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A66603 A discourse of religion shewing its truth and reality, or, The suitableness of religion to humane nature by William Wilson ... Wilson, William, Rector of Morley. 1694 (1694) Wing W2953; ESTC R13694 77,545 146

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may be managed by other Heads and Hands than our own and although a Man be wholly careless himself yet his Affairs may thrive in the Hands of a trusty and faithfull Servant But as to Religion it is of that Concernment to us that it is impossible any Man should improve in it or be the better for it who does not take it into his own Hands and give all Diligence to make his Calling and Election sure There is no qualifying our selves for Heaven by a Proxy no adorning our Souls by the Vertues and Graces of a Friend or a Servant no satisfying God for the Neglect of our Duty by the Merits of a Saint but either we must labour for our selves and be industrious to add to our Faith all the Vertues of Religion or the Nakedness and Poverty of our Souls will be our everlasting Shame And what is it that we will be industrious in if not in that Imployment which God has made us for and which we must live and prosper Eternally by Is there any thing that it can with more Reason be expected that we should be diligent in than our own Business Or is there any Affair more pressing and urgent upon us any that it half so much concerns us to attend to as that upon which the Honour of our Nature and the well being both of our Souls and Bodies both in this Life and that which is to come depends To say of any thing that it is our Business does imply that we are fitted and designed for it that we throughly understand the Mysteries of it and that we husband our time as well as we can in prosecuting the great Ends of it This we know is the meaning of our having any thing for our Imployment And if it be Religion alone that our Reason has a respect to this ought to be as much our Imployment as any of those Callings whereby we maintain our Mortal lives And were we but as sensible of the Necessity and great Concernment of our Spiritual as we are of our Temporal Affairs what Noble Improvements might we make what Treasures might we lay up in Heaven and what excellent Persons should we make our selves How little Prophaneness and Debauchery how few Tricks and crafty Devices How little Strife and Contentious Animosities would trouble the World Nay how much would the fear of God then influence us and the consideration of his Presence and Majesty awe and make us afraid of offending him How should we court his Favour by frequenting the place where his Honour dwells and by paying a due veneration and regard to every thing that has a relation to him by honouring his Sabbaths revering his Word and in Supplication and Prayer by expressing our dependance upon him With how much Love and Good-nature Simplicity and Integrity Justice and Honesty Faith and Truth would Men converse with each other and how much of Heaven should we have here below We daily see how industrious Men that design to live and make themselves usefull Members in a Society are in managing their affairs when any business is before us with what care and thoughtfulness do we contrive and project the compassing it to our advantage And when we have the prospect of some gain before us how little do we grudge the pains and labour the difficulties and hardships it puts us to We then sit up late and rise early and neither dread ill ways nor hard weather but with a great deal of chearfulness undertake tiresome Journeys and dangerous Voyages for the sake of the advantage we have in our Eye All this we do and suffer for the sake of our Bodies And did we love our Souls as well we should be as hearty in the practice of all the Duties of Religion And for the better promoting so good a work let us consider these Two things 1. That Religion is the easiest Employment we have It will 't is true take up all our Time and employ all our Faculties but it will never be a burden to us Men that favour their Lusts may complain of difficulties and 't is certain that Religion is severe enough upon the Lusts of our Flesh which it commands us to crucifie and destroy But all this implies no more than this That it is a difficult yea an impossible thing for Men that serve their Lusts to serve the living God But after all let but any Man consider the Nature of all the Duties of Religion and he will find such a gratefulness of them to the Reason of his own Mind so much comfort and satisfaction to his Conscience to issue from them as will force him to declare that it is the best and easiest the most delightfull and ingenuous Employment that a Man can possibly take to For it commands us to do nothing but what our own Reason does and to avoid nothing but what our own Consciences abhorr And is it a hard thing for a Man to live according to the Laws of his own Mind and to follow the Dictates of his own Conscience and in all he does to consider that he is a Man and that his own Reason ought to govern him Is it a grievous thing for a Man not to wound his Conscience not to fill his Soul with vexation and horrour Is it I say an uneasie Employment to take care that there be nothing in our Conversation but what is gracefull and comely what will render us beloved of God and Man and what will fill us with joy unspeakable Surely if any thing be easie for us to do it is that which we are peculiarly made for and which the joy and comfort the ease and satisfaction the pleasure and happiness of our whole Nature depends on 2. That it will be infinitely satisfactory to us at the last to consider that we have been employ'd in the business of our lives The time will come when we shall know that Religion is our business That time I mean when we shall so far return to our selves as to be sensible that we are something more than Brutes and that our Happiness does not lie in the gratifying the Appetites of a mortal Body And then when those that have been negligent and careless of every thing but a Body that is going to its Grave will be seiz'd with sad remorse and fill'd with confusion the Religious Man will look over a well-spent Life with great content and delight Surely St. Paul felt a wonderfull satisfaction in his Mind when he could say I am ready to be offer'd and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will give me at the last day 2 Tim. 4.6 7 8. This is the comfortable issue of a Religious Life It gives a Man peace at the last and having all his time been well employ'd in the Duties of his Calling he has no sorrowfull Reflections to make but nothing else to do but to die and to receive his reward But with wicked Men it is quite otherwise For they have all their business lying upon their hands when they are called upon to bring in their accounts And how uncomfortable a thing will it be then to them to consider how much work they have made themselves by fixing ill Habits in their Minds and turning their whole Nature out of course by accustoming themselves to do Evil How dolefull a thing to look upon the disorders of their Souls the wast of their Time their abuse of Grace and above all their contempt of those fair warnings that have been given them Then will their Hell begin when they see their Souls so eaten out of heart with Sin that they neither have Skill nor Time to remedy it Let us then be so wise as to prevent all this mischief by making use of Time and Opportunity and working while it is day that when the night comes wherein no Man can work we may not be found barren and unfruitfull I shall conclude this Discourse with St. Peter's Exhortation 2 Epist 1.10 11. Wherefore the rather or above all things Brethren give diligence to make your calling and election sure For if ye do these things ye shall never fall For so an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ FINIS ERRATA PAge 6. Line 6. for belches Read fetches P. 14. Marg. r. Offic. P. 31. l. 17. for hearty r. hasty P. 67. l. 10. for hearty r. hasty Now in the Press A Discourse of the Resurrection shewing the Import and the Certainty of it By the same Author
ERRATA PAge 3. line 6. for aed read and p. 6. l. 22. a comma only p. 11. l. 22. r. effectual p. 17. l. 28. for dispose r. depose p. 18. l. 26. for the r. their p. 19. l. 28. make a comma at Service l. 29. dele Semicolon p. 33. l. 1. for motions r. motives p. 42. l. 15. for they r. thus p. 44. l. 25. for it is r. is it p. 55. l. 26. dele his p. 86. l. 26. for and r. but p. 89. l. 14. dele Colon p. 107. l. 12. after God add says he p. 145. l. 19. for it r. this p. 160. l. 28. for awfully r. lawfully p. 184. l. 20. for now r. more p. 188. l. 6. add what to the beginning of the line p. 189. l. 14. r. Martyr p. 190. l. 26. r. contradistinction p. 194. l. 15. for principal r. principle p. 196. l. 2. after Kingdom add or p. 103. l. 23. for viz. that r. and p. 196. l. 26. add to in the beginning of the line p. 57. l. 12. for we r. he in the running Title of Chap. 8. for of r. upon p. 141. l. 5. add For if Arguments drawn from Natural Reason have no force of themselves to prove a God antecedent to Divine Revelation I do not see how they can have any afterwards and if they be such as any ways depend upon Divine Revelation so far will they be of less force to convince an Atheist A DISCOURSE OF RELIGION SHEWING Its Truth and Reality OR The Suitableness of Religion to Humane Nature By WILLIAM WILSON M. A. Rector of Morley in Derbyshire IMPRIMATUR Martii 30 ●● 1694. Ra. Barker LONDON Printed by J. H. for William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet MDCXCIV Introduction RELIGION is so favourable to all our Interests that it is justly matter of amazement to all good Men that ever any Man should attempt the discrediting it For at the same time that any kind of injury is offer'd to it the Happiness of Mankind is struck at and no Man can bring it into any disgrace but to his own infinite detriment and mischief And yet so far is Humane Nature corrupted with base Lusts that for the sake and quiet enjoyment of them Men care not what Violence they offer to that which in Interest they are chiefly bound to support and without which it is impossible they should enjoy any of that peace and security which are the necessary comforts of this life It is possible indeed that many of those that do wickedly may have no profess'd ill design against Religion nor have gone so far as to disown it or ridicule the profession of it but yet all kind of Wickedness does bring an ill report upon it and a wicked life is such a denial of its Truth and Reality as leaves no room to believe that they can be heartily persuaded of their Obligation to practise it who live in a contradiction to its Principles To live as if there was no God is certainly as bad as to declare we believe there is none And he is as great an Enemy to Religion who lives as if it was a cheat as he who is so ingenuous to own he believes it to be so Nay of the two it is much the worse to pay so little respect to a Being whom we believe to deserve our highest reverence and spightfully to break through the Rules of Religion which we profess we have no reason to despise than to slight and vilifie them because we look upon them to be no better than the jugglings of an Impostour For let us but bring the matter a little home to our selves and try how we brook the Enmity of a Man who while he fairly tells us he has no just exception against us yet at every turn is as spightfull and injurious to us as the most profess'd Enemy we have Should we not resent his wrongs and affronts the more deeply and account him a more ill natur'd Enemy than he who openly declares his spight Should we not roundly tell him that if he has no reason to treat us hardly he ought to behave himself more civilly and that the less we have deserv'd his spight the greater is the wrong that he does us That by such an unhandsome carriage he gives the World an occasion to believe that we have some way or other deserved ill of him and that his professing the contrary is rather an argument of the goodness of his temper than a proof of ours This is the judgment that every considering Man will pass upon the behaviour of those that profess to believe the Excellency of Religion and yet in Works deny it For if Religion be that excellent and noble thing that they believe it is they have so much the less reason to dishonour it and to endeavour to bring contempt upon it by so notorious a disrespect to its holy Rules Neither could they possibly do so much injury to it by believing as they live as they do by living otherwise than they believe For a Man's belief lies so secret and his practice is so visible that every Man will be apt to take his judgment concerning the Truth of Religion from what they see him to be rather than from what he professes to believe So that while such a Man professes not to have the same reason to discredit Religion as the Atheist will seem to have the difference that is in their Faith does make so much the worse for him that believes well and yet lives the life of an Atheist For every Man that lives as if there was no such thing as Religion may as well nay ought to believe as the Atheist does They both are thus far Enemies to the Truth of Religion that the Atheist believes it to be a cheat and the other lives as if it was so But however the wickedness of those that believe the Truth of Religion be in these respects equally spightfull if not more injurious to its reputation than that of the Atheist yet there is this difference in their cases that the former lies open to the force of all those arguments that the Being of a God the Immortality of the Soul a Judgment to come and a future state of Rewards and Punishments do furnish us with but the latter does not For he that believes these things has a great deal of reason to be astonish'd at his way of living and so no doubt but he will when he comes seriously to think of it But for the Atheist there is no likelihood that these things should work upon him who has this ready answer to all that can be objected to him from these Principles That they are all Lyes and Forgeries That the World has been long imposed upon by these silly dreams but for his part he is the happy Man that has discover'd the cheat He then that will persuade the Atheist that he lives ill must convince him that he is mistaken in his belief and