Imatges de pàgina
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VOL. done, and is by no means an improper thing to I. be the matter of a law. We now proceed

(2.) To fhew that it is not an unreasonable law; or, that it cannot with any colour be pretended, that it was an unfit thing that GOD fhould lay a law upon men, dwelling in flesh as we do, obliging them to love an invisible being. We shall here firft examine what can be pretended from God's invifibility, to make it unfit to oblige men by a law to love him. And then lay down fome confiderations to evince, that it is moft reasonable and fit that men fhould notwithstanding be under this obligation.

ft, LET us examine what may be thought of as a pretence to the contrary, or alledged against the obligation of this law. Perhaps fome may object against it after this manner : "That ad"mitting what hath been proved, that it is no "impoffible thing that GOD fhould be loved "by men who see him not; yet it doth not "therefore follow that it is the fit matter of a "law. Many things are poffible, yet very un"fit to be injoined, especially those things which "are unfuitable to the common inclination of a

people. The wisdom of law-givers teacheth "them to study the temper of their subjects,

and to fuit their laws to them; and it would "be thought very unfit and improper to make "laws, that should cross the common genius of "the people; and to urge the observance of << them. But now the dependence that we have 66 upon fense, cannot but infer a difinclination

" to

VI.

"to the love of fuch things as fight cannot SER M. reach, nor come within the fphere and cog"nizance of our fenfes. To apply this to the

prefent cafe. Every man, by confulting him"felf, may find a difinclination in his own heart "to the exercife of love to GOD. And what!" hereupon may the fenfualift fay, "muft I be "obliged to a perpetual war with my self? to "run counter to all my most natural inclina"tions? to neglect the things which my own

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eyes tell me are lovely; and labour to love an "invifible Being, of whom I have none but "cloudy thoughts, a very faint and fhadowy "idea? Who can imagine that I should be put "into this fenfible world, with fuch fenfes fuit"able thereunto, as I find about me; and that "it must be expected from me that I must even renounce my fenfes, run counter to my

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very eyes, abandon the things which so pre"fently court my love, and tell me fo feelingly "that they are delightful? In short, that I must "retire from fubftantial good which I know, to

feek after what appears to me as a dark sha"dow? and which whether there be any thing "fubftantial in it, I know not?" Thus may the man devoted to sense pretend on fuch grounds, that GOD is not to be loved by fuch as we who dwell in bodies of flesh, and have so much dependence upon the things of fenfe. Well! let us examine this pretence a little, and fee whether there is any thing in it to make the duty of loving GOD unfit to be imposed upon us in this

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I.

VO L. our prefent ftate. And there are feveral things here to be confidered in reference to this matter. As,

[1] If we would have this inclination to fig nify any thing with relation to the fitness or unfitness of a law to be impofed upon us, we ought furely to examine whether that inclination be good or bad, and fo judge. But can there be a worse inclination in any creature than to difaffect the Author and Original of its own being? And by how much the stronger the inclination is to evil, by fo much the greater is the wickedness likely to prove. For do not we think every one more wicked as he is the more wickedly inclined, especially when he indulges his wicked inclinations? Doth not his evil inclination, I say, when indulged, add to, and not detract from his wickedness ? If one be found to have killed another, the great thing inquired into is the inclination indulged, the intention; whether or no it was through malice prepense?" If he did the thing without the defign of ill to the party, without inclination or propenfity to fuch an action, he is looked upon as innocent. An unintended fact is not punishable as a crime. Therefore to alledge inclination in this case, is but to excuse one wickedness by another.

[2.] CONSIDER what would become of this world, if men were to be ruled only by their own inclination, or if that were to be the only rule by which all laws relating to them were to be measured. What a dreadful state would you

be

be in, if it was permitted to any man to rob, SERM.
murder, rifle away your goods and destroy your VI.
lives, only because he is inclined to it? If every
one might take from you what he would, and
do any imaginable mifchief to you or yours,
merely because he hath a mind to it!

AND whereas the difaffection to God is very common, and rooted and confirmed in men by their being difused to converfe with things above the reach of their fenfes (which might tend to invite their hearts and attract their affections) how horrid a thing were it if fuch a vicious custom were to obtain the force of a law! or, if men were to be allowed to do so and fo wickedly, only because they have been wont fo to do! If the oftener the swearer, the drunkard, the fornicator, and the murderer, have indulged their respective vices, the more lawful it should be for them to continue fuch practices! If men, in a word, fhould be fo far a law to themselves, as to be permitted to do whatsoever they have been ufed to do! or, as Seneca fays, if a reasonable creature fhould go like a fheep, not the way he ought, but that which he has been used to; what, I fay, can be more unreasonable and unfit than this?

[3.] IT must be confidered, that though it is the wisdom of a ruler to regard the inclinations of a people in making laws, yet sure there must be a distinction made between things indifferent and things neceffary. But is there any thing of higher and more abfolute neceffity than the love

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VOL. of GOD, though we see him not? Doth not our

I.

experience tell us, that we ftand in need of fomewhat that we do not fee, in order to the continuance of our being? much more in order to our happiness. If you had nothing but what you fee to maintain life, do you think it were poffible for you to live another moment? would appeal to the confiderate reafon of any man, whether he were not to be thought a madman that should fay, I will be alive the next hour?" Man! there is fomewhat invisible and unfeen that is the continual sustainer of thy life; in whom we all live, and move, and have our being. Our own experience must convince us of this, that there is an invisible Being which hath dominion over our lives, otherwife every man could measure his own time. But do not we find men die 'before they are willing, and when they would fain live longer? Why, it is somewhat unfeen that imposes this neceffity upon them, "Here thou must ex

pire!" No man bath power over the spirit to retain it, neither bath be power in the day of death b

AND again, is it at all neceffary to us to be happy? Our own experience tells us that we are not as yet happy and satisfied. And common experience tells all the world, that all the things they can see and fet their eyes upon, can never make them happy in this world. And if we expect to be happy in another, when will our eyes lead was to heaven? when will fenfe, inclination, and following

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