even as the Father *, To fet our Affections on Things above †, To pray without ceafing ||, To refift the Devil*, To contend earnestly for the Faith †, with many more of like kind, are natural and moral Duties, of universal Obligation to as many as know them, and in their very nature immutable, and eternal as any other moral Duties. The fame may be observed of the negative Scripture Precepts, fuch as thefe following: Not to deny Chrift before Men ||, not to blafpheme the Holy Ghost *, not to defile the Temple of God †, not to communicate unworthily Quench not the Spirit ** Love not the World t. These are Precepts of unalterable Obligation, fixed in the very Nature and Reason of Things, according to the Difcoveries Scripture has made of them. They cannot justly be called pofitive Precepts, because unchangeable, and because they naturally and neceffarily flow from the prime fundamental Law of Nature, univerfal Benevolence, and are effential to the common Happiness of the whole Syftem of intelligent Beings. THESE Things confidered, I should chuse to divide our feveral Duties into their proper Claffes, fomewhat differently from the common Divifions. Let them firft be divided into natu ral, and fupernatural; by natural, meaning those 11 Theff. v. 17. 1 discoverable by the bare Light of Nature; and by fupernatural, meaning those that are discover'd by Revelation. Then as to fupernatural Duties, let them again be distinguished into constant and occafional, or if you please, into moral and pofitive; meaning by conftant or moral, fuch fupernatural Duties as are of eternal and immutable Obligation; and by occafional or pofitive, meaning fuch as are temporary, or changeable. And here I would obferve of the fupernatural moral Duties, that tho' many of them are materially, or in the outward Act, the fame with the Duties of natural Religion, yet formally they are not the fame, as being founded in higher Principles, and upon better Promises, and wrought out by the Spirit of God. Faith, Hope, and Charity, for Inftance, are natural Duties, or Virtues: But the correspondent fupernatural Duties or Virtues, bearing the fame Names, are of a much more excellent Kind, and fo are not formally, or precifely, the fame with the other. As to fupernatural pofitive Precepts, or Duties, fome may be called tranfient, and fome permanent. Of the tranfient fort, was the first Law given to Adam, and of like kind were feveral occafional Precepts given by God to Abraham, Ifaac, Jacob, Mofes, Joshua, Saul, David, and to the Prophets. Of the permanent Kind, were the ritual, and fome judicial Precepts given to the Jews, which were to laft as long as the Jewish Polity should laft. Of the like permanent kind are the Precepts concerning the two Chri C 2 ftian ftian Sacraments, which fhall continue as long as the Chriftian Church, or as the World fhall continue. I would further obferve of pofitive Precepts, that though we are used to confider them merely as prefcrib'd, and to refolve them commonly into the mere Will and Pleasure of ́the Legislator, yet they are always founded upon Reasons, known perhaps in Part to us, but perfectly known to God; and so they are ultimately refolvable into infinite Wisdom and Goodness. Having premis'd thefe general Things as preparatory to the main Questions, I now proceed more directly and closely to what I intend. CHA P. III. Of the comparative Value, Excellency, or Obligation of moral and pofitive Precepts, or Duties. DR CLARKE and his Followers, lay it down for a Rule and a Principle, that pofitive Precepts or Duties are never to be compar'd with moral. I fuppofe, they mean as to their Value, or Excellency, or Strictnefs of Obligation. I fee no Ground or Foundation for this general Rule: But it appears to reft only upon a falfe Prefumption, and to refolve at Length into a Want of just Discernment, into an unperceiv'd Confufion of Ideas. I believe, it will at laft laft be found, that the govedor, the fundamental Error in this whole affair, has been the of the Words confounding external with positive, as were tantamount, and the not considering that pofitive Duties have both an inward and an outward Part, both a formal and a matèrial Conftituent, as well as moral Duties have. To make this plainer, let us confider Almfgiving, a moral Duty. There is the outward Act, or material Part, giving to the Poor: Which if done for Oftentation, or Vanity, or without a true Principle of Piety and Charity, is no Virtue, is nothing worth in moral Account. Next, let us confider receiving the holy Communion, a pofitive Duty: There is the Opus Operatum, as the Schools speak, the outward Act, or material Part of the Duty, which if perform'd in Hypocrify, without Faith, Reverence, or Repentance, is nothing worth in moral Account: But if it be perform'd as it fhould be, it is as truly an Act of moral Obedience, and as much an Exercife of Virtue, as Almsgiving, having all the Requifites proper to make it real Virtue. It is not the material outward Part of any Act that makes it Virtue; even the Brutes themselves in bearing Burthens,&c. do many Thing's materially good, tending to the general Good of Mankind: But it is the inward Principle, the chufing what is materially good, in Conformity to a divine Law, this is what in moral Duties conftitutes the Action morally good, and gives it both the Name and Nature of Virtue. In pofitive Duties, though the Matter Matter in itself confider'd is indifferent, yet the Obedience is moral, and Difobedience in fuch Cafes is immoral; because it is an eternal and unchangeable Maxim, that God is to be obeyed in whatsoever he commands. Obedience in this Cafe, is acting for the common Happiness, as the common Happiness is nearly and deeply concern'd in keeping up the Reverence due to divine Authority: And Difobedience, on the other Hand, is acting against the common Happiness, fince nothing can be more destructive to the common Good of the Universe, than the contemning or flighting the Authority of its high Lord and Lawgiver. Seeing therefore that the Morality or Immorality of an Act, in refpect even of moral or natural Duties, lies in the Obedience or Difobedience to a divine Law; and fince there is the like Obedience or Difobedience to a divine Law in Cafes of pofitive Duty, and that the Obedience or Difobedience in either Cafe is equally moral or immoral; it will from hence follow, that the judging of the Value, or the Obligation of the divine Precepts, meerly from their pofitive or moral Nature, is making a false Estimate, and going by a wrong Rule. For pofitive or moral makes no Difference at all, either as to the Weight of the Command, or the Morality of the Action, or the Obligation of the Precept, which must be judged of by other Rules, and meafur'd by other Circumftan ces, as fhall be fhewn in the Sequel. But to be a little more diftinct and particular, I may ་་་་་ draw |