tage in this of the Rabbles Ignorance, and authorized by their devilish Invention, what was at first but a Mistake: And this unriddles to us that My ftery, why the greatest Wits are most frequently the greatest Atheists.

When I confider, how the Angels, who have no Bodies, finned before Man; and that Brutes, who are all Body, fin not at all, but follow the pure Dictates of Nature; I am induced to believe, that the Body is rather injuftly blamed for being, than that really it is, the Occafion of Sin; and probably the witty Soul hath in this cunningly laid over upon its Fellow, that wherewith it felf is only to be charged. What Influence can Flesh or Blood have upon that which is immaterial? No more sure than the Cafe hath upon the Watch, or the Heavens upon its burgeffing Angels? And fee we not, that when the Soul hath bid the Body adieu, it remains a Carcafs fit nor able for nothing? I believe, that the Body being a Clog to it, may flow its Purfuit after Objects, and that it may occafion indirectly fome Sins of Omiffion: For we fee palpably, that eating and drinking dulls our Devotions; but I can never understand, how fuch dumb Orators, as Flesh and Blood, can perfuade. the Soul to commit the leaft Sin. And thus, albeit our Saviour fays, that flesh and blood did not teach Peter to give him his trueEpithets; neither indeed could it yet our Saviour imputes not any actual Sin to these pithlefs Caufes. And seeing our first Sin hath occafioned all our After-finning, certainly that which occafioned our first Sin was the main Source of finning; and this was doubtless the Soul: For our first Sin being an immoderate Defire of Knowledge, was the Effect and Product of our Spirit, because it was a Spiritual Sin; whereas had it been Gluttony, Luft, or fuch like,. which feems Corporeal, the Body had been more

to have been blamed for it. And in this Conteft, I am of Opinion, that the Soul wins the Caufe, because it is the best Orator.

Of the Fall of Angels, and what their Sin was.

WHAT was the Occafion of the firft Ill is

much debated (and moft defervedly) amongst Moralifts: for that which was good, cou'd not produce that which was evil; feeing that which works Mifchief cannot be called good. Nor can we afcribe the Efficiency of the first Evil to Evil; for then the Queftion recurs, what was the Caufe of that Evil? And by this the Suppofition is likewife deftroyed, whereby the Evil enquired after is fuppofed to be the firft Evil: But if we enquire, what could produce in the Angels that firft Sin, whereby they forfeited their Glory? we will find this Difquifition moft myfterious. And it is commonly believed, but by what Revelation I know not, that their Pride caufed their Fall, and that they catch'd their Bruife in climbing; in defiring to be equal to their Creator, they are become inferior to all their Fellow-Creatures. Yet this feems to me moft ftrange, that these Excellent Spirits, whofe very Subftance was light," and who furpaffed far Man in Capacity and Underftanding, fhould have fo erred, as to imagine, that Equality feafible: A Fancy which the fondeft of Men could not have entertained. And it were improbable to fay, that their Error could have sprouted at firft from their Understanding; and to think it to have been fo grofs, as that fallen Man doth now admire it: But why may we

not

not rather think, that their firft Error was rather a Crookednefs in their Will, than a Blindness in their Judgment; and that they fretted to fee Man, whom they knew to be inferior to themselves by many Stages, made Lord of all that pleasant Creation, which they gazed on with a ftaring Maze. And that this Opinion is more probable, appears, because this Sin was the far more baiting, feeing it appeared with all the Charms wherewith either Pride, Vanity or Avarice, could busk it; and explicates better to us the Occafion of all that Enmity with which that Serpent hath always fince purfued filly Man. But whether God will fave juft as many Believers as there are fallen of the Angels, none can determine; neither can it be rationally deduced from that Scripture, Statuit terminos gentium, juxta numerum Angelorum Dei. But if it pleafe God fo to order it, it will doubtless aggrage their Punishment, by racking their Difdain.

And feeing the Angels have never obtained a The Sin of Remiffion for this Crime, it is probable, that the the Angels Correfpondent of their Sin is in us the Sin against sin against the Holy Ghoft.

was the

the Holy For if their Lapfe had been pardonable, fome Ghoft. one or other of them had in all probability efcaped; but if this was not that unpardonable Sin, Ifcarce fee where it fhall be found. For to fay, that it is a hating of Good, as God, is to make it unpracticable, rather than unpardonable: For all Creatures appete naturally what is Good, and God, as God, is Good; fo that it is impoffible that he can be hated under that Reduplication.

It may be likewife conjectured, that voluntary and deliberate Sacrilege is the Sin againft the Holy Ghoft; becaufe Ananias and Saphira, in witholding from the Church a Part of the Price for which they fold their Lands, are by Peter said

to have lied, not to Man, but to the Holy Ghoft; and his Wife is there faid to have tempted the Spirit: But feeing both of them refolved to continue in the Church (a Refolution inconsistent with the Sin against the Holy Ghost) and seeing many Sins are more heinous, I cannot interpret this lying to the Holy Ghoft to be any thing else, but a Sin against Light, in which moft Penitents have been involved: Albeit I confefs, this was a grofs Escape, feeing it robb'd God of his Omnifciency, and fuppofed that he was not privy to fuch Human Actings, as have not the Sun for a Witnefs. I do then conclude, that the Sin against the Holy Ghoft may rather be a refolute undervaluing of God, and a fcorning to receive a Pardon from him: And this is that which makes the Angels Fall irrecoverable, and, like the flaming Sword, defends them from their Re-entry into that Paradife from which they are exiled. And albeit to fay, that the Angels Rebellion flows from God's denying them Repentance, may fuit abundantly well with his unstainable Juftice; yet it is hard to reconcile it with his Mercy. And this makes my private Judgment place the Unpardonableness of this Sin, not in God's Decree, but in their Obduration and rebellious Impenitency: And the Reason why those who commit this Sin are never pardoned, is, becaufe a Pardon is never fought. That Place of Scripture wherein Efau is faid to have fought the Bleffing with Tears, and not to have found it, aftonishes me: Yet, I believe, that if his Tears had ftreamed from a Senfe of his Guilt, more than of his Punishment, doubtless he had not wept in vain; and in that he tear'd,he was no more to be pitied,far lefs pardoned than a Malefactor, who upon the Scaffold grants fome few Tears to the Importunity of his Tortures, but fcorns to acknowledge the Guilt of his Crime;

for

for Pain, by contracting our Bodies, ftrains out that liquid Matter, which thereafter globes it felf in Tears; there could come no Holy Water from the Pagan Font of Efau's Eyes; and if his Remorfe could have pierc'd his own Heart, it had eafily pierc'd Heaven. Whilft others admire, I blefs God, that he hath clos'd up the Knowledge of that unpardonable Sin under his own Privy Seal: For feeing Satan tempts me to Sin with Hopes of an After-pardon, this Bait is pull'd off his Hook by the Fear I ftand under, that the Sin to which I am tempted, is that Sin which can expect no Pardon. And albeit it be cuftomary amongst Men to beacon and fet a Mark upon fuch Shelves and. Rocks as destroy Paffengers; yet that is only done where Commerce is allowed, and Sailing neceffary: But feeing all Sin is forbidden, God was. not obliged to guard us with the Knowledge of that Sin no farther than by prohibiting us not to fin, but to ftand in Awe.

CHAP. XVI.
Of Man's Fall.

THAT firft Sin whereby our first Parents

forfeited theirPrimitive Excellencies, was fo pitiful a Frailty, that I think we should rather lament, than enquire after it. To think that an Apple had in it the Seeds of all Knowledge, or that it could affimilate him to to his Creator, and could in an Inftant fublimate his Nature, was a Frailty to be admired in one of his Piety and Knowledge. Yet I admire not that the Breach of fo mean a Precept was punish'd with fuch appearing Rigor, because the easier the Command was, the Contempt was proportionally the greater;

G 3

and