of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to vindicate Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence And they are chiefly these three 1. Credulity 2. Singularity 3. Making a Foolish Bargain First Credulity Say they the foundation of Religion is the belief of those things for which we have no sufficient reason and consequently of which we can have no good assurance as the belief of a God and of a future state after this life things which we never saw nor did experience nor ever spoke with any body that did Now it seems to argue too great a forwardness and easiness of belief to assent to any thing upon insufficient grounds To this I answer 1. That if there be such a Being as a God and such a thing as a future state after this life it cannot as I said before in reason be expected that we should have the evidence of sense for such things For he that believes a God believes such a Being as hath all perfections among which this is one that he is a spirit and consequently that he is invisible and cannot be seen He likewise that believes another life after this professeth to believe a state of which in this life we have no trial and experience Besides if this were a good objection that no man ever saw these things it strikes at the Atheist as well as us For no man ever saw the World to be from eternity nor Epicurus his Atoms of which notwithstanding he believes the World was made 2. We have the best evidence for these things which they are capable of at present supposing they were 3. Those who deny these principles must be much more credulous that is believe things upon incomparably less evidence of reason The Atheist looks upon all that are religious as a company of credulous fools But he for his part pretends to be wiser than to believe any thing for company he cannot entertain things upon those slight grounds which move other men if you would win his assent to any thing you must give him a clear demonstration for it Now there 's no way to deal with this man of reason this rigid exactor of strict demonstration for things which are not capable of it but by shewing him that he is an hundred times more credulous that he begs more principles takes more things for granted without offering to prove them and assents to more strange conclusions upon weaker grounds than those whom he so much accuseth of credulity And to evidence this I shall briefly give you an account of the Atheist's Creed and present you with a Catalogue of the fundamental Articles of his Faith He believes that there is no God nor possibly can be and consequently that the wise as well as unwise of all ages have been mistaken except himself and a few more He believes that either all the world have been frighted with an apparition of their own fancy or that they have most unnaturally conspired together to cozen themselves or that this notion of a God is a trick of policy though the greatest Princes and Politicians do not at this day know so much nor have done time out of a mind He believes either that the Heavens and the Earth and all things in them had no Original cause of their being or else that they were made by chance and happened he knows not how to be as they are and that in this last shuffling of matter all things have by great good fortune fallen out as happily and as regularly as if the greatest wisedom had contriv'd them but yet he is resolv'd to believe that there was no wisedom in the contrivance of them He believes that matter of it selâ— is utterly void of all sense understanding and liberty but for all that he is of opinion that the parts of matter may know and then happen to be so conveniently dispos'd as to have all these qualities and most dextrously to performe all those fine and free operations which the ignorant attribute to Spirits This is the sum of his belief And it is a wonder that there should be found any person pretending to reason or wit that can assent to such a heap of absurdities which are so gross and palpable that they may be felt So that if every man had his due it will certainly fall to the Atheist's share to be the most credulous person that is to believe things upon the slightest reasons For he does not pretend to prove any thing of all this only he finds himself he knows not why inclin'd to believe so and to laugh at those that do not II. The second imputation is singularity the affectation whereof is unbecoming a wise man To this charge I answer I. If by Religion be meant the belief of the principles of Religion that there is a God and a providence that our souls are immortal and that there are rewa ds to be expected after this life these are so far from being singular opinions that they are and always have been the general opinion of mankind even of the most barbarous Nations Insomuch that the Histories of ancient times do hardly furnish us with the names of above five or six persons who denied a God And Lucretius acknowledgeth that Epicurus was the first who did oppose those great foundations of Religion the providence of God and the immortality of the soul Primum Grajus homo c. meaning Epicurus 2. If by Religion be meant a living up to those principles that is to act conformably to our best reason and understanding and to live as it does become those who do believe a God and a future state this is acknowledged even by those who live otherwise to be the part of every wise man and the contrary to be the very madness of folly and height of distraction Nothing being more ordinary than for men who live wickedly to acknowledge that they ought to do otherwise 3. Though according to the common course and practice of the world it be somewhat singular for men truly and throughly to live up to the principles of their Religion yet singularity in this matter is so far from being a reflexion upon any man's prudence that it is a singular commendation of it In two cases singularity is very commendable 1. When there is a necessity of it in order to a man's greatest interest and happiness I think it to be a reasonable account for any man to give why he does not live as the greatest part of the World do that he has no mind to die as they do and to perish with them he is not disposed to be a fool and to be miserable for company he has no inclination to have his last end like theirs who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son and shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. It is very commendable to be singular in
an argument that there is a true one than that there is none There would be no counterfeits but for the sake of something that is real For though all pretenders seem to be what they really are not yet they pretend to be something that really is For to counterfeit is to put on the likeness and appearance of some real excellency There would be no Brass-money if there were not good and lawful money Bristol-Stones would not pretend to be Diamonds if there never had been any Diamonds Those Idols in Henry the seventh's time as Sir Francis Bacon calls them Lambert Simnell and Perkin Warbeck had never been set up if there had not once been a real Plantagenet and Duke of York So the Idols of the Heathen though they be set up in affront to the true God yet they rather prove that there is one than the contrary III. Speculative Atheisme is absurd because it requires more evidence for things than they are capable of Aristotle hath long since well observed how unreasonable it is to expect the same kind of proof and evidence for every thing which we have for some things Mathematical things being of an abstracted nature are capable of the clearest and strictest Demonstration But Conclusions in Natural Philosophy are capable of proof by an Induction of experiments things of a moral nature by moral arguments and matters of fact by credible testimony And though none of these be capable of that strict kind of demonstration which Mathematical matters are yet have we an undoubted assurance of them when they are proved by the best arguments that things of that kind will bear No man can demonstrate to me unless we will call every argument that is fit to convince a wise man a demonstration that there is such an Island in America as Jamaica Yet upon the testimony of credible persons who have seen it and Authors who have written of it I am as free from all doubt concerning it as I am from doubting of the clearest Mathematical demonstration So that this is to be entertained as a firm Principle by all those who pretend to be certain of any thing at all That when any thing in any of these kinds is proved by as good Arguments as a thing of that kind is capable of and we have as great assurance that it is as we could possibly have supposing it were we ought not in reason to make any doubt of the existence of that thing Now to apply this to the present case The being of a God is not Mathematically demonstrable nor can it be expected it should because only Mathematical matters admit of this kind of evidence Nor can it be proved immediately by sense because God being supposed to be a pure spirit cannot be the object of any corporeal sense But yet we have as great assurance that there is a God as the nature of the thing to be proved is capable of and as we could in reason expect to have supposing that he were For let us suppose there were such a Being as an Infinite Spirit clothed with all possible perfection that is as good and wise and powerfull c. as can be imagined what conceivable ways are there whereby we should come to be assured that there is such a Being but either by an internal impression of the notion of a God upon our minds or else by such external and visible effects as our Reason tells us must be attributed to some cause and which we cannot without great violence to our understandings attribute to any other cause but such a Being as we conceive God to be that is one that is infinitely good and wise and powerfull Now we have this double assurance that there is a God and greater or other than this the thing is not capable of If God should assume a body and present himself before our eyes this might amaze us but could not give us any rational assurance that there is an Infinite Spirit If he should work a Miracle this could not in reason convince an Atheist more than the arguments he already hath for it If the Atheist then were to ask a sign in the heaven above or in the earth beneath what could he desire God to do for his conviction more than he hath already done Could he desire him to work a greater Miracle than to make a world Why if God should carry this perverse man out of the limits of this world and shew him a new heaven and a new earth springing out of nothing he might say that innumerable parts of matter chanc'd just then to rally together and to form themselves into this new world and that God did not make it Thus you see that we have all the rational assurance of a God that the thing is capable of and that atheism is absurd and unreasonable in requiring more IV. The Atheist is unreasonable because he pretends to know that which no man can know and to be certain of that which no body can be certain of that is that there is no God and which is consequent upon this as I shall shew afterwards that it is not possible there should be one And the Atheist must pretend to know this certainly For it were the greatest folly in the world for a man to deny and despise God if he be not certain that He is not Now whoever pretends to be certain that there is no God hath this great disadvantage he pretends to be certain of a pure Negative But of negatives we have far the least certainty and they are usually hardest and many times impossible to be proved Indeed such negatives as onely deny some particular mode or manner of a things existence a man may have a certainty of them because when we see things to be we may see what they are and in what manner they do or do not exist For instance we may be certain that man is not a creature that hath wings because this only concerns the manner of his existence and we seeing what he Is may certainly know that he is not so or so But pure negatives that is such as absolutely deny the existence of things or the possibility of their existence can never be proved For after all that can be said against a thing this will still be true that many things possibly are which we know not of and that many more things may be than are and if so after all our arguments against a thing it will be uncertain whether it be or not And this is universally true unless the thing denied to be do plainly imply a contradiction from which I have already shewn the notion of a God to be free Now the Atheist pretends to be certain of a pure negative that there is no such being as God and that it is not possible there should be But no man can reasonably pretend to know thus much but he must pretend to know all things that are or can be which if any man should
the knowledge of our Creator and of the duty we owe to him the wisdom of pleasing God by doing what he commands and avoiding what he forbids This Knowledge and Wisdom may be attained by man and is sufficient to make him happy And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding These words consist of two Propositions which are not distinct in sense but one and the same thing variously express'd For wisedom and understanding are synonymous words here and though sometimes they have different notions yet in the Poetical Books of Scripture they are most frequently used as words equivalent and do both of them indifferently signifie either a speculative knowledge of things or a practical skill about them according to the exigency of the matter or thing spoken of And so likewise the fear of the Lord and departure from evil are phrases of a very near sense and like importance and therefore we find them several times put together in Scripture Pro. 3.7 Pr. 16.6 Fear the Lord and depart from evil By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil So that they differ onely as cause and effect which by a Metonymie usual in all sorts of Authors are frequently put one for another Now to fear the Lord and to depart from evil are phrases which the Scripture useth in a very great latitude to express to us the sum of Religion and the whole of our duty And because the large usage of these phrases is to be the foundation of my following discourse I shall for the farther clearing of this matter endeavour to shew these two things 1. That 't is very usual in the Language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by these and such like phrases 2. The particular fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion I. It is very usual in the Language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by some eminent principle or part of Religion The great Principles of Religion are knowledge faith remembrance love and fear by all which the Scripture useth to express the whole duty of man In the Old Testament by the knowledge remembrance and fear of God Religion is called The knowledge of the holy Prov. 30.3 Jer. 10.25 And wicked men are described to be such as know not God So likewise by the fear of the Lord frequently in this Book of Job and in the Psalms and Proverbs And Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another And the fear of God is expresly said to be the sum of Religion Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of man And on the contrary the wicked are described to be such as have not the fear of God before their eyes Ps 36.1 And so likewise by the remembrance of God Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth Eccl. 12.1 that is enter upon a religious course betimes And on the contrary the character of the wicked is that they forget God The wicked shall be turned into Hell Ps 9.17 and all the Nations that forget God In the New Testament Religion is usually expressed by faith in God and Christ and the love of them Hence it is that true Christians are so frequently called believers and wicked and ungodly men unbelievers And that good men are described to be such as love God all things shall work together for good to them that love God Ro. 8.28 Eph. 6.24 and such as love the Lord Iesus Christ Now the reason why these are put for the whole of Religion is because the belief and knowledge and remembrance and love and fear of God are such powerfull principles and have so great an influence upon men to make them Religious that where any one of these really is all the rest together with the true and genuine effects of them are supposed to be And so likewise the sum of all Religion is often expressed by some eminent part of it which will explain the second phrase here in the Text departing from evil The worship of God is an eminent part of Religion and Prayer which is often in Scripture expressed by seeking God and calling upon his Name is a chief part of Religious worship Hence Religion is described by seeking God Heb. 11.6 He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and by calling upon his name Acts 2.21 Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved And so by coming to God and by departing from evil In this fallen state of man Religion begins with repentance and conversion the two opposite terms of which are God and Sin Hence it is that Religion is described sometimes by coming to God Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that he is that is no man can be religious unless he believe there is a God Is 59.15 sometimes by departing from sin And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey that is such was the bad state of those times of which the Prophet there complains that no man could be religious but he was in danger of being persecuted II. For the fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion 1. For the first the fear of the Lord The fitness of this phrase will appear if we consider how great an influence the fear of God hath upon men to make them religious Fear is a passion that is most deeply rooted in our natures and flows immediately from that Principle of self-preservation which God hath planted in every man Every one desires his own preservation and happiness and therefore hath a natural dread and horrour of every thing that can destroy his Being or endanger his happiness And the greatest danger is from the greatest power and that is omnipotency So that the fear of God is an inward acknowledgment of a holy and just Being which is armed with an almighty and irresistible power God having hid in every Man's Conscience a secret awe and dread of his infinite power and eternal justice Now fear being so intimate to our natures it is the strongest bond of Laws and the great security of our duty There are two bridles or restraints which God hath put upon humane nature shame and fear Shame is the weaker and hath place onely in those in whom there are some remainders of vertue Fear is the stronger and works upon all who love themselves and desire their own preservation Therefore in this degenerate state of mankind fear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us and by which God and his Laws take the surest hold of us Our desire and love and hope are not so apt to be wrought upon by the representation of vertue and the promises of reward and happiness as our fear is from the apprehensions of Divine displeasure For though we have lost in a great measure the gust and relish of true happiness yet we
apprehension of a God doth spring from an infinite jealousie in the mind of man and an endless fear of the worst that may happen according to that divine saying of the Poet which he can never sufficiently admire Primum in orle Deos fecit timor Fear first made Gods So that it is granted on both sides that the fear of a Deity doth universally possess the minds of men Now the question is whether it be more likely that the existence of a God should be the cause of this fear or that this fear should be the cause why men imagine there is a God if there be a God who hath impressed this image of himself upon the mind of Man there 's great reason why all men should stand in awe of him But if there be no God it is not easie to conceive how fear should create an universal confidence and assurance in men that there is one For whence should this fear come It must be either from without from the suggestion of others who first tell us there is such a being and then our fear believes it or else it must arise from within from the nature of man which is apt to fansie dreadfull and terrible things If from the suggestion of others who tell us so the question returns who told them so and will never be satisfied till the first Author of this report be found out So that this account of fear resolves it self into tradition which shall spoken to in its proper place But if it be said that this fear ariseth from within from the nature of man which is apt to imagine dreadfull things this likewise is liable to inexplicable difficulties For First The proper object of fear is something that is dreadfull that is something that threatens men with harm or danger and that in God must either be power or justice and such an object as this fear indeed may create But Goodness and Mercy are essential to the notion of a God as well as power and justice now how should fear put men upon fansying a being that is infinitely good and merciful No man hath reason to be afraid of such a being as such So that the Atheist must joyn another cause to fear viz. hope to enable men to create this imagination of a God And what would the product of these two contrary passions be the imagination of a being which we should fear would do us as much harm as we could hope it would do us good which would be quid pro quo and which our reason would oblige us to lay aside so soon as we have fansied it because it would signifie just nothing But Secondly suppose fear alone could do it how comes the mind of man to be subject to such groundless and unreasonable fears The Aristotelian Atheist will say it always was so But this is to affirm and not to give any account of a thing The Epicurean Atheist if he will speak consonantly to himself must say that there happened in the original constitution of the first men such a contexture of Atomes as doth naturally dispose men to these panick fears unless he will say that the first men when they grew out of the earth and afterwards broke loose from their root finding themselves weak and naked and unarmed and meeting with several fierce Creatures stronger than themselves they were put into such a fright as did a little distemper their understandings and let loose their imaginations to endless suspicions and unbounded jealousies which did at last settle in the conceit of an invisible being infinitely powerful and able to do them harm and being fully possest with this apprehension nothing being more ordinary than for crazed persons to believe their own fancies they became religious and afterwards when mankind began to be propagated in the way of generation then Religion obliged them to instill these Principles into their Children in their tender years that so they might make the greater impression upon them and this course having been continued ever since the notion of a God hath been kept up in the world This is very suitable to Epicurus his Hypothesis of the original of men But if any man think fit to say thus I cannot think it fit to confute him Thirdly whether men were from all eternity such timorous and fancifull Creatures or hapned to be made so in the first constitution of things it seems however that this fear of a Deity hath a foundation in nature And if it be natural ought we not rather to conclude that there is some ground and reason for these fears and that nature hath not planted them in us to no purpose than that they are vain and groundless There is no principle that Aristotle the great assertor of the eternity of the world doth more frequently inculcate than this That nature doeth nothing in vain and the Atheist himself is forc'd to acknowledge and so every man must who attentively considers the frame of the world That although things were made by chance yet they have happen'd as well as if the greatest wisedom had the ordering and contriving of them And surely wisedom would never have planted such a vain principle as the fear of a Deity in the nature of man if there had not been a God in the world Secondly If fear be not a sufficient account of this universal consent the Atheist thinks it may very probably be resolved into universal Tradition But this likewise is liable to great exception For whence came this Tradition It must begin some time it must have its original from some body and it were very well worth our knowing who that man was that first raised this spirit which all the reason of mankind could never conjure down since Where did he live and when In what Countrey and in what Age of the world What was his name or his sons name that we may know him This the Atheist can give no punctual account of only he imagines it not improbable that some body long ago no body knows when beyond the memory of all Ages did start such a notion in the world and that it hath past for current ever since But if this Tradition be granted so very ancient as to have been before all Books and to be elder than any History it may for any thing any body can tell have been from the beginning and then it is much more likely to be a notion which was bred in the mind of man and born with him than a Tradition transmitted from hand to hand through all Generations especially if we consider how many rude and barbarous Nations there are in the world which consent in the opinion of a God and yet have scarce any certain Tradition of any thing that was done among them but two or three Ages before Thirdly But if neither of these be satisfactory he hath one way more which although it signifie little to men of sober and severe Reason yet it very unhappily hits
this word is so to be taken in the Text may appear farther from the opposition of it to sin or vice in general Righteousness exalteth a Nation but Sin is the reproach of any People You see then what will be the subject of my present discourse namely that Religion and Vertue are the great causes of publick happiness and prosperity And though the truth of this hath been universally acknowledged and long enough experienced in the world yet because the fashion of the age is to call every thing into question it will be requisite to satisfie mens reason about it To which end I shall do these two things 1. Endeavour to give an account of this Truth 2. To vindicate it from the pretences and insinuations of atheistical persons I. shall give you this two-fold account of it 1. From the justice of the Divine providence 2. From the natural tendency of the thing 1. From the justice of the Divine providence Indeed as to particular persons the providences of God are many times promiscuously administred in this world so that no man can certainly conclude God's love or hatred to any person by any thing that befalls him in this life But God do's not deal thus with Nations Because publick bodies and communities of men as such can onely be rewarded and punished in this world For in the next all those publick societies and combinations wherein men are now link'd together under several Governments shall be dissolved God will not then reward or punish Nations as Nations But every man shall then give an account of himself to God and receive his own reward and bear his own burthen For although God account it no disparagement to his justice to let particular good men suffer in this world and pass through many tribulations into the kingdom of God because there is another day a coming which will be a more proper season of reward yet in the usual course of his providence he recompenseth religious and vertuous Nations with temporal blessings and prosperity For which reason St. Austin tells us that the mighty success and long prosperity of the Romans was a reward given them by God for their eminent justice and temperance and other vertues And on the other hand God many times suffers the most grievous sins of particular persons to go unpunished in this world because he knows that his justice will have another and better opportunity to meet and reckon with them But the general and crying sins of a Nation cannot hope to escape publick judgments unless they be prevented by a general repentance God may defer his judgments for a time and give a People a longer space of repentance he may stay till the iniquities of a Nation be full but sooner or later they have reason to expect his vengeance And usually the longer punishment is delay'd it is the heavier when it comes Now all this is very reasonable becauses this world is the onely season for National punishments And indeed they are in a great degree necessary for the present vindication of the honour and majesty of the Divine Laws and to give some check to the overflowing of wickedness Publick judgments are the banks and shores upon which God breaks the insolency of sinners and stays their proud waves And though among men the multitude of offenders be many times a cause of impunity because of the weakness of humane Governments which are glad to spare where they are not strong enough to punish yet in the government of God things are quite otherwise No combination of sinners is too hard for him and the greater and more numerous the offenders are the more his justice is concern'd to vindicate the affront However God may pass by single sinners in this world yet when a Nation combines against him when hand joyns in hand the wicked shall not go unpunished This the Scripture declares to be the settled course of God's providence That a righteous Nation shall be happy The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effects of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever And on the other hand that he useth to shower down his judgments upon a wicked people he turneth a fruitfull land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein And the experience of all ages hath made this good All along the History of the Old Testament we find the interchangeable providences of God towards the People of Israel always suited to their manners They were constantly prosperous or afflicted according as piety and vertue flourished or declined amongst them And God did not onely exercise this providence towards his own People but he dealt thus also with other Nations The Roman Empire whilst the vertue of that people remained firm was strong as iron as 't is represented in the Prophesie of Daniel But upon the dissolution of their manners the iron began to be mixt with miry clay and the feet upon which that Empire stood to be broken And though God in the administration of his justice be not tied to precedents and we cannot argue from Scripture examples that the providences of God towards other Nations shall in all circumstances be conformable to his dealings with the People of Israel yet thus much may with great probability be collected from them that as God always blessed that People while they were obedient to him and followed them with his judgments when they rebelled against him so he will also deal with other Nations Because the reason of those dispensations as to the main and substance of them seems to be perpetual and founded in that which can never change the justice of the Divine providence 2dly The truth of this farther appears from the natural tendency of the thing For Religion in general and every particular vertue doth in its own nature conduce to the publick Interest Religion where-ever it is truly planted is certainly the greatest obligation upon conscience to all civil offices and moral duties Chastity and temperance and industry do in their own nature tend to health and plenty Truth and fidelity in all our dealings do create mutual love and good-will and confidence among men which are the great bands of peace And on the contrary wickedness doth in its own nature produce many publick mischiefs For as sins are link'd together and draw on one another so almost every vice hath some temporal inconvenience annexed to it and naturally following it Intemperance and lust breed infirmities and diseases which being propagated spoil the strain of a Nation Idleness and luxury bring forth poverty and want and this tempts men to injustice and that causeth enmity and animosities and these bring on strife and confusion and every evil work This Philosophical account of publick troubles and confusions St. James gives us Jam. 4.1 whence come wars and fightings among you are they not hence even from your lusts that war in your members But I shall shew more particularly that Religion and vertue do naturally tend
of the greatest part of Christians How grosly and openly do many of us contradict the plain precepts of the Gospel by our ungodliness and worldly lusts by living intemperately or unjustly or prophanely in this present world As if the grace of God which brings salvation had never appear'd to us as if we had never hear'd of Heaven or Hell or believ'd not one word that the Scripture says concerning them as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him but will come in flaming sire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us not then deceive our selves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord if we do not frame our lives according to it For though we know these things never so well yet we are not happy unless we do them Nay we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not Therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives If not all the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will rise up in judgment against us and the Articles of our Faith will be so many Articles of Accusation and the great weight of our charge will be this that we did not obey that Gospel which we profess'd to believe that we made confession of the Christian Faith but liv'd like Heathens Not to believe the Christian Religion after so great evidence and confirmation as God hath given to it is very unreasonable but to believe it to be true and yet to live as if it were false is the greatest repugnancy and contradiction that can be He that does not believe Christianity either hath or thinks he hath some reason for with-holding his assent from it But he that believes it and yet lives contrary to it knows that he hath no reason for what he does and is convinc'd that he ought to do otherwise And he is a miserable man indeed that does those things for the doing of which he continually stands condemn'd by his own mind and accordingly God will deal more severely with such persons He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings if they do not proceed from gross carelesness and neglect of our selves but the faults of our wills have no excuse because we knew to do better and were convinc'd in our minds that we ought not to have done so Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and dost thou still allow thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Art thou convinc'd that without holiness no man shall see the Lord and dost thou still persist in a wicked course Art thou fully perswaded that no whoremonger nor adulterer nor covetous nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ and dost thou for all that continue to practise these vices What canst thou say man why it should not be to thee according to thy faith If it so fall out that thou art miserable and undone for ever thou hast no reason to be surpriz'd as if some unexpected thing had happen'd to thee It is but with thee just as thou believ'dst it would be when thou didst these things For how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own Conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better and chose to make our selves miserable when we understood the way to have been happy To conclude we Christians have certainly the best and the holiest the wisest and most reasonable Religion in the world but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind if the best Religion in the world do not make us good 1 JOHN 5.3 And his commandments are not grievous ONE of the great prejudices which men have entertain'd against the Christian Religion is this that it lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born that the Laws of it are very strict and severe difficult to be kept and yet dangerous to be broken That it requires us to govern and keep under our passions and to contradict many times our strongest inclinations and desires to cut off our right hand and to pluck out our right eye to love cur enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us to forgive the greatest injuries that are done to us and to make reparation for the least that we do to others to be contented with our condition patient under sufferings and ready to sacrifice our dearest interests in this world and even our very lives in the cause of God and Religion All these seem to be hard sayings and grievous commandments For the removal of this prejudice I have chosen these words of the Apostle which expresly tells us the contrary that the commandments of God are not grievous And though this be a great truth if it be impartially consider'd yet it is also a great paradox to men of corrupt minds and vicious practices who are prejudic'd against Religion and the holy Laws of God by their interest and their lusts This seems a strange proposition to those who look upon Religion at a distance and never try'd the experiment of a holy life who measure the Laws of God not by the intrinsecal goodness and equity of them but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts against them Upon this account it will be requisite to take some pains to satisfie the reason of men concerning this truth and if it be possible to make it so evident that those who are unwilling to own it may yet be asham'd to deny it And methinks I have this peculiar advantage in the argument I have now undertaken that every reasonable man cannot chuse but wish me success in this attempt because I undertake the proof of that which it is every man's interest that it should be true And if I can make it out this pretence against Religion will not onely be baffled but we shall gain a new and forcible argument to perswade men over to it Now the easiness or difficulty of the observation of any Laws or commands depends chiefly upon these three things First Upon the Nature of
present in order to our future disquiet but if we resist and conquer them we lay the foundation of perpetual peace and tranquillity in our minds If we govern our selves in the use of sensual delights by the Laws of God and reason we shall find our selves more at ease than if we should let loose the reins to our appetites and lusts For the more we gratifie our lusts the more craving they will be and the more impatient of denial Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops every lust is a kind of hydropick distemper and the more we drink the more we shall thirst So that by retrenching our inordinate desires we do not rob our selves of any true pleasure but onely prevent the pain and trouble of farther dissatisfaction Humility though it may seem to expose a man to some contempt yet it is truly the readiest way to honour as on the contrary pride is a most improper and absurd means for the accomplishing of the end it aims at All other vices do in some measure attain their end covetousness does usually raise an estate and ambitious endeavours do often advance men to high places but pride and insolence and contempt of others do infallibly defeat their own design They aim at respect and esteem but never attain it for all mankind do naturally hate and slight a proud man What more reasonable than patience and contentedness and that we should in all things resign up our selves to the will of God who loves us as well as we do our selves and knows what is good for us better than we do our selves this certainly is the best way to prevent anxiety and perplexity of mind and to make the worst condition as tolerable as it can be and much more easie than it would be otherwise As for that peculiar Law of Christianity which forbids revenge and commands us to forgive injuries and to love our enemies no man can think it grievous who considers the pleasure and sweetness of love and the glorious victory of overcoming evil with good and then compares these with the restless torment and perpetual tumults of a malicious and revengeful spirit And lastly Self-denyal for the cause of God and Religion this is neither unreasonable nor to our disadvantage If we consider our infinite obligations to God we have no reason to think much to sacrifice to him our dearest interests in this world especially if we consider withall how disproportionably great the reward of our sufferings shall be in another world Besides that the interest of Religion is of so great concernment to the happiness of mankind that every man is bound for that reason to assert the truth of it with the hazard of any thing that is most valuable to him in this world II. We are not destitute of sufficient power and strength for the performing of God's commands Had God given us Laws but no power to keep them his commandments would then indeed have been grievous 'T is true we have contracted a great deal of weakness and impotency by our wilfull degeneracy from goodness but that grace which the Gospel offers to us for our assistance is sufficient for us And this seems to be the particular reason why the Apostle says here in the Text that his commandments are not grievous because he offers us an assistance proportionable to the difficulty of his commands and the necessity of our condition for it follows immediately after the Text for whosoever is born of God overcometh the world Therefore the commandments of God are not grievous because every Child of God that is every Christian is endued with a power whereby he is enabled to resist and conquer the temptations of the world The same Apostle elsewhere encourages Christians upon the same consideration greater is he that is in you 1 Joh. 4.4 than he that is in the world Though we be encompass'd with many and potent enemies who make it their business to tempt and to deter us from our duty yet our case is not hard so long as we have a greater strength on our side And this the Apostle tells us is the case of every Christian greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world Are there legions of Devils who are continually designing and working our ruine there are also myriads of good Angels who are more chearfull and officious to do us good For I doubt not but as those who are bent to do wickedly will never want tempters to urge them on and to push them forward in an evil course so on the other hand those who apply themselves seriously to the business of Religion and yield themselves tractable to good motions will find the good spirit of God more ready and active to encourage them than the Devil can be to pull them back unless we think that God hath given a greater power and a larger commission to the Devil to do men mischief than to his holy Spirits and his holy Angels for our assistance and encouragement But then we are to understand that this assistance is onely offer'd to men and not forc'd upon them whether they will or no. For if we beg God's grace but neglect to make use of it if we implore his assistance for the mortifying of our lusts but will not contribute our own endeavours God will withdraw his grace and take away his holy Spirit from us Nay if after we have begun well we do notoriously slacken our endeavours we forfeit the Divine assistance If when by God's grace we have in a good measure conquer'd the first difficulties of Religion and gain'd some habitual strength against sin if after this we grow careless and remiss and neglect our guard and lay our selves open to temptations God's Spirit will not always strive with us Notwithstanding all the promises of the Gospel and the mighty assistances there offer'd to us if we love any lust and will with Sampson lay our head in Dalilah's lap we shall be insensibly robb'd of our strength and become like other men III. We have the greatest encouragement to the observance of God's commands Two things make any course of life easie present pleasure and the assurance of a future reward Religion gives part of its reward in hand the present comfort and satisfaction of having done our duty and for the rest it offers us the best security that Heaven can give Now these two must needs make our duty very easie a considerable reward in hand and not onely the hopes but the assurance of a far greater recompence hereafter 1. Present peace and satisfaction of mind and unexpressible joy and pleasure flowing from the testimony of a good conscience This is present payment besides that it is the earnest of a future and greater happiness And this does naturally spring up in the mind of a good man great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them All Acts of piety and vertue are not onely delightful for the
fugitive are they that after all our endeavours to secure them they may break loose from us and in an instant vanish out of our sight riches make to themselves wings and flie like an Eagle intimating to us that riches are often accessary to their own ruin Many times the greatness of a man's estate and nothing else hath been the cause of the loss of it and of taking away the life of the owner thereof The fairness of some mens fortune hath been a temptation to those who have been more powerfull to ravish it from them thus riches make to themselves wings So that he that enjoys the greatest happiness of this world does still want one happiness more to secure to him for the future what he possesses for the persent But the happiness of Heaven is a steady and constant light fixt and unchangeable as the fountain from whence it springs the father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning And if the enjoyments of this life were certain yet they are unsatisfying This is the vanity of vanities that every thing in this world can trouble us but nothing can give us satisfaction I know not how it is but either we or the things of this world or both are so phantastical that we can neither be well with these things nor well without them If we be hungry we are in pain and if we eat to the full we are uneasie If we be poor we think our selves miserable and when we come to be rich we commonly really are so If we are in a low condition we fret and murmur and if we chance to get up and to be rais'd to greatness we are many times farther from contentment than we were before So that we pursue the happiness of this world just as little children chase birds when we think we are come very near it and have it almost in our hands it flies farther from us than it was at first Nay so far are the enjoyments of this world from affording us satisfaction that the sweetest of them are most apt to satiate and cloy us All the pleasures of this world are so contriv'd as to yeild us very little happiness If they go off quickly they signifie nothing and if they stay long we are sick of them After a full draught of any sensual pleasure we presently loath it and hate it as much after the enjoyment as we courted it and long'd for it in the expectation But the delights of the other world as they will give us full satisfaction so we shall never be weary of them Every repetition of them will be accompanied with a new pleasure and contentment In the felicities of Heaven these two things shall be reconcil'd which never met together in any sensual delight long and full enjoyment and yet a fresh and perpetual pleasure As in God's presence there is fulness of joy so at his right hand there shall be pleasures for evermore 2. The happiness of the other life is not onely incomparably beyond any happiness of this world that it may be is no great commendation of it but it is very great in it self The happiness of Heaven is usually in Scripture descirb'd to us by such pleasures as are manly and excellent chast and intellectual infinitely more pure and refin'd than those of sense and if the Scripture at any time descend to the metaphors of a feast and a banquet and a marriage it is plainly by way of accommodation to our weakness and condescention to our capacities But the chief ingredients of this happiness so far as the Scripture hath thought fit to reveal it to us are the perfection of our knowledge and the height of our love and the perpetual society and friendship of all the blessed inhabitants of those glorious mansions and the joyfull concurrence of all these in chearfull expressions of gratitude in the incessant praises and admiration of the fountain and author of all this happiness And what can be more delightfull than to have our understandings entertain'd with a clear sight of the best and most perfect Being with the knowledge of all his works and of the wise designs of his providence here in the world than to live in the reviving presence of God and to be continually attending upon him whose favour is life and whose glory is much more above that of any of the Princes of this world than the greatest of them is above the poorest worm The Queen of Sheba thought Solomon's Servants happy in having the opportunity by standing continually before him to hear his wisdom but in the other world it shall be a happiness to Solomon himself and to the wisest and greatest persons that ever were in this world to stand before this great King to admire his wisdom and to behold his glory Not that I imagine the happiness of Heaven to consist in a perpetual gazing upon God and in an idle contemplation of the glories of that place For as by that blessed sight we shall be infinitely transported so the Scripture tells us we shall be also transform'd into the image of the divine perfections we shall see God and we shall be like him and what greater happiness can there be than to be like the happiest and most perfect Being in the world Besides who can tell what employment God may have for us in the next life We need not doubt but that he who is happiness it self and hath promis'd to make us happy can easily find out such employments and delights for us in the other world as will be proper and suitable to that state But then besides the improvement of our knowledge there shall be the most delightfull exercise of love When we come to heaven we shall enter into the society of the blessed Angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect that is freed from all those passions and infirmities which do now render the conversation even of the best men sometimes troublesome to one another We shall then meet with all those excellent Persons those brave Minds those innocent and charitable Souls whom we have seen and heard and read of in this world There we shall meet with many of our dear relations and intimate friends and perhaps with many of our enemies to whom we shall then be perfectly reconcil'd notwithstanding all the warm contests and peevish differences which we had with them in this world even about matters of Religion For Heaven is a state of perfect love and friendship there will be nothing but kindness and good nature there and all the prudent Arts of endearment and wise ways of rendring conversation mutually pleasant to one another And what greater happiness can be imagin'd than to converse freely with so many excellent persons without any thing of folly or disguise of jealousie or design upon one another For then there will be none of those vices and passions of covetousness and ambition of envy and hatred of wrath and peevishness which