preffing hard with feveral Motives of Reason and Religion, endeavouring to rescue them. from the Captivity of the Law of Sin, and ta bring them into Obedience to the Law of God. This is the Character of a Man, convinc'd in his Judgment, but not yet reform'd in his Life; fatisfied of the Reasonableness, and Juftice, and Goodness of the Rules of Duty, but by the Violence of worldly Temptations and prevailing Lufts, kept off from the Practice of them. Which is a State that the Apostle does very livelily describe, Rom.vii. We know that the Law is Spiritual, but I am Carnal, fold under Sin. For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do: If then I do that which I would not, I confent unto the Law, that it is Good.- To Will is prefent with me, but how to Perform that which is Good, I find not: For the Good that I would, I do not; but the Evil which I would not, that I do...... For I delight in the Law of God, after the Inward Man; but I fee another Law in my Members, warring against the Law of my Mind, and bringing me into Captivity to the Law of Sin, which is in my Members. Thus does every Man in his natural unregenerate State, carry Fire and Water within him: He is divided betwixt two Different Parties, (kept up in his own Breaft,) the Spirit Gal. v. 17, warring against the Flesh, and the Flesh against the Spirit; and thefe being contrary B 3 one one to the other distract the Man, that he cannot Do the things that he would,and make him go one way in his Judgment, and another in his Practice. He would ferve both God and Mammon; he would divide himself, as the Samaritans did, who (we are told,) feared the Lord, and yet ferved their own Gods. He would accommodate Matters, and adjust all to his own Convenience: he would fow to the Flefb, and yet have his Fruit unto Holiness. In a word,he would fain Live the Life of the Wicked, and yet Dye the Death of the Righteous. Therefore for the Profecution of this Subject I fhall confider, I. That Men have Naturally proper Notions and juft Sentiments of Good and Evil; and whether or no they will Practife Honefty, Virtue, and Piety, yet they cannot but have a good Opinion of them. II. We will confider, what the Motives and Reafons are, that can make Men Practise contrary to their Judgments. And III. That tho' the Wicked will not Live, as the righteous Man does, yet they would be glad to Dye with him, and have their Laft End like His. I. First, That Men have Naturally proper Notions Notions and just Sentiments, of Good and 27. Solomon tells us, that the Understanding, the Prov. xx. Spirit of a Man, is the Candle of the Lord; an Everlasting Lamp, (lighted by the Divine Spirit,) which may be eclips'd or obfcur'd, dimm'd or darkned, by us; but can never be clean put out. Whatever Impreffion is of God, is Indelible: It may be Defaced by us, bur cannot be Deftroy'd: Natural Principles may be corrupted, but can never be extinguished; they may be trampled down, but cannot be rooted up. God has written a Law in our Hearts, whereby he has shewed us Men what Micah vi, is Good, and what is Evil; and what be re-8. quires of us, fo plainly, that we have no Doubt of them: We have no Doubt within ourselves, whether God is good; nor whether he is to be obey'd and worshipped: nor do we dif pure or deliberate with ourselves, whether we ought to deal fairly and juftly with our Neigh bour, or ought to cheat and defraud him. Nature itself, that is, the natural Senfe and Reafon of our own Minds, has determined thefe things for us. God has engraven on our very Souls the Senfe of Duty,and Natural Notions of Good and Evil, which we can no more alter, than we can alter the Nature of the things Themselves, which no Power upon B. 4 Earth Earth can do *. We find therefore that the common Natural Standardof Good and Evil is every where the Same,in Countries moft widely distant from each other. In Laws, and Customs, and Fashions, and every thing that is of Man's devifing, there is a vast Difference and Variety abroad in the World; but Moral Goodness, and the general Rules of Justice and Honefty are much the fame all the World over; and the fame they were thousands of Years ago. Confcience is the Inward Senfe of the Mind; and fo long as it is kept pure and uncorrupt, it does as truly diftinguish betwixt Good and Evil, as our bodily Senfes do betwixt Pleafure and Pain. By this inward Light, these Divine Impreffions on the Minds of Men, Rom. ii. Men become a Law unto themselves, their 14, 15. * Tho' Bellarmine compliments the Pope with fuch a kind of Power, by a strange piece of Cafuiftical Divinity in his fourth Book, De Pont. Romano. C. 5. where he tells us, that "indeed the Catholick Faith teacheth, that all Virtue is Good, "and all Vice Evil; but (fays he) if the Pope, fhould mistake, "in commanding Vices, and forbidding Virtues, the Church would then be bound to believe, that Vices are good, and Vir"tues evil; unless she would fin against Conscience. They are his very words literally tranflated, Fides Catholica docet omnem Virtutem effe bonam, omne Vitium effe malum: Si autem Papa erraret pracipiendo Vitia, vel prohibendo Virtutes, teneretur Ecclefia credere Vitia effe bona, & Virtutes malas, nifi vellet Contra Confcientiam peccare. And thus it will be, when Men choose their Conclufions before their Principles; the omnipotent Power of the Pope was his main Aim, the Point that he labour'd to make good and confirm, and then all Principles, even Natural Principles, must be facrificed to it. Confcience Confcience bearing them Witness, and their Thoughts accufing, or else excufing them: Their own Confcience tells them what they ought to Do, and what they ought to Avoid: And when they have done what they ought, they are fatisfied within themselves; but when they have done what they ought not to have done, they know they have done amifs, and finned against their own Souls, they them felves being Judges. They are Conscious to themselves, and unealy in their own Minds; and cannot but judge and condemn themfelves, for their bafe and dishonest Actions. God is the Author of Rule and Order, not the Author of Confufion: And as in the Beginning, the first Thing he did was, to divide the Light from the Darkness in the Natural Part of the Creation; fo has he alfo in the Moral World divided betwixt Light and Darkness. Yet have there been Sons of Confufion, that have endeavoured to remove the Boundaries, and confound the effential Natures of Good and Evil; that would make Virtue and Vice, Light and Darkness, to be both alike. But after all their Endeavours, they have been so far from convincing the Reafon of Mankind, that they have never yet been able throughly to convince themfelves; their own Confcience often rifes up against them, and will be ready to check at any villanous Enterprize; and it can scarce ever be throughly conquer'd by them. No Man had |