ful things are performed by the natural instinct, and fagacity of beafts; but yet what is faid of one, is true of the n all, "God hath not imparted understanding to them," Job xxxix. 17. This is a jewel which adorns none but rational creatures, men and angels. What the under fanding is. It is a faculty of the reasonable foul, by which a man apprehends, and judgeth all intelligible things. The object of it is every being, fo far as it is true in itself, and apprehenfible by man. It hath a two-fold ufe in the life of man, viz. (1.) To diftinguish truth from error and falfhood. By this candle of the Lord, lighted up in the foul of man, he may dif eern betwixt duty and fin, good and evil: It is the eye of the foul, by which it feeth the way in which we should go, and the dangerous precipices that are on either fide. It is the foul's tafter, and difcerns wholfom food from baneful poison, Job xii. 11. "Doth not the ear (i. e. the understanding by the ear) try "words, as the mouth tasteth meat?" It brings all things as it were, in the lump before it, and then forts them, and orderly ranks them into their proper claffes of lawful and unlawful, neceffary and indifferent, expedient, and inexpedient, that the foul may not be damnified by mistaking one for another. And this judgment of difcretion every man muft be allowed for himself. No man is obliged to fhut the eyes of his own understanding, and follow another man blindfold. (2.) To direct and guide us in our practice. This faculty is by philofophers rightly called to erinev, the leading faculty: becaufe the will follows its practical dictates. It fits at the belm, and guides the courfe of the foul; not impelling, or rigorously enforcing its diftates upon the will; for the will cannot be fo impofed upon; but by giving it a directive light, or pointing, as it were, with its finger, what it ought to chufe, and what to refufe. To this faculty belong two other excellent, and wonderful powers of the foul, viz. 1. Thoughts. 2. Confcience. 1. The power or ability of cogitation: "* Thoughts are properly the actings and agitations of the What a thought is. "mind, or any actual operation of the un"derftanding." They are the mufings of Aavoia, cogitatio eft mentis agitatio Palcor. vel actia mentis... Zanch. the mind, which are acted in the fpeculative part of the under flanding. "It is obfervable that the + Hebrew word T fuach, " which is used for meditation, or thinking fignifies both to "think and to speak in the mind." When the understanding, or mind refolves, and meditates the things that come into it, that very meditation is an inward fpeaking, or hidden word in the heart, Deut. xv. 9. " Beware left there be a thought in thy "wicked heart," as fome render it: In the Hebrew it is 13 "a word in thy heart." So Mat. ix. 3, 4. STOY ET AUTOS," they fpake within themselves," i. e. " they thought in "their hearts." The objects prefented to the mind are the companions with whom our hearts talk and converfe. Thoughts are the figments and creatures of the mind: They are formed within it, in multitudes innumerable. The power of cogitation is in the mind, yea, in the spirit of the mind. "The fancy indeed, whilft the foul is embodied, ordina "rily and for the most part prefents the appearances and like"neffes of things to the mind;" but yet it can form thoughts of things which the fancy can prefent no image of, as when the foul thinks of God, or of itfelt. This power of cogitation goes with the foul, and is rooted in it when it is separated from the body; and by it we fpeak to God, and converse with angels, and other fpirits in the unboded ftate, as will be more fully opened in the procefs of this difcourfe. 2. The conscience belongs alfo to this faculty; for it being the judgment of a man upon himfelf, with refpect, or relation to the judgment of What confcience is. God, it must needs belong to the under * flanding part, or faculty. Thoughts are formed in the fpecus "lative, but confcience belongs to the practical underfianding." It is a very high and awful power; it is falo Deo mi nor, and rides (as Jofeph did) in the fecond chariot; the next and immediate officer under God. He faith of confcience, with R 2 † cum puncto finiftro, locutus eft ore, aut corde: et diaKoopas eft fermocinari intra fe, (i, e.) apud fe in animis fuis. Mat. xxi. 25. ‡ Phantafia menti offert phantafmata. Picol. When we think of God, faith Max. Tyr. Diff. 1.we must think of nothing material, μητε μέγεθος, μητε χρωμα, μητε άλλο τι ύλης πάθος, i.e. Neither magnitude nor colour, nor any other property of matter. * Judicium appello confcientiam, ut ad intellectum eam pertinere oftendam. Ames. respect to every man, as he once faid of Mofes, with refpect to Pharaoh, See I have made thee a god to Pharaoh," Exod. vii. 1. The voice of confcience is the voice of God; for it is his vicegerent and reprefentative. What it binds on earth, is bound in heaven: and what it looseth on earth, is loosed in heaven. It obierves, records, and bears witnefs of all our actions; and acquits and condemns, as in the name of God, for them. Its confolations are most sweet, and its condemnations moft terrible: fo terrible, that fome have chofen death, which is the king of terrors, rather than to endure the fcorching heat of their own confciences. The greatest deference, and obedience is due to its command, and a man had better * endure any rack or torture in the world, than incur the torments of it. It accompanies us as our thadow, wherever we go; and when all others forfake us, (as at death they will) confcience is then with us, and is then never more active and vigorous than at that time. Nor doth it forfake us after death; but where the fout goes, it, goes, and will be its companion in the other world for ever. How glad would the damned be if they might but have left their confciences behind them, when they went hence! But, as Bernard rightly fays, "It is both witness, judge, tor"mentor, and prifon;" it accufeth, judgeth, punitheth, and condemneth. And thus briefly of the understanding, which hath many offices, and as many names from thofe offices. It is fometimes called wit, reafon, understanding, opinion, wif dom, judgment. And why we bestow fo many names upon ove and the fame faculty, the learned author of that fmall, but excellent tract de anima, gives this true and ingenious ac count. The wit, the pupil of the foul's clear eye, And in man's world the only fbining fiar. Looks in the mirror of the fantafy, Where all the gatherings of the fenfes are: And after by difcourfing to and fro, Anticipating and comparing things, *What deaths would I not chufe? What punishment would I not undergo? Yea, into what vault of hell would I not rather chuse to be thrown, than to witness against my confcience? † pfa judicat, ipfa imperat, ipfa obfervat, ipfa torter, ipfa carcer. Bern. lib. de Confc. cap. 9. Nofce teipfum, P. 48, 49. She doth all univerfal natures know, And all effects into their caules brings. When he rates things, and moves from ground to ground, The name of reafon fhe obtains by this: A certain truth, Jhe hath true judgment's fight. And as from fenfes, reason's work doth spring. 6. Endued with a will. VI. God hath endued the foul of man not only with an understanding to dif cern, and direct, but also a will to govern, moderate, and overrule the actions of life. The will is a faculty of the rational foul, What the will is. whereby a man either chufeth, or refufeth the things which the understanding difcerns and knows. This is a very high, and noble power of the foul. The understanding feems to bear the fame relation to the will, as a grave counsellor doth to a great prince. It glories in two excellencies, viz. 1. Liberty. 2. Dominion. 1. It hath a freedom and liberty; it cannot be compelled and forced: Coaction is repugnant to its very nature *. In this it differs from the understanding, that the understanding is wrought upon neceffarily, but the will acts spontaneously. This liberty of the will refpects the choice, or refufal of the means for attaining thofe ends it profecutes, according as it finds them more or lefs conducible thereunto. The liberty of the will mult be understood to be in things natural, which are within its own proper fphere, not in things fupernatural. It can move, or not move the body, as it pleafes, but it cannot move towards Chrift, in the way of faith, as it pleaseth; it can open, or shut the hand, * Elevbepce eğürım auro afayies. i. e. It hath a free liberty of action. Zeno. or eye, at its pleasure, but not the heart. True indeed, it is not compelled, or forced to turn to God, by fupernatural grace, but, in a way fuitable to its nature, it is determined, and drawn to Chrift, Pfal. cx. 3. It is drawn by a mighty power, and yet runs freely; Cant. i. 4. " Draw me, and I will run after thee." Efficacious grace, and victorious delight, is a thing very different from compulfive force. "Pelagius (as a late author "fpeaks) at firft gave all to nature, acknowledged no neceffity "of divine grace; but when this proud doctrine found little countenance, he called nature by the name of grace; and "when that deceit was difcovered, he acknowledged no other 66 grace but outward inftruction, or the benefit of external re"velation, to discourse, and put men in mind of their duty. "Being yet driven farther, he acknowledged the grace of par"don; and before a man could do any thing acceptably, there 66 was a neceffity of the remiffion of fin, and then he might "obey God perfectly. But that not fufficing, he acknowledged "another grace, viz. the example of Chrift, which doth both "fecure our rule and encourage our practice. And last of all, "his followers owned fome kind of internal grace, but they "made that to confift in fome illumination of the understand"ing, or moral perfuafion, by probable arguments, to excite "the will, and this not abfolutely neceffary, but only for fa. "ciliation, as an horse to a journey, which otherwife a man might go a foot. Others grant the fecret influences of God's grace, but make the will of man a co-ordinate caufe with “God, namely, that God doth propound the object, hold forth "inducing confiderations; give fome remote power and affift 66 ance; but still there is an indifferency in the will of man, to accept or refuse, as liketh him beft." Thus have they been forced to quit and change their ground; but ftill the pride of nature will not let men fee the neceffity of divine, efficatious influences upon the will, and the confiftency thereof with natural liberty. (2.) Its dignity in its dominion, as well as in its liberty. The will hath an empire, and scepter belonging to it; yea, a double empire, for it rules. 1. Over the body, imperio defpotico, by way of abfolute command. 2. Over the other powers and paffions of the foul, imperio politico, by way of fuafion, Dr. Manton in Pfal. cxix. v. 36. |
