their Religion a Sanctuary for their Treasons and Rebellions others gilding over their Faction and Sedition with a specious Pretence of zeal for Gods glory some prosecuting their own Revenge and Ambition under the Ensigns of pure Worship and true Protestant Religion others commuting for their Excesses of Riot with a clamorous zeal for Decency and Order and others picking Pockets with one hand while they have been lifting up the other to Heaven in Devotion the sight of which hath tempted the rude and unthinking Vulgar to look upon Religion as a mere Castle in the Air that hath no Foundation but in the Invention of Knaves and in the Faith of Fools NOW tho there is no doubt to be made but that these vile Hypocrites who have laid this Stumbling-block in mens way shall one day dearly answer for the ruin of those whom it hath occasioned to fall and for thus exposing the Credit and Reputation of Religion to the misprisions of those that do not understand it yet it is a most inexcusable piece of folly for men thus to infer Atheistical Conclusions from the ill Example of Hypocritical Professors For in the first place to conclude a Man an Infidel because his Actions run counter to the Faith he pretends to is very rash and fallacious For do we not see Men very often act against their Consciences and fly in the face of their own Convictions why may we not then as fairly suppose those wicked Actions we argue from to be the effects of an obstinate Will as of an Infidel Judgment but suppose it were true that those men were all Infidels that do thus act against their Faith doth it therefore follow that you must turn Infidels too if it be so unsafe and so unworthy of a man to carry his Brains in other Mens Heads what a shame is it to carry them in other Mens Heels and to suffer his Faith to be lead by the Tract of their Examples through all the wild Mazes of Irreligion and Atheism BUT you will say by these Mens Examples you plainly see what a Mystery of Iniquity there is in religious Pretences and what then must Religion be a Cheat because bad Men play tricks with it and make it a Cloak for their Knavery if so then the best things in the World are liable to Suspicion because there is nothing so good but what is capable of being prostituted to very ill purposes I confess when we see so many Cheats acted under the Masque of Religion we have just reason to call it to a more severe Examination and to inquire more narrowly into the Proofs and Evidences upon which it is founded but presently to reject Religion because Knaves and Hypocrites make bold to disguise themselves in it is every whit as absurd and ridiculous as if a man should deny that there is any such Virtue as Chastity in the World because there are common Prostitutes that pretend to it VIII ANOTHER cause of Atheism is Divisions and Schisms formed out of little Opinions in Religion For it is natural to men to place a great part of their Religion in those Opinions for whose sake they divide and separate from each other so that if hereafter they happen to be dissatisfied with those Opinions of which they are excessively fond at the present they will be under a great Temptation to suspect Religion it self as if that were as ill grounded as those little Opinions which they laid so great a stress on and so after they have run through several Sets of Opinions and in fine have discovered them to be all Delusions they are ready to conclude Religion it self to be nothing but a System of Lies and Impostures For as weak Heads when they perceive the Battlements shake are apt to suspect the Foundations so weak Understandings will be prone to suspect even the Fundamentals of of Religion when once they perceive those darling Notions totter which they have confidently presumed to superstruct thereupon AND upon this account I make no doubt but that the Irreligion of this Age is very much to be attributed to the Sects and Divisions of it For how many woful Examples have we of Persons who had once a great Zeal for and Satisfaction in Religion that upon their causeless Separation from the Churches Communion have run from Sect to Sect and from one extravagant Opinion to another till at last being convinced of the Cheats and Impostures of them all they have totally discarded Religion it self and made their last Resort into Atheism And as separating into Parties upon little Differences in Religion exposes the Separatists themselves to great Temptations to Atheism so it doth those also who are Indifferent on both sides and stand ingaged on neither part of the Separation For whilst these men behold the State of Religion thus miserably broken and divided and the Professors of it crumbled into so many Sects and Parties and each Party spitting Fire and Damnation at its Adversary so that if all say true or indeed any two of them in five hundred Sects which there are in the World and for all I know there may be five thousand it is five hundred to one but that every one is damn'd because every one damns all but it self and it self is damn'd by four hundred and ninty nine so that 't is a mighty Chance if in so great a Volly of Anathemaes which every one hath levelled at it any one escape When I say unengaged persons that are not able to distinguish between the disputable Opinions that constitute these Sects and the Necessaries and Essentials of Religion shall reflect upon this tumult and confusion of Faiths they will be apt to conclude without farther Inquiry that Religion it self is nothing but an infinite Maze of disputable Opinions wherein Men wander about in the dark and justle and rancounter one another without any certain Clew on either side to guide and direct their Inquiries under which Misapprehension they will either damn all Religion for a Cheat or hover about in eternal uncertainty not knowing where in so great a Confusion of Religions to fix and settle their Faith And hereunto I doubt not is to be attributed a great part of the Irreligion of this Age. For while some Men by running themselves out of Breath in pursuit of those Ignes fatui or New Lights that have broken and divided our Communion have at length quite tired out their Zeal and religious Pretences and so are at length lain down in the Mire of Irreligion and open Profaneness others by looking on and beholding the wild Divisions which these new Lights have made have been tempted to run away from Religion it self as if that were only a Labyrinth of uncertain Opinions contrived on purpose to distract and bewilder mens Brains NOW tho the Authors of these Divisions whosoever they are are doubtless highly accountable to God for all that Irreligion which attends them yet for Men from hence to draw Atheistical Conclusions
he hath not only revealed them together but also incorporated them into one Religion as it is now framed and constituted by this happy Conjunction of natural with revealed may be thus defined It is the Obligation of Rational Creatures to render such acts of Worship to God through Jesus Christ as he himself hath instituted and as are in their own Natures sutable to his Excellencies and their dependence upon him Where by acts of Worship I do not mean such only as are immediately directed to and terminated upon God as all those are which are contained in the first Table of the Decalogue but all those acts in general which God hath commanded which being performed upon a Religious account that is out of Homage and Obedience to Gods Will and Authority are as truly and properly acts of Worship to him as Prayer or Praise or Adjuration AND now having given this short account of the nature of Religion it will from hence be easie to collect what Principles are necessary to the founding and securing its Obligations for First GOD being the great Object of all Religion it must be absolutely necessary in order to our being truly Religious that we believe that God is Secondly RELIGION being an Obligation of us to God that this Obligation may take effect upon us it is necessary we should believe that he concerns himself about us and consequently that he Governs the World by his Providence Thirdly RELIGION obliging us to render all due acts of Worship to him to inforce this Obligation upon us it is necessary we should believe that he will certainly reward us if we render those acts to him and as certainly punish us if we do not Fourthly THESE acts of Worship which Religion obliges us to being such as are suitable to the Excellency of Gods Nature to enable us to fulfil this Obligation it is necessary we should have right Apprehensions of the Nature of God Fifthly RELIGION obliging us to render all these Acts of Worship to God in and through Jesus Christ to our performing this it is necessary we should believe in his Mediation THESE are the great Principles in which all the Obligations of Religion are founded and therefore in order to the through fixing those Obligations upon mens Minds it will be necessary before we proceed to the particular Duties which Religion obliges us to to discourse of these Principles distinctly CHAP. III. Of the necessity of believing that God is in order to Mens being truly Religious HE that cometh unto God saith the Apostle must believe that God is Heb. 11.6 where by coming to God is meant worshiping him that is expressing our Veneration of and Affection to him by outward and visible Signs and Actions and unless our outward Actions in Religion proceed from an inward Veneration of and Affection to him they are not Worship but Mockery but how is it possible a man should inwardly venerate God when he believes there is no such Being in the World For how real soever any thing may be in it self if we believe it is not it is to us as if it were not and therefore tho God doth so necessarily exist as that he cannot but be the very Notion of him implying an infinite Distance from not being yet while we believe he is not our Thoughts can be no more concern'd about him than about purchasing an Inheritance in Vtopia So that this Proposition that God is is the prime Fundamental of all Religion and if this be removed Religion must sink and all its Sacred Obligations fly in sunder But this is so self-evident that it would be very impertinent to insist upon the Proof of it All that I shall do therefore in pursuance of this Argument shall be to endeavour to establish the Belief of this fundamental Truth upon which all Religion depends and that First by inquiring into and removing the Causes of mens Infidelity in this matter Secondly by representing the Folly and Vnreasonableness of it For as for the Proofs and Evidences of Gods Being I shall reserve them till I come to discourse of his Providence where I think there is enough said to satisfie any Man that is not desperately hardned against all Conviction SECT I. Of the Causes of Atheism shewing the great Absurdity and Unreasonableness of them CONSIDERING how loudly the Voice of Nature the Consent of Nations and the beautiful Structure and Contrivance of things do proclaim the Being of God one would think it impossible there should be any such Monster as an Atheist among reasonable Beings and indeed it hath been warmly disputed among the Learned whether there be any such or no A Question which these later Ages have determined in the Affirmative by an Induction of too many woful Instances But doubtless had men impartially attended to the Dictates of Reason and not delivered themselves up to the Infatuations of their Lusts and the inveterate Prejudice of a corrupt Imagination it would have been impossible for so many gross Absurdities as Atheism implies to have entred into their minds but when once mens Wills and Affections have espoused a Proposition they will make one shift or other be it never so absurd to impose it on their Vnderstandings and considering how many Causes there are leading men to Atheism who are predisposed thereunto I cannot think an Atheist to be so great a Wonder For so long as mens Vnderstandings are led by their Wills and their Wills are byassed with inclinations to Impiety they can hardly forbear wishing there were no God and then from wishing there were none to believing there is none will be a very short and easie Transition Since therefore their Atheism proceeds not so much from the Defect of their Reason as from the fault of their Wills perhaps the most effectual way to cure it is rather to detect and remove those faulty Causes in their Wills than to attempt upon their Reason with the Proofs and Demonstrations of a Deity And accordingly you see that when God had once erected this goodly Theatre of Beings and imprinted on it so many glorious Characters of his own Power and Wisdom and Goodness tho from time to time he hath wrought innumerable Miracles to reduce men from Superstition Idolatry and Wickedness yet he never wrought one to reduce them from Atheism And indeed to what purpose should he it being highly improbable that they who will not be convinc'd of the Being of God by this standing Miracle the World in which there are so many ample Demonstrations of his Being should be convinc'd of it by any other Miracles for other Miracles are only the Disorders and Interruptions of Nature and certainly the regular Course and standing Order of Nature is a much more glorious Evidence of Gods Wisdom and Power than the most miraculous Interruptions and Disorders of it And therefore if men will be Atheists notwithstanding God hath imprinted so many Proofs of his Being on this visible Creation 't is plain it is
THE Christian Life PART II. Wherein the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF Christian Duty Are assigned explained and proved VOLUME I. BY JOHN SCOTT Rector of St. Peters Poor London LONDON Printed for Robert Horn at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-head in in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1685. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE AND Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London And one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council c. My Lord I Here present to your Lordship the first Volume of a second Part of that Treatise of Christian Life which I published some years since and which under the Protection of your Venerable Name hath found good acceptance with the World and to make an ingenuous confession to your Lordship my design in this second Dedication is not purely to render you the due Respects of a Presbyter to his Diocesan nor to tender those just Acknowledgments I ow to your Lordship for the happiness I have enjoy'd with the rest of your Clergy under the auspicious Influence of your serene and watchful Government no nor yet to express the grateful sense I have and shall always retain of the personal Obligations you have laid upon me no my Lord though these were all of them sufficient Inducements yet I confess that together with these I had a certain Politick end in my eye For I thank God I can truly say my main Design in composing this Treatise was to benefit the World but reflecting upon the manifold defects it abounds with after all the pains I had bestowed upon it I found that to palliate its internal blemishes it was but needful to grace it with some external Ornament and could think of none so proper for my purpose as this of affixing your Lordships Name to it a Name that carries with it power enough to recommend any thing to the World that is but pious and honest and well-designed and all that I am sure this is how defective soever it be in other respects which together with the experience I have had of the great candor and benignity of your Lordships temper gives me encouragement to hope that you will not only accept but approve it and then I am sure your Lordships approbation will give it credit and authority enough with the World to enable it to effect those good and honest ends for which it was sincerely intended by Your Lordships Most humble Most obliged and Faithful Servant John Scott THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHEN I wrote the Treatise of Christian Life of which this and another Volume now in the Press is a second Part I had no design of engaging any further in that Argument but now I find by experience that Writing is like Building wherein the undertaker to supply some defect or serve some convenience which at first he foresaw not is usually forced to exceed his first Model and proposal and many times to double the charge and expence of it For after that Treatise began to be a little known in the World I was advised from several hands that there was one thing wanting in it which is the common defect of most practical Treatises and that was an Explication and Proof of those main Principles of Religion in which the Obligation of our Christian Duty is founded which they thought might be sufficiently done within a very narrow compass though herein I find that either they were very much mistaken or that I have very much exceeded the necessary limits of my Argument which I am not yet convinced of but that I must submit to the judgment of the World I confess the prospect of doing it in that narrow compass they talk'd of was a great inducement with me to undertake it and perhaps had I foreseen at first what a large field of discourse it would oblige me to traverse I should never have entered on it but when once I was in I could not handsomly retreat AND indeed considering with what prodigious rudeness and insolence the very foundations of Religion are struck at in this dissolute Age he who would now treat of them to any purpose will find himself obliged not only to give a distinct and clear explication of them but also to assert the truth of them with convincing evidence and to answer and expose those Atheistical Cavils that are levelled against them which later would have been much less necessary in an Age of a more serious and Religious Genius And upon this account I have been forced upon a much larger and more laborious proof of the several Principles of Religion than I first intended Not that I have any great hope of reclaiming those who are professed Atheists to the acknowledgment of the truth for when men are seduced by lust as I verily believe most Atheists are there is little reason to expect they will be reduced by reason But that which I chiefly aimed at is to confirm and establish those that are wavering and to Antidote all against this spreading contagion of Irreligion and Atheism which in a fatal Chain draws after it not only the ruine of mens Souls hereafter but also the utter subversion of all Humane Society here And it is this hath constrained me to enlarge this Second Part into two Volumes which at first view I promised my self to finish in one IN this first Volume I have treated only of those Principles which are common to natural Religion and Christianity together as an Introduction to which I have in the first Chapter explained and demonstrated the natural distinction of Humane Actions into good and evil by some eternal Reasons for or against them and having shewn at large that God hath made this distinction sufficiently clear and evident to all men to enable them to conduct themselves to their own happiness and that those actions of men which fall under this natural distinction are the principal subject matter of the commands and prohibitions of Religion I proceed in the second Chapter briefly to explain the nature of Religion in General and of natural and Christian Religion in particular from the nature of both which I have deduced those fundamental Principles from whence the Obligations of Religion are derived the five first of which being common to natural Religion with Christianity I have handled in this first Volume in so many distinct Chapters AND then as for the last viz. the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ our Mediator which contains under it all those Religious Principles that are peculiar to Christianity though I have endeavoured to treat of it with all the brevity that is consistent with a clear and satisfactory account of the whole Argument yet it is run out into a second Volume which is now in the Press and I hope within a few Weeks will be ready to follow this And perhaps when the Reader considers the copiousness of the Argument it handles he will rather blame me for being too brief than too tedious for in treating of those
that which we most converse with and with whose Consent and Agreement in any matters we are best acquainted is that of Men and therefore if among Men we can discover such an Universal Agreement concerning the Goodness of these Rules as will warrant us to conclude all other Rational Beings to be consenting with them this will be a sufficient Demonstration of the Truth of the Proposition These two things therefore I shall endeavour to make out 1. That the Reason of Men is Vniversally consenting in this matter viz. That there is an immutable Goodness in these Rules of Morality 2. That this Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other reasonable Beings are consenting with them First THEREFORE there is nothing more evident than that Men are Universally agreed in this matter that to Worship God to Honour their Parents and Superiours to be temperate in their Passions and Appetites and just and charitable towards one another are things in their own nature immutably good that this is not an Opinion peculiar to such an Age or to such a Nation or to such a Sect of Religion but the Vniversal Judgment of all Mankind of whatsoever Age Nation or Religion For 't is upon this judgment that all that Conscience is founded which approves of or condemns mens actions which Conscience is nothing else but a Sense or Feeling of Moral Good and Evil and is every whit as natural to Mens minds as the Sense of pleasant or painful touches to their Bodies Since therefore general Effects must spring from general Causes it necessarily follows that the Pain and Pleasure which Mens minds generally feel upon the Commission of bad and good Actions must be resolved into some general Cause and what else can that be but the general Consent of their Reason concerning the immutable Evil of the one and Good of the other I know 't is pretended by some of our Modern Navigators that there are a sort of People in the World who have not the least sense of Good and Evil and do own neither God nor Religion nor Morality But considering the short Converse and imperfect Intercourse which these our new Discoverers have had with those Barbarous Countries it is fairly supposeable that the Inhabitants may have Notions both Religious and Moral of which Strangers who understand not their Language and Customs and Manners can make little or no Discovery But suppose that what they report were true yet by their own confession these wretched Barbarians are in all other things so extreamly Brutish that they discover no other token of their Humanity but their Shape For they live altogether regardless of themselves of the Conveniences of their Lives and of the Dignity of their Natures without making any Reflections on their own minds or any Observations from their own experience Since therefore all Knowledge is acquired by Attention it is not at all impossible for Creatures so utterly supine and negligent to be ignorant of the most common Notions But for any man to question the truth of this general Rule because there are a few Exceptions from it is every whit as absurd as if he should question whether Men are generally two-legg'd Animals because there have been some Monsters with three And what if among men there are some Monsters in respect of their Minds as well as others in respect of their Bodies This is no more a prejudice to the standing Laws of Humane Nature than Prodigies are to the Regularity of the constant course of Vniversal Nature Specimen naturae cujuslibet saith Tully à natura optima sumendum est i. e. The true sample of every Nature is to be taken from the best Natures of the kind Since therefore the men of all Nations and Ages and Religions who have in any measure attended to the Nature of things and made but any tolerable use of their Reasons are and always have been universally agreed that there is an immutable Good in Vertue and Evil in Vice it is no Argument at all that this is not the general Sense of Mankind supposing it true which is very questionable that there are some few such inhumane Barbarians in the World as make no distinction at all between ' em But then Secondly THIS Universal Consent of Mens Reason in this matter is a sufficient Demonstration that all other Reasonable Beings are consenting with them For it shews that God himself is of this mind and if He be we may be sure that all other Reasonable Beings are For if we believe that God made us we must believe that he made us for some End and if he made us for any End he must esteem those Actions good which promote it and those evil which obstruct and hinder it And what other End can an infinitely happy and blessed Being have in making other Beings but only to do 'em good and according to their several Capacities to make them partakers of his own Happiness And if this be the end for which God made us to be sure those Actions must be good in his esteem that are beneficial and those evil that are hurtful and mischievous to our Nature And therefore since he hath implanted in us not only a natural Desire of Happiness but also a rational Faculty to discern what Actions make for our Happiness and what not we may be sure that whatsoever this Faculty doth Vniversally determine to be good or evil for us is good or evil in the Judgment of God 'T is true when the Reason that is in one man judges contrary to the Reason that is in another there must be a Disagreement on one side or the other from the Reason and Judgment of God but when all mens Reason is agreed that this is good and that evil it is plain that this is is the Judgment of the Rational Faculty which naturally makes such a Distinction of things For there is no man that uses his Reason can possibly think that Truth and Falshood Justice and Injustice Mercy and Cruelty are equally good in themselves his Rational Faculty being so framed as that at the first glance and reflection it naturally distinguishes 'em into Good and Evil. When therefore God hath created us with such a Faculty as naturally makes such a Judgment of Good and Evil that Judgment must be Gods as well as the Faculty which made it That therefore which is the unanimous Judgment of all Men must be the Natural Language of the Rational Faculty and that which is the natural Language of the Rational Faculty must be the Language of the God of Nature For he who created me with such a Faculty as naturally judges this Good and that Evil must either have the same Judgment himself or create in me a Contradiction to his own Judgment and that Judgment which he hath created in me he must be supposed to create in all other Beings that are capable of Judging otherwise he would be the author
inforced And if notwithstanding they would be so regardless of God as to take no notice of his Judgments and Mercies so rude to his Authority as not to mind either his Law within or his Law without them upon what reasonable Pretence can they excuse themselves But then as for us Christians we have not only all those natural Discoveries of our Duty which the Heathen had and all those Supernatural ones which the Jews had but a great deal more For in our Revelation the Laws and Motives of Vertue are set before us in a much clearer Light and are neither wrapt up in Mystical Senses nor overcast with typical Representations but laid before us in the most plain and easie Propositions For that which was the Mystical Sense of the Jewish Law is the literal Sense of the Christian in which all those Precepts and Promises and Threats which were delivered to the Jews in dark Riddles obscure and typical Adumbrations are brought forth to us from behind the Curtain and proposed in plain and popular Articles So that if we still continue in our sinful Courses we are of all men the most inexcusable The Heathen may plead against the Jews that their Law of Nature was not so clear in its Precepts nor yet so cogent in its Motives as the Law of Moses the Jews may plead against us Christians that their Law of Moses was neither so express in its Precepts nor yet so intelligible in its best and most powerful Motives as our Gospel but as for us Christians we have nothing to plead but by our own Obstinacy against the clearest Discoveries of our Duty do stand condemned to everlasting Silence So that when it shall appear at the dread Tribunal of God that we have persisted in our wickedness notwithstanding all these Advantages we must expect to be reproached by all the Reasonable World to be exploded and hiss'd at not only by Saints and Angels but by the Jews and the Gentiles and the Devils themselves who will all conspire with our own Consciences to second our woful Doom with the Loud Acclamation of Just and Righteous art thou O Lord in all thy Ways Wherefore as we would not perish for ever without Pity and Excuse let us make hast to forsake all ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present World SECT III. That those Actions which carry with them this perpetual Obligation are the main and principal Parts of Religion THE truth of which is most evident from the abovenamed Text Mic. 6.8 and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Which Interrogation tho it implies not an absolute Negation viz. that the Lord required nothing else of them for under the Law he required Sacrifices and sundry other positive Duties as under the Gospel he requires Sacraments and Reading and Hearing his holy Word c. which are positive Duties as well as those legal Institutions of Moses yet it plainly implies a comparative Negation viz. that the Lord requires nothing else so principally and affectionately so for the sake of the things themselves and upon the account of their own inherent Beauty and Goodness as he doth these Moral Duties here specified He did indeed require the Jews to offer Sacrifice to him and to perform those other Ceremonial Rites specified in the Law of Moses and for them wilfully to have neglected those Duties would have been such an avowed Defiance to his Authority as would have rendred them justly obnoxious to all the Judgments threatned in their Law but yet he did much more earnestly require them to be just and merciful and humble and manifested himself to be far better pleased with one Act of Moral Goodness than with a thousand Sacrifices And thus he requires of us Christians that we should communicate with him and with one another in our Evangelical Sacraments and dutifully conform to all those sacred Institutions and Solemnities of Religion which are contained in the Gospel and if we wilfully neglect them we justly incur all that everlasting Vengeance which is there denounced but yet our sincere compliance with the immutable Obligations of Piety and Vertue is a thousandfold more acceptable to God than our strictest Observation of these his positive Institutions So that the Question in the Text what doth the Lord require of thee plainly implies this Proposition that tho God doth exact of us certain Duties which are not moral i. e. have no intrinsick necessity in them yet it is the Moral Duties such as Justice and Mercy and Humility which he principally requires at our hand Thus concerning Sacrifice God plainly tells us I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice i. e. I will have Mercy rather than Sacrifice Hos. 6.6 And the Wise man assures us that to do Justice is more acceptable to the Lord than Sacrifice Prov. 21.3 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself pronounceth even before that Ceremonial Worship was Abolished that to love the Lord with all our heart with all our understanding with all our Soul and with all our strength and to love our neighbour as our selves is more than all burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices Mark 12.33 But for the clearer Demonstration of this great and necessary Truth I shall endeavour First to prove the Truth of it by some Scripture Arguments Secondly to assign the Reasons of it As for the Proof of it the following Particulars will be abundantly sufficient First THAT the Scripture plainly declares that the great Design of all the Doctrinals of Religion hath always been to move and perswade men to the practice of Moral Goodness Secondly THAT the main Drift and Scope of all the positive Duties of Religion hath been always to improve and perfect men in Moral Goodness Thirdly THAT God expresses in Scripture a great Contempt of all the positive Duties of Religion when ever they are separated from Moral Goodness Fourthly THAT where ever we find the Whole of Religion summ'd up in a few Particulars they are always such as are Instances of Moral Goodness Fifthly THAT wherever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described in Scripture their Character always consists of some Instances or other of Moral Goodness Sixthly THAT the Scripture plainly declares that at the great Account between God and our Souls the main Inquisition will be concerning our Moral Good or Evil. I. THE Scripture expresly declares that the great Design of the Doctrins of Religion is to move and perswade men to Moral Goodness For so the Apostle speaking of the Grace of God i. e. the Gospel assures us that its great Design is to teach men to deny all ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and Godly in this present World Tit. 2.12 And if we consider the Doctrines in Particular we shall find that they all conspire in this great Design For so the Doctrine of eternal life is
of and it may be reasonably supposed that in those Summaries of our Duty wherein but a few Parts are enumerated they are such as are the Chief and principal it being contrary to all Rules of Language to express the Whole of any thing by the meanest and most inconsiderable Parts of it V. ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that Moral Goodness is the principal Matter of Duty that God requires of us is that wheresoever such Persons as have been most dear and acceptable to God are described their Character is always made up of Instances of Morality Thus the Description of Job is that he was a man perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil Job 1.1 And in the 15th Psalm the Description which David gives of the man who should abide in the Tabernacle of the Lord is this that he walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart that he backbiteth not with his tongue nor doth evil to his neighbour nor taketh up a reproach against his Neighbour c. he that doth these things saith he shall never be moved And the greatest Character that is given of Moses the Darling and Favorite of God is that he was very meek above all the men that were upon the face of the Earth Numb 12.3 Thus also the Character of Cornelius by which he was so indeared to God is that he was a just and devout man one that feared God with all his house who gave much Alms to the people and prayed to God always Acts 10.2 And in a word the general Character of those whom God accepts is in every Nation he who doth righteousness is accepted of God Acts 10.35 Thus moral Goodness is the great Stamp and Impress that renders men current in the Esteem of God whereas on the contrary the common Brand by which Hypocrites and false Pretenders to Religion are stigmatized is their being zealous for the Positives and cold and indifferent as to the Morals of Religion For so our Saviour Characters the Pharisees woe unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay tyth of Mint Annis and Cummin which yet was a positive Duty and have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Judgment Mercy and Faithfulness these ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone Ye blind Guides ye strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel Math. 23.23.24 plainly implying the Morals of Religion to be as much greater than the Positives in weight and moment as a Camel is than a Gnat in bulk Since therefore Moral Goodness is always mentioned as the great Character of Gods Favourites and the Neglect of it out of a pretended zeal to the positive Duties of Religion is always recorded as a Mark of the most odious Hypocrites this is a sufficient Argument how high a Value God sets upon the Moralities of Religion VI. and Lastly ANOTHER Evidence from Scripture that moral Goodness is the principal Part of Religion is that at the great Account between God and us his main Inquisition will be concerning such Actions as are morally good or evil For so Rom. 2.6 we are told that God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life But to them who are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness tribulation and wrath indignation and anguish And accordingly Enoch as he is quoted by St. Jude verses 14.15 declares this to be the Occasion of the Lords coming with thousands of his Saints viz. to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him all which are matters of Fact against the eternal Rules of Morality And our Saviour himself in that Popular Scheme and Description he gives of the Proceedings of the Day of Judgment plainly declares that one of the principal Matters he will then inquire into will be our Neglect or Observance of that great moral Duty of Charity towards the poor and needy Mat. 25.32 46. Which is a plain Evidence that our obeying or disobeying the eternal Laws of Morality is that by which we do most please or displease God since 't is upon this that he will most insist in his final Arbitration of our eternal Fate For since his last Judgment is only the final Execution of his Laws we may be sure that whatsoever it is that he will principally insist on in his Judgment that is the principal matter of his Laws And now having sufficiently proved the Truth of the Proposition I proceed to the Reasons of it upon what Accounts it is that God hath made moral Goodness the main and principal Part of our Religion The chief Reasons of which are these four First BECAUSE 't is by moral Goodness that we do most honor him Secondly BECAUSE 't is by this that we do most imitate him Thirdly BECAUSE 't is by this that we advance to our own Happiness Fourthly WHEN all our positive Duty is ceast this is to be the eternal Work and Business of our Nature I. GOD hath made moral Goodness the principal Part of our Religion because 't is by this that we do him the greatest Honour It is an excellent saying of Hierocles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the best honour we can do to a self sufficient being is to receive the good things he holds forth unto us and therefore 't is not by giving to God that you honour him but by rendring your selves worthy to receive of him for saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. whosoever gives honour to God as to one that wants doth not consider that he thereby sets himself above God For by his own self-sufficiency he is infinitely removed above all Capacity of Want and so can never need any additional Contributions of Glory and Happiness from his Creatures For Glory being nothing else but the Resplendency of Perfection which always reflects its own Beams upon it self where ever there is infinite perfection as to be sure there is in the Nature of God there must an infinite Glory proceed from it and therefore being infinitely glorious in himself it is impossible that any thing we do should add any further Glory to him So that if we would truly honour and glorify him it must not be by giving to but by receiving from him Now the best thing we can receive from God is Himself and Himself we do receive in our strict compliance with the eternal Laws of Goodness Which Laws being transcribed from the Nature of God from his own eternal Righteousness and Goodness we do by obeying them derive Gods Nature into ours So that while we write after the Copie of his Laws we write out the Perfections of his Being and his Laws being the Seal upon which he hath ingraven his
all the Duties of it must be morally that is eternally good and reasonable because those Doctrines are the eternal Reasons upon which they are founded and by which they oblige So that whatsoever is a Duty of natural Religion must oblige for ever because it obliges by an eternal Reason and so can never be dispensed with or abrogated 'till the Natures of things are cancell'd and reversed and eternal Truths are converted into Lies IN short therefore natural Religion hath only natural Reason for its rule and measure which from the Nature of God and things deduces all those eternal Reasons by which it distinguishes our Actions into honest and dishonest decorous and filthy good and evil necessary and sinful For it doth not make them good or evil by judging them so but if it judgeth truly it judges of them as it finds them and unless it finds them good or evil in themselves upon some eternal Reason for or against them its judgment is false and erroneous So that the objective goodness or evil that is in the actions themselves is the measure of our Natural Reason but our natural Reason judging truly concerning them is the measure of our choice or refusal of them for be our action never so good or evil in it self unless we have some eternal reason for or against it we cannot judge it so and unless we judge it so we cannot reasonable choose or refuse it but as soon as ever we have judged and pronounced it good or evil upon an eternal reason we stand obliged by that Judgment to do or forbear it So that right Reason pronouncing such actions good and such evil is the Law of Nature and those eternal Reasons upon which it so pronounces them are the Creed of Nature both which together make natural Religion And by this Religion was the World Governed at least the greatest part of it for some thousands of Years till by long and sad Experience it was found too weak to correct the errors of mens Minds and restrain the wild extravagancies of their Wills and Affections and then God out of his great pity to lost and degenerate Mankind vouchsafed to us the glorious Light of revealed Religion which in the largest acceptation of it includes all natural Religion as well the credenda as agenda the Doctrines as the Duties of it both which are contained in that Revelation of his Will which God hath made to the World to which it hath superadded sundry Doctrines and Duties of supernatural Religion BUT strictly speaking revealed Religion as it is distinguished from natural consists of such Doctrines and Duties as are knowable and discoverable only by Revelation as are not to be deduced and inferred by reasoning and Discourse from any necessary or natural Principles but wholly depend upon the counsel and good Will of God And where things depend intirely upon Gods Will and their Being or not Being lies wholly in his free disposal it is impossible that our natural Reason should ever arrive at the knowledge of them without some Revelation of his Will concerning them For in such matters as these where the Will of God is absolutely free Reason without Revelation hath neither necessary nor probable Causes and Principles to argue from and therefore can make neither certain Conclusions nor so much as probable guesses concerning them but must necessarily remain altogether in the dark till such time as God hath revealed to it which way his Will is determined and of such matters as these consists all revealed Religion strictly so called For tho God hath made sundry Revelations of his Will yet the subject matter of them was for the Main always the same viz. the Doctrine of the Mediation of Jesus Christ and the Duties that are subsequent thereunto which from that Promise which God made to Adam upon his Fall the seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head to the last promulgation of the Gospel hath been the great Theme of all divine Revelation For what else was that Revelation which God made to Abraham in thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed but only the dawning of the Gospel which is nothing but glad tidings of the Mediator What was the Law of Moses but only the same Gospel shining through a Cloud of Types and symbolical Representations and what are all the succeeding Prophesies of the Old Testament but only the same Gospel still shining clearer and clearer till at last it broke forth in its Meridian brightness And were this a proper place I think I could easily demonstrate that from Adam to Moses from Moses to the Prophets from the Prophets to Jesus Christ the main Scope and Design of all Divine Revelation hath been the gradual Discovery of this great Mystery of the Mediation So that revealed Religion was for the matter of it always the same tho it was not always revealed with the same Perspicuity but clear'd up by degrees from an obscure Twilight to a perfect Day Wherefore Christianity which in strictness is nothing but the Doctrine of the Mediation together with its appendant Duties ought not to be lookt on as a new Religion of 1600. years Date for in reality 't is as ancient as the Fall and was then Preached to Adam in that dark and Mysterious Promise after which it was a little more clearly repeated tho very obscurely still in God's Covenant with Abraham and again after that it was much more amply revealed in the Types and Figures of the Law of Moses which yet like painted Glass in a Window did under their Pompous Shew still darken and obscure the holy Mysteries within them which were nothing but the Doctrines and Laws of the Christian Religion So that Judaism was only Christianity vail'd and Christianity is only Judaism revealed THUS The Religion of the Mediator you see was the principal Subject of all divine Revelation and this without Revelation natural Reason could never have discovered because the whole of it depended upon the free will of God For whether he would admit of any Mediator or no whether he would admit his own Son to be our Mediator or no whether he would deposit such inestimable Blessings for us or no in the hands of our Mediator was intirely left to his free Determination and there was no necessary cause either within or without him no nor any probable one neither that humane Reason could ever have discovered that could incline or determine him one way or t'other So that till such time as he revealed his Will to us we were left utterly in the dark as to this matter and had no manner of Principles to argue from or so much as to guess by This therefore is strictly the revealed Religion as it stands in opposition to the natural But since together with revealed Religion God hath put forth a second Edition of natural which was almost lost and grown out of Print through the wretched Negligence and Stupidity of Mankind and since
by his Interest whenever he thinks it his Interest that there should be no God to be sure he will be ready enough to believe that there is none and consequently as soon as he grows wicked enough to need Atheism for a Refuge from his Conscience he will betake himself thither in his own defence and endeavour by an obstinate Disbelief of Gods Being to shelter himself from the Dread of his Power Thus when mens belief is not grounded upon Reason and Evidence but stands tottering on the fickle Foundation of their Wills it is liable to be blown down by every Blast of Temptation And hence I doubt not in a great measure proceeds the Irreligion of the Age we live in for if you surveigh the present Sticklers for Atheism you will find they chiefly consist of the hair-brain'd and uncatechised Youths of the Town who never troubled themselves to understand the first Principles of Religion nor to consider the Dependence and Connexion of its Doctrines and know nothing at all either of the admirable Contexture of the Parts of it or of the Reason and Evidence of the Whole For alas their Study hath been employed another way viz. in courtly Forms of Speech and Punctilioes of Action in fashionable Garbs and Oaths and artificial Luxuries in conning of fine Jests and Modes of Address and retailing Fragments of Wit from Plays and Romances but as for the severer and more useful Studies they bequeath them to the dull men of Sense and Reason SUCH as these for the most part are the Sages that droll upon Religion and make jests upon the Scripture and what wonder is it that such as these turn Infidels who were never able to render any Reason of their Faith For how weak soever the Arguments of Infidelity are it is a hard case if it cannot baffle that Faith which hath no Reason on its side to guard and defend it especially when they are seconded with a mans Lusts and Inclinations as to be sure the Arguments of Infidelity will always be For when a man hath no Reason for his Faith but a great many Lusts against it the slenderest shews of Probability will suffice to make him an Infidel But what an horrible Neglect is it for Men that have Reason to distinguish between Truth and Falshood to take no care to enquire into the Truth and Evidence of their Religion in which their greatest Interest is involved but to wink hard and believe at a venture they know not why nor what what is this but to cast Lots for their Souls and throw Cross or Pile for their eternal Salvation They resolve they say to adhere to the Religion of their Ancestors but whether that be true or false they never inquire so that if it be true they may thank their Stars for it but if it be false they have the worse Luck Thus they wholly commit themselves to the Conduct of Chance to be conducted to Heaven or Hell as it happens and as if those distant Fates were indifferent to them they concern not themselves to inquire whether the way they are in be the Broad or the Narrow the Right or the Wrong but e'en leave the Event to determine it And can any thing in the World be more wild or extravagant than for men who are so solicitous about their smaller concerns who will not purchase an Acre of Land without examining the Deeds and Evidences by which the Right to it is Conveyed thus to take up their Religion upon Trust and stake their everlasting Fate upon such a desperate venture But then for men to take occasion to despise and reject Religion from their own sottish Neglect to inquire into the Truth of it is such an height of Extravagance as no Bedlam can parallel it would be as reasonable for a man to put out his Eyes and then resolve not to believe there is a Sun in the Firmament because he doth not see it or to stop up his Ears and then peremptorily deny the Being of Sounds because he do's not hear 'em for for men thus to graft Infidelity upon Ignorance is only to heap one Extravagance on another if they understand not the Evidence of Religion the more Shame it is for them but methinks it might very well become them to be modest and teachable till they do and in the mean while to take care to inform themselves better but thus immediately to leap out of Ignorance into Atheism is first to play the Fool and then run stark mad upon it VII ANOTHER cause of Atheism is mens measuring the Truth or Falshood of Religion by the Practice of such as make the loudest Pretence to it When a man is unwilling to undergo the trouble of satisfying his own Reason of the Truth of his Religion his usual Method is to inquire what other men think of it who by the zealous Profession which they make may be supposed to understand it better than himself but because mens Thoughts are secret and invisible and do not always correspond with their Words and Professions therefore to satisfie himself what other men think of Religion he concludes the safest way is to judge by what they do and not by what they profess and so far indeed he is in the right For to be sure mens Actions are a much more certain Index of their Thoughts than their Words and therefore when he sees those who profess Religion act as if they did not believe it and observes how their Words do run atilt at their Practice and how broadly their Lives give the lie to their Professions he presently concludes that whatever they pretend they are Infidels in their Hearts and being once persuaded that those whom he thinks do best understand Religion do not believe it he thence immediately concludes that they find no reason to believe it and do only put on the Profession of it as an Angelical Vizor being minded to play the Devils in it with more Credit and Security And by this Popular way of reasoning they conclude Religion to be nothing but a Politick Device and Engine which wise men have contrived to beguile and manage the simple and that whatsoever is pretended for it it is a mere jugling-box which Knaves play tricks with to delude and cozen Fools And of this way of mens reasoning themselves into Atheism the Age we live in is full of wofull Instances for now adays to scorn and despise Religion is no longer the Prerogative of Wits and Vertuosoes but the Infection is spread and propagated into Shops and Stalls and the Rabble are become Professors of Atheism Now whence should this proceed alas it is not to be supposed that such persons as these should ever be able to Philosophise themselves into Infidelity and turn Atheists either upon Aristotle's or Epicurus's Hypotheses no no their Argument lies nearer home and more open to their Capacities they have seen a world of vile tricks played in our Religious Carnivals and Masquerades some making
is much more imputable to the perverseness of their Wills than to the Weakness of their Vnderstandings FOR in the first place What if you have discovered some Opinions ln Religion to be false and erroneous of the Truth of which you were once very confident doth it therefore follow that there is nothing certain in Religion If so you may as well conclude that there is nothing certain in the Mathematicks neither since some men have been as confident of the Truth of false Axioms in Geometry as ever you could be of false Propositions in Religion That you were once over-confident in a disputable Matter was your own Fault and Folly but must it therefore follow that Religion is a Cheat because you have been rash and inconsiderate and what tho you once laid the great stress of your Religion upon an Opinion which you now discern is erroneous must Religion needs suffer for your Mistake and be branded for an Imposture because you took that for Religion which was not For there are a thousand Propositions about Religion which have been Zealously disputed for and against which have torn men into Sects and been the Religion of the separate Communions they have formed and denominated that yet are very remote Superstructures on the true Foundations of Religion and may be true or false believed or disbelieved without any damage to Religion And therefore before you suspect the Truth of Religion it self upon your discovering the Falshood of any particular Opinion you ought in all Reason to consider whether that Opinion be so essential to Religion as that it cannot subsist without it for if it be not 't is the most unreasonable thing in the World to infer a suspicion of the Truth of Religion from the Falshood of Propositions that have little or no Dependence on it and to reject the Gold and the precious Stones for the sake of the Wood and Hay and Stubble that have been superstructed upon them And then 2. What can be more absurd than for Men to reject Religion because Mens Opinions about it have been so divided For if you survey the several Divisions of Christians you will find they generally concur in all the necessary and essential Doctrines of Religion and that the Opinions wherein they divide are for the most part such unnecessary Speculations as that it is almost indifferent to Religion whether they be true or false And with what Reason can we suspect the Truth of necessary Doctrines wherein all are agreed because there are Disagreements in unnecessary ones Because there are some Propositions in the Mathematicks about which the Opinions of the Mathematicians are divided shall we therefore suspect the Truth of all those wherein they are agreed For if their Disagreement be an Argument of the Falshood of the former why should not their Agreement be as good an Argument of the Truth of the later But how much soever Mens Opinions about Religion may be divided all that can be thence inferred is that some Men are mistaken and while some Men judge of Religion by their Passions and Interests and others by the Prejudices of their Education it is impossible it should be otherwise But for men in the midst of such apparent causes of Difference to resolve to be of no Religion till all are agreed in one is just as wise and as rational as if they should determine not to go to Dinner till all the Clocks in Town strike Eleven together IX And Lastly ANOTHER great cause of Atheism is the profane and careless Neglect of Gods Publick Worship For Men of Secular lives whose Minds are always engaged in this eternal hurry of worldly Affairs are too prone to forget God and all their Concerns in Religion and another World and even their conversing so much with these sensitive things which are always before them and are continually crouding in upon their Thoughts doth naturally indispose them to exercise their Faculties about divine and spiritual Objects and render their Minds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfit and unable to ascend to the Contemplation of God And therefore God hath appointed the stated Times of Publick Worship on purpose to withdraw Men from their secular Pursuits that so they be at leisure to retire into themselves to recollect their scattered Thoughts and awake their Minds to a sense of Piety and Religion which can by no way so effectually be performed as by the Solemnities of Publick Worship wherein our remembrance of God is not only refreshed and our Piety to him excited and directed by the publick Instructions but our natural Sense of Religion is also actuated and intended by the mutual Concurrence and Example of each others Devotion Thus after our Religion hath been slackned by our worldly Cares and Delights it is duely wound up again by the Returns of our Publick Worship and so the sense of God is still kept alive in our Minds When Men therefore turn their Backs upon the Publick Worship and devote the holy Seasons of it to their secular Business or Pleasures it is not to be wondered at that their sense of a divine Power which they seldom or never think of should by degrees decay and wear off and that that being extinguished they should sink into Irreligion and Atheism For when once Men have worn out their Sense of a Deity and as the Consequence of that are broke loose from all the Ties and Obligations of Conscience they can have no other Principle but Atheism to warrant their Actions and when once they have abandoned all Sense and Remembrance of God so that he is not in all their Thoughts they are in a fair forwardness to Infidelity For tho as yet they do not actually disbelieve his Existence so neither do they actually believe it for how should they actually believe that which they have no Sense or Thought of so that in this insensible State their Faith is concerned neither one way nor t' other nor are they at all solicitous whether there be a God or no. Thus from their profane Neglect of Gods Worship Men naturally slide into an habitual Senslessness and Incogitancy of him and from thence to not believing and from thence to disbelieving him is an easie and almost necessary Transition OF the Truth of which the Age we live in will furnish us with too many sorrowful Instances For as this Nation which hath been always remarqued for a grave serious and religious Genius was never so generally tainted with Atheism as now so neither was it ever chargeable with such a general Neglect of the Publick Worship of God which for several Ages after the Reformation was duly frequented and devoutly celebrated till by the Prevalence of our restless Sects and Factions the Discipline of the Church was gradually weakned and at last totally destroyed in the happy Days before which the Families of each Parish went hand in hand together to the House of God and with one Heart and Voice celebrated his Praise and Worship
that hath any Reverence for the Humane Nature within him would ever suffer himself to be bribed for an Opinion that doth not only undervalue but deride and Ridicule it Should you hear your self branded with a contemptible Character or ranked among Apes or any such ridiculous Animals you would doubtless be so far from courting the Author of it that you would resent it as a great Affront and think your selves obliged in honour to return the Provocation and yet for the sake of a few base Lusts which are the Shame and Scandal of your Natures you espouse the Cause of Atheism tho it derides and affronts you to your Face and stains the Glory of your Natures with the most contemptible and ridiculous Character in the World II. THE Atheist concludes against the very Being and Well-being of Humane Society For the Soul that penetrates through all Humane Society and compacts and unites it in a regular Body is Religion or the Sense and Acknowledgment of a Divine Power without which all the Parts of the Corporation of Mankind like the Members of a dead Body must necessarily disband and flye abroad into Atoms For a form'd Society which is an united Multitude consists in the Harmony and Consent of its Members mutually united by Laws and Agreements and disposed into a Regular Subordination to one another neither of which can any Humane Society long continue without the Belief and Acknowledgment of a God FOR without this in the first place 't is impossible that the Parts of any Society should continue united by Laws and Agreements For 't is from the Belief of a God that all the Obligations of Conscience are derived so that take that away and these must dissolve and when the Obligations of Conscience are dissolved there is nothing but Mens temporal Interests can oblige them to conform to those Laws and mutual Agreements by which they are united to one another And if it be their Interest only that obliges them to be just and faithful to their mutual Agreements they will be equally obliged to be unjust and unfaithful when ever it is their Interest to be so So that this Principle which only obliges them to be honest while it is for their Advantage will as effectually oblige them to be Knaves when ever the Case is altered and things being reduced to this Issue there remains no Foundation of Trust and mutual Confidence among Men. For what can any Mans Promise signifie if he be under no Obligation but Interest To be sure if it be for his Interest he will do what he says without any Promise but if it be not what Promise can oblige him You will say it is his Interest to keep his Word because otherwise he will forfeit his Reputation for the future But pray what Reputation can a Man have to forfeit that owns no other Law or Obligation but his Interest or who will ever presume upon that Mans Word and Engagement whose avowed Principle it is to be honest no longer than he can gain by it Thus Atheism you see resolves all our Obligations into our worldly Interest which is so fickle and mutable a Principle so dependent upon Chance and the Inconstancies of Fortune that there is no hold to be taken of those that are governed by it For that which is their Interest to Day may be their Disadvantage to Morrow and if it should so happen they must steer a contrary Course or else act contrary to their leading Principle So that for Men to trust each other upon this fickle Principle is all one as to relie upon the Constancy of a Weather-cock which every contrary Wind turns to a contrary Position And things being once reduced to this Issue that Men can place no Trust or Confidence in one another their Society will soon become their greatest Plague and Vexation For every Man will be forced to stand upon his Guard against every Man and keep himself reserved and retired within himself till at last out of mutual Distrust and Jealousie of one another they are forced to withdraw their Society and to live apart in separate Dens for fear of being intrapt and devoured by each other AND as Atheism cuts in sunder those Ligaments of mutual Trust and Agreement by which the Parts of Humane Society are united so it also dissolves that Regular Subordination that is between them Plutarch observes in his Treatise against Colot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. It seems to me more possible for a City to stand without Ground than for a Commonwealth to subsist and continue without the Belief of a God which is 〈◊〉 only firm Foundation whereupâ—◠〈…〉 and Society depends For if there be no God what should oblige any to own any Superiour or pay any Submission And if his Interest be his only Obligation to his Superiours when ever he can mend his Fortune by Rebelling against them that very same Interest which at present restrains him from it will with equal force invite him to it nor will it signifie any thing that we are obliged to the contrary by Oaths of Fidelity and Allegiance for if it be our Interest to be faithful to the Government our own Prudence and Discretion will oblige us to it without such Oaths as well as with them but if it be not our Interest and this be the only Principle that obliges us no Oath or Engagement can hold us So that in this State of things all the Security that Governors can have of their Subjects is that they will not Rebel when they are not able but as soon as they think it safe to be sure they will think it lawful which being once admitted will undermine the very Foundations of Government and utterly dissolve that regular Subordination by which Humane Society is supported Whereas admitting that the Laws of our Prince are bound upon us by the Authority of a Sovereign Lord who can render us eternally happy or miserable we are obliged to obey him by all that we can hope or fear and have all the Engagements to Loyalty that the Reflections on a happy or miserable Eternity can lay upon us What a prodigious piece of Folly is it therefore for Men to embrace Atheism as their Interest which doth thus directly tend to deprive us of all the Comforts of Society by involving us in eternal Confusions and Disorders For if once we take away mutual Trust and Government from the World both which have a necessary Dependence on the Belief of a God we break all the Harmony of Humane Society and convert it into a Commonwealth of Canibals And what Man in his Wits would ever be found of an Opinion that proclaims open War with Mankind and is pregnant with Consequents so fatal and destructive to the World Can we think it more advantageous to us that Atheism should be true than that Humane Society should be upheld and perpetuated or are the Pleasures we reap from the Lusts which incline us to Atheism comparably
People Gods Authority is quite excluded from having any hand in the Government of the World In short If the Choice of the People makes their Governor without Gods authorising him he is the Peoples Vice-roy and not Gods but if it be God that authorises him he is Gods Vice-roy and not the Peoples So that their choice even in Elective Governments can signifie no more than the bare presenting of a Person to God to be authorised his Vicegerent by him who if their Choice be just and lawful is supposed to consent to and approve it and thereby to authorise the Person so presented For sovereign Authority in the Abstract is ordained and instituted by God but abstract Authority cannot govern unless some Person be vested with it and to vest him with it he must not only be applied to the Authority but the Authority must also be applied to him but where the People have the Right of Election they only apply the Person to the Authority but 't is Gods Consent and Approbation that applies the Authority to the Person who thereupon commences Supreme under God and hath no superior Tribunal but Gods to account to AND thus according to the Prophet Daniel the most High rules in the Kingdoms of Men Because as Lord of all the Lords and King of all the Kings of the Earth he rules and governs by their Ministry and they rule and govern by his Authority So that to secure and maintain the Obligations which Gods Government of the World devolves upon us it is necessary we should believe that all rightful Sovereigns are his Vicegerents and do rule by his Commission and Authority and that the Sword which they bear is Gods who hath delivered it into their Hands to protect his faithful Subjects and to execute his Wrath and avenge his Authority upon Evil-doers So that we cannot rebel against them nor wilfully disobey their just Commands without giving a Defiance to God himself and rejecting the Yoke of his Government Whilst therefore we behave our selves Factiously and Seditiously towards those whom God hath set over us we live as Out-laws in the Kingdom of God without any respect to that visible Authority by which he governs the World and whilst we do so all our Pretences to Religion are impudent lies and Impostures IV. IN order to our being truly Religious it is also necessary we should believe that God is ready to contribute to us all that Assistance which is necessary to enable us to observe his Laws That whereas in this corrupt State of our Nature we are so indisposed to all good by our carnal Affections and vicious Habits as that without some foreign Aid it is morally certain we shall never be reduced to a through Compliance with our Duty God is always ready not only to second but to prevent our Endeavours to inspire good Thoughts into our Minds and by them to kindle devout Affections in our Wills and by them to excite us to a constant Course of pious and virtuous Endeavours and that when he hath proceeded thus far with us he doth not presently abandon us to our selves and leave us to contend and struggle in vain with insuperable Difficulties but all along cooperates with us aids and assists our Faculties and with his holy Inspirations cherishes our languishing Endeavours till they have wrought their way through all the Difficulties of Religion into a permanent State of Piety and Virtue So that unless we either turn a deaf Ear to those good Thoughts he suggests to us and refuse to listen to their Perswasions or quench those holy Affections which they kindle in us with earthly Cares and Pleasures or by wilful sinning harden our Hearts against all the Impressions of his Grace we shall not fail of being frequently and powerfully excired by him to Piety and Virtue and when he thus excites us if we do not wilfully slacken our Endeavours and basely surrender back our selves to our Lusts in despight of all our Resolutions and his Perswasions to the contrary we shall be so effectually and constantly assisted by him as that it will be impossible for us to fail of Success For thus the Scripture assures us that he gives Grace to the humble 1 Pet. 5.5 and thereby works in them to will and to do Phil. 2.13 and that to this End he gives his holy Spirit to every one that asks Luke 11.13 The Belief of which is absolutely necessary to oblige us to submit to Religion For tho we are naturally free to Good as well as Evil yet through the vicious Habits we have generally contracted either through youthful Levity and Inconsideration or ill Education and Example our Liberty to good is so streightned and confined that whenever we attempt to exercise it we find a prevailing Byass on our Natures that carries us the contrary way bearing before it all our good Resolutions and tiring out our short-breath'd Endeavours so that the good we would we do not and the evil we would not we do And therefore unless we can depend upon God for Assistance against the Violence and Outrage of our bad Inclinations after we have once strugled with them in vain and thereby made a woful Experiment of our own Impotence we shall out of mere Despair of prevailing against them give over attempting it and utterly abandon our selves to their Tyranny BUT if we firmly believe that God who knows our Weakness and our Enemies strength will in Proportion to both readily assist us whensoever we heartily invoke his Aid and in Concurrence therewith exert our own Endeavour we have all the Encouragement in the World to undertake our Duty maugre all the Difficulties that attend it For being assured that God will concur with our Endeavours we may depend upon it that not only our own Endeavours are in our Power but Gods Assistance too and that the Corruptions of our Nature do not so much over-match our Endeavours as Gods Assistance over-matches those Corruptions So that if we heartily exert our Endeavour we are sure we cannot fail of Success because we know that God will assist our Endeavour and that with his Assistance we cannot but be victorious Since therefore the Grace of God is as much under the Command of our Will as our own Principles of Action it is as much in our Power to do that which we cannot do without Gods Grace as to do that which we can And therefore if Gods Grace be sufficient to supply the Defect of our natural Power and enable us to conquer the Difficulties of our Duty we are sure there is nothing in it can be too hard for us because now we can do not only all that we can do by our selves but also all that we can do by the Grace of God V. To oblige us to be truly Religious it is also necessary we should believe that the Assistance which God affords us is such as supposes us free Agents and concurs with and maintains our natural Freedom That it
order and harmony is still continued and preserved For it is altogether as impossible for matter of it self unguided by Wisdom and Art to pursue any constant course as to fall into any regular form it being as we see all torn and broken into little parts innumerably many and infinitely diverse in their size and figures and motions and thence onely fit in their several courses to cross and confound each other How then is it possible without vast Wisdom and answerable Power so to manage this wild and disordered swarm of Atomes as to determine them to their proper bounds continue them in their regular ranks and files and preserve them in the same tenure of action so as that in all those new productions of the individuals of every kind of Plants and Animals which are every day compounded out of them they should none of them ever extravagate in their motions so as to disturb and hinder one another and finally disorder and interrupt the natural course of Generation When therefore we consider how this great Machine of the World as the above-cited Author expresseth it whose parts are infinite for number and variety hath stood six thousand years together always one and the same unimpair'd in its beauty unworn in its parts unwearied and undisturbed in its motions through what an infinite series of generations and corruptions all its plants and animals have past and yet how after they have been corrupted over and over and their whole frames have been broke in pieces and all their parts divided and dispers'd they have still been generated anew and rallied into the same specifick natures which though they still consist of numberless parts are constantly drawn up into the same postures and figures and positions and with strange regularity digested into the same handsom order as if they all kept time with the musical Laws of some Almighty Mind as the stones of Thebes did with Amphion's Lute and thereby continually danc'd into their natural figures When I say we consider these strange and wondrous things what tolerable account can we give of the performance of them without an over-ruling Providence For how is it imaginable that in a six thousand years course of Generations and Corruptions these blind and undesigning parts of matter which by reason of their infinite diversity are so naturally apt to thwart and disturb one another should maintain such regular courses of motion as still to concenter in the same forms so as that through all this vast tract of time not so much as one kind of plants or animals should miscarry how I say could this have been had they not all along been conducted by a steady and unerring Providence V. ANOTHER Sensible evidence of a Divine Providence is the miraculous events that have hapned in the World By Miraculous Events I mean such as either for their matter or manner of production do exceed the Power of natural Causes or at least are produc'd by them out of their establish'd course and order Such as dividing the Sea stopping the Sun raising the Dead curing the sick and blind and lame with a touch or word of all which we have notorious instances both in the Old and New Testament and these attested with as full and convincing Evidence as ever any matters of Fact were that are recorded in History For as for the Miracles of the Old Testament besides that they were sundry of them perform'd in the publick view of Nations and were recorded in those very Ages wherein they were wrought and so could have been easily disproved by ten thousand living Witnesses had they not been true besides that they were attested by the most antient Heathen Poets and Historians in their Mythologies and Histories who to be sure would never have yielded the glory of such wondrous Effects to a Nation whom they hated and despised had they not been forced to it by undeniable Evidence In a word besides that they were confirm'd by the succeeding Prophets of that Nation who both by the Miracles they wrought and by the exact accomplishment of their Predictions have sufficiently evidenc'd themselves to be supernaturally inspired Besides all which I say the Miracles of the Old Testament are abundantly attested by the New the credit whereof is ratified and confirm'd by a world of new Miracles wrought by our Saviour himself and particularly by his Resurrection from the dead which are not only in part confessed by the Jews themselves his most mortal Enemies and by the Heathen Writers who were implacable Persecutors of his Religion but also by his own Disciples and Apostles who as I shall shew hereafter were Eye-witnesses of these Miracles and did not only attest them with their Mouths but also sealed their testimony with their blood and confirm'd it before all the World with infinite other Miracles which they wrought in his Name and which they continued to work for several Ages together as is evident not only from the wondrous success of their Ministry which without being attested with such miraculous Effects could never have propagated in so short a time such an hated Religion over all the World but also from the confident Appeals which the Christian Writers frequently make to their heathen Enemies in which they Subpoena them in as daily Spectators of their wondrous Works and for the truth of them challenge their own Eyes and Ears So then that there have been such miraculous Effects can no more be doubted than that there have been such Men as Pompey the Great or Julius Caesar the former being attested all things considered with much more Evidence than the latter AND if this attestation be true there must be a Providence for how is it possible that blind Nature which neither deliberates nor chooses should of it self ever vary or interrupt its course without rushing into utter confusion and disorder How should any part of it when 't is once moved either faster or slower than ordinary so restrain or quicken its own motion as to reduce it self back again to its establish'd Course For if it once move faster it must have some degree of motion super-added to it and till that is withdrawn it must move faster for ever if it move slower it must have some degree of motion withdrawn from it and 'till that be restored it must move slower for ever how then is it possible that Nature or any part of it which moves by a blind necessity should of its own accord either hasten and then slacken or slacken and then hasten the course of its motion as it must do in the production of miraculous Effects without being influenc'd by an Almighty Providence We have several miraculous Instances of the diverting natural Causes from their course and stopping them in it such as causing the Waters to divide and stand still and the Sun to move backward Now how is it conceivable that any natural Cause that hath no will of its own to move and determine it should either stop
only a possible Kind of Being wanting but a Kind which by partaking both of Reason and Sense of Spirit and of Matter is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Simplicius expresses it i. e. the vital Joynt that clasps the upper and lower World together and if it were no way unsutable to the Goodness of God to create the two Extremes viz. Angels and Brutes why should it be thought unsutable to make a middle Nature between them IT is true by partaking of both Natures we are not only free to Evil in common with Angels but also liable to stronger Temptations to it than they because we are placed in a tempting Body among a great many brutish Passions and Appetites and that Body is placed in a tempting World among a great many sensitive Goods and Evils that are continually importuning those Appetites to mutiny against Reason and to carry us away captive into Folly and Wickedness but to place us in this state is so far from being inconsistent with the Goodness of God that it is exactly pursuant to the Design of a most wise and gracious Providence For since we are placed by the Condition of our Natures in a lower Rank of Being and Perfection than Angels we have no more reason to complain of that than Ants or Flies have that they are not Men. But in this imperfect state the highest good that Providence could design us was to put us into a state of Trial and Probation wherein by the good use of our Liberty we might by degrees fit our selves for and at length arrive to a better and more raised Condition and by an orderly Progression from this rude and imperfect state might in the different Periods of our Lives grow up into higher and more excellent Capacities and at length ripen into Perfection Now in order to our Trial it was tequisite we should be placed among Difficulties without which no Proof can be made of our Virtues of our Patience and Temperance and Chastity and Equanimity Meekness and Sobriety all which are proper to us as Beings made up of Angel and Brute from the latter of which Natures all those brutal Appetites arise in us in the good or bad Government whereof consists the Nature of Humane Virtue and Vice So that this present state of our Life is intended by God for a Field of Combat between our Sense and our Reason our brutal and angelical Nature and that the Victory of our Reason might through the Difficulty of it be rendered more glorious and rewardable God hath furnished its Antagonist with the Weapons of worldly Temptation to assault and oppose it to try its strength and Mettle and to exercise both its active and passive Virtues intending when it hath conquered to translate us hence as a Reward of our Victory into a free and disintangled state where we shall be vexed and inticed no more with the Importunities of sensual Lust and Affection but to all Eternity enjoy the Serenity and Pleasure of a pure angelical Nature And what is there in all this that is any way unsutable yea that is not every way answerable to the Goodness of Providence 'T is true instead of conquering we may if we please yield our selves captive to Folly and Wickedness but what then Is Providence to be blamed for leaving Mens Hands at Liberty because some have been so desperate as to cut their own Throats 'T is sufficient that he hath proposed to us Reward enough to encourage us to contend and contributed to us Assistance enough to enable us to conquer and having done all that becomes a wise and good Governour to prevent our Sin and Ruine who is to be blamed for it but our selves God leaves us at Liberty indeed among Temptations to Evil and this the very State and Composition of our Natures requires but all he designs by it is to exercise our Virtues and thereby to improve and train us up to a state of higher Perfection and to furnish us with glorious Opportunities of fighting for and winning Crowns and Rewards and this is so far from any way reflecting on the Goodness of his Providence that it is an illustrious Instance of it and yet 't is only thus far that he is concerned in the Being of sin in the World all the rest is owing to our own mad and desperate abuse of our natural Liberty to our wilful Opposition to his gracious Intentions and obstinate Resistance to his powerful Arts and Methods of preventing our Sin and Ruine What then can be more unreasonable than for us to object against the Goodness of Gods Providence that which is purely the Effect of our own Madness and Folly AND if the Evil of Sin be no way inconsistent with the Goodness of Providence much less is the Evil of Misery since the Generality of those Evils which we suffer in this World are either the natural Effects or the just Punishments or the necessary Antidotes and Preventives of our sin And therefore when you come into a great School of wild and unruly Boys you may as well argue that there is no Master of it because there are Rods and Ferulaes in it as that there is no Providence over this sinful World because there are Miseries and Afflictions in it for upon the Being of Sin in the World the Being of Misery is so far from being an Argument against Providence that 't is rather a Demonstration of it because a◠sinful World can no more be governed without Misery than an unruly School without Correction IV. ANOTHER Objection that is made against Providence is that unequal division of Goods and Evils that is made in this World If there were a just Providence that over-ruled the World one would think it should make a more visible Distinction between good and bad Men in the Distribution of its Rewards and Punishments whereas in the ordinary Course of things we see all things happen alike to all and many times it fares worst with the best and best with the worst of Men. Now because this is the greatest and most universal Objection that was ever urged against the Providence of God I shall in answer to it endeavour to shew 1. That it is for the most part false and groundless 2. That so far as it is true it is no Argument at all against a Providence First I say this Objection that there is no Difference made among Men as to the Goods and Evils of this World is in a great Measure false and groundless For I make no doubt but in the ordinary Course of things good Men are more prosperous even in this World than bad as for times of Persecution they are a just Exception from the general rule of Providence because therein God to serve his own Glory and the great Ends of Religion exchangeth with good Men spiritual for temporal and heavenly for earthly Enjoyments which is such an Exchange as no man will account a Robbery that understands the just value of
because they must not only out-tempt them but which is the much harder task of the two they must out-tempt the Reluctances of our Degenerate nature and yet for future Goods and Evils to out-tempt present ones is not so easie a matter neither especially if those future ones are invisible and out of the Ken of our sense which is the case here For Futurity lessens all Objects to the Mind even as distance doth to the Eye and makes things appear to us much smaller than they are in their own natures So that the futurity of the Rewards and Punishments of the other life are a mighty disadvantage to 'em when they stand in competition with present Goods and Evils because the later appear to us in their full Proportion and Magnitude with all their tempting circumstances about 'em whereas the former exhibit to us a dim and confused Landskip of things afar off of things which we never saw nor felt and which by reason of their distance imprint very dark Idea's on our minds And as their Futurity lessens their appearance and renders it confused and indistinct so their Invisibility weakens their force and influence on our minds which no Objects can so nearly affect as those that strike upon our Senses So that unless by an immense magnitude they compensate for being future and insensible it is impossible they should prevail with such minds as ours against present and sensible Goods and Evils Wherefore to render our belief of a future State effectual to reduce us to God and our Duty it 's absolutely necessary we should believe the Rewards and Punishments of it to be infinitely greater than all the Goods and Evils that can tempt us to Sin and that not only because our natures are extreamly averse to that which these Rewards and Punishments tempt us to but because the Goods and Evils which tempt us the contrary way have the prevailing Advantages of being present and sensible IV. And lastly IT is necessary we should believe that there is no other way for us to acquire these Rewards or avoid these Punishments but by submitting to the Obligations of Religion For to be throughly convinced and persuaded of the immense Rewards and Punishments of the other life is by no means sufficient to reduce us unto God so long as we do but Dream of any possible way to obtain those Rewards and avoid those Punishments without submitting to Him to which above all imaginable ways our corrupt nature hath the greatest Antipathy So that though we were never so much convinc'd of the absolute necessity of escaping Hell and purchasing Heaven yet if at the same time we have a prospect of any other way or means of effecting it to be sure we shall shun this this most ungrateful one of forsaking our Sins and returning to God And if listing our selves into Godly Parties or putting on a demure and sanctified countenance if being moped dejected or unsociable if whining or fasting or long prayers or an affected Gurb or rigid observance of holy Times if consuming our lives in a barefooted Pilgrimage or wearing a hair Shirt or whipping our Bodies or spending our Estates in Masses and Indulgencies if being made free of a holy Confraternity or visiting Altars and Shrines or numbering Prayers like Faggots by a Tally of Beads if these or any of these will but secure us of Heaven and from going to Hell we shall think 'em a thousand times more tolerable and easie than to submit our wills to God in all the instances of true Piety and Vertue in the doing of which we must strangle the corrupt inclinations of our nature tear our beloved Lusts from our hearts rack off our earthy affections from their Lees and refine and spiritualize 'em into a divine Zeal and Love and Devotion than which there is nothing in the World more irksom to a degenerate nature So that 'till we are reduc'd to an utter despair of reaping the Rewards and escaping the Punishments of the other Life by any other means than this of submitting our selves to the Obligations of Religion our faith will be altogether ineffectual SECT II. What Evidence there is to induce us to believe these future Rewards and Punishments THAT there are future Rewards and Punishments is a Doctrine universally assented to by all Ages and Nations and Religions and there is scarce any first Principle in Phisosophy in which Mankind are more generally agreed Thus among the Heathen Poets Divines and Philosophers there is an unanimous acknowledgment of these future States although their descriptions of 'em are generally nothing but the dreams of an extravagant fancy For so as Josephus observes speaking of the Essenes Doctrine concerning the future State of the blessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. they teach as all the Greek Nations also do that for good Souls there are blessed Seats prepared beyond the Ocean in a Region that is always free from Rain and Snow and excessive heats being perpetually fanned with gentle breeses from the Ocean which description he hath translated almost verbatim out of the 4th Book of Homers Vlyssea where he brings in Proteus thus bespeaking Menelaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. i. e. The Gods shall send thee to the Fields of Elysium which lie on the utmost parts of the Earth where thou shalt live secure and happy there being neither Rain nor Snow nor Winter but the blessed Inhabitants are perpetually refresh'd with the gentle breathing of cool Zephyrs from the Ocean Plato tells us of an antient Law concerning Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. which was always and is still in force among the Gods that those who lived just and holy lives should after their death go into the Isles of the blessed where they should enjoy all manner of happiness without the least intermixture of misery but that those who lived here unjustly and ungodly should be sent into that Prison of just punishment which is called Hell Plat. Gorg. p. 312. Thus also Tully Tuscul. lib. 1. permanere animos arbitramur consensu nationum omnium i. e. We believe as all Nations do that the Souls of Men do survive their Bodies and to name no more Seneca Epist 117. tells us Cum de animarum aeternitate disserimus non leve momentum apud nos habet consensus omnium aut Timentium Inferos aut Colentium i. e. when we discourse of the Eternity of Souls the general consent of all Men either fearing or worshipping the Hellish powers is of very great moment And indeed this belief of the future states being so generally imprinted on Mens minds is a very probable argument of the reality of them it being hardly conceivable how the Reason of all mankind should have so unanimously consented in it had it not been extreamly agreeable to the make and frame of our minds and we cannot suppose any false proposition to be agreeable to the frame of our mind without reflecting dishonourably upon the truth of him
disbelieve them For there are a world of things which men do neither deny nor affirm believe nor disbelieve that is about which they never concern their thoughts nor trouble their heads one way or t'other And thus it is here there are many who pretend to believe another World but if you ask them why they can give no reason nor did they ever enquire whether there be any to be given so that it is plain whatever they imagine they do not believe it for to believe without understanding is as perfect nonsense as to understand without evidence or believe without faith So that that which they call faith is only not disbelieving whether there be another World or no they never troubled their heads to enquire and so having no evidence pro or con their understanding doth neither affirm nor deny believe nor disbelieve but negligently leaves the matter in suspence and uncertainty The natural means of faith therefore you see is a due enquiry into the evidence of the truth and reality of the things we believe and therefore if we would indeed believe that there is a future World of Rewards and Punishments we must seriously consider the reasons and evidences that prove and assert it and urge them close to our understandings 'till they have forced and extorted from them a rational and well-grounded assent which if we do laying aside all partiality and prejudice there is no doubt but they will be found weighty enough to turn the Scale against all Objections to the contrary especially if IV. And lastly You add to all these means fervent and hearty Prayer For Prayer in it self is a very proper and useful means to beget and confirm in us the belief of the other World because it is an abstraction of the mind from those sensitive and material objects which stand like hills and mountains between us and the invisible World and intercept our Prospect of it For whenever our mind is engaged in a serious and hearty prayer it dispels all earthly things before it and scatters them out of sight and having no Mists or Clouds in its way nothing but a fair and clear heaven above it thither it directs its Eyes and Thoughts and Desires without any lett or interruption Now the very withdrawing our minds from sensible things to converse with spiritual and invisible ones doth as I shewed before mightily dispose us to the belief of another World When therefore by frequent and hearty prayer our minds have been accustomed to retire from the objects of sense and to fix their thoughts and contemplations upon God they will be able to turn themselves with more ease and readiness to the invisible things of another World which the more familiar they are to us the better able we shall be to apprehend and believe them But then by our fervent and hearty prayers we shall also obtain the assistance of God without the concurrence of whose grace we can do no good thing and much less effectually believe the Rewards and Punishments of another life which is the root and principle of all true Piety and Virtue For to the forming a firm belief of this Doctrine in our minds there is required a very severe and impartial consideration of the Proofs and Evidences upon which it is founded and considering how vain and roving our thoughts are how apt to fly off from any serious argument and especially from this of another World which is so offensive to our vicious appetites and affections what likelihood is there that we should ever fix our mind to such a through examination of the Proofs of another World as is necessary to beget in us a lively belief of it unless God who alone can command our thoughts co-operates with us and animates our faint indeavours with his grace and assistance unless he by suggesting the evidences of the future state to us and by urging and repeating them imprints them on our minds with all their natural force and efficacy in a word unless by following our flying thoughts with these his holy inspirations and importuning them with and almost forcing them upon them he at last prevails with them to stay and look back and consider and seriously to ponder the weight and force of them it is very improbable they should ever abide long enough upon our minds to settle into a firm and efficacious belief Let us therefore earnestly implore the aid and assistance of God and beseech him frequently to inspire our minds with the Arguments of a future life and to urge and repeat and set them home upon our thoughts 'till by a due consideration of them we have extracted all their force and evidence and digested it into a lively and active belief and if to the use of all the abovenamed means you do but add this of Prayer and Supplication you may depend upon it that he who hath promised to open unto all that knock and to be found of all that seek him will never deny you any grace or assistance that is necessary to produce in you this fundamental Principle of Religion viz an effectual belief of the Rewards and Punishments of another world To conclude this Argument therefore since this belief is so absolutely necessary to subject our minds to the obligations of Religion let us endeavour as much as in us lies to found it in our reason by convincing our minds of the truth and force of those evidences upon which it is proposed For while we believe upon trust and we know not why our faith must needs be very weak and infirm and like a Tree without root in the midst of a storm be unable to outstand any blast of temptation For the temptations of sin are such goods and evils as are evident to our senses which do most certainly assure us that there are such things in the World as pleasure and profit reproach and persecution and therefore unless when we are tempted our faith can confront the evidence of Sense with the evidence of Reason and produce good proof of those future Goods and Evils which it puts in the ballance against these present temptations it will hardly be able to withstand ' em For what likelihood is there that the things which we believe without proof and evidence should have comparably that force and influence upon us as the things which we know and feel and experience So that when we come to oppose a Heaven and a Hell of whose reality and existence we have no evidence to pleasures or profits reproaches or persecutions which strike immediately on our senses it is easie to prognosticate which will be most prevalent BUT if our belief of the future Rewards and Punishments be founded on such evidence as satisfies our reason what temptation in the World is there that can prevail against it what good is there that can outbid Heaven or what evil that can vie terrours with Hell For we see by experience that the Objects of our faith when it is
it of themselves and hath purposed never to enable 'em to do it Which Opinions do represent God in such a formidable dress circled with such a stern and gastly Majesty as is more apt to inspire us with horror than love For though by persuading our selves that we are of the small number of his elected Favourites we may work our minds into some degree of love to him yet when we consider how severely he hath treated the rest of our fellow Creatures without any other reason but his own Will this will intermingle such a grimness with his smiles such a terrour with those Charms for which we love him as must necessarily damp the fervours of our love and ever and anon freez it into horror and astonishment and so fear will be at least the predominant Principle of our Obedience and while it is so our Religion must needs languish under great imperfections and infirmities For while our fear and dread of God is the governing Principle of our Religion we shall but do penance in all our addresses to him and every act of our Obedience will be a kind of Martyrdom so that we shall never be able to entertain any chearful converse or friendly Society with him and yet serve him we must for fear our neglect of him should rouse his Vengeance against us and between this necessity of coming to him and this fearfulness of approaching him what can there be begotten but a forced and constrain'd Devotion which because we do not love we would willingly leave did not our dread and horror of him drag us to his Altars And as we shall serve him with a forc'd Obedience so we shall obey him with a sordid and nigardly affection and while we grudg him our Obedience we shall be most backward to obey him in those instances of Duty that are of greatest moment and most pleasing to him and most forward in those that are of least concern and most pleasing to our selves Thus while our minds are ridden with sour and rigid apprehensions of God they will inspire us with a slavish dread of him and that will restrain and contract our Obedience to him Thus Maximus Tyrius excellently represents the case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the truly religious Man is the friend of God but the superstitious is his flatterer and the former is happy but the latter miserable for the one being encouraged by his own Vertue approaches God without any slavish fear and dread but the other being debased with the sense of his own wickedness approaches him with trembling and despair dreading him as a cruel Tyrant Dissert 4. IF therefore we would render him a chearful free and universal Obedience we must endeavour to represent him fairly to our own minds and to think of him as he is and as he hath represented himself in the holy Scriptures i. e. as a bountiful benefactor to all his Creation and an universal lover of the Souls of men that would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth and doth heartily and readily contribute to our eternal welfare that leaves no art of love no method of kindness unattempted to rescue us from eternal perdition and when we have utterly baffled and defeated them all doth most unwillingly abandon us to the woful fate we have chosen and prepared for our selves that in punishing even the most incorrigible sinners doth not at all design to wreak and gratifie his own revenge but to do good to the World and warn others by their sufferings not to imitate their sins And in a word that importunately invites us back when we are gone astray and upon our return graciously receives us and when he hath received us is infinitely industrious to prepare us for happiness and when he hath prepared us abundantly rewards us and when he hath rewarded us everlastingly triumphs in our Glory and beatitude these and such like thoughts are truly worthy of God and befitting the infinite goodness of his Nature and as such do earnestly recommend him to our affections as the most amiable and indearing object in the World and when by such recommendation they have captivated our affections and kindled our hearts into an unfained love of him they have inspired us with such a vigorous Principle of action as will both animate and innoble our Religion and render it truly worthy of God and our selves For then we shall serve him with a free and dutiful will a liberal affection and a chearful heart and consequently render him a full and generous and willing obedience For so holy David tells us Psal. 119.32 I will run the ways of thy Commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart i. e. when thou shalt open and widen my heart with the love of thee for so St. Paul expounds the Phrase 2 Cor. 6.11 I shall most readily and chearfully obey thee III. A right apprehension of God is also necessary to direct us to the end for which we are to serve him without which it is impossible we should serve him acceptably For as a good intention doth not justifie a bad action so neither doth a good action a bad intention and unless both are good neither are acceptable If I do an action that is materially good with respect to a bad end I unhallow and vitiate it and render it formally evil If I fast for strife or give Alms for vain-glory or pray to give a colour to my Rapines and Oppressions my very Devotion is a cheat my Mortification a lie and my Charity an imposture So that in order to our serving of God acceptably it 's necessary we should direct those services we render him to their right and proper end and what that is we cannot well understand unless we have a right apprehension of his nature for to be sure God hath proposed that to us for the end of our Worship which is most agreeable to his own perfection and therefore unless we have a right Notion of his perfections how can we rightly apprehend what end is most agreeable to them As for instance the right end of our serving him is that we may glorifie him for ever in an everlasting participation of his perfection and happiness and this we can be no otherwise certain of than by a true survey and inspection of his nature which will instruct us that being infinitely perfect as he is he must be infinitely happy within himself and so can design no self-end without himself and consequently that the end for which he requires our service is not any advantage he expects to reap from it or further addition to his own happiness he being from all Eternity past as compleatly happy as he can be to all Eternity to come and therefore what other end can he be supposed to aim at than our good and happiness It is true indeed he designs to glorifie himself in our happiness but how Not to render himself himself more glorious by it