Ser.VII.no Alteration at all in the Nature of our Cafe. Things and Actions are what they are, and the Confequences of them will be what they will be: Why then should we defire to be deceived? As we are reasonable Creatures, and have any Regard to ourselves, we ought to lay these things plainly and honestly before our Mind. And upon this, act as you please, as you think most fit; make that Choice and prefer that Course of Life which you can justify to yourselves, and which fits most easy upon your own Mind. It will immediately appear that Vice cannot be the Happiness, but muft upon the whole be the Mifery, of fuch a Creature as Man; a Moral, an Accountable Agent. Superftitious Observances, Self-Deceit though of a more refined Sort, will not in Reality at all mend Matters with us. And the Result of the whole can be nothing else, but that with Simplicity and Fairness we keep Innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right; for this alone fball bring a Man Peace at the last.

SERMON

SERMON VIII.

Upon Refentment.

MATTH. V. 43, 44.

Te have heard that it hath been faid, Thou fhalt love thy Neighbour, and hate thine Enemy: But I fay unto you, Love your Enemies, blefs them that curfe you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and perfecute you.

S

INCE perfect Goodness in the Deity Serm. is the Principle, from whence the U- VIII. niverse was brought into Being, and by which it is preserved; and fince general Benevolence is the great Law of the whole moral Creation: It is a Question which immediately occurs, Why had Man implanted in him a Principle, which appears the direct contrary to Benevolence? Now this is

the

Serm. the Foot upon which Inquiries of this Kind VIII. fhould be treated: To take Humane Na

ture as it is, and the Circumstances in which it is placed as they are; and then confider the Correfpondence between that Nature and those Circumstances, or what Courfe of Action and Behaviour, refpecting those Circumstances, any particular Affection or Passion leads us to. This I mention to distinguish the Matter now before us from Difquifitions of quite another Kind; namely, Why we are not made more perfect Creatures, or placed in better Circumftances: These being Questions which we have not, that I know of, any thing at all to do with. God Almighty undoubtedly forefaw the Diforders, both natural and moral, which would happen in this State of things. If upon this we fet ourselves to fearch and examine, why he did not prevent them; we fhall, I am afraid, be in Danger of running into fomewhat worse than impertinent Curiosity. But upon this to examine, how far the Nature which he hath given us hath a Respect to thofe Circumstances, fuch as they are; how far it leads us to act a proper Part in them; plainly belongs to us: And fuch Inquiries are in many ways of excellent Ufe. Thus the

thing to be confidered is, not, Why we were Serm. not made of fuch a Nature, and placed in VIII. Such Circumstances, as to have no need of fo harsh and turbulent a Paffion as Refentment; But, taking our Nature and Condition as being what they are, Why or for what End fuch a Paffion was given us: And this chiefly in order to fhew, what are the Abuses of it.

The Perfons who laid down for a Rule, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour and hate thine Enemy, made fhort Work with this Matter. They did not, it feems, perceive any thing to be disapproved in Hatred, more than in Good-will: And, according to their Syftem of Morals, our Enemy was the proper natural Object of one of these Paffions, as our Neighbour was of the other of them. This was all they had to say, and all they thought needful to be faid, upon the Subject. But this cannot be fatisfactory; because Hatred, Malice, and Revenge, are directly contrary to the Religion we profefs, and to the Nature and Reason of the thing itself. And fince no Paffion God hath endued us with can be in itself Evil; and yet fince Men frequently indulge a Paffion in fuch Ways and Degrees, that at length it becomes quite a

nother

Serm. nother thing to what it was originally in our VIII. Nature and thofe Vices of Malice and Revenge In particular take their Occafion from the natural Paffion of Refentment: It will be needful to trace this up to its Original, that we may fee, What it is in itself, as placed in our Nature by its Author; from which it will plainly appear, For what Ends it was placed there. And when we know what the Paffion is in itself, and the Ends of it, we shall cafily fee, What are the Abuses of it, in which Malice and Revenge confift ; and which are so strongly forbidden in the Text, by the direct contrary being commanded.

Resentment is of two Kinds; hafty and fudden, or fettled and deliberate. The former is called Anger, and often Passion; which, though a general Word, is frequently appropriated and confined to the particular Feeling, fudden Anger, as diftinct from deliberate Refentment, Malice and Revenge. In all thefe Words is ufually implied fomewhat vitious; fomewhat unreasonable as to the Occafion of the Paffion, or immoderate as to the Degree or Duration of it. But that the natural Paffion itself is indifferent, St. Paul has afferted in that Precept, Beye an

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