here in a ftate of exercife; therefore we must not be with-held ab extra, nor reftrained from doing worfe as well as better, which would wholly take away all poffibility of merit or demerit: but yet nothwithstanding, God doth what becomes infinite goodness, what is answerable to the relation he ftands in to his creatures; he doth what will confift with the plot and defign of his creation; to which it is diametrically oppofite, fo far to interpofe, as to hinder by force and violence his intelligent and voluntary creatures.

If we apprehend thus concerning God, that he is a lover of fouls, and will do that which becomes infinite goodness, that he will fully answer the relation he ftands in, to bring us to good, to guide and teach us here, and finally advance us to perfection and happinefs; this I may tell you is the first thing in religi on, and upon this all other is built: if this fail, the whole frame of religion will fall to the ground.

2. The second thing that is indifpenfably neceffary, is, to live in love and good-will. For malice and a mind to do mischief, are devilish things. It is the devil's character, 1 Pet. v. 8. who goes about, fedking whom he may devour. This is exemplified, fully verified, and made to appear in the cafe of Job, how diligent fatan was to take an advantage: and when he had leave, how did he pursue his commission to the utmoft extent thereof; and make him as miferable as he could be, life only preferved, in which he was reftrained. But on the other fide, divinum eft fublevare, gratificare, benefacere. It is divine and God-like to relieve, ease, and help men that are in mifery, to gratify and to do good. They that are of this tem

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per,

per, they do resemble God. All good natures take pleasure in doing courtefies; and they take fo much content in doing kindneffes, that they think themselves beholden to the perfons that do receive, and are ready to acknowledge an obligation upon them, if a perfon will receive from them, and be obliged. On the other fide, bad natures will neither oblige any one by courtesy, neither will they be beholden to any. Whereas in the intention of God that made man, the fecond fhould be for the help and benefit of the firft; not another abfolute, not another for himself, but in order to the first. It is not good for a man to be alone; a help meet for him; the fecond had fpecial reference to the firft; therefore two are better than one, because of fupply and readiness to help. Moreover, man is a creature that is furnished with inftruments for this purpofe; as I will inftance in one ; wherefore is speech, but for communication? What use hath a man of speech, which is his great power, wherein he excels the whole creation below him, but for the ufe and benefit of others? A man needs it not for himself; for man might live upon his own notions, enjoy his own conceptions, without it; he hath no use of it for himself, neither doth he need it in refpect of God, because he may perform all devotion to God by motion of his mind. There need not be other than mental devotion, if we were not to worfhip God in a conjunction of worship publickly and for others wherefore fpeech (which is the great inftrument of man, and next to his understanding,) is given to him in order to others. The worship of God is mental as to God, but oral is out of refpect to others, where others join.

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3. The third great thing in religion and matter of confcience, is to do juftly, equally, fairly. Every one looks for it himself, and complains if he finds it not. Why then should we not afford to all other men the ufage we expect from others? They that do not do thus, they do take a course, what in them lies, to turn the world into a wilderness of cruel beafts and favages; whereas man, if he be as he fhould be, and as God made him, is a mild, gentle, loving, calm and converfible creature. If any man be otherwise, he is a monster, he is degenerate; for as God made him, he is a loving creature, delighting in converfation, as ready to give as receive; free to communicate and receive from one another, is the law of our converfe. Whofoever doth not find this true of himfelf, he may conclude he is degenerate, he is a monfter in fpecie; and monsters in nature are not more prodigious, than these are upon a moral account; and it is a vain thing, to put it off, as fome think, to nature, we cannot lay the fault upon our nature, but charge it upon abuse of ourselves, bad custom and naughty practice, this is that which hath made us fuch as we are; not that we were born fo, but have made ourselves fo. Ill difpofitions are acquired by ill use of ourselves, and become fettled by repeated acts and cuftoms; for we all have ourselves as we use ourselves; we may be afhamed to own ourselves to be born in the fpecies of mankind, if we cannot say this of ourselves, omnia in me funt fubjecta rationi, there is nothing in me but what is subject to reason, and what is governed by it; and I allow myself in nothing but what ought to be. I am as God made me, a loving, gentle, calm, quiet be

ing, fit for converfe, fit to give as well as receive, to make due returns and acknowledgments, to live in a fair converfe with my fellow-creatures. If it be not fo, I am a monfter, and I may be afhamed to own myself a man. For furely he is not worthy the denomination of a man, who cannot verify this of himself, that all things in him and belonging to him, are governed by the judgment of mind and understanding; and mind and understanding informed by the reafon of things.

If this were our cafe of being in the world, then every one of us might know what he had to do in the world, and of what he might be fure, and how far he might truft; but through favagenefs and unrighteous dealing, it is quite otherwife; whereas it fhould be one man in God's flead to another, it is de facto, homo homini lupus, one man a wolf to another. Just as the prophet expreffes it, Fer, ix. 4. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother, for every brother will utterly fupplant; they will deceive every one his neighbour. This de facto, though by right it fhould be quite contrary; this is our great deformity, this is iniquity: God intended it to be otherwife, but it is thus in the commonwealth of degenerate mankind, and in the converfation of apoftates; but in the heavenly quire, it is as I report God meant

it.

4. The fourth and last indifpenfable in our religion, is to moderate ourselves in the use of the conveniencies of this ftate, according to the measures of fobriety, chastity and temperance; we must eat and drink, and make ufe of all other conveniencies of

life, that we may live; that is, preferve health and ftrength, but not live, to eat and drink, &c. for the end must always regulate, determine, and limit the mean; and he who doth not obferve this rule, but tranfpofes mean and end (which is the moft monftrous thing in the world) is an apoftate from reason, and offers violence to his own nature, and takes up the very foundation of God's creation. For God made him an intelligent agent, and he is fo far from being a chriftian, that he leaves not himself the being of a man; for how can he be accounted a rational agent, who in the way of fenfuality hath confounded the reafon of his mind, hath fpoiled the principle which conftitutes him a man, has introduced a privation of his proper excellency, and deftroyed the form which doth dare fpeciem, determine to the rational kind; which makes as great a change, and is as great a lofs, as when a living body 'doth become a dead carcafe for the body doth not make the man, but the mind; and he that is alive, and out of the ufe of reafon by his own diforder, is in a worfe condition than if he were dead; for he is alive to his own fhame.

And thus I have declared the great matters of refigion; which are things co-æval, connatural with the very being of a man; which man cannot be releafed from, unless God turns him out of his kind; the great principles of confcience, the things we fhould be zealous for: but the mifchief is, we take off our zeal from thefe unquestionable and indubitable things, and we run out in niceties and particularitics; which is a great mistake and shame to us.