Rom. 1.16 18. because therein the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that if we call our selves Christians we profess to embrace the holy doctrine of the Christian Religion which is perfectly opposite to all impiety and wickedness of life We profess to be governed by those laws which do strictly enjoyn holiness and vertue We profess to be perswaded that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel are true which offer such great and glorious rewards to obedience and threaten transgression and disobedience with such dreadfull punishments And if so we are obliged both by our reason and our interest to live accordingly 2. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to live in the imitation of Christ's example and to follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Son of God came into the world not onely by his Doctrine to instruct us in the way to happiness and by his death to make expiation of sin but by his life to be an example to us of holiness and vertue Therefore in Scripture we find several Titles given him which import his exemplariness as of a Prince and a Captain a Master and a Guide Now if he be our pattern we should endeavour to be like him to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to walk in love as he also hath loved us and given himself for us We should aspire after the highest degree of holiness make it our constant and sincere endeavour to please God and do his will and to fulfill all righteousness as he did Does any man profess himself a Christian and yet abandons himself to intemperance and filthy lusts is this like our Saviour Are we cruel and unmercifull is this like the High Priest of our profession Are we proud and passionate malicious and revengefull is this to be like-minded with Christ who was meek and lowly in Spirit who prayed for his enemies and offer'd up his blood to God on the behalf of them that shed it If we call our selves Christians we profess to have the life of Christ continually before us and to be always correcting and reforming our lives by that pattern 3. He that calls himself a Christian hath solemnly engaged himself to renounce all sin and to live a holy life By Baptism we have solemnly taken upon us the profession of Christianity and engaged our selves to renounce the Devil and all his works and obediently to keep God's commandments Anciently those who were baptized put off their garments which signified the putting off the body of sin and were immers'd and buried in the water to represent their death of sin and then did rise up again out of the water to signifie their enterance upon a new life And to these customs the Apostle alludes when he says How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 6. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we might not serve sin So that by Baptism we profess to be entered into a new state and to be endued with a new nature to have put off the old man with his deeds to have quitted our former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And therefore Baptism is called the putting on of Christ Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now if we profess to have put on Christ we must quit and renounce our lusts because these are inconsistent as appears by the opposition which the Apostle makes between them Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 And as we did solemnly covenant with God to this purpose in Baptism so we do solemnly renew this obligation so often as we receive the blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood Therefore the cup in the Sacrament is called the new Covenant in his Blood that is this represents the shedding of Christ's blood by which rite the covenant between God and man is ratified And as by this God doth confirm his promises to us so we do oblige our selves to be faithfull and obedient to him and if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is after we are become Christians we account the blood of the Covenant a common thing that is we make nothing of the solemnest rite that ever was used in the world for confirmation of any covenant the shedding of the blood of the son of God And that this was always understood to be the meaning of this holy Sacrament to renew our Covenant with God and solemnly to confirm our resolutions of a holy life is very plain from that account which Pliny * Plin. Epist L. 10. Epist 97. gives us of the worship of the Christians in a Letter to Trajan the Emperour in which he tells him that they assembled early in the morning before day to sing a Hymn to Christ as God and then saith he they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves by a sacrament or oath not to rob or steal or commit adultery not to break their word or falsisie their trust and after they have eaten together they depart home Which is plainly an account of the Christians celebrating of the holy Sacrament which it seems was then look'd upon as an oath whereby Christians did solemnly covenant and engage themselves against all wickedness and vice Thus you see what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon us to holiness of life From all which it is evident that the Gospel requires something on our part For the Covenant between God and us is a mutual engagement and as there are blessings promised on his part so there are conditions to be performed on ours And if we live wicked and unholy lives if we neglect our duty towords God we have no title at all to the blessings of this Covenant The contrary doctrine to this hath been greedily entertained to the vast prejudice of Christianity as if in this new Covenant of the Gospel God took all upon himself and required nothing or as good as nothing of us that it would be a disparagement to the freedom of God's grace to think he expects any thing
to Religion Religion is against them and therefore they set themselves against Religion The principles of Religion and the doctrines of the holy Scriptures are terrible enemies to wicked men they are continnually flying in their faces and galling their consciences And this is that which makes them kick against Religion and spurn at the doctrines of that holy Book And this may probably be one reason why many men who are observed to be sufficiently dull in other matters yet can talk prophanely and speak against Religion with some kind of salt and smartness because Religion is the thing that frets them and as in other things so in this vexatio dat intellectum the inward trouble and vexation of their minds gives them some kind of wit and sharpness in rallying upon Religion Their consciences are galled by it and this makes them winch and fling as if they had some metal For let men pretend what they will there is no ease and comfort of mind to be had from atheistical principles 'T is found by experience that none are more apprehensive of danger or more fearfull of death than this sort of men Even when they are in prosperity they ever and anon feel many inward stings and lashes but when any great affliction or calamity overtakes them they are the most poor spirited creatures in the whole world The sum is the true reason why any man is an Atheist is because he is a wicked man Religion would curb him in his lusts and therefore he casts it off and puts all the scorn upon it he can Besides that men think it some kind of apology for their vices that they do not act contrary to any principle they profess Their practice is agreeable to what they pretend to believe and so they think to vindicate themselves and their own practices by laughing at those for fools who believe any thing to the contrary III. The third thing I propounded was to represent to you the heinousness and the aggravations of this vice And to make this out we will make these three suppositions which are as many as the thing will bear 1. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false 2. Suppose the matter were doubtfull and the arguments equal on both sides 3. Suppose it certain that there is a God and that the principles of Religion are true Put the case how we will I shall shew that the humour is intolerable I. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false Not that there is any reason for such a supposition but onely to shew the unreasonableness of this humour Put the case that these men were in the right in denying the principles of Religion and that all that they pretend were true yet so long as the generality of mankind believes the contrary it is certainly a great rudeness or incivility at least to deride and scoff at these things Indeed upon this supposition there could be no such thing as sin but yet it would be a great offence against the laws of civil conversation Suppose then the Atheist were wiser than all the world and that he did upon good grounds know that all mankind besides himself and two or three more were mistaken about the matters of Religion yet if he were either so wise or so civil as he should be he would keep all this to himself and not affront other men about these things I remember that that Law which God gave to the people of Israel Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy people is rendred by Josephus in a very different sense What other nations account Gods let no man blaspheme And this is not so different from the Hebrew as at first sight one would imagine for the same Hebrew word signifies both Gods and Rulers But whether this be the meaning of that Law or not there is a great deal of reason in the thing For though every man have a right in dispute against a false Religion and to urge it with all its absurd and ridiculous consequences as the Ancient Fathers did in their disputes with the Heathen yet it is a barbarous incivility for any man scurrilously to make sport with that which others account Religion not with any design to convince their reason but onely to provoke their rage But now the Atheist can pretend no obligation of conscience why he should so much as dispute against the principles of Religion much less deride them He that pretends to any Religion may pretend conscience for opposing a contrary Religion But he that denies all Religion can pretend no conscience for any thing A man may be obliged indeed in reason and common humanity to free his neighbour from a hurtfull error but supposing there were no God this notion of a Deity and the Principles of Religion have taken such deep root in the mind of man that either they are not to be extinguished or if they be it would be no kindness to any man to endeavour it for him because it is not to be done but with so much trouble and violence that the remedy would be worse than the disease For if this notion of a Deity be founded in a natural fear it is in vain to attempt to expell it for whatever violence may be offer'd to nature by endeavouring to reason men into a contrary perswasion nature will still recoil and at last return to it self and then the fear will be augmented from the apprehension of the dangerous consequences of such an impiety So that nothing can create more trouble to a man than to endeavour to dispossess him of this conceit because nature is but irritated by the contest and the man's fears will be doubled upon him But if we suppose this apprehension of a Deity to have no foundation in nature but to have had its rise from tradition which hath been confirmed in the world by the prejudice of education the difficulty of removing it will almost be as great as if it were natural that which men take in by education being next to that which is natural And if it could be extinguish't yet the advantage of it will not recompence the trouble of the cure For except the avoiding of persecution for Religion there is no advantage that the principles of Atheism if they could be quietly setled in a man's mind can give him The advantage indeed that men make of them is to give themselves the liberty to do what they please to be more sensual and more unjust than other men that is they have the priviledge to surfeit themselves and to be sick oftner than other men and to malte mankind their enemy by their unjust and dishonest actions and consequently to live more uneasily in the world than other men So that the principles of Religion the belief of a God and another life by obliging men to be vertuous do really promote their temporal happiness And all the priviledge that Atheism pretends
to is to let men loose to vice which is naturally attended with temporal inconveniences And if this be true then the Atheist cannot pretend this Reason of charity to mankind which is the onely one I can think of to dispute against Religion much less to rally upon it For it is plain that it would be no kindness to any man to be undeceived in these principles of Religion supposing they were false Because the principles of Religion are so far from hindering that they promote a man's happiness even in this world and as to the other world there can be no inconvenience in the mistake for when a man is not it will be no trouble to him that he was once deceived about these matters And where no obligation of conscience nor of reason can be pretended there certally the laws of civility ought to take place Now men do profess to believe that there is a God and that the common principles of Religion are true and to have a great veneration for these things Can there then be a greater insolence than for a man when he comes into company to rally and fall soul upon those things for which he knows the company have a reverence Can one man offer a greater affront to another than to expose to scorn him whom he owns and declares to be his best friend the patron of his life and the greatest benefactor he hath in the world And doth not every man that owns a God say this of him But when the generality of Mankind are of the same opinion the rudeness is still the greater So that whoever doth openly contemn God and Religion does delinquere in majestatem populi humani generis ' he does offend against the majesty of the People and that reverence which is due to the common apprehensions of Mankind whether they be true or not which is the greatest incivility that can be imagin'd This is the first consideration and it is the least that I have to urge in this matter But yet I have insisted the longer upon it because it is such a one as ought especially to prevail upon those whom I am afraid are too often guilty of this vice I mean those who are of better breeding because they pretend to understand the laws of behaviour and the decencies of conversation better than other men 2. Supposing it were doubtful whether there be a God or not and whether the Principles of Religion were true or not and that the Arguments were equal on both Sides yet it would be a great folly to deride these things And here I suppose as much as the Atheist can with any colour of reason pretend to For no man ever yet pretended to demonstrate that there is no God nor no life after this For these being pure negatives are capable of no proof unless a man could shew them to be plainly impossible The utmost that is pretended is that the arguments that are brought for these things are not sufficient to convince But if they were onely probable so long as no arguments are produced to the contrary that cannot in reason be denied to be a great advantage But I will for the present suppose the probabilities equal on both sides And upon this supposition I doubt not to make it appear to be a monstrous folly to deride these things Because though the arguments on both sides were equal yet the danger and hazard is infinitely unequal If it prove true that there is no God the religious man may be as happy in this world as the atheist nay the principles of Religion and Vertue do in their own nature tend to make him happier Because they give satisfaction to his mind and his conscience by this means is freed from many fearful girds and twinges which the Atheist feels Besides that the practice of Religion and vertue doth naturally promote our temporal felicity It is more for a man's health and more for his reputation and more for his advantage in all other worldly respects to lead a vertuous than a vitious course of life And for the other world if there be no God the case of the religious man and the Atheist will be alike because they will both be extinguisht by death and insensible of any farther happiness or misery But then if the contrary opinion should prove true that there is a God and that the souls of men are transmitted out of this world into the other there to receive the just reward of their actions Then it is plain to every man at first sight that the case of the religious man and the Atheist must be vastly different Then where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear And what think we shall be the portion of those who have affronted God and derided his word and made a mock of every thing that is sacred and religious What can they expect but to be rejected by him whom they have renounced and to feel the terrible effects of that power and Justice which they have despised So that though the arguments on both sides were equal yet the danger is not so On the one side there is none at all but 't is infinite on the other And consequently it must be a monstrous folly for any man to make a mock of those things which he knows not whether they be or not and if they be of all things in the world they are no jesting matters 3. Suppose there be a God and that the principles of Religion are true then is it not onely a heinous impiety but a perfect madness to scoff at these things And that there is a God and that the Principles of Religion are true I have already in my former discourse endeavoured to prove both from the things which are made and from the general consent of mankind in these principles of which universal consent no sufficient Reason can be given unless they were true And supposing they are so it is not onely the utmost pitch of impiety but the highest flight of folly that can be imagined to deride these things To be disobedient to the commands of God is a great contempt but to deny his Being and to make sport with his word and to endeavour to render it ridiculous by turning the wise and weighty sayings of that Holy Book into raillery is a most direct affront to the God that is above Thus the Psalmist describes these atheistical persons as levelling their blasphemies immediately against the majesty of heaven They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth they do mischief among men but the affront is immediately to God Besides that this prophane spirit is an argument of a most incorrigible temper The Wise man every where speaks of the scorner as one of the worst sort of sinners and hardest to be reclaimed because he despiseth instruction and mocks at all the means whereby he should be reformed And then is it not a most black and horrid ingratitude
reason spoils his understanding and helps to make himself a fool whereas he that conquers his passions and keeps them under doth thereby preserve and improve his understanding Freedom from irregular passions doth not onely signifie that a man is wise but really contributes to the making of him such 2. Religion tends to the ease and pleasure the peace and tranquillity of our minds wherein happiness chiefly consists and which all the wisdom and Philosophy of the world did always aim at as the utmost felicity of this life And that this is the natural fruit of a religious and vertuous course of life the Scripture declares to us in these Texts Psal 97.11 Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Great peace have all they that love thy Law Psal 119.165 and nothing shall offend them Her ways are ways of pleasantness Pro. 3.17 and all her paths are peace Isa 32.17 The fruit of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever The plain sense of which Texts is that pleasure and peace do naturally result from a holy and good life When a man hath once engag'd himself in a Religious course and is habituated to piety and holiness all the exercises of Religion and devotion all acts of goodness and vertue are delightfull to him To honour and worship God to pray to him and to praise him to study his will to meditate upon him and to love him all these bring great pleasure and peace along with them What greater contentment and satisfaction can there be to the mind of man when it is once purifi'd and refin'd from the dregs of sensual pleasures and delights and rais'd to its true height and pitch than to contemplate and admire the infinite excellencies and perfections of God to adore his greatness and to love his goodness How can the thoughts of God be troublesome to any one who lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world No man that loves goodness and righteous ness hath any reason to be afraid of God or to be disquieted with the thoughts of him There is nothing in God that is terrible to a good man but all the apprehensions which we naturally have of him speak comfort and promise happiness to such a one The consideration of his attributes is so far from being a trouble to him that it is his recreation and delight It is for wicked men to dread God and to endeavour to banish the thoughts of him out of their minds but a holy and vertuous man may have quiet and undisturb'd thoughts even of the justice of God because the terrour of it doth not concern him Now Religion doth contribute to the peace and quiet of our minds these two ways First By allaying those passions which are apt to ruffle and discompose our spirits Malice and hatred wrath and revenge are very fretting and vexatious and apt to make our minds sore and uneasie but he that can moderate these affections will find a strange ease and pleasure in his own spirit Secondly by freeing us from the anxieties of guilt and the fears of divine wrath and displeasure than which nothing is more stinging and tormenting and renders the life of man more miserable and unquiet And whaâ— a spring of peace and joy must it needs be to apprehend upon good grounds that God is reconcil'd to us and become our friend that all our sins are perfectly forgiven and shall never more be remembred against us What unexpressible comfort does overflow the pious and devout soul from the remembrance of a holy and well-spent life and a conscience of its own innocency and integrity And nothing but the practice of Religion and Vertue can give this ease and satisfaction to the mind of man For there is a certain kind of temper and disposition which is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds and consequently to our happiness and that is holiness and goodness which as it is the perfection so is it likewise the happiness of the Divine nature And on the contrary the chief part of the misery of wicked men and of those accursed spirits the Devils is this that they are of a disposition contrary to God they are envious and malicious and cruel and of such a temper as is naturally a torment and disquiet to it self And here the foundation of Hell is laid in the evil disposition of mens minds and till this be cur'd which can onely be done by Religion it is as impossible for a man to be happy that is pleas'd and contented within himself as it is for a sick man to be at ease Because such a man hath that within him which torments him and he cannot be at ease till that be remov'd The man's spirit is out of order and off the hinges and till that be put into its right frame he will be perpetually disquieted and can find no rest within himself The Prophet very fitly describes to us the unquiet condition of wicked men Isa 57.10.21 The wicked is like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked So long as sin and corruption abound in our hearts they will be restlesly working like wine which will be in a perpetual motion and agitation till it have purg'd it self of its dregs and foulness Secondly Religion does likewise tend to the happiness of the outward man Now the blessings of this kind are such as either respect our health or estate or reputation or relations and in respect of all these Religion is highly advantageous to us 1. As to our health a Religious and vertuous life doth eminently conduce to that and to long life as a consequent of it And in this sense I understand these following Texts Prov. 3.1 2. My Son forget not my Law but let thy heart keep my Commandments for length of days and long life shall they add to thee and v. 7 and 8. Fear the Lord and depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones and v. 16. among the temporal advantages of wisdom or Religion this is mention'd as the first and principal length of days is in her right hand and v. 18. she is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her and again Whoso findeth me findeth life but he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul Prov. 8.35 36. that is injurious to his own life all they that hate me love death all which is undoubtedly true in a spiritual sense but is certainly meant by Solomon in the natural sense And these promises of the blessings of health and long life to good men are not only declaratory of the good pleasure and intention of God towards them but likewise of the natural tendency of the thing For Religion doth oblige men to the practice of those vertues which do in their