleasure abates; the more they are alone, the more dejected and sorrowful they are.

There may be an objection against this concerning one sort of men; and it is the ob­servation of the Poet of covetous men, who seem to be never so well pleased, as when they are alone meditating on their wealth.

It is hard to find an answer in the next words of the same Poet; but Plautus doth it fully in his Euclio.

And if the solicitudes and perplexities of covetous men be set against their pleasures, they have little to boast more then other men: And even these men depend upon others for their comfort; for it is in the power of any body that hath to deal with them, to vex or disquiet them, either by disappointing of them, or by making them afraid they shall be dis­appointed.

CHAP. VII.

Sect. 1 3 THat which is a foundation to this Reason, is by it self another; Wickedness and vice is in its own nature disturbing and trou­blesome: It is so far from producing any con­siderable comfort, that it is properly the cause of trouble and discomfort. Vice doth rob and deprive men of that which it pretends to bring them; as Juglers perswade silly people they can make money, when at the same time they pick their pockets; such juglings and hypocri­sies are there in sin; there is a shew of pleasure, and assemblance of mirth, but it is a deceitful, [Page 117] and a destructive play; such a play as was between Abner and Joabs men: Abner said to Joab, let the young men now arise and play before us, and Joab said let them arise: but what was their sport? They caught every one his fellow by 2 Sam. 2. the head, and thrust his sword into his fellows side, so they fell down together. Or such sport as Samp­son Judg. 16. made the Philistines, Call for Sampson that he may make us sport; they did not know what would follow, he pull'd down the house upon the Lords and all the People, and crusht them to pieces. Many are the woes and sorrows that men bring upon their own heads, by indulging themselves in sin, which when they feel they believe, though before they would not. Two waies sin is trou­blesome, formally and efficiently.

Sect. 2 Formally. In as much as forma dat esse & distingui, beings are distinguished by their forms; 1 therefore the properties of beings do arise from those forms, (whatever kind of things those forms be) thus is vice formally the cause of trou­ble, because it is a property inseparably annexed to it, or indeed more then a property. Sin is the sickness of the soul: as it is the property of sickness to be troublesome to the body, so is sin to the soul; and it cannot otherwise be, especi­ally in the irregularities of passions, Anger and Revenge, and Malice, and Envy, and Ambiti­on, and Pride; and such like exorbitances as these, they are grievous afflictions to those that are over-born with them. The impetuous workings of these affections are like the ragings of the Sea: The wicked are like the troubled Sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast forth mire [Page 118] and dirt; and therefore no wonder that it fol­lows,Isa. 5. 7. There is no peace (saith my God) to the wick­ed. How can that Nation be at peace that nou­rishes an intestine War? so is it here, there is an1 Pet. 2. [...]. Plutarch De virt. & vitio. p. 101. Army of lusts that wars against our souls. Our passions in their nature are disquieting & vexa­tious: So could a Philosopher challenge vice; [...]; Where is the sweetness and pleasure of wickedness? it is neither without cares nor grief; neither doth it satisfie and con­tent, nor doth it remove trouble, nor produce ease. No verily, as the same word in the He­brew [...] doth signifie both sin and the punishment of it, so doth the thing answer the name. Ver­tue is not more its own reward, then Vice is its own punishment and torment. The sollici­tudes and fears of Covetousness and Ambition, the heats and turbulencies of Anger, the impa­tiencies of Revenge, the frettings and pinings of Envy, and generally the dissatisfiedness of e­very Lust; what are all these, but plentiful de­monstrations that sin and sorrow are so inter­woven together that they cannot be parted, unless all be unravelled by Repentance? which yet is likewise an Argument to the purpose; for though Repentance be safe if it be sincere, yet it is a troublesome work: As it is the pro­perty of a Wave to roll, of the Wind to blow, of the Thunder to make a noise; so is sin in its own nature formally and properly disturbing and troublesome. There are Crocodiles in the River Nilus, for fear of whom the Dogs, who [Page 119] would otherwise be glad to drink largely to quench their thirst, can onely lambere & fugere, lick and be gone, to secure themselves: But wicked men are not so happy; if they will in­toxicate themselves with the pleasures of the world, they must take them as they are, one with another, and there is a pain accompanies the pleasure. There is that in sin which embit­ters it: It is the property of vice to be disquiet­ing and vexatious, and while it is so, there is lit­tle comfort to be expected in a vitious course of life.

Sect. 3 2 As Trouble and Sorrow is a property, so it is an effect of sin. Men who are immoral in their lives, because of the pleasure they hope to reap from the liberty they give themselves, do ad­minister to their sorrow faster then their joy. If they be bodily pleasures they adventure their souls upon, then is nothing more evident and notorious then the sad effects of Riot and In­temperance: Who hath wo? who hath sorrow? P [...]ov. 23. who hath contentions? who hath babling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixt wine. Dearly do men pay for their frothy pleasures, when sometimes they drink themselves to death; for which purposeBear [...]s Theatre of Gods judgm [...]nt. there are many stories extant; or if not so, yet the aches, and pains, and surfeits, and fe­vers, or at the best, the unaptnesses of such mens bodies to any good employments, are testim [...] ­nies that these are troublesome sins. And if the same cannot be said of all, yet somewhat else can, and that is the inward trouble th [...]t [Page 120] follows upon a sense of guilt, after the sin is committed. It is a fearful thing for a man to fall under the lash of his own conscience; how can that man avoid his misery, that carries it about with him whereever he goes? we may as soon command our souls out of our bodies, as our consciences out of our souls. There is a principle in man that cannot be always brib'd nor over-aw'd: A man may loosen his reins, and gallop furiously to his intended stage; but before he comes there he may break his neck. Men are pursuing their pleasures in great earnestness, and because they can find no better mirth, they will try what they can find in sin; but it is a Tragical story in the end. I have heard of those who in acting Tragedies, when their parts have led them to make a shew of killing themselves, have by a venturous mistake kill'd themselves indeed: So do many men to their great grief find, they have been out of the way of true pleasure, they have undone themselves, and laid a foun­dation for their misery and trouble as long as they live: There is little comfort to be had in sin, for it is in its own nature the cause and original of many sorrows and disquietments.

Sect. 4 4 But this is not yet all: Men of vicious lives have no considerable comfort in those courses, because not only in the midst of laughter the heart is sorrowful; but the end of that mirth is Prov. 14. heaviness. When men come to dye, then they themselves understand, and acknowledge the folly and vanity of these toyish pleasures: the comfort that wickedness affords during life, [Page 121] [...] but little, but at death it is none at all; [...]hey who live sinfully, dye sadly, that is, un­ [...]ess they have some other comfort then what [...]hey gain from their sinful courses; for how [...]hould this be otherwise?

The pleasure that is taken in the commission of a sin, passes away together with the act; but the stinging remorses of conscience abide, and then return with greatest vehemence, when the pleasure of sin is gone and past. Con­cerning the agonies and throbs of conscience that sin procures, it hath been just now ob­serv'd an Argument in the case: It is enough now to suppose that, and to adde this consi­deration to it; that when men are dying, their wickedness affords them no comfort, be­cause their transitory pleasures are gone toge­ther with their sins. The pleasures of intem­perance, of rioting and drunkenness, of cham­bering Rom. 13. and wantonness, of strife and envying, of revenge and malice, of injustice and oppressi­on, and wrong, or any such like sin; what is become of all these when the miserable man is approaching to his death? when all that a man hath is going out of his possession, where is the appendage of pleasure that belongs to him? Assuredly when death comes, as it changes mens minds concerning the goodness of Vertue, (a thing before observ'd, and doth not belong to this place,) so doth it give men to understand the unsuccessfulness of immo­rality, [Page 122] that it cannot prolong those pleasures, which during life it did pretend to. As the Greeks use to call the night [...], because it is a fit season for consideration and meditati­on, when in our retirements we may more wisely consider of our concerns; so may the evening of the night of death be very fitly called. When men are retiring from the hur­ries of the world, where they were not at lei­sure to distinguish between truth and appear­ance; then is the evil day come, when men will speak as they find, they will say, they have Eccles. 12. no pleasure in it. And in the fore-knowledge of this it was, that the Aegyptians had a cu­stome at their feasts to bring in an old dry Skeleton to the table, with such a kind ofRhodigi­nus. Apothegme,

Which in the fairest interpretation of it may be thought as a restraint upon their excess of mirth; but it seems their meaning was quite contrary, they would be merry while they lived, because death would put a period to all their jollity: So are these Verses quoted out of Petronius upon this occasion.

So it may be do many in the world, drink their full draughts of pleasures while they live, because they know there is no such thing in the Grave, whither they are going: But is not this as much as to say what I would now urge, the pleasures of sin are inconsiderable for this Reason; because they dye, if not be­fore, yet certainly when we dye; and there­fore is it that mens hearts dye within them, before their body dyes, as Nabals did.1 Sam. 2

Sect. 5 And for this purpose I appeal to the conscien­ces of those men, who have at any time been upon their sick beds, and to their own appre­hensions have been like to dye; what hath been the opinion of these men concerning the pleasures of wickedness? what remains of all their joys? what are the ecchoes of their songs? what relish have they upon their pa­lates, of all the dainties that they have either eat or drunk? what are they now the better for the wrongs they have offered others, and for their revenge, and such like evil disposi­tions, wherein they have triumph'd in their life time? If I may make an answer, I do not doubt but it may be such an one as once Esau made Jacob: Behold I am at the point to dye, Gen. 25. and what profit do all these things do to me? And therefore I may argue a little further in the words of the Apostle: What fruit hath any man in those things whereof he is now ashamed, for [Page 124] (if the next words may be inverted) Death is the end of those things. Death puts an end toRom. 6. all the merriments of life, and now at death the remembrance of those things is grievous to them: Then succeed those wishes, (and it is well if they be not as vain as their former joys) I would I had better understood my self; would I had had more wisdom, and more grace, to have forsaken that evil com­pany that led me away to consent and par­take in their wickedness: would I had look'd on my pleasures, not as they came with their flattering and inviting aspects, but as they now go away from me, with repentance, and fear, and shame. Oh that I had taken more care to please God, and less to enjoy the pleasures of sense! Some such thing said Cardinal Wol­sey, a little before his death: Had I serv'd Herberts History Henry 8. God as diligently as I have done the King, he would not have given me over in my gray hairs. So say men of wicked and immoral lives; had I pleased God more, and my company and my self less, God would not have given me over in this my necessity; but I have had my portion in this world: I have sought for sin, and hunted after pleasure, and if God be not more merciful to my soul, I shall have no por­tion in the world to come, but everlasting separation from the presence of God. Surely these are the apprehensions of some men that send for their Minister, and though they would fain justifie themselves as much as they can, yet they cannot deny but they have been Company-keepers, they have been Game­sters, [Page 125] and it may be worse; they have spent a great deal of time idly and wantonly. Now what becomes of these men, whether peradventure God may give them grace to repent, is not for us to determine, our cha­rity hopes the best: But whether so or not, these self-accusations, and these different ap­prehensions they have of things when they are dying, to what they had when they were lusty and strong to sin, is an argument of the vanity and shortness of that pleasure that men take in sin; and 'tis the fourth proof, that there is no considerable comfort to be found in sin, either living or dying.

This is the first part of this Third Argu­ment: There is a necessity of Moral Vertues, that our lives and deaths may be comfortable; for so long as men continue wicked, notwith­standing all the brags they make that they live the merriest lives, yet it is found to be nothing so.

CHAP. VIII.

Sect. 1 THe ways of Vertue are ways of pleasant­ness, and all her paths are peace. 2 It is said of wisdom, but it is such a wisdom as dwells with Prov. 3. Prov. 8. Prov. 9. prudence, and such a wisdom of which the fear of the Lord is the beginning; and where it is so, it follows in another place; And unto man Job 28. he said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understand­ing. So that Vertue being comprehended [Page 126] under that wisdom which teaches a man to order his conversation aright; of that likewise may it be said, that her ways are ways of pleasantness. Pleasure is the satisfaction of an appetite, and according as the appetite is, whether sensible or rational, so is the pleasure. The joys and pleasures of sin, are but the plea­sures of sense for the most part, and therefore inconsiderable: It will be now found, that the pleasure that arises upon Vertuous Actions, is in the mind and soul. Delight is nothing Reynolds Treatise of passions. else but the Sabbath of our thoughts, and that sweet Tranquillity of mind, which we receive from the presence and fruition of that good to which our desires have carried us. Concerning which much might be said, and there is no Theme gives a man a greater temptation to try his skill in Rhetorick then this: But I in­tend to argue, not to declaim, I am therefore content to pass this over, only when I have added one description of joy and pleasure, which I find in an Author (though a Jesuite, yet) excellent in these kind of writings. Gau­dium Neirem­berg. de Arte vo­luntatis. Prolep. 5. est quoddam silentium appetitus, quaedam Modestia Ambitionis, quoddam claustrum cupi­ditatis, quoddam sine fastidio epulum cordis, quidam Thronus jam considentis Affectus, quae­dam Mors desiderii, &c. deni (que) ut haec comple­ctar quoddam satis. And surely this Joy must needs be a glorious thing, when the glory that God will beam on his servants in the other world, is so express'd, Enter into the joy of thy Math. 25. Lord. Those great and immeasurable measures of joy, are reserv'd for the world to come: [Page 127] yet now in this life, in this vale of tears, there are rivers of pleasure. True it is, the joy and Rom. 15. peace which God fills his people with, is in and by believing: And the joy we have out of Christ is unsound, as we out of Christ are un­safe: wherefore it hath been before said, thatBook 1. Moral Vertue is not to be separated from Faith, but they suppose one another; and then supposing the Vertue we speak of to be such, it will be easie to prove, that the exercise of Moral Vertues, Righteousness and Temperance, &c. do furnish us with a great deal of joy and comfort.

Sect. 2 That I prove when I have but first suppos'd, that whereas the pleasures of vice are all, or for the most part, of the sense and outward man; the pleasures of Vertue are inward, in the mind. After what manner the mind is gratifyed, will appear in the following Secti­ons; let it now be supposed, and then how much hath Vertue to say for her self, and to glory over wickedness and sin? If we may borrow a little of Jothams parable; Vice isJudg. 9. the Bramble, that instead of shadowing, scratch­es the body: Vertue is the Vine that chears the heart of man: Vice is a plaister that skins over an old sore; Vertue is a cordial that preserves and refreshes the spirits: Vice gratifies the sense, Vertue the understanding; and he that doubts whether of these be the greater plea­sure, doth in effect blaspheme God; for he doubts whether the Beasts of the Field be not more happy then God himself, and so be­comes as ridiculous an Idolater as the Aegyp­tians, [Page 128] who had—In Hortis Numina—whoJuvenal. worship'd Garlick and Onions, instead of God blessed for evermore. But hath the mind no greater pleasures then the body? Is not our reason more perfect and excellent then sense? Are not our souls capable of more happiness, then any of our bodily faculties? He that so little understands himself, and the worth of his own soul, as not to believe it, no wonder if he mistake true pleasure. But that it may not be said, this is gratis dictum, these questi­ons are no proofs; I proceed to prove, that there is a great deal of joy and pleasure in the exercise of Vertue, and that such as doth hugely over-balance the pleasures of sin.

Sect. 3 1 It is a great satisfaction to any mans mind, that he hath done his duty; and this satisfa­ction is great joy and pleasure: The man whose conscience is his witness that he hath done well, cannot be without an inward com­placency of mind. Our rejoycing is this, the 2 Cor. 1. Testimony of our Conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, we have had our Conversa­tion in the World. It is true, he mentions the grace of God that assisted him, and so we ac­knowledge that our Vertue must be animated by grace; but it was his regular conversation (which certainly could not be so, if he had not exercis'd those Moral Vertues, which are necessary in our dealings between man and man) that gave him this joy, and our joy was [...]. great. Our boasting, or that glorying is this. In conformity to which example, it is easie for any man to find the same in his own expe­rience. [Page 129] There are many vertuous actions are no otherwise rewarded in this World, but by the acquittance and discharge of a mans own Conscience. Many good endeavours succeed ill. Two Neighbours are at variance, a third would reconcile them, but one or both return him hatred for his good will. One man doth amiss, another reproves him▪ but receives more reproaches than he gives reproofs. So is the temperate man, the Song of the Drunkards. Psa. 69▪ And may it not now be thought that Vertue is bitterness in the latter end? No verily: still

Abimelechs Apology is the Vertuous mans sa­tisfaction: In the Integrity of my heart, and In­nocency Gen. 20▪ of my hands have I done this. From this satisfaction of mind proceeds tranquillity, and joy, and pleasure; and if there were no­thing else to be understood by that [...], that self-sufficiency which the Heathens gave to a Vertuous man than this; that a man in the Exercise of Vertue can furnish himself with Joy and Comfort, without the external addita­ments of Fame and Honour, and being ad­mired by o [...]her men; I should not before have reckoned it among the faults of the Stoicks, that they did put such a value upon themselves▪ They truly were blame-worthy in shutting God out; yet did they mean well, where they did mean no more than those words of the Emperour seem to import: [...] Antonin. Lib. 7. Sect. 28. [Page 130] [...]. The mind of man is of such a Nature, that when it doth well, it is sufficient of it self to bless it self with a calm tranquillity.

Sect. 4 What God said to Cain, according as we translate the words: If thou do well shalt thou Gen. 4. not be accepted? So saith the Conscience of an honest man: He that doth well is acceptable to himself, he is not a burden to himself, as those men are, whose guilty Consciences do heavily accuse them. It is a pleasant thing for a man to reflect upon himself when he knows he hath done well. We are not contented with the admirations and flatteries of other men: Fame and applause leaves us sollicitous, lest men may live to change their minds concern­ing us, as the Romans of Sejanus.

Or as the Lycaonians who ston'd the sameActs 14. man as a Malefactor, whom before they wor­shipped as a God. These outward appendages of Vertue, credit and praise, will never satisfie a fixed stayed mind: But when a man comes to judge of himself by his own actions, and sees that according to his best understanding he hath done his duty, and that which was fit for a man in his circumstances to do; the sa­tisfaction that arises hence is very joyous: and if I would descend to particular Vertues, it were casie to show, how much content and pleasure [Page 131] arises from this satisfaction. All the instance I for the present give, shall be in the case of being benevolous & kind: The courteous and charita­ble man, who makes it his business to do good offices, is plentifully rewarded into his own bo­som. So was the experience of a man (not only otherwise qualified to merit Respect and Reve­rence, but) abundant in Charity to admirati­on,Dr. Ham­mond in his life by Dr. F [...]ll. who would use to say; It was one of the greatest sensualities in the world to give. They who delight thus to serve God by being Ver­tuous, their Vertue it self is a delight and plea­sure to them, because they are satisfyed that they are doing what they ought do.

Sect. 5 2 Sweet and pleasant is the Exercise of Vertue, because hereby we conquer those lusts and passions, which untam'd and uncontrolled, are very disturbing and uncomfortable to us. It is now to be suppos'd that vice is trouble­some, as having been before prov'd in the Chapters immediately preceding. Now as that brings light that cashiers darkness, that introduceth heat which expels cold; so that must needs administer joy that asswageth griefs, and removeth trouble. To insist on particulars is not my present purpose, I only name them; Love subdues Hatred, Humility Pride, Meekness Anger, Fortitude and Con­stancy Fears and Griefs, Contempt of the World Ambition and Covetousness, and so in other parallel cases. Wherefore as the Jews E [...]h. 8. had light, and gladness, and joy, when they had liberty to fight and destroy their Enemies; much more was it a good day, a day of feast­ing [Page 132] and gladness when the work was done: so is it with Vertuous men, they are fighting, and conquering, and killing, and when their unruly passions are brought under, when they have got the Victory, then they triumph, that is, they are full of joy. Many a song of Thank [...]giving do we find in Scripture for de­liverance from Enemies: And great have been the triumphs of the Romans, when they re­turn'd with the spoils of War. The feast of a good Conscience, and the triumphs of a Ver­tuous Soul, may be less pompous as to out­ward shew; but what they have less of the fashion of Agrippa and Bernice, they are the more like the Kings Daughter, all glorious [...] 45. within. The war that the Spirit manageth against the Flesh, hath the same design with other wars, to procure peace; which when it [...] attain'd, we (Englishmen especially) cannot but be sensible how desirable it is: We are at the same time unthankful to God, undutiful to our Prince, and unnatural to our selves, if we do not rejoyce that we live in peace. There is no kind of peace that is without its kind of joy: so is the peace within our own minds, when we have bri [...]led and restrain'd our irregular and exorbitant passions, when we have quell'd our lustful inclinations, and have either in whole or in part, by the bles­sing of God upon vertuous endeavours,Isa. 48. and 57. attain'd that peace, which God himself twic [...] saith, doth not belong to wicked men: when Temperance. and Justice, and other like ha­bits are so firmly rooted in us, that we find [Page 133] none, or no great reluctancy of the Flesh, in the exercise of them; then behold how the soul enjoys it self! how glad it is to find things in due order, the inferiour faculties subordi­nate to the superiour, and they to their su­preme Lord, the Father of Spirits! Go now and see if a righteous and just man doth not rejoyce to consider, that temptations of Covetousness hath not made him unjust; go and ask of those men whom you observe to be most sober and upright in their conversa­tions, they will tell you that they thank God, they have a peace within them that passeth all P [...]il. 4. understanding. They will say, that Meekness, and Charity, &c. are lovely things, to be em­braced for their own sakes: They rejoyce to think that their souls are delivered from their enthralling lusts, and disturbing passions. If I should say that Vertue doth this perfectly for us, I should my self incurre the censure which I before past upon the Stoicks; who have boasted of a perfection that they could not attain. Truely the Spirits of just men, are not yet in this life made perfect: In many things we James 3. offend all. Yet this is truth; though we are not in this state compleatly holy, so as to be sinless, (and therefore our happiness and com­fort is incompleat) yet so far as we do arise towards a perfection of Vertue, we do thereby get the conquest of our lusts and passions, and the more they are subdued, the greater free­dom and pleasure we gain to our selves: and for this reason, there is a pleasure and joy in Vertuous Action [...]; which is the second proof.

Sect. 6 3 There is a pleasure in Vertue; for whereas wickedness and vice doth bring men first or last to repent; this is the property of Vertu­ous actions, that the farther a man proceeds in them, he is the more confirm'd that they are becoming and fitting things. The more Vertuous any man is, he doth the less repent that he did ever begin to be Vertuous: What Simonides said of silence, I have often repented Plutarch [...]e Garru­litate. that I have spoken, but never that I held my peace; That says the Vertu us man: I have have often repented, that I have been no more Vertuous, that I have fail'd so often in my Duty; but where I have attain'd in any mea­sure to any degrees of it, I am glad, and did never repent of what I have done. There may be some who for want of skill and pro­ficiency in the School of Vertue, may repent of their good deeds: but what though they do? Is it an Argument that there is no plea­sure in Learning, because a Dunce throws away his Book, and wishes he had never gone to School? Was St. Paul ever the worse, because the love of this world tempted [...] Tim. 4. Demas to forsake him? Doth it signifie much to the disparagement of Christian Religion, because Julian prov'd an Apostate? Now this is the case; some men have ventur'd upon Vertue, out of an opinion that it was an easie thing, and when they find the difficulties of it, vice is not easily mastered, nor passions ea­sily subdued, then they fall back again; and before they were throughly redeemed from a vain conversation, they again make their bar­gain [Page 135] with the Devil, and sell▪ themselves to work wickedness. But what shall we say of these men? even this, they are to Vertue as the many Antichrists are to Christian Religi­on; and of them may Vertuous men say, They 1 Joh. 2. went out from us, because they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. They are not Vertues menial ser­vants, they are but retainers and hangers on; they do but pretend to some Vertuous actions; some good things they may do, but they do not Benè, out of a love to Vertue: They may have a procatarctick, but they have no proegu­menal cause; they may be outwardly drawn to the exercise of Vertue, but not from an in­ward principle of goodness. Now Vertue is not to stand or fall according to the opinions of these men.

Sect. 7 But now take a man that hath in good ear­nest set himself to be an honest and righteous man, and that hath made conscience of doing the duties that the Word of God and his own conscience have made appear to be his duties; and (whatever fears and grumblings he might find within himself when he first began, yet) as he goes on, he is the more confirm'd in his way; the more he sees into the mystery of Ver­tue, he admires it the more, and chuses it the rather; and a man by accustoming himself to it, will grow more acquainted with the pleasure of it, and will daily see less cause to repent of his choice. The rule that Plutarch [Page 136] applies to Temperance, will be found true of all sorts of Vertue: [...]:De sanita­ [...]e tuend [...] Chuse that manner of life that is best, and custonie will make it plea­sant. This Argument hath somewhat of ex­perience in it: for a man to disparage that of which he hath no knowledge, he talks for want of wit, and he must get into the company of his fellow-fools to be believed. Come to those who have experience what Vertue is, and they find the deeper the sweeter: The more Vertue, the less Repentance, and the less Repentance, the more Joy: for he that chuseth a course of life, of which he sees no cause to repent, he must needs good himself in it, and rejoyce to think he hath made a happy choice: He tastes the sweetness of it, and then because, Contra gustum non est disputandum: No man can be disputed out of his senses, nor perswa­ded that that is not sweet which he tastes to be so; it remains a certain Argument, that there is a great deal of pleasure in Vertuous Actions.

Sect. 8 4 I might go on to compare Vertue and Vice together; and then it would appe [...]r by an enumeration of particulars, that there is much more pleasure in temperance, than in rio­ting and drunkenness; however, they that live in such pleasures, are dead to all such perswa­sions: also that just and righteous dealing, brings a man more content and comfort, then violence, and wrong, and oppression; yea, the forgiving an injury, is sweeter then revenge, and in many other like cases: but this would [Page 137] be to descend to particulars, which is some­what without my purpose; I leave it to be consider'd by any that will enter into a sober comparison of these things. These Vertues have their marks in their fore-heads; It is easie to discern a difference, and then not hard to pass a judgement, that there is more pleasure in Vertue than Vice; which was the second thing to be proved in this Third Argument, and so it is dispatch'd.

It is necessary to be Vertuous, that both life and death may be comfortable.

CHAP. IX.

Sect. 1 End. 4 THere remains but one thing more to make this part of my discourse like Vertue her self, and like a Vertuous man, who is said to be [...]; that is square, and fix'd, and stable, one that can stand alone without being upheld by other props; or in our English phrase, one that goes of all four. There is a Fourth proof, That it is necessary for us to be as hath been before said, that hereby we may be­come profitable to others as well as to our selves. It hath been before evidenced that it is for our own advantage to be Vertuous, that our condition may be good, and safe, and com­fortable: Whereby it appears that Vertue is Bonum honestum, and jucundum; good and ho­nest, good and pleasant: there is but one other sort of good, Bonum utile, good and profitable, and so Vertue likewise is; for hereby we do [Page 138] not live to our souls alone, we look on the things Rom. 14. Phil. 2. of others as well as on our own. That Vertue whereby we do good to others, is properly called Beneficence, and is comprehended un­der Charity: But as there is a justice in every Vertue, it is just, and equal, and fit to be done; so is there a Charity too, insomuch that unless we be good our selves, we shall do little good to others. But good and Vertuous men are Benefactors to the places where they live. Two things will finish this Argument, and make it correspond to the former. 1 1. Men of vitious and loose lives do live idly and unprofitably, and as such they do no good in the world.2 2. The exercise of Vertue is much for the advantage of mankind.

Sect. 2 Wickedness is a vain and unprofitable thing, and wicked men are unprofitable mem­bers of a Common-wealth: 1 It may be by accident and beyond their intention, they may be an occasion of good done, and yet they are never the better men. The staggerings and reelings to and fro of the Drunkard, toge­ther with his sottish looks and behaviour, and the woful effects of his intemperance, may perswade another man to abhor that vice. When a Spend-thrift hath impoverish'd him­self by Idleness, and Gaming, and Prodiga­lity, another may take warning by his mise­ries, not to be guilty of the same folly: But what is this to the commendation of such men, whose bad examples do only by accident make others good? Thus the Spartans allow­ed their Slaves to be Drunk, to teach their [Page 139] Children to abhor it; but it was no part of their wisdom so to do. Is the Devil to be com­mended for his malice against the Saints, be­cause he thereby puts them upon their guard, to watch more strictly over themselves, and so may be an occasion to make them better? The Devil is a wicked malicious spirit for all this, for he means not so, but it is in his heart to destroy; as was said of the Assyrians Isa. 10. against the Jews. What glory is it for a man to do that, in which the Devil doth as much or more then he? The vices of men are not the more excusable, because they may be an occasion of Vertue to other men; for though they may occasion good done, yet they them­selves do none, nor do they intend any. The design of wickedness is not to profit and ad­vantage others. For 1 1. It doth no good. 2 2. It doth a great deal of harm.

Sect. 3 It doth no good, and therefore is unpro­fitable and vain. 1 I am not altogether of that mind, that they who are not good themselves, cannot do good to others: Minime absurdum Historia Concilii Tridenti­ni. p. 382. Folio. est, (said the Chancellour of France in a So­lemn Assembly) ut multi boni Cives sint, qui boni Christiani non sunt. Sure it may please God both in Church and State, to make use of wicked men to do him service: for which there is no need of other instance then of Ju­das and Saul! Judas was one of the 12 A­postles that Christ sent on great errands, and gave them power and authority suitable to their employment: Then he called his 12Luke 9. Disciples together, and gave them power and au­thority [Page 140] over all Devils, and to cure Diseases, and he sent them to preach the Kingdom of God, and to heal the Sick. It is possible they who preach to others, may be Cast-aways themselves: God1 Cor. 9. may bless their gifts to others, though they want grace for themselves. At the same time a man may out of his own mouth condemn himself and save others. And for State-Affairs, Saul is another instance, who though a wicked man, as he afterwards declar'd him­self to be, so wicked that God would not own him, nor he God; yet at his first coming to the Kingdom, God made choice of him to save his people out of the hand of the Phili­stines;1 Sam. 9. 16. and in a particular case, he was ena­bled to the rescue of Jabesh-Gilead, by the spirit of God coming upon him. Accordingly1 Sam. 11. 6. it is easie to observe, there are many men who have wisdom as an Intellectual habit, when they have it not as a Moral Vertue; they have parts, and gifts, and abilities, which it pleaseth God to over-rule for the service of his Church and the good of others; yet they want that grace which is saving to them­selves. The comparison will serve other men as well as Ministers; There are many are like Greenham. to Marks in the High-way, which rot away them­selves, while they stand instructing others. There are many Physitians prescribe rules to others, which themselves will not observe: And thus it must not be denyed, but there may be many, who may continue bad them­selves, and yet may have an influence upon the welfare of others.

But then it is to be observed, that this is no prejudice to the Argument in hand. Vitious men may do good, because they have some good in them; if not grace and vertue, yet parts and abilities, and some actions materially good they perform, which God blesses for good pur­poses: but all this while their wickedness and vice is unprofitable and unserviceable: A Drunkard when he is sober may work hard, to maintain his Family; but his Drunkenness is idle and vain, and doth no good; and the same is to be said of all other vices. For will any man say that Envy, and Spite, and Re­venge is for the benefit of mankind? as well may recompensing evil be called doing good: or is a generation of Drunkards an advantage to a Nation, because they maintain and up­hold Taverns and Ale-houses? or is cheating and lying for the profit of others, because thereby men scraping together great Estates, leave their Children rich? with as much rea­son may we say, the World is the better for Adultery, Fornication, yea and incest too; be­cause the Pope gets money by toleration of Stewes, and dispensation in unlawful Marriages. There is a selfishness in wickedness: Men de­sire their own pleasure, which according to the third Argument is inconsiderable; or their own profit, which according to the second is none at all: for if it be not safe for such a man to dye, then what is a man profited if he Math. 16. gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? And if the designs they propound to themselves cannot be accomplished, much less that which [Page 142] they did not design. Wickedness doth no good, intends none; it is as vain to expect any, as for a man to go to a Thorn to gather Grapes, or Math. 7. to a Thistle for Figs; for a corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good Fruit. This is now somewhat to the disparagement of vice, it doth no good; but there is more yet to come.

Sect. 4 2 It doth not onely not do good, but it doth a great deal of harm. It is to the prejudice and disadvantage of Kingdoms, and States, and Corporations, and Towns, and Families, that some of the Members of these Bodies live vitious lives.

1 For first, it is greatly to the damage of man­kind that there should be so many persons mis-employ their faculties, whereby they might do the world good service. What pity it is to see a house well built, neatly contrived, handsomely furnished, yet haunted and fit for no bodies use. Such are many mens Souls, cu­rious fabricks, that discover much of the wis­dom of their Creator, and fitted for excellent purposes, but they are possessed by evil Spirits, and haunted with furies; their furious passi­ons and devilish lusts, over-rule and pervert their Reason, and make it unserviceable: And this is a great mischief to the World. For he that cuts off my hand, doth my body an injury, by depriving me of a member that is useful to the whole body: So is a man to the rest of mankind, a part of the whole, for whom the World might be the better, but that by his wicked life he cuts himself off from those op­portunities of doing good, for which he was [Page 143] born into the World. It every Farmer should let his grounds lye fallow for seven years toge­ther, how soon should we starve, unless we could live by Bryars and Thorns? But this is the bad husbandry of Vice, mens Souls lye non­improved, they bring forth no fruit for the benefit of others; they take up the room of honester men, and croud them out of employ­ment; but they themselves are good for no­thing. Bare Idleness is a great mischief, and therefore the wicked and slothful servant is cal­led an Ʋnprofitable servant, and accordinglyMath. 25. punished: If the man who had the five Ta­lents, had managed that one, he would have made a good use of it, and done good with it: but so long as it lay hid up in a Napkin, it was as if there had been none at all. If Vertue had the management of those parts and abilities that are spent upon Sin, it would be better for the World than now it is: wherefore as he that throws away his money doth his Family harm, because he deprives them of that which should maintain them; so doth the man who sells himself to sin, he disables himself from do­ing good: and this is a great mischief comes by wickedness, as it is Impeditivum boni, the good it hinders is to be interpreted doing hurt.

Sect. 5 The calamities of war are a sad proof that wickedness is a mischievous thing. 2 For whence come wars and fightings in the world, come they James 4. not hence, even of mens lusts? There is an insati­abilis libido either habendi or dominandi (that is Covetousness and Ambition) which do lead [Page 144] many Armies into the field; many I say, not all: It is to be hoped that they mean well, and they have a great desire to perswade the world to peace and concord, who are of opinion that it is not lawful for Christians to make war. Indeed it were to be wished that there were no need of it: But the world must be well amend­ed, before it can be supposed, that the honest­est and justest cause will alwaies without any force, by its meer justice obtain against its ad­versary. Wherefore without calling that into question which we are obliged to grant if we be true to our selves, it must be yielded, That it is lawful for Christian men at the command of the Artic. 37. Magistrate, to wear weapons and serve in the w [...]rs. Yet all wars are not lawful to be sure, not on both sides; and then if many be unlawful, ei­ther in their original, as occasioned by covet­ousness or ambition, or oppression; or in their progress as managed by cruelty and revenge; then let it be considered, how unhappy they are in their end. How many millions of peo­ple hath the sword devoured? How many Countreys have been harrassed, and for a time dispeopled? How many Cities sackt and burnt? for the fire and the sword many times go together. And whence is all this? from some of the forementioned sins, or some other like them: Ʋna & ea vetus causa bellandi cupi­do divitiarum & imperii. The instances ofSalust. Ambition and Pride are many. When Bajaz [...]t was taken Prisoner and carryed to Tamerlane, after that memorable battel, where some say more then 300000 men lost their lives, one [Page 145] question that Tamerlane asked him was; what made him so proud as to adventure upon the Greek Emperour, in hopes to conquer him andTurki [...] History. win Constantinople; he gave him this answer: Even the same thing that moved thee to invade me, the desire of glory and soveraignty. A tru­er account cannot be given of the adventures of Alexander in Asia and the Indies, and of the expeditions of the Romans into other countrys. Sometimes Covetousness hath marched along with Ambition; men have promised to them­selves, We shall find all precious substance, we Prov. 1. shall fill our houses with spoil. This Florus ac­knowledgesFlor. ex­pedit in Cypron. to have been the reason why the Romans invaded Cyprus, because of the same of their riches. Sometimes Lust hath begot war; So Paris his ravishing Helena brought 10 years wars to Troy, and Troy to destruction. Some­times revenge, sometimes one sin, somtimes ano­ther, wickedness and sin brings war, and war wo and misery, and calamity: and so it appears to be mischievous to the world.

Sect. 6 3 Wickedness and Vice doth much mischief in the world; for this is the cause, at least one cause of the decays of Kingdoms and States, and of the ruine of many particular families. The changes of the Moon, and the turnings of Sesostris wheel, are emblems too good to signifie the inconstancy and inconsistency of humane affairs. The Moon decreases, and changes, and renews again; and the wheel rises as fast as it falls: But there are many Kingdoms and Empires have fallen to decay, without any visible hope of a resurrecti­on. It is small thing to enquire of Troy, [Page 146] where is Babylon and Nineveh, those two great Cities, sometimes the wonder and terror of the world? we may almost as well go to the moun­tains of Ararat, to seek for some broken planks of Noahs Ark, as to rake in the rubbish to find out where those Cities once were. The Virgin Isa. 47. daughter of Babylon is come down to sit in the dust, and there is no Throne of the Caldaeans, none to be sure in comparison of what once was. Yea even Rome her self, which is still not onely in being, but in her glory and pride, yet hath changed its place, as well as its manner of government, as if the City it self were before­hand taught, that it is moving towards a peri­od. And as for the Monarchies that have made these Cities famous, and the Ladies of the Earth, Isa. 47. how have they all supplanted one another? The Medes and Persians translated the Empire from the Assyrians to themselves, but could not alwaies keep it; Alexander over-powered them, and laid the foundation of a Monarchy, but lived to do no more: the Graecian Empire was even stifled in the birth by bad midwifery; Alexanders successors dividing it into parts, weakened the whole. Then came the Roman Eagles (those birds of prey) they gather upon the Earth, and instead of finding make a car­cass:Math. 24. They dispirit other Nations, and by power and policy together prevail over the rest, and make the world do homage to Rome.

Yet now these Eagles have their wings clip't, and all they can do is but to flutter about Germany, who hath an Emperour indeed, but his Empire but small in comparison of the extent of the Territories of old Rome; yea weak as well as small, Tenue & exangue corpusculum, quod vix Sleidan▪ [...]ssibus haeret. The body of the Empire little better then skin and bone. What is now the reason of all this? is it not because there is a Dan. [...] ▪ God in the Heavens, who changeth the times and the seasons, who removeth Kings and setteth up Kings? Yes verily so it is, and one of the proud­est of the sons of men have acknowledged it: Nebuchadnezzar was made to know, That the most High ruleth over the Kingdoms of men, and Dan. 5. that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will. But withal it is true, though God made desolations Psa. 46. in the Earth, yet men deserve them. The Tekel is the reason of the Mene, Mene, Men are weighed in the balances and are found wanting, Dan. 5▪ and that is the reason why God numbers their Kingdoms and finisheth them. Wanting indeed to God, and guilty of many sacrilegious impie­ties; but withal wanting to themselves, and to the due administration of their affairs. Either oppression and violence, or some other wicked­ness hath shaken the foundations of those King­doms and Monarchies, and at last ruined them. So the same Histories that tell us of the original and growth of Monarchies, give us an account [Page 148] of the decrease and fall of them. Sardanapalus Justin. his luxury and effeminateness translated it from the Assyrians to the Medes. The cruelty of Asty­ages to Harpagus, was the occasion of his revolt to Cyrus, and by that means it came among the Persians. The softness and delicacy of the Per­sians betrayed them to Alexander, whose suc­cessors, by their self-designments falling off from, weakned one another; and it befel them that (as before the Cities of Greece) dum impe­rare singuli cupiunt, imperium omnes perdide­runt. Which advantage when the Romans had got, they lorded it for a great while, but at length suffered more then a nominal diminuti­on; when Augustus dwindled into Augustulus: but really their greatness is eclipsed. They have been no more innocent, then other Empires be­fore them, and they have at last suffered for their Ambition and Pride, and insolent Usurpa­tions; so that there is little left besides the name of the King of the Romans. Now it is to be con­sidered, that there cannot be such mutations in Kingdoms and States, but there are many mi­series and mischiefs attend them, and fall upon the common people, who are involved in the same calamities with their Princes. Which changes and miseries, though they may have o­ther causes assigned them, yet evidently this is one, the wickedness and vice of the persons concerned: and thus Immorality appears to be a pernicious thing, because so many sad events follow upon it.

The case of particular families is no less no­torious: Many who have been born to good [Page 149] fortunes, have yet been impoverished and beg­gered by the riot and prodigality, and gaming or other wastfulnesses of their fore-fathers. How many have been undone, that very way by which their fathers hoped to raise them? if that observation be good,

Men would fain leave their Children rich, and therefore take care to get Estates any how, by cheating and couzenage, and for that pur­pose have many artifices and devices; but they do not consider all this while, that when they entail an Estate upon their posterity, they do at the same time entail a Curse upon the Estate; and this also adds to the proof, that wicked men do harm in the World.

Sect. 7 4 If any thing else be needful to be said, I might say 4^ly, The issues of private feuds, and grudges, and quarrels between Neighbour and Neighbour, make it manifest that the world is the worse for many of its inhabitants. When men are bent upon Revenge, they are set upon mischief at the same time. A man shall Isa. 29. be made an offender for a word. An action of slander is commenced for a rash and unadvised word; or otherwise there are many waspish spirited men, that as soon as ever they are stirr'd will sting. Some men seek, and some make occasions to prejudice and wrong their Neighbours.

5 Neither is yet this Pandora's box quite open­ed. Besides what hath been already said, the very example of wicked men leavens the World, and by making it a mass of iniquity, increases the number of those mischiess which pester mankind. A Company of Drunkards are a Plague to the place they live in, and so are most other sins; for they are catching and infectious, and many perish by the evil exam­ple of other men. This and the former might be plentifully insisted on, but that they are obvious to every ones experience.

Sect. 8 There is yet another great mischief comes to the World by wickedness; it hinders the pro­pagation of the Christian Religion into other parts of the World. It might be a great mo­tive to perswade Infidels to have good thoughts of that Religion whose professours live good and honest lives. We have a Prayer in our Liturgy (on good Friday) on purpose for Jews, and Turks and Infidels; that they may be fetched home to the flock, and be made one fold, under one Shepherd Jesus Christ our Lord: and surely they do a service acceptable to God, who are any ways instrumental in so glorious an undertaking: but how had the men need be qualified, who are like to do any good this way; they had need be men of excellent lives, and be very true to the exercise of those Vertues, that have found so much praise among the Heathens. I have read somewhere of Averroes (if I mistake not) that a point of Doctrine alie­nated him from the Christian Religion, Quandoquidem Christiani adorant quod comedunt, [Page 151] sit anima mea cum Philosophis. Transubstantiati­on was then creeping into the Church, or if not, he did not rightly understand the Doctrine of the Sacrament. But corruption in practice will much more alienate: The Spaniards in some of their first dealings with the Savages inHeylin Ge­ogr. America, to perswade them to be baptized, told them, that they who were baptized should go to the joyes of Heaven, the rest should go to Hell: One of them, a person of quality, askt them whether they themselves (the Spaniards) were to go; they said to Heaven; then (says he) I had rather go to Hell with the unbap­tized, than live in Heaven with so cruel a peo­ple. What marvel is it if a Jew or Infidel ar­gue thus: I see these men that go for Christi­ans, take little care of their lives, they pretend to the most excellent Religion in the World; but if we may judge of it by their actions, their profession is vile and contemptible. God doth not stand in need of the ministry of men, when it pleases him that the fullness of the Rom. 11. Gentiles shall come in, and all Israel shall be sa­ved; he can-bring his own ends about, with any or without any means: But as to humane probabilities, how is this like to retard the spreading of the Gospel? Blindness is hapned Rom. 11. to Israel, and it continues upon the Infidel, but they are not so blind as not to see that True Re­ligion includes Morality. If therefore in all our Negotiations with them, our Merchants and Factors, or whoever any ways converse with them, would not only exactly observe the rules of Justice (which it is to be hoped they do) but [Page 152] would also take care and pains in the govern­ance of themselves, that they be discreet and sober, and advised in all their behaviour; it might be hoped that Infidels would by de­grees entertain better thoughts of Christian Religion than yet they do: But alas this is the very thing to be feared, Christendom it self is in a great many places over-grown with Bar­barism: We may send them word to China, and the Indies and America, that Vertue is no where so much honoured and owned as among Christians; but when they come to hear, that Pride, and Revenge, and Cove­tousness, and Sensuality, and all manner of Vice doth prevail, as much with us as in any other parts of the World; our sin hath the same aggravation with that of Eli's Sons: The sin of the young men was great before the Lord, [...] Sam: 2. for men abhorred the offering of the Lord. It is no wonder if Heathens abhor Christian Reli­gion, when they see Christians live such horrid lives: Though this be not indeed the fault of our Religion, but of the professours of it, yet it will be interpreted so; and this mischief is added to all the rest, men of immoral wick­ed lives, hinder as much as in them lyes (so far as they are wicked) the spreading of Christian Religion. Wherefore if we would do good in the World, we must abound in Moral Vertues, for the contrary Vices are much to the detri­ment and damage of Mankind.

CHAP. X.

Sect. 1 BY being Vertuous, men become profitable, and their Vertue makes them so; 2 where­fore these things are said to be good and profita­ble Tit. 3. to men. These are the men whom the world can ill spare, for they are useful in their places: There is no Creature in the world, be it never so mean, but so far as it is useful is to be accounted of: even the Ass and her Colt, had a value put upon them, because the Lord Math. 21. had need of them. This is to be said in the behalf of Vertue, there is need of it: It makes men fit to do good service, and therefore ought to be encouraged and practised. And that which was named last but one in the last Chapter, I now begin with. Good men do good by their good examples: 1 As men of naughty and vitious▪ lives corrupt the world, so here doth Vertue countermine vice. He hath but little observ'd the world, who doth not see what a mighty force example hath al­most every where: Now though examples of Vertue do not so much good as bad examples do hurt, because men are generally most inclin'd to that which is worst; yet some good they do, and many times a great deal: For were it not out of this perswasion, why [...] do we read History? It is no doubt a pleasant thing, and as much a recreation as an employment, to look beyond our own Times and Countries, and see what hath been done in the World in for­mer times, and what is elsewhere: But if there [Page 154] were nothing else but bare pleasure, there may be as much said for Romances as for real stories. There is a profit as well as a plea­sure, Studia abeunt in mores, as the Lord Ba­con Essay of study. observes; and then when men fashion their lives and manners according to their studies, whereas other studies make men witty and subtle, this peculiar effect hath History, it makes men wise: And how is that, but by observing the examples of others, and impro­ving them to our advantage. So thought a­nother Wise and Learned Man: Defixum hoc Peires­kius. Gassend. de vit â ejus. habuit, conferre maximè Historiam componendae vitae, censebat enim quodammodo efficaciorem Phi­losophiâ, quod haec quidem verbis homines erudiat, sed illa exemplis accendat, &c. Now the good we get by such examples, is an Argument that Vertuous men do good in the world, because they help to make others good: They stir them up to the same practices, by breeding such an emulation in them, as Miltiades did in Themistocles: he was converted as I may say, (i. e.) he was chang'd in his behaviour, from a debauch'd vitious man, by the fame Milti­ades got at the Battel of Marathon: So hePlutarch. Apophtheg. gave this reason of his change, Miltiades his Trophy will not let me sleep, or be dull and idle. Yea there are such inviting provocations in good examples, that our blessed Saviour him­self thought good to make use of this Argu­ment, to teach his Disciples humility and con­descension: I have given you an example that Joh. 23. ye should do as I have done to you. It is a great happiness when Parents or Masters of Fami­lies, [Page 155] or any Publick persons who have the go­vernance of others, are Vertuous themselves; for they can then urge the same Vertue with the greater Authority upon others: Otherwise there is a great difference between the precepts and instructions of those who practise Vertue, and those who neglect it: Such as we read between Christ and the Scribes, He taught Math. 7. them as one having Authority, and not as the Scribes. How did they teach? They taught, but they did not practise, They say and do not: Math. 23. But (though other interpretations may be gi­ven of the words, this is a truth) Christ spake with Authority, he did enforce his Doctrine by his own example. A Picture may be well drawn, and if it flatter, may be handsome [...] then the person it represents; but there is life in the person, which is wanting in the Picture: In like manner Vertue may be pourtrayed, as to its lineaments and colours, in good advice, and Moral precepts, and there may be Rheto­rical insinuations which may flatter it, and express some Heroical degrees which are scarce practicable and attainable by flesh and blood; yet for all these flourishes of Rheto­rick, there is that same [...] still wanting; there is a certain lifeness in Vertue which can­not be express'd but by a good example. Now the world being so much advantaged this way, this good Vertue doth, that they who practise it, do good by their good examples.

Sect. 2 2 Honest and Vertuous men by their very pre­sence do good. After that Moses had been [Page 156] conversing with God in the Mount, the shinings of his face strook an awe in the people of Is­rael Exod. 28. at their approaches to him: So in some sort doth the exercise of Vertue give a lustre to the persons of Vertuous men. Wicked men have such a Regard and Reverence to them, that they will not commit those sins in their presence, which yet they have a mind to com­mit, and would fain be in other company, that they may be more bold in: So doth it frequently happen, that those men who will swear, and scorn, and scoff at all manner of goodness; yet in the presence of some men, whom they know to have a hatred to their practices, they can contain themselves: and they who will swear among their fellows, yet will not before men of more severe Principles. Now as wickedness and vice doth harm by hindring good, (as hath been said) so is Ver­tue hereby advantagious; it lays a restraint upon wicked men, at least so as to prevent some Acts of sin, if not to extinguish the Ha­bits. There is one and the same reason given why Herod delayed to kill John Baptist, and why the Pharisees would have delayed to take Christ; he would have killed him but he feared the Math. 14. multitude: They would have taken our Saviour, but not on the Feast day, lest there should be Math. 26. an uproar among the people. Now though it may be all this multitude were not indeed good and throughly honest, yet this good they had, they counted John as a Prophet; and likewise they had a great esteem of Christ because of his Miracles. Many such men there are in the [Page 157] world, who in this, as in other things, are Hypocrites as the Pharisees were; they have a mind to sin, but they are loth to be seen in it: By how much the more Vertuous men are scattered about the world, they do help to loosen the knot, and weaken the conspiracy of wicked men, that they cannot so confidently carry on the designs of Hell and Darkness. There was somewhat in the presence of Ari­stides that did discountenance dishonesty; and that was the reason that Themistocles (who though not so debauch'd as before, yet was scarce honest) and others contriv'd to banish him by the Ostracisme (a custome among the Athenians) that he might not be at home to divert and restrain their indirect dealings.

Sect. 3 3 It is well for the world that there are Ver­tuous men, for they do greatly help to preserve the rest of mankind from Universal Ruine. The same men who are the light of the world, Math. 5. are the salt of the earth: they who are exem­plary in their lives, do season the rest of the world, and preserve it from being corrupted and destroyed. It pleaseth God to have Re­spect to the Prayers and Persons of his Holy Ones; and for their sakes to forbear that pu­nishment which he hath threatned to wicked men: So is the Language of the Scripture, when God doth seem resolv'd to destroy Is­rael in a moment; yet Moses prays and be­seeches God, And then the Lord repented of Exod. 32. the evil which he thought to do to his people. And Moses his intercession is given as the rea­son why he spared them: He said that he [Page 158] would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen Psa. 106. stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them. Again, it seems Ten Righteous Men would have preservedGen. 18. Sodom; yea, God had so much Respect to the person of Lot (we do not read that he prayed for Sodom) that so long as he staid there, he did as it were hold Gods hands that he could do nothing: So may we with Reverence say, according to those words in Scripture spoken to Lot in his going to Zoar, Haste thee escape Gen. 19. thither, for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Yea, it pleased God to have Respect to David and his Posterity after him; so that he would not rend the Ten Tribes from Solomon for David his Fathers sake; so is1 Kings 11. it said to Solomon, yea, and to Rehoboam there is a promise with a threatning, I will not rend away all the Kingdom, but will give one Tribe Ibid. to thy Son for David my servants sake. This regard God hath, not to the merits of men; there is no man that sins (as every just man upon the earth doth) who is able to expiate forEccles. 7. his own sins by his own merits, (for then he would not need a Saviour) and if not so, how then should he deserve mercy for other men? The Papists speak of a Treasury of the Saints merits, which is one foundation of their Do­ctrine of Indulgences, as also a ground why they hope the sooner to be released out of Pur­gatory; but this their Treasury is a well with­out water: yet though not for their deserts and merits, for his mercies sake it pleaseth God so to honour righteous and holy men, as to let [Page 159] the wicked world know, that they are the better for their righteous neighbours. As God doth many times send evil when they are ta­ken away, and therefore it is said; The Righ­teous Isa. 57. is taken away from the evil to come: so doth he stay and forbear to send it as long as they remain: Wherefore good men are the props and supports of the world. There are a sort of men who (as the men of Sodom were weary of Lot) are weary of the company of honest men; and would be glad if there were no body in the world but of their Gang; but it is because they do not consider who are their best Friends: It is for the sake of the Wheat that the Tares are suffered to grow till Harvest. There is a mixture of good and badMath. 13. together, in Nations, and Cities, and Towns, and almost in all Societies of men: Now there are blessings deriv'd upon wicked men, because they are in company with those who are bet­ter then themselves, and whom God hath a regard to: This is more to the commendation of Vertue, it keeps the world a foot, it doth stay, and uphold, and preserve mankind from falling to that decay and corruption to which vice doth naturally tend; and so is an instance of what good Vertue doth.

Sect. 4 Vertue must needs turn to advantage; for they who are throughly and sincerely Vertu­ous, [...]4 make Conscience of doing good; they who are so out of good Principles, [...] out of a love to Vertue, will believe themselves obliged to the practice of every Vertue, which they are in capacity for: They will endea­vour [Page 160] to make good that common observation, that there is a connexion of Vertue, insomuch that he who is Vertuous in one, will be so in all, or will strive so to be: and he that strives to be compleatly Vertuous, how can he forget that Noble and Excellent disposition of Cha­rity, which the Scripture makes so much of, that all our behaviour toward our Neighbour is comprehended in this, Thou shalt love thy Rom. 13. Neighbour as thy self. He who is Vertuous, will be Charitable and well disposed; and he who is so, how much good will he do? Here is a cluster of Proofs, which (as the cluster of Grapes from Eshcol was born between two) isNumb. 13. somewhat too big to be crowded within one Argument: but because I would multiply as little as I can, I include them all here. Cha­rity is kind, there are many good offices are per­form'd1 Cor. 13. by a Charitable man: to Feed the Hungry, and Cloath the Naked, and relieve those who are in want and distress; to resolve doubts and satisfie scruples; to correct errour and inform ignorance; to pity and comfort the sad and dejected spirits of other men; to be helpful in all streights, to bear the burdens of others, that they may be eased; to become all things to all men, that by all means we may do good to some, this is the Trade of a good man: and when all these rills are united in one, they make a forcible stream that cannot easily be dam'd up: Suppose this good spiri­ted man to have ability and opportunity thus to let out his spirit, it is not easie to divert his good intentions, nor to take him off from his [Page 161] endeavours of doing good: So that this is a pregnant instance how advantagious Vertue is, because this doing good is it self a Vertue; in which it were easie to enlarge, but that I consider I am slipt into a particular considera­tion, which doth not so much belong to Vertue in the general, as to one part of it; therefore I go no farther in it.

Sect. 5 5 Vertue is not only singly serviceable, but it is like the Salt that Elisha made use of to heal the naughty waters; it doth sanctifie other ac­complishments,2 Kings 2. complishments, and convert them to do good service: other endowments, whether of the body or the mind, are (as we say of the pas­sions) neither good nor bad, but according as they are used: Now (if that fancy may be Mo­ralized) Vertue is the Philosophers Stone that turns all into Gold; for which several instances might be given, I take up with two: Know­ledge and Riches are two such things, which when they are found in a way of righteousness, are greatly serviceable to the world; other­wise they are better lost then found. A man had better be without a Knife then cut his Neighbours Throat with it; so is it less cri­minal for a man to be a Fool then a Knave, or to be Poor then to have Riches and abuse them to the wrong and prejudice of other men; wherefore this good Vertue doth, it teaches a man the right use of these things.

1 Where an able head and an honest heart dwell together, that man is well qual fyed for a serviceable man. Bare knowledge is no great perfection, no more then bare power, for it [Page 162] may be an instrument of much mischief: The Counsel of Ahitophel was as if a man had en­quired 2 Sam. 16. at the Oracle of God, but if it had been successful it would have ruined David. We use to compare crafty men to Foxes, and they are more like to none than to Sampsons Foxes, Judg 15. commonly they carry firebrands in their tails: The end of their contrivances and designs, is to waste, and consume, and destroy. But the wis­dom of the Serpent, and the simplicity of the Math. 10. Dove, are a happy pair when matched toge­ther. There is no man who doth not set his wits to work if he have any; now Vertue cor­rects and restrains the extravagant sallies and wildnesses of wit, and purifies wisdom from those dregs which make it earthly, sensual, and devilish; it alters the property of wit, and makes it wisdom. The head receives in­fluence from the heart. An honest good man is more conscientious than to abuse his parts, and knowledge, and skill, to the hurt of his Neighbour: He doth not study a cunning craftiness, whereby he may lye in wait to deceive: Eph. 4. but his wisdom is from above, for it hath the same characters, it is full of mercy and good James 3. Herbert. fruits. Wits an unruly Engine, and it is not every man knows how to use it: There is a1 Cor. 8. great deal of knowledge that puffs up, and doth not edifie without Charity, which is Vertue: There is a great deal of learning in the World, skill in Languages, knowledge in Arts and Sciences; and many men that have these, are but as sounding brass or a tinkling Cimbal; they want1 Cor. 13. grace to sanctifie their gifts. There is then this [Page 163] great piece of service Vertue doth, it makes men [...], their wisdom isRom. 12. a sober well governed wisdom; the more Vertuous and good any man is, the better use he makes of his Learning and parts, not to his own vain-glory, or to the prejudice of other men, but to their benefit and advantage as much as he is able.

A vertuous man makes a like improvement of his estate, that he doth of his knowledge; that is, he doth good with it. Riches are which certainly may be made use of to good purposes. He that threw his money into the sea because it should do him no harm, was either a low-spirited man (according to Seneca's observa­t [...]on,Epist. 5. Infirmi animi est pati non posse divitias: It is an Argument of a weak mind not to be able to hear riches) or else he was strangely humorsom, if not worse; Lactantius could not tell what to think of him, whether he were in his wits or no: Quid ille qui patrimonium in nummos redactum De falsâ sap. Cap. 23. projecit in Mare, ego dubito utrumne sanus an demens fuenit: and his reason is to my purpose, fac beneficium, &c. he might have done good with it, &c. riclies are the gift of God who gives power to get wealth, and it cannot reasonably beDeut. 8. thought they are given to be thrown away. But why then are they improved no better? men either hoard up their money or throw it a­way. Many are the men who make no use at all of their money, onely to tell it, and bless them­selves that they are rich. And then this love of 1 Tim. 6. money is the root of all evil. This greedy desire [Page 164] of gain hath brought along with it many mis­chiefs into the world, and almost undone it. [...]mpan. de Mo­narch. Hispan. Ʋere affirmare possumus mundum novum quodam­modo perdidisse mundum veterem, nam mentibus nostris avaritiam insevit, & mutuum amorem ex­tinxit, &c. since Silver and Gold have been so plentifully brought from America, the new world hath destroyed the old, by introducing Covetousness, and extinguishing Love and good will among men. On the other side some are as Prodigal as others Covetous: There are, that will venture almost all they have upon a cast at Dice: there are (and they are not allLuke 15. younger Brothers neither, as he in St. Luke) who waste their substance with riotous living. These are now the extreams, and it is nothing but Vertue will keep a man within the mean. A man that makes Conscience of his doings, believes that God hath made him rich in this world, that he 1 Tim. 6. may do good, that he may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate. It is want of will rather then want of money that is the reason why there is no more good done in this kind: if men were well disposed and vertu­ously inclined, the rich discoveries that have been made in the West-Indies, of gold and sil­ver mountains rather then mines (such as is that of Potozi) would have helped to have resto­red the world to its golden age, in the same sense the Poets speak of: men would be well furnished for the mutual service and supply of one another, and it is well for the whole where the parts agree, and are helpful to each other. [Page 165] So far as Vertue prevails it conquers Vice (as hath been said) so then hereby it is that a man gets rid of his covetous and prodigal humour both. A good man who is likewise willing to do good, he doth neither hold too fast, nor doth he let go too soon; but as there is occasion, he makes his estate serve him, and not he that. And thus is Vertue advantagious to the world, it makes a man a good steward of those things he is entrusted with, particularly of his knowledge and riches.

The same may be said of Authority and pla­ces of publick trust; of Credit and reputati­on, of time and leisure; the more vertuous a man is, the more Conscience he will make of making a right use of all these things. But it is time I made haste to the Conclusion of this Argument; I have therefore but one thing more to adde.

Sect. 6 6 Vertue is much for the worlds advantage, for it is a firm and solid foundation for true friendship. There is no friendship we can con­fide in any farther, than we can have assu­rance that the reason and cause of that friendship doth remain and abide; therefore when either prosperity or adversity, or meer Neighbourhood of place or interest (as all these do) make men friends; this is an un­certain friendship, because the foundation is uncertain. Where prosperity makes friends, if one be falling into adversity, the other for­sakes him, like Rats and Mice that run away when the House is falling: So did the Ro­mans [Page 166] fall off from Sejanus, when he was neer his ruine: Yea and St. Peter, as holy a man as he was, was for a while tempted to deny his Master, when he came into trouble. Again, two men whom the Prison hath reconciled, preferment hath severed and distanced from one another. Mens Neighbourhoods and In­terests also vary: If there be nothing else but these to glue mens affections together, they will not always hold. If Vertue be not in the case, we are at a loss for a firm Basis to found friend­shipCicer. Lae­lius. on. Hoc sentio nisi in bonis amicitiam esse posse; for why should I make that man my Friend, whom I cannot trust? how can I trust a man, unless I believe him to be an honest and just man? Again a proud man is unfit for a friend: there is a kind of equality among friends (not of state and condition, as the Le­vellers would introduce, but) the humility and condescensions of the Superiour, will meet with his friend, and in the simpathy of their Souls there is a likeness and an oneness. Pride therefore makes men unsociable, so doth Anger and quarrelsomeness, and such like evil dispositions. Still therefore we want that which cements friends together, and we shall not find it till we come to Vertue: that is a thing to be confided in. Not that I would make every man my friend, whom in charity I ought to judge honest as to the main (as we use to say) for there are many such men, who are yet guilty of many unhappy failings and weaknesses. Every one is not fit to keep a se­cret, and it is not safe to unbosome our Souls [Page 167] to them. Some are censorious (a distemper that spreads very far this day in England) and other things there are that make men less apt for these purposes: but then it is to be observed, all this is want of those degrees of Vertue which we ought to aspire to; still therefore so far as men are vertuous they have the right dispo­sition for friends; for hereby men are taught to perform all good Offices for their friend that they are able (as hath been lately said, Vertue sets men on work to do good) and also it doth restrain men from doing those that are not good. There is a kind of obstinate friend­ship, which many times proceeds to a Brother­hood in iniquity: Men are so resolved to hu­mour and gratifie their friend, that they will do evil for their sakes. So was C. Blossius toCicer. Lae­lius. Tiberius Gracchus, he was so much his friend, he said, that he would do any thing for him; and when the question was asked, what if Gracchus should bid you fire the Capitol, would you do it? he answers he would not bid me do such a thing; but if he should, I would do as he bid me. So had Herod passed his wordMath. 14 and his Oath to the Daughter of Herodias, to do for her whatsoever she should ask; and when she required the head of John Baptist, he would not deny it to her. Now here is an excellent use of Vertue, to keep friendship within its right Channel. A Vertuous man will do all the good he can to his friend, but (unless he fail in his Vertue) he will not pro­phane that sacred thing, by entring into a [Page 168] League to maintain friendship, whether by lawful or unlawful means. Now true friend­ship is a noble and gallant thing, an excellent attainment of humane Nature; but that Ce­remonies and Complements have almost either obscured it where it is, or crowded, it into some few corners of the World, that it is scarce any where to be found. Surely civility, and affability, and courtesie, is a fine accom­plishment; yet I am of opinion (and though I be accounted a Clown for so thinking, I am not much sollicitous) that as Sarah turned Ha­gar out of doors for her fcornful Imperious­ness; so if ever friendship get any considerable dominion in the World, smcerity and plain­heartedness must keep somewhat a stricter hand over dissembling Complements. I fear men must grow less Complemental, if they would approve themselves real friends; but I am going out of the way: I could not chuse but salute friendship when it came in my way; I return and make this use of this short digres­sion: If friendship be such an excellent thing, then is this greatly to the commendation of Vertue, that it doth so help to make and keep men friends. Which is the last instance I give (and I cannot conclude with a better) that it is much for the profit and advantage of man­kind, that men should live in the exercise of Moral Vertues. Which was the proof of the fourth Reason I have given in this kind; Ver­tue is necessary (Necessitate Medii) as a means in order to an end. If we would live good [Page 169] lives; if we desire to dye in safety; if we would have our lives and deaths Comfortable to our selves; and if we believe our selves bound to live profitably to the advantage of others; It is necessary for us (all of us Christians as well as other men, and Christians more than other men, because of the commands before-mentio­ned) to abound in Moral Vertues.

CHAP. I.

Sect. 1 THe second and third Book have con­tained the proof of the second gene­ral proposition, as I at first summed up my discourse: There are great, and strong, and unanswerable Arguments, which prove it necessary for a Christian to be a Moral man: A double necessity I have assigned, each of which have been distinctly handled. I am now towards my Conclusion, only I remember I did promise somewhat by way of appendix to adde to this last consideration; That as there is a necessity of Moral Vertue, so likewise is there an excellency in it: and this will require [Page 171] a few words; but I will not multiply many.

Vertue is not only necessary, but it is an ex­cellent, brave, becoming thing, a thing lovely and of good report: It cannot otherwise be, if that be true which is already said; that which is so good and comfortable to our selves, so good and advantagious to others, if we do not admire it, we do greatly undervalue it; we do not well understand it, if we do not believe it to be very excellent. So much hath been said to those heads, that I am loth again to refer to them: Any one may easily appre­hend the force of an Argument, that which hath the qualifications before-mentioned, is very Excellent: wherefore passing that by, I adde two things more: There is a great excel­lency in Moral Vertue, for it is an imitation of God, and a Type of Heaven. Both which must be understood with some caution.

Sect. 2 1 By being vertuous we do imitate and resem­ble God and Christ. It is true, we call God holy and not vertuous, for the holiness of God is not to be described after the same manner that we define Moral Vertue. Our passions are the [...], the matter that our vertue works upon, which passions are not assignable to God: And there are some particular vertues which we can­not attribute to God; as Temperance, which supposes us in a bodily state, and Humility, which at best supposes us in a creature-state (for though it pleases God in Scripture to say he humbles himself, yet that doth no more prove that he is humble in our notion, then his re­penting [Page 172] proves that he doth repent as we do) yet notwithstanding by vertue we resemble God. The holiness of God is the perfection and rectitude of his Nature; so our vertue, though alone it be not our perfection, yet it belongs to our integrity and rectitude: When we are commanded to be holy, in all manner of Conversation, how can we fulfil that Command, if we do not exercise those vertues without which our Conversation cannot be as it ought to be? Now this holiness is a conformity to God, for in the same place it followeth, because it is 1 Pet. 1. written be ye holy, for I am holy. And in many particular cases, that Justice and Righteous­ness in our dealings, and that Truth and faith­fulness in our word and promise, which makes us honest, is an imitation of God, who is Righ­teous Psa. 145. in all his ways, and holy in all his works; and who doth not suffer his faithfulness to fail. Psa. [...]9. When we are kind and charitable, and desirous to do good, then are we the Children of our Father Math. 5. Luke. 6. which is in Heaven, and are merciful as our Father also is merciful: Again, when we are gentle and meek, then we are like that God who is Merci­ful and Gracious and Long-suffering, &c. whenceExod. 34. it doth appear that this Moral Vertue is a true and a considerable part of godliness: that man is a beastly man, who lives like a beast, and he a manly man who lives and acts like a man; accordingly, he who is thus God-like, doth so far deserve the name of a Godly man. The Heathens had the same apprehensions of their Vertues; though they fel short of the attainment, [Page 173] yet so far as their Philosophy made them ver­tuous,Hi [...]rocl. it did [...]. And is not this a great ennoblement of our souls, that we may be raised up to be like God? doth not God infinitely excel all his creatures? wherefore though we come infinitely short of the divine perfections, yet so far as we do at­tain to any resemblance of him, it is our ex­cellency to be like that God, who doth so in­finitely excel. To be transformed into the I­mage of our Creatour, what can be more desi­rable? yea, may we not say, (if we should sup­pose that which yet cannot possibly come to pass) that if it were possible for holiness and happiness to be separated from one another, it were a greater perfection and glory to be like God in holiness then in happiness. The state of happiness in Heaven we call a glorious state, and it is a greater glory then we can now con­ceive: But is not holiness more glorious? if unholiness be worse then unhappiness, then is holiness better then happiness: now so it is; for unhappiness is our misery, but unholiness is our sin, and therefore more to be avoided. Where are now the men that dare sit in the Seat of the Scorners, to despise and laugh at all manner of Goodness and Vertue? is it nothing to be like God? should we chuse to be like the Devil in Malice and Revenge, and ill will, and such like evil dispositions, is it a thing to be gloried in? is there any will glory that he is going to Hell to keep company with the Devils? surely we do not understand our Natures, or we cannot [Page 174] but acknowledge, it is a great excellency to be like God, as we are, in the exercise of these Moral Vertues. To which might be added as a consideration contiguous to this; the life of Christ doth greatly commend Moral Vertue: He was Temperate, and Meek, and Humble, he went about doing good; and many proofs in the Gospel there are, that in all his dealings with all men he behav'd himself as did be­come him; which may help to confirm us in a belief of the excellency of Vertue; it is such an imitation of God, as the life of Christ was very remarkable for. But I adde no more to this first Instance.

Sect. 3 2 To live in the exercise of Moral Vertue is a Type of Heaven: So do the Angels and Saints live in Heaven, though in greater perfection; as being altogether in a sinless state: Not in every particular so, that kind of Justice and Honesty that is of use now in this world, and we call Commutative Justice, is of no use there: There is no need of Buying, or Selling, or Exchanging; for there is no need of Eating, and Drinking, their bodies after the Resurre­ction are made glorious and spiritual bodies: and [...] Cor. 15. therefore for the same reason they will not exercise that Vertue of Temperance as it is here exercised: but the carriage and beha­viour (as there must be some) whereby they behave themselves one towards another in that Glorious Quire, is always as it ought to be: There is Love, and Meekness, and Humility, and such like good Affections; there is no [Page 175] Envy, nor Pride, nor ill Will, nor any such Hellish quality; their Charity is particularly1 Cor. 13. said never to fail. Indeed there is somewhat else in Heaven that doth augment the glory of the place, and their happiness who are ta­ken up thither; they are in close Communion with God, in whose presence is fullness of joy, Psa. 16. and at his right hand are pleasures for evermore. Yet as it is an accessory to their glory to be in company with one another; so is this somewhat not to be despised, that their love is made per­fect, and all the correspondencies of Heaven are sinless and pure: Hell shall be shut up in Hell, all Devilish qualities shall be banished Heaven, and Holiness and Righteousness will be in its Triumphancy in that Church Triumphant. Now if this be the utmost perfection of which our natures are capable, to be translated in­to this state; how must it needs be an excel­lent attainment, to be in any measure like those glorified spirits? There is somewhat in our natures, that doth mind us of an imper­fection, in every state and attainment in this world; for it is natural for us to desire a change: There are the strivings of the Infant in the womb, which discover the inclinations of its nature to be born into the world, and to be at liberty: Boys would fain be Men, and Men notwithstanding that they despise Old Age in others, yet would live to be old themselves: an Apprentice would be out of his time, to set up for himself; and a Ser­vant hath a great desire to become a Master. [Page 176] There is scarce any thing in the Universe, but would be graduate, and commence some higher degrees of perfection, then it hath yet at­tained. All this would not be, if there were not a belief, an imagination at least, that there is some greater excellency in those states, to which we are not yet arrived, then for the present we do enjoy: wherefore if ever we desire after Heaven, while we are upon Earth, (as we ought always to do) this sup­poses we believe it to be a place of more glorious excellencies, then any we have yet seen or tasted now in this world; and if it be so, then we must go on to argue, that (in regard it is not so much the place, as the the state that makes the happiness) the nearer we come in the disposition of our minds, and the tenour of our lives, to that Heavenly state, our lives are so much the more excellent. And this being true of a Vertuous and good life, that it is some resemblance to, and some weaker degrees of the life of Heaven; it adds to the Argument, that as there is a great ne­cessity of, so there is a superlative excellency in Moral Vertue.

CHAP. II.

Sect. 1 ANd now I think these premises are strong enough to bear and inforce the Conclu­sions I would draw from them, which are only these two. I infer,1 1. A just Apo­logy [Page 177] for those who preach up Morality. 2 2. An Expostulatory Plea against those who do not practise it.

1 Here is Apology enough for those Preachers of the Gospel, who Preach the Moral Law in Gospel times; who would put Christians in mind that they are men still, and must not for­get the duties of man to man: It is a Doctrine that we have this only reason to be asham'd of, that we who Preach it to others, do so little practise it our selves; else if we suffer in our good names for this kind of Preaching, we suffer for righteousness sake, and we may1 Pet. 3. well glory in our sufferings. Where a People have conceived a prejudice against their Mi­nister, there is scarce any kind of Preaching, but they will cavil at: If we endeavour to give them satisfaction concerning the order and discipline of the Church, and tell them what reason they have to be peaceable and modest, and not to make divisions; then we are the men who are all for conformity and the service of the outward man; and if we can but bring our people to conform, we do not care what lives they live. This we would not be thought to do, to neglect to give our people good instructions for their lives; and therefore we insist upon Moral Vertues sometimes, and would perswade men to be just, and honest, and charitable, &c. but then we are in danger of being coun­ted Popish: these men sure hope to be saved by their good works, they extol them so much, and preach them up so often: No not so neither▪ [Page 178] we do not trust in our selves, nor put any con­fidence in the flesh, but in the merit of our Saviour; therefore we lay the foundation of Heb. 6. Repentance from dead works, and Faith to­wards God; and we insist upon the great pri­viledges of believers, that they are redeemed from the curse of the Law, and the wrath of God; and though they be guilty of many failings, yet is there no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now haply it willRom. 8. be suspected we are Antinomians or Solifidians, we attribute so much to faith, that it may be our hearers may the less regard good works. When we explain the Articles of our Creed, and so have occasion to mention some of the more ab­struse Doctrines of Christian Religion; it will be said these are dark mysterious things, and we do not know how to understand them; we have more need of milk then of this strong meat: If therefore we condescend to the meanest capa­cities of our Auditors, and preach plain mat­ters of practice, in a plain and familiar way then shall we be censured for dull and plain; souls, that have no Scholarship at all in us: And I would there were no Scholars this day in England, that do exalt knowledge above goodness; and that chuse rather to have their fancies tickled, then their affections warmed. I fear it is an objection, that many of the Learneder sort will make against Preaching Morality, (especially when we Countrey-Preachers preach it in our plain way, suitable to those that hear us) these are things that eve­ry [Page 179] body knows well enough; and why should we trouble our selves so often to speak of these things? If now among all these Cavils, there be any, who (upon any reason whatsoever) do under-value this kind of Preaching; my an­swer to them who are thus quarrelsome, might be this; Have we not power to make choice of what Texts and Subjects we apprehend useful to those to whom we Preach? and why should we be abridg'd of this our Liberty? But I say moreover;

Sect. 2 They who are thus angry with us, so [...] dwelling so long on these things, either they themselves practise the Vertues we Preach or they do not: If they do, it is to be hoped they understand what they do, and why; they believe a necessity of these things, and then either they must believe all the rest of their neighbours to be as Vertuous as themselves, or else why do they not give us leave to tell other men of their faults? And if vices be faults and sins, why should it be thought or fault, to do now as in the times of old; Cry aloud, and Isa. 58. not spare to shew men their transgressions and their sins? But it may be these men themselves are in the same condemnation with other men; it may be they are Immoral themselves, not­withstanding all their pretences to Faith, and the priviledges of Believers: And if so, then it is no wonder if the Horse kick when he is pinch'd in a sore place; M [...]n are troubled be­cause we speak home to their Consciences, and tell them of their faults; but then we are so [Page 180] much the more justifyed in what we do. There is need enough we should Preach up Vertue, and we must do so, till men do more live it up: and when we can see the time that our peo­ple will leave off their dishonesty and unrigh­teous dealings, they will lye, and cheat, and be drunk no more, &c. we will encourage and commend them for doing their duty; and will proceed to tell them of their blessed estate, that they who know these things, are to be pro­nounc'dJoh. 13. happy, because they do them. In the mean time, I think that mans boldness was not the confidence of a Fool, of whom I have heard, that being abroad upon a visit, and de­sired to give his Friend a Sermon, he Preached against Swearing; and having occasion to stay there longer, the second and the third time he Preached over the same Sermon; when being asked if he had not forgot himself, in Preach­ing the same Sermon thrice together, he says no; I Preached it once, and I observed little good came of it, you went on to swear; there­fore I repeated it again, and yet you did not mend; and now after the third time, it may be you will not leave it: therefore I Preach over the same Sermon, because you practise over the same sins. Is there not need we should re-inforce and renew our Sermons and Exhor­tations in this kind; for when we have done all, we prevail little, still the world continues wicked and immoral? And this is no unjust Apology for our selves, who Preach such Do­ctrines as these are. But we are yet more then [Page 181] barely excusable; I suppose we are to be encou­raged in these undertakings, if that be true which hath been already said: If Moral Vertue be so necessary and excellent, (and if it be not, eedò rationem, they who are of the opinion, but that they cannot, would do well to undeceive the world, that mens Consciences may not be over-awed by Bug-bears, and Spectres, and Fancies; as Niema Pompilius made use of the Goddess Aegeria among the Romans) then whyLivy. are we not praise-worthy who do tell men so? And this is my first Conclusion in Apology for ourselves who Preach Morality.

CHAP. III.

Sect. 1 2 THat which now only remains, is to expo­stulate with those who neglect the exercise of these Vertues. I would not be so proud of my self, nor so insensible of the head-strong­ness of my own passions, and the other errours and failures of my life, as to excuse my self, while I am reproving others: Nor am I so se­vere to others, as not to acknowledge there are compassionable infirmities of humane na­ture. Wherefore having made this acknowledg­ment, I hope my Reader will have somuch cha­rity for me as to believe, I will charge my self where I find any thing amiss; and therefore will not upbraid me with Physitian heal thy self.

Sect. 2 In which confidence I proceed to con­clude in a few words; happy then is he that [Page 182] condemneth not himself in that thing which Rom. 14. he alloweth: We all allow Vertue to be excellent and praise-worthy; happy is that man, and happy is that party of men, whose judgement doth not condemne its practice. When then shall our zeal be more hearty then heady? When shall the earnestness of our spi­rits, which provokes us to contend in matters of opinion, be spent this way, some of it, to pro­voke H [...]b. 10. one another to good works? It was an office of great repute among the Romans to be Cen­sor morum; by which it appears what an ex­cellent opinion they had of Vertue, and what care they took to correct vice, because this was one of the most honourable offices in the Common-wealth. But now adayes how is every body almost got into this Office! Oh when shall our censurings of others be turned to a self-judging, and that end in a self-amend­ing? when shall we strive who shall live the best lives?

Sect. 3 Thus far we are all agreed, and not we only but the whole World, so far as it is under any form of government, and manner of Civility; for there is no Nation under Heaven, but so far as it is governed by Lawes, the intent of those Laws is to encourage Vertue, and to restrain wickedness and sin. The Jew, the Mahometan, and the Infidel, though they do all oppose the Christian Religion, yet herein they do agree both with that, and with one another; they ac­knowledge a certain decorum to be observed in our actions, and they applaud Vertue so far as they understand [...]t.

Among the many Traditions that the Jew­ish Writers abound with, those which they call the seven precepts of Noah, are not the least considerable (of which see Ainsw. upon Genes. 9. 4. and Weemse's Exercitat. Divine, pag. 41) now they being some of them re­straints upon Immorality▪ are some evidence in the case: but besides, the Jew acknowledges the Old Testament for the word of God; at least the Five Books of Moses, are owned by all of them, and there being commands (as hath been before said) for a Moral conversation, it cannot be that they should deny the necessity of Vertue.

The Turks are a rude and unmannerly peo­ple, yet have they likewise a kind of Religion and Gospel among them; and of those 8 HeadsHeylin Ge­ogr. Arab. to which their Alcoran is reduced by a learned man: these are 4, Giving to the Poor; Obedi­ence to Parents; Against killing; and last of all, Do to others as thou wouldst be done unto thy self. (Upon which last let it be observed, that as it is a grand Maxime of the Gospel, so hath it found universal entertainment all the world over, in so much that Alexander Severus, though a Hea­then Emperour, and one who is said to havePrideaux. been at first harsh to the Christians; yet he thought this a fit Motto, onely turning the Affir­mativeJoh. Lae­tus. into a Negative; Quod tihi non vis, al­teri ne feceris, Do not to another what you would not▪ have him do to you) Yea concerning the Turks it is worthy to be added, that one who was an Eye-witness and a diligent observer ofBusbeq. Epist. 1. [Page 184] their State-policies, gives this Character of them; In eâ Gente, Dignitates, Honores, Ma­gistratus, Virtutum & Meritorum praemia sunt; Improbitas, Ignavia, Inertia, nullo honore pensan­tur. I am sorry he had occasion to adde, and more sorry if it should still be true in Christ­endome;Ibid. Apud nos aliis vivitur moribus, vir­tuti nihil est relictum loci, omnia natalibus de­feruntur.

Sect. 4 Yea the very Pagans and Infidels are not without an apprehension of the excellency and becomingness of Vertue; the Philosophers of old have been produced before, and it might be enough to say of them in the general what Grotius doth; Inter Paganos non defuerunt qui De verit. Christia­nae Relig. L. 4. adifi­nem. dixerint singula, quae nostra Religio habet uni­versa. Those precepts of Vertue that are gathered together in the Gospel, are scattered up and down the several writings of the Pagans. But I find in a late Authour, one passage very conside­rable to this purpose. In the great Empire of China (though it be far removed from those parts of the World where Christian Religion principally obtains) the Chinois have such ho­nourable thoughts of Moral Vertue, that it hath been a stated Custome among them, (if the late invasions of the Tartars have not in­terrupted it) that at every New and Full Moon, throughout that vast Kingdome, there have been some publick Officers appointed in every Town, to proclaim a little before the Sun-ri­sing, these six Rules of life.

• 1. Parentibus omnes obediunto.
• [Page 185]2. Superioribus Honorem & Observantiam de­ferunto.
  Theophil. Spizelim De Re li­terariâ si­nensium. Sect. 12.
• 3. Inter proximos & vicinos concordiam & pacem concilianto.
• 4. Liberos & nepotes literis & honestis disci­plinis instruunto.
• 5. Partes & officia sua quilibet debitè exe­quatur.
• 6. Nemini ulla injuria irrogetur, sive corporis laesione, sive Adulterio; sive Furto.

That is, 1. Let all obey their Parents. 2. Let them reverence and honour their Superiours. 3. Let Neighbours make and keep peace with one another. 4. Let Parents bring up their Chil­dren in good Learning, and honest Trades or Cal­lings. 5. Let every one look to the due discharge of his office and place. 6. Let none hurt ano­ther, neither by any corporal Violence, nor Adul­tery, nor Theft. How like is Vertue to the Sun in the Heaven, or to the Heaven it self, upon this as well as other accounts! There is no speech Psal. 19. nor language, where the voice of Vertue is not heard. Sect. 5 But to come neerer home; within the Christian World, there is the Papist and the Protestant; within the Reformed Churches, there are names and notes of difference more than I am willing to reckon up; among all these are feuds, and quarrels, and contentions; yet these all (though they are not of one heart and mind) yet thus far they are of one Language, Gen. 11. or one Lip; take them together, or take them apart (excepting a few Strange-spirited Antino­mians) and they profess to believe the necessity [Page 186] and excellency of Moral Vertue. Thus far we have all attained to believe and know, that it is necessary for us to live upright, and ho­nest, and vertuous lives. Here we are all of one judgment (though haply as to particular cases and circumstances of life, there remain doubts and difficulties, as to what is fit to be done, and what not, which is Vertue, and which Vice.) Wherefore we are all concerned in the exhortation of the Apostle, if we apply it to the matter in hand. There will be diffe­rences in opinion and judgment, perhaps as long as the world stands; Nevertheless whereto Philip. 3. we have already attained, let us walk by the same Rule, let us mind the same thing: Even this same thing among others, that I have all this while been recommending; viz. Moral Vertue. The Rule whereby we ought to walk in the exercise of it, is the dictates of our own Con­science, when it is rightly informed by the word of God. And as many as walk according Galat. 6. to this Rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the whole Israel of God, and upon all those who let their light so shine before men, that they Math. 5. may see their good works, and glorifie their Fa­ther which is in Heaven.