far doth this fall short of expressing the unreasonableness of such as will rather enjoy present pleasures than prepare for future happinesse A Child is bound to an Apprenticeship and he perhaps dies before his time be out and so all his labour and charge is lost or he doth not live seven years a Freeman after he hath lived seven years in a hard service But he that gives up himself to the service of Christ let it be imagined to be as hard as some mens prejudice perswades them the sooner he dyes the sooner his service is ended and though he dye never so soon he loseth not his Freedom but is made a Citizen of Heaven and once entred there he never dyes but doth for ever reap the fruit of his labours Do we not give twenty times as much for the Fee-simple as they speak of an Estate as it will bring us in one year and according to the same rule were we sure to enjoy the pleasures of sin twenty years and could imagine them to be equal to the joyes of Heaven yet we should quit them for those everlasting pleasures which we should enjoy for ever our selves and not only for some Ages as we hope to do Estates on Earth not in our selves but only in our posterity Further yet we see it is in vain to lay a snare in the sight of any Bird. Prov. 1.17 they will not come into the Net to feed if they perceive it or swallow the bait when they see the hook yet foolish men do venture on Hell which they are told will certainly be the wages of sin and will enjoy the present pleasures of it though they have all the assurance that a man can have of any thing which he sees not with his eyes that it will cost him his life and that his Soul must rue for ever in Hell God indeed doth not manifest himself to us ordinarily here nor take us up as he did Paul into the third Heavens to shew us the Glory thereof but he will have us to exercise faith here and to take his word which he hath so fully confirmed to us that we may as certainly trust to it as if we had the clearest evidence in the world The Husband-man casts his seed into the ground without any fear or suspition of losing having been confirmed by many experiments in the hope of receiving it again with increase but a thousand experiments will not so fully perswade as a divine testimony confirmed by Covenants Oaths and Seals the ordinary wayes of confirmation amongst men so that a Divine faith founded upon the word of God is as the substance of things hoped for which are but future and makes them as it were really subsist and is the evidence of things not seen confirming them to us and as fully perswading us of them though they are not obvious to the sense as any Philosophical demonstration can confirm any truth so that notwithstanding the Apostle owns sence to be a great means to move affections in this frail state wherein we are yet faith serves believers for a sufficient foundation of love and delight Though they see not Jesus Christ they love him and rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 We are short sighted and cannot see a far off 2 Pet. 1.9 but faith as a perspective brings things nearer to us that we may judge of them as really present Let not our senses therefore usurp authority over Faith and Reason but lot Faith and Reason have their perfect work let not the Men of the World be wiser in their Generation than Children of light let us not be wiser in the things of the World than in the things of Heaven We chuse not the fairest of things for the most part but such as are more serviceable and durable nor the sweetest but that which is wholsom and nourishing we chuse not the cleanest or pleasantest way but that which leads to the place which we are going to So let us judge of things not according as they present themselves to our senses but as they have a real intrinsick worth to commend themselves to our judgments and let us not judge of things according to their suitablenesse to our present fancies but as they conduce to our abiding good measuring every thing not by Time but by Eternity SECT XV. Inconsideratenesse another great cause of Atheism against which the best remedies are a serious apprehension of the great moment and importance of spiritual things frequent reading and hearing the word of God Christian communion and conference about matters of Religion mutual admonition The prevalency of evil customs and habits the folly of deferring repentance ANother chief reason of that Atheism which abounds so much in the World is inconsideratenesse the most important truths do not affect us any longer than we consider them The Platonists observed this who made knowledge nothing but remembrance or an actual consideration of that which Man knows not reckoning that to be knowledge which lyes dead in the habit and doth not at all affect the Soul And we find that the Scripture layes much weight upon this consideration or remembrance yea as much as Mans salvation comes to We may observe Isa 1.3 There is an Epimone wherein the Prophet layes the sin of Israel upon this that they did not consider So 1 Kings 8.47 We may observe affliction brings men to bethink themselves that brings them to repentance and repentance is a means to obtain pardon and we find by experience that when Men are by sicknesse brought to a serious weighing of matters they are easily perswaded to make good promises and resolutions which when their minds are afterwards by the pleasures of the World diverted from the thoughts of they turn to their former course yea we see many times that Men are so ingenuous as to yield to reproofs and to condemn themselves and their own wayes when they are admonished of them as if they stood in need of no more but to be put in mind of such things as they have in their own hearts and only to have conscience awakened and we find Ezek 18.14.28 that the turning away of a wicked man from the evil of his wayes depends chiefly upon consideration I have already shewed that the Devil is the remote cause of that wickednesse and prophaneness which abounds in the World yet he useth this as the great means to draw Men from God to divert their minds from the thoughts of such things as may have an influence upon their affections and actions to make a change in them as we see plainly in the Parable of the Sower Luk. 8.12 Men hear the word then comes the Devil and takes it away out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved First we find by experience that Mâ—n are oft seriously affected with those things that they hear while they are lively represented to their minds and pressed seriously upon their consciences
their fault and neglect of good education are addicted to nothing but idleness and luxury and as Midwives form and fashion the head while the bones are tender so Parents should fashion their Childrens minds and form their manners while they are tender and plyant which if then neglected do very hardly afterwards yield to Discipline Ecclesiastical or Civil Thus far I have shewed how Godlinesse doth promote the good of a Nation in a way of natural causality There is yet another way whereby it doth conduce thereto and that is by a moral causality God delivering often the Island of the innocent which is delivered by the purenesse of his hands Job 22. 30. These are as the Trees in a Cawsey which having life and substance in them though sometimes they cast their leaves do keep it from going to ruine and mouldering away to which the Prophet is supposed to allude Isa 6.13 I know Ahab looked upon the good Prophet as the troubler of Israel who indeed was as the Chariot and Horsemen thereof for its security and defence And he justly retorted that crimination upon Ahab himself So in the primitive times if there were War Earthquakes plague inundations the poor Christians must to the Lions as if they were the cause of it When Aurelius upon experience found that they prevailed more by their prayers for the good of the Empire than others could by prayers and arms so that he desired the Senate to cease their persecution against them lest they should turn those spiritual weapons against the Empire the effects of which he had found in such an eminent instance and that they might pray for the good of the Empire As Darius defired that the Jews might offer sacrifice of sweet savors unto the God of Heaven and pray for the Life of the King and of his Sons Ezra 6.10 Upon the same ground Justinian as we may see Constit 6. ad Epiphanium took such care for the establishing of the true Religion and for the observation of those sacred Rules which were given by the Apostles as that which would conduce much to the happinesse of the Empire and especially for the setling of a pious Ministry by whose prayers he hoped for so great blessings upon himself and his Government And a wise and great Prince in our own memory doth not only acknowledge that natural influence which Religion hath upon the obedience of Subjects whereof I have alittle before spoken who himself doth best expresse his own sence of it It is no wonder saith he if Men not fearing God should not honour their King They will easily contemn such shaddows of God who reverence not that supream and adorable Majesty in comparison of whom all the Glory of Men and Angels is but obscurity but as knowing also how far it doth conduce morally to the happinesse of a Nation gives it in charge to his Son his Majesty now reigning in England to begin and end with God and alwayes to keep up solid Piety and those fundamental truths which mend both the hearts and lives of Men it being not only the Glory of Princes to advance Gods Glory but the means to make them prosperous and keep them from being miserable Whereupon his Majesty as remembring such pious words and counsels of His Royal Father did at his first restoration expresse his just displeasure against such as pretending a great zeal to his Cause and Service did not only discredit it by the licence of their lives and manners but hazard the driving away those approaching mercies which they should rather have acknowledged in their several stations with circumspection integrity and reformation in their lives It is ordinarily said Delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi But it is true on the other hand also that Rulers are punished for the sins of the People 1 Sam. 12.25 God ordering it so in his wise and righteous Providence not only as they partake many times in each others sins but as they have a joynt interest so as one suffers in the sufferings of another I remember Machiavel who was never thought to be over-precise or to be troubled with a bogling conscience complains of it in his Common-wealth as that which he feared would be the ruine of Italy that wickednesse did so much abound and that there was such a decay of Religion amongst them and they were so far degenerated from the purity of the Primitive times that they had reason to expect the vengeance of God upon them Whereupon he shews how necessary it is for Princes to have a special care for the preservation of the purity of Religion which I am sure is an innocent policy and the wisest maxim which he layes down for besides that the Church hath alwayes been a burdensom stone which hath broken in pieces all that have burdened themselves with it Zach. 12.13 Whilst Righteousnesse doth exalt a Nation Prov. 14.34 Wickednesse like the talent of lead in the Ephah Zach. 5.8 sinks it down We know ten righteous persons would have saved a Sodom and God would do nothing against it whilst there was one in it And if God did not for the sake of such many times spare Nations and shew them some peculiar favour there had been no ground for that which he himself hath pronounced of them that they are such of whom the World is not worthy SECT XIV An enquiry into the causes why Religion is so much neglected The remoter causes the corruption of Mans nature the malice and power of the Devil the nearer cause the prevalenccy of sence against Faith and reason which is removed by shewing in how many in stances of our Lives we do by reason correct the errors of sense HE that shall read what I have hitherto written and observe the general practice of the World will perhaps wonder that if these things be so Men should no better understand their own interest but generally neglect this which is pretended to conduce so much to the making of the World happy what I have said though it may seem to some to have some shew of probability will hardly obtain belief but lye under some suspition like the honest projects of some well-wisher to the publick good which never obtained so much credit as to be reduced to tryal Wherefore I shall a little enquire after the causes of that ungodlinesse and prophanenesse that so generally reigns in the World And first we know the Scripture hath oft taught us that the nature of Man is so corrupted by that which is called Original Sin That the imaginations of the thoughts of his heart are only evil and that continually his heart desperately wicked and deceitful above all things his understanding so darkened that he is alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in him filled withall unrighteousness fleshly lusts warring against the Soul and prevailing in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death The Wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God so that man is
The chief Interest of Man Or A Discourse of RELIGION Clearly demonstrating The Equity of the Precepts of the Gospel and how much the due Observance thereof doth conduce to the happiness and well-being as well of Humane Societies As of Particular Persons By H. Lukin Suffer me a little and I will shew thee what I have yet to speak on Gods behalf Job 36.2 Dicam ego quid sentiam dicent fortè meliora doctiores Aug. contra Faustum London Printed by R.D. for T. Bassett under S. Dunstans Church in Fleetstreet 1665. THE PREFACE To the Reader AMongst so many books wherewith the World is filled it may justly be expected that none should obtrude more upon it without giving a fair account thereof unless they have attained to that repute for Wisdom which Job had chap. 29.21 c. that men give ear and wait and keep silence at their counsel waiting for it as for the rain opening their mouth wide as for the latter rain such need no Apology to bespeak a reception of their Labors but it is far from me to reckon my self of that number haud equidem tali me dignor honore yet I must confess it is not much that I have to say in my own defence The perswasion of Friends from an opinion of the usefulnesse of such Books as Men publish is such a common Apology that the world grows weary of it if I should say that scribunt indocti doctique was an old observation so that it is no new thing for Men of small Learning to write Books it might well be retorted that the World hath suffered so much by such Mens Writings that it is pity they should suffer any more by them It will be but a poor Plea to say that I have written but little and so shall put Men to the expence of very little time or money for the reading of it if the little which I have written may not probably be of some advantage to the World but this through the blessing of God I am not without hopes of if one sinner might hereby be converted from the error of his way I should account it an happy fruit and abundant recompence of my well intended endeavors but if the disobedient may not be hereby turned to the Wisdom of the just yet I hope the children of Wisdom will hereby be established and encouraged to hold fast their integrity be furnished with that wherewith they may put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men. If the Ethiopians paint Angels black and Devils white because they are black themselves Pride themselves in it as their beauty this makes not us to dislike our own complexion neither can they perswade us to wash our selves with Ink that we may be like them If therefore some Men glory in their shame and account it their honour to be like the Devil or hate holinesse wherein Men do most resemble God and bear his Image as it is said of the Basilisk that its enmity against Man is such that it will fly with rage upon the Picture of a Man let not this be a temptation to us to learn their wayes let them return to us let us not return to them Jer. 15.19 If our adversary should write a Book against us that I may allude to the words of Job c. 31.35 c. if it be of scorns and reproaches let us bind it to us as a Crown and say as David 2 Sam. 6.21 I will yet be more vile if to obey God and be like to him be to be vile but if he will encounter us in good earnest with serious arguments let us go near to him as a Prince and not fear having all the reasons that can be drawn from the authority of our Soveraign Lord and Law-giver from our own interest from equity ingenuity and gratitude on our side I shall not be very sollicitous or industrious to decline or anticipate the censures of others I know it is ordinarily supposed that Men of no name that have not that real worth which may make others take notice of them have that petty design in publishing such things as are more admired by themselves than by any body else to get themselves a name and to make themselves and their own supposed worth known to the World Let Men think of me as they please I hope there is none shall think more meanly of me than I do of my self and I am such an impartial judge of my own labors that I am so far from projecting thereby for any esteem or credit in the World that I should rather if that were my aim and design have held my peace which is the way for a fool to be counted wise Prov. 17.28 One thing I would advertise the Reader of that this Treatise was finished in another Nation after some years observations of the lives manners of such as in other parts of the World profess Christianity both Papists and Protestants the manner of whose conversation I was then better acquainted with than of those of our own Nation which I hope may suffice to free me from all suspicion of having any oblique aspect upon particular Persons or any particular sort of men or of calculating this Treatise only for our own Meridian and for our own times I know were it in other Languages it might indifferently serve for any place where the Gospel hath been Preached and might have had its use in the purest times which have been since the Christian name was known that little I have seen of the World will easily keep me from judging our own Nation the worst of any that profess Religon unless the priviledges which we enjoy above others do raise our guilt to a greater height and I am not so unacquainted with the History of former Ages as being surprized to cry out O tempora O mores or to make that unwise enquiry Eccles 7.10 what is the cause that the former dayes were better than these I confess I have sometimes been in Pauls case Act. 17.16 when I have observed amongst the generality of Christians in all places so much difference betwixt mens principles practices so many professing to know God which in works deny him this hath made me sometimes express my self with the greater passion and vehemency as knowing the terror of the Lord and grieved to see the misery that so many without repentance are hastning to for thougb I owe a special love to those of the household of faith yet I profess my self a Citizen of the universe and so have a charity and compassion towards all SECTION I. The Practical Atheist a greater wonder than the Speculative Atheist the unreasonableness of such as professing Religion do yet neglect the commands thereof and despise such as desire to be found in a strict observance of them A Spartan being invited to hear an Oration in commendation of Hercules replyed Ecquis eum vituperat Doth any body speak against him and some will
think I might periturae parcere chartae or rather better in ploy precious irrevocable hours than in Apologizing for that which needs no defence and which there is such a reverence of so deeply implanted in every Mans nature but upon a nearer approach and exact survey of things we shall find there is nothing in the World doth either need or deserve a more serions consideration and just defence The Speculative Atheist is such a Monster that many will hardly admit of such a thing in nature And it seems incredible to them that any should doubt of a Deity yet daily experience and observation refutes our more rational and retired Speculations and hath put many Learned Men to the labour of proving that there is a God this being the utmost we are able in the Theory to make good That there are none think that there is no God but such as for whom it were well if there were none and these being judicially given up to be seduced by their own lusts first think it would be well for them if there were no God finding his commands crossing their Carnal interests and corrupt desires thence they proceed to wish there were no God and by degrees arrive at flat Atheism inordinate passions converting Desire into Opinion as we easily believe that which we earnestly desire that so having baffled their Judgments and drawn them into the same confederacy with their Lusts they may sin without their control or contradiction and avoid the reproofs of their Consciences while they give up themselves freely to satisfie their vile affections His gradibus itur I affirm the Practical Atheist is yet a greater wonder and a more horrid Monster than the Speculative Atheist As Mirandula hath well observed it is a wonder that any should doubt of the truth of the Gospel after so many evident proofs of it but a greater wonder that any should believe it and yet live as if it were not true But Affrica hath not so many monsters in nature as Europe hath in Religion How many thousands of Zealots have we that professe the name of Christ and presume violently that they shall be saved by him yet look into their conversations and you would not believe their own mouths or imagine that they are seriously perswaded that there is a God an Heaven an Hell a Judgment to come wherein they shall be sentenced to their everlasting home Nay hear O Heavens and be astonished O Earth hath any people dealt so with their Gods which are yet no Gods as Christians deal with Christ Do Turks deal so with their Mahomet Do they scorn those that are most careful to observe the Rules of his Alcoran Are they ashamed to be seen to have any respect to his Laws Yet I call Heaven and Earth to record against Christians that he that turns from his wickednesse makes himself a prey yea as Salvian complained of old Mali esse coguntur ne viles habeantur Men are fain to turn Rebels against Christ and cast off the fear of his commands to free themselves from the scorn and hatred of Christians amongst whom he must go for a Melancholick dull sot or sneaking fool and one that hath nothing of generosity that dare not set his mouth against Heaven or defie the authority of his Maker insomuch that he that cannot harden himself against scorn shall be jeared out of Heaven he shall forfeit the reputation of his breeding that shall speak a word of the Scriptures he shall passe for a silly fellow that will abandon the pleasures of Sin in hopes of an unseen-Glory and he shall be accounted importunate or uncivil that shall interrupt Mens carnal mirth by casting in the ingrateful mention of God or his commands and be thought unsit for the company of Persons of quality and breeding Of old they accounted it the sum and substance of Religion to imitate him whom they worshipped Those that adored mortal Deities such as Alexander and Caesar were ambitious to imitate their Vertues yea some Emperors have been imitated by their flattering Courtiers in their Defects and Deformities The holinesse of God is his Glory and of all his attributes propounded to us for our imitation see 1 Pet. 1.15 Exod. 15.17 and compare Isa 16.3 with John 12.40 and yet how do men glory in their shame while they are ashamed of their glory Phil. 3.29 Jer. 2.36 but that some are wiser than to be so befooled out of Heaven holynesse would be hissed out of the World How many think it a greater reproach to call one a Saint than a Drunkard a Whoremongen or whatever is evil When the Scripture makes this a title of honor and that from whence they are so denominated absolutely necessary to Salvation O let not these things be told in Gath or published in Ashkelon Let not Turks and Heathens hear such things of Christians What God dowe worship What Saviour do we own Are they like the Idols of the Heathens who as Tertullian said of old are worshipped in vain and may be abused at our pleasure Quit your selves like Men awake your reason and consider what I shall say for God and for his holy Laws which are as the Apostle saith not only boly but just and good Rom. 7.12 So that as hath been well observed by Learned Men if God had never commanded what he hath done nor made any transcript of the Eternal Law out of the Idea of his holy nature yet what he hath commanded would have been best for Mankind to observe There is not only an equity in them but they are good naturally as well as morally conducing to the welfare of Mankind the good of the Universe insomuch that if we had stood on even ground with our Maker and capitulated with him on what terms we would submit our selves to him and what Laws we would be obliged to observe we could not have made conditions more for our own advantage or if Christ should wave his authority which he hath over us to command us though the authority of the superior is more to be regarded than the advantage of the inferior he might justly counsel us as Rev. 3.18 to observe his precepts as that which would be best for our selves and if we had no respect to his soveraignty yet regard to our own welfare and happinesse might oblige us thereto And having evinced the equity of the wayes of God and the benefit Men have thereby I shall endeavour to discover and remove the causes of this Practical Atheism that reigns so much in the World and though I know after all I can say the Disease will despise any remedy yet let me tell all the prophane scorners of Godlinesse till they can deprive themselves of reason that is become beasts God and his Saints shall have a witnesse in their breasts against their own souls SECT II. The equity of Gods commands Love which is the fulfilling of the Law founded on Gods goodness Patience Bounty Fear which with that observance
binds him to only Christianity directing us to right principles and ends in such actions makes them turn to our good account So that Christian Charity is the best Vsury God gives us bond for repayment Prov. 19.17 and he is a good pay-master If a Man would lay up somewhat against an evil day he cannot put it into better hands Eccles 11.2 If the worst come and the hand of violence should seize on his Estate yet he may say with him in Seneca I have that still which I have given away yea a Man of meer humanity and generosity cannot but have such a sympathy with others in their sufferings that in relieving them he relieves himself as Alexander when Darius sent a complement to him by his Ambassadors for his civility to his Wife Mother Daughters whom he had taken Captives returned him answer that it was in vain to complement with an Enemy and the favour he had shewed to them was not so much out of affection to him as to satisfie his own nature which could not insult over the misery of others For the charge of the service of God let shame for ever cloath them and confusion cover them as a Garment that complain of it Let an Heathen an Alexander condemn them who when Leonidas reproved him for spending so much incense in sacrifice to his Gods and told him he might do that when he had taken the Countries from whence it came having taken them sent him incense in abundance and sent him word that for the future he should not be sparing in his offerings to his Gods for he had found by experience that what was offered to them they paid with Vsury And further our expence now under the Gospel about the service of God is nothing to what it was formerly under the Law What I said before in respect of time I may say here in respect of Estate what Men spend upon Religious uses and works of charity is not comparable to what Men spend upon their Lusts And whoever call themselves Christians should disdain that any should be more free in the service of the Devil than they are in the service of Christ Neither is it Christian charity but blind zeal and superstition that makes men give away their Estates as is ordinary amongst the Papists to maintain others in ease and idlenesse under a pretence of devoting themselves to religious exercises and the imitation of I know not what pretended Saints Others are not ashamed to complain of that justice and equity that Religion doth oblige a man to observe in his commerce with others as hindering their thriving in the World but I have said enough already of the curse that follows injustice and oppression to shew how vain this objection is besides the punishment inflicted by Man for these sins which are the more odious to Men because they are against our neighbor immediately as many other sins are not so as men are more sensible of them and as much as they can avoid having any thing to do with such as are false and unjust in their dealings with others Some object further the sufferings which Religion exposeth a Man oftentimes to But to this I may answer as to the former Men ordinarily suffer more for sin The Devil hath had more Martyrs than Christ in most Ages of the World that is more have suffered for doing the Devils works and fulfilling his Lusts than for the service of Christ How many are there that suffer imprisonment banishment losse of goods yea of life for injustice oppression murther adultery sedition and other sins And I have oft thought it might be a great comfort to one imprisoned for the cause of Religion for Christs sake to think he might have suffered the same for his sin if he had been left to his Lusts as others or for his misery for Debt and Poverty whereas now he suffers the ordinary lot of Mankind in such a cause on such an occasion as it shall prove his greatest advantage God rewarding so bountifully whatever a Man undergoes for his sake both with present spiritual comforts and future everlasting Glory Lastly experience may be objected against all that I have said it being observed that the followers of Christ have the least share ordinarily in the things of the World But I answer to this it is not because Religion is any way prejudicial to Mens worldly Estates but because God in his free and wise Providence doth for the most part choose the poor of the World to be the Heirs of his Kingdom both that he may confound the wisdom of Men and stain the Pride of their glory choosing contrary to Mans ordinary judgment and choice and also because out of his bounty he is pleased to give many a portion in this Life to whom he intends none hereafter Further however God doth not many times give his Children superfluities he ordinarily provides for their necessities and many may make Davids observation that they have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread Yea I may add as Psal 37.16 A little that a righteous Man hath is better than great Treasures of many wicked because he is satisfied with what he hath The vanity of the Creature proceeds from the vanity of Mens minds when Men will make the Creature their chief happinesse they must needs find it vanity and vexation of spirit because it doth not answer their expactations from it they looking for more from it than ever God put in it But a Godly Man having something else for his chief good which is sufficient to fill his most enlarged desires and to answer the highest expectations that he can have from it he makes use of the Creature only for the end to which God hath appointed it to supply his bodily necessities to be a Viatioum in this his Pilgrimage towards Heaven which end it is sufficient to answer so that there is none can rejoyce and take pleasure in the Creature more than a Godly Man SECT V. The influence which Religion hath even upon our bodies how far it conduceth to our health Diseases of the body ordinarily proceed from the distempers of the Soul That Temperance Diligence in our callings and moderation of our passions which the Gospel requires and teaches is the best remedy against them THE next interest of Man which I shall speak of doth yet more nearly concern him and that is Health which is not only as one calls it the Paradise of all sensual pleasures wherein they grow and flourish but the Salt that seasons all our worldly comforts without which we can find very little sayour in them yea are not only incapable of enjoying all other things but of enjoying our selves yea the want of it makes us as unable to do good as to enjoy good but only as we may be examples of Faith and Patience to others Now though Religion chiefly concerns the Soul and seems to have little influence on Mens bodies yet I
will confidently affirm what may seem a Paradox to many that the precepts of Christ well observed would free as many from Diseases as his Miracles they would prevent as many diseases as his miracles cured How many are there whose bodies are filled with the sins of their souls which they have tired and worn out in the service of their insatiable Lusts which are like furious Riders that tire out their Beasts they ride on before they be tired themselves Though Men are not presently sensible of decayes in their health by riot drunkennesse and such like sins they lay in daily the seeds of those diseases which many groan under in their old age though others feel them sooner We ordinarily say that excesse kills more than the Sword By excesse we are not to understand only eating and drinking to surfeiting and drunkenness or till nature be so oppressed that it dischargeth it self of its burden but when Men make their appetite not their reason the measure of their allowance It would require the skil of a Physician to enumerate the Diseases which are the effects of Mens sins but every one may easily observe that the ordinary Rules which the best Physicians prescribe for the preservation of Health require nothing more than Temperance and exercise the former Religion strictly injoyns and though it do not require the later as such or under such a notion yet in effect it requires it of most commanding diligence in Mens callings and condemning idlenesse which is the source of so many diseases as daily experience will evince it being obvious to the observation of all that Health is the poor Mans priviledge and sicknesse most common among the Rich who live in idlenesse though they have many other advantages above the poor for the preservation of their health besides those two causes of sicknesse there is a third which religion doth remove or at least much correct and that is inordinate passions such as Anger Fear Sorrow Envy which have a very malignant influence upon the Body and there is scarce any thing which tends so much to the poizing and ballancing of the humors of the body which is so necessary for the preservation of the health as a well composed temper of mind and calmnesse and quietness in the Soul which Religion doth not only teach but which is more doth in a great measure effect and therein exceeds the morals of Phylosophers as we shall in due place more fully see SECT VI. Religion forbids us not any pleasures which are agreeable to nature reason or Mans own interest None can more freely enjoy pleasures than a Godly Man THere is yet another thing which many account their great interest and their great prejudice against Religion is that they conceive it inconsistent therewith and that is Pleasure Now if we take Pleasure in a large sence as it is taken in Scripture that inward Joy Comfort and satisfaction which accompanies an holy Life and those everlasting pleasures at Gods right hand which a holy Life leads to will fall afterwards under consideration And as for those bodily pleasures which in this place are chiefly intended Religion doth not at all forbid them nor deprive a Man of them and it is an unjust calumny of some that God hath put inclinations into mans nature to such things as he hath forbidden him and that this is the chief cause of so much sin in the World But these men know not what spirit they are of It was the suggestion of the Devil to Man in Paradise that God as if he envyed mans happinesse had laid a restraint on them to keep them from that which as the Devil would perswade them he knew might better their condition and advance them to an equality with himself as if it had been a small matter that he had allowed them such liberty to enjoy all the pleasures of Paradise and to eat of all the fruit of it save only that in the midst of the Garden But they received a just recompence for believing the Devil rather than God It is the same spirit which now perswades Men that God hath dealt hardly with us to interdict us the enjoyment of that wherein we might find such pleasure and satisfaction whereas he hath rather manifested his goodnesse to Man in that he hath put into him such inclinations as he may take pleasure in those things which are necessary for the propagation of the species or for the conservation of the individuals of Mankind and he doth not forbid our pleasure in these but only forbids Gluttony and Drunkennesse which is excess in the use of meats and drinks and Adultery which is the misplacing of these desires which he hath provided for the satisfaction of mankind without sin and we have no cause to complain of Gods bounding of us in these things but rather wonder that there should be any need of any Laws to forbid such irregularities therein as we should wonder that any should make Laws strictly to forbid Men to burn their own houses to cut their own flesh to drink poyson if we consider the mischiefs that ensue upon our exceeding the limits which God hath yet set us in these things in impairing our Health wasting our Estates staining our honour breeding discords in Families depriving us of reason and turning us into Bruits exposing us sometimes to Mans rage sometimes to the penalty of human Laws In short God hath not only provided for the supply of our necessities but for our delight and comfort Psal 104.15 2ly Religion allows a Man to enjoy and take comfort in these things which God hath given us Eccl. 2.24 25 26.5.18.9.7 8 9. Yea requires we should rejoyce in them Deut. 12.7.12.18 cap. 14.26 cap. 16.11 14. cap. 26.11 3ly There is none can take more pleasure in these things than a Christian Eccl. 2.25 Solomon might hasten as much as any to such pleasure not so much as he was a King and had all things in abundance but as he was a good Man and in the favour of God Eccl. 9.7 But this I have elsewhere touched Sect. 4. and sect 8. If any account it hard to be restrained from unnatural pleasures I may say as Joash of Baal Judges 6.31 Will you plead for these He that will plead for these let him presently be put to Death He that cannot content himself with moderate pleasures without excesse let him go and learn of Bruit-beasts that will not eat and drink to Gluttony and Drunkennesse He that cannot satisfie himself unless he may wholly prostitute himself to pleasure and spend his whole time therein as if he were put into the World as the Leviathan into the Sea to play therein Psal 104.26 Let them learn of a Heathen who would say He is not worthy the name of a Man thà t would spend a whole day in pleasure So that Religion restrains us no more in the use of Pleasures than nature reason or our own interest restrains us but rather teacheth us
wise to do evil but he hath no knowledge to do good Now experience doth more confirm us in the belief of this than a thousand Arguments Again we oft read of the enmity of the Devil against Mankind and though his power be not much discerned by many yet it is like the influence of Coelestial Bodies Sun Moon and Stars upon these sublunary things powerful and effectual though not discerned but in the effects hence we read of his working effectually in the hearts of the Children of disobedience of men being taken captive of him at his pleasure of the strength of delusion of his going about like a roaring Lion of wrestling with principalities and powers and resisting the Devil stedfast in the Faith He that should have seen the Poor Man cured by Christ offering violence to himself and casting himself sometimes into the fire sometimes into the water would have easily concluded that he was acted by some evil spirit to such things as were destructive to his own nature so to see men sin against their own souls and run such desperate hazards against their own interest is a clear argument that they are acted by some other nature which seeks their ruine and destruction Now these may be remote causes of the prevalency of that Atheism which we see and lament in the World but yet there must be some nearer causes searched out for unlesse it be in some secret Sympathies and Antipathies Man doth ordinarily act according to reason that is what is either really so or seems so to him and there must be some ratio motiva to elicite or draw forth the acts of his will The Grace of God is powerful in good actions yet it works congruously to our natures moving by the means of some rational arguments and principles so the efficacy of the Devil is very great in evil actions yet he makes use for the most part of moral arguments though he had such a hand in Judas his Treason and Annanias his cosenage as that he is said to put these things into their hearts yet by the whole tenor of their story we find that there were some moral motives he made use of and that it was covetousness that did more immediately sway in these sins Now it seems one main reason of Mens Atheism which is more near and immediate is the prevalency of sense as there are some actions which do prevent the reasonings of the mind which we call actiones hominis but not humanae which indeed are actions of Men but not humane actions proceeding from the essential principle of man objects coming to the sense before they can have access to the understanding the spirits move disorderly till the understanding taking cognizance of the matter do rectifie such motions of the spirits as in a sudden noise or unexpected sight the senses as the Centinels take the first alarm but as soon as the news is carryed to the understanding as the main guard or principal officer and found to be of no dangerous consequence this sudden commotion is allayed so in more important passages of our lives sense makes many disorderly sallies and motions without taking counsel of the understanding and objects do make very deep impressions upon them and the Scripture doth take notice how much we are led by sense in this frail state wherein we are so as we may all say with the Propher Law 3.51 Our eye affects our heart this is the foundation of the Apostles argument 1 John 4.20 He that loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen We have a thousand times more reason to love God than to love our Brother considering the perfections and excellencies that are in God to render him amiable and the obligations which we are under to him who hath done more ten thousand times for us than all the friends which we have in the World but whatever reason there may be in the thing it self the Apostle argues according to our poor capacity the access that things have to us and doth clearly suppose that things which have accesse to out senses are more effectual for moving our affections than such things as are only the object of faith So though we hear of an infinite Majesty that created and sustains our selves and all other finite beings who seeth all our actions and will one day call us to an account for them and likewise of an eternal weight of glory made up of things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor ever entred into the heart of Man to conceive these things do not move us because they are far out of our sight and the things of the World which are nearer to our senses and are the immediate objects of them pleasing the tast delighting the smell tickling and flattering the Ear dazling the eyes have more prevalency upon us But yet upon examination we shall find this is not sufficient to prevail against those important considerations which I have already proposed nor to leave mankind excusable for abandoning himself to the pleasures of this life so as to neglect those better things which are propounded as the reward of holiness Let us but quit our selves like men and exercise those common principles of reason which we exercise in other affairs of our lives and though we cannot perhaps thereby silence the clamors of sence yet we may confute them and reject them Do we not ordinarily see men correct the errors of sense by reason Do we not see them part with their blood to prevent the inconveniency of a disease which for the most part they do believe or suspect not upon the evident demonstrations but probable conjectures of a Physician or at best by their own reason Do not men endure the cutting off of a member to save the body and lengthen out a miserable life for some days or years Do not men drink the most unpleasing potions for the recovery of their health or repairing their decayed strength Do not men cast their seed into the earth in hopes of receiving the increase of it Doth not the Merchant send away his goods in hope to receive others for them which may bring him some gain and advantage And what is all this to denying ungodliness and worldly lusts denying our selves the pleasure of sin for the pleasure of Heaven yea do we not see men ordinarily binding their Sons to some Apprenticeship for many years that so they may learn a Trade to maintain themselves in some repute in the world when they shall come to years rather than let them live in idlenesse and pleasure giving up themselves to childish sports and vanities when they are young which would afterwards expose them to poverty and contempt And he is accounted a cruel and unjust Father that will not thus love his Child with such a prudent severity rather than undo him by a foolish indulgence yet how wide a difference is there in these cases And how
their causes that were holy men and such as could not be imagined to have a design to deceive especially the things which they delivered being such as exposed them to danger and trouble and were not likely to bring them any advantage in the World Or should Moses or one of the Prophets or Apostles arise from the dead tell us they did indeed live here upon the earth in such times and preach such Doctrine and work such miracles yea and they have found since their Death that those things which they Prophecyed or Preached are true they see those who obeyed their word triumphing in Heaven and those who contemned it tormented in Hell might we not as easily suspect that this might be some Spirit which appeared in their shape to delude us as that the Jews who are Enemies to the Christian Religion should devise a writing and disperse it abroad in the World which should so plainly confirm the Christian Religion as the Old Testament doth which is at this day owned among the Jews or that those Antient Writers should conspire together to deceive the World in recording the same things which we find in Scripture or that the Scriptures should be translated into so many languages and dispersed all the World over so soon after the Apostles times and none be so false to the divulgers of it or so true to the World as to give notice of it if it were a forgery or that these things should be recorded in the Roman Registers and the acts of their Senate to which Tertullian durst appeal if there had been no such thing This one thing would I learn should one come to us as from the dead in the likenesse of Alexander Caesar William the Conqueror Wickliff Luther Calvin and tell us in sober sadnesse that they were such a one that lived in such a time did such things Preached such Doctrine whether should we believe such a Testimony sooner than the unanimous consent of History concerning them and those Books and Writings which are generally received as the works of such Men If any shall say that Turks and Heathens are as confident of the truth of that Religion which they were brought up in as we are of the truth of ours I answer they have not like ground for their confidence as for the Heathens what became of their Gods their Oracles when the Hebrew Child was born and when the Gospel began to spread in the World Compare the miracles wherewith other Religions have been confirmed with those wherewith the Gospel hath been confirmed and see whether they be so many so confessedly above the power of Nature or Art so evidently wrought in the sight of all as those whereby the Christian Religion hath been confirmed What is the reason that the Turks admit no enquiry or dispute about matters of Religion but require an implicite Faith Truth seeks no corners error shuns the light Examine the Laws of Turks and Pagans whether there be that Purity Equity Wisdom consonancy to right reason and the light of Nature in them which is to be found in the Scriptures Examine the ways and means by which they have been propagated whether they have reached any further than their Swords have made way for them whether the Weapons of their warfare were spiritual or carnal whereas the Gospel prevailed through the evidence and power of the Spirit against the pretended authority of the Jews the Wisdom and learning of the Grecians the power and force of the Romans and Fishermen were too hard for Rabbies Philosophers Judges Generals Armies If any object the improbability of some things delivered in Scripture I shall only propound whether there be not some things which we are fully assured of either by experiments or Mathematical demonstration which to others seem as improbable as any thing in the Scripture seems to us and shall we not grant God to be as much wiser than our selves as we are wiser than other Men and suppose he could as easily convince us of those things which now seem impossible to us as we can convince others of those things which they cannot at present believe And if the seeming contradictions that are in Scripture be urged to weaken the authority of them they are rather an argument of the integrity and sincerity of the Penmen and their leaving things so securely which do not at first sight seem to accord with other Scriptures shews clearly they had no Plot to deceive the World otherwise they would have conspired to make their testimonies agree in words more exactly yet upon examination of the matter and considering the several circumstances of time place Persons scope occasion the several uses of the same word and phrase the latitude which all Authors use in their writings the several places and Persons of the same name the several names given to the same place or Person the shortnesse of Scripture History and supplying in one place what is wanting in another the attending rather to sence and substance than to words and phrases in citing Scripture we shall find that there is a very fair accord between those places which seem to be at the greatest variance and if we cannot reconcile all places yet if we consider that we have by attending to such things as I have mentioned already composed so many seeming differences we may conclude it is from our own ignorance that we cannot compose the rest and that there is yet somewhat else that we are ignorant of which if we could find out we might as easily reconcile the rest which at present seem most irreconcilable and it is obvious to every one how many difficulties and contradictions seem to be in every Science while Men are but smatterers in it which presently vanish as soon as they come more perfectly to understand it But now if this objection be framed against the differences which are among Christians which professe the Gospel I will by the way observe this that differences do most abound where men upon serious apprehensions of the weight and importance of the matters of faith do diligently apply themselves to understand themselves the mysteries of the Gospel and to see with their own eyes being affraid to be deceived in matters of such moment by depending upon the testimony of others and unwilling to lose their Souls and Heaven and God to save the labour of searching after truth and in those Nations where I have had opportunity to be conversant I have found most differences amongst them which have been most addicted to Religion and most sollicitous about the condition of their souls and most agreement amongst them which have contented themselves to follow others by an implicit faith without troubling themselves much to search after truth and where there hath been such a coldnesse and indifferency in matters of Religion that all have quietly accorded together as the Philosophers observe that cold doth congregate Heterogeneal things or such things as are of different kinds making them all