that the Principles of Religion are not things that are laid in our Minds by Education or which we are train'd up to by the Art of Politicians or cheated into by the Craft of Priests but that they are founded in our Nature and carry a suitableness in them to the reason of our Minds This I say must be done before this Man can be convinced that he ought to alter his way of living For it cannot be denied but that if he be right in his belief he cannot be wrong in his practice That if there be no God nor a future state no tie or obligation upon him to live otherwise than as his Lusts incline him he may without any reflection upon himself follow the worst inclinations of his Nature and justifie the greatest extravagancies he can be guilty of Wickedness and Atheism are very fit to go together And no Man that does wickedly can make it appear that he acts wisely but the Atheist if he be but wise in the Nature of his Belief And this indeed all wicked Men are so sensible of that at the last they generally are forced to fly to Atheism as the onely refuge from that folly they are otherwise chargeable with For a Man that is resolved upon a wicked life feels that he cannot sin with quiet and ease so long as his Conscience tells him that he lives contrary to his belief and that according to what he believes he must certainly be damn'd So that rather than be haunted with such frightfull apprehensions he chuses to ease his Mind of so troublesome a Faith By doing this he knows he shall get out of the reach of those fears that check and appall him and that when-ever he is upbraided for the beastliness of his actions he has nothing to do but to laugh at the folly of those that believe it to be a manly thing to be tied up from living according to his own pleasure and the liberty of his own nature And there is no recovering this Man but by fixing those Principles in his Mind again which for the sake of his Lusts he had turned out and by convincing him that there is nothing so certainly true and intrinsically good as Religion is This is the design of the following Discourse in which I shall consider 1. What the Frame of our Nature does inform us whether we be not so made that without Religion we can give no account of what use our best Faculties are to us or whether we be no better fitted for Religion than the Beasts are 2. What the Well-being of the World does require Whether Religion be of that indifferency to the good of Mankind that it can be every-whit as well with us with it as without it Or whether it be not of that absolute necessity to the happiness of the World that without it there is no possibility of maintaining that Peace and Order by which the World stands 3. What it is that all Men do naturally wish for Whether we find so little profit by Religion that it is indifferent to us whether the Principles of it be believed or its Rules observed and practised or no or whether we do not feel so much benefit by it as to desire that its Authority may be maintain'd 4. What the common and received Opinion of Mankind concerning it is Whether all Men do or ever did universally agree in the belief that Vice was as much for the honour and happiness of our Nature as Vertue is or whether it be not the Vniversal sense of Mankind that there is a vast difference between Vertue and Vice 5. What we may conclude from the Appetites and Aversions that belong to our Nature Whether the bent of our Desires and the strength of our Fears do not imply a natural Suitableness of Religion to our Minds A DISCOURSE OF RELIGION SHEWING Its Truth and Reality c. CHAP. I. The Truth of Religion proved from the Frame of our Nature THere is no better way to know how we ought to live and to satisfie our selves in the Truth or Falshood of this important Question concerning the intrinsick Excellency of Religion and its natural relation to us than by considering what kind of Creatures we are and the utmost capacities of our Nature For if upon such an enquiry it does appear that there is nothing in us that has a respect to and does necessarily suppose the Being of such a thing as Religion we must allow the Atheist to be the wise Man who rejects it as an unreasonable imposition but if it does appear that there is something in us that does naturally dispose us for the practice of it as our business and which without it no good account can be given of nor any thing sufficient for its happiness we have no reason to think that we are trick'd and cheated into the belief of Religion For according as we find we are framed we are to take an account of our Duty and that which the Make of our Nature does make our Duty must be more than a trick or a contrivance Now whoever considers himself will find that he has both the sensitive Powers of a Beast and the spiritual Faculties of an Angel I mean that he is made up of a material visible part by vertue of which he is under a necessity of burying himself in worldly Employments and capable of the satisfactions that arise from the enjoyment of sensible Objects and bodily Pleasures And besides that there is something in him that makes him more valuable than the Beasts and in respect of which he looks upon them to be inferiour to him And this part of us which we value our selves so much upon is capable of being exercised upon other Objects and of being employ'd to other purposes than our bodily Senses are For if it was not it would not at all differ from our sensitive part and then we should have no reason to think better of our selves than of those Creatures that have as quick a perception of bodily pain and pleasure as we have But of all the Enemies of Religion there are none but think they are in some respect capable of other kind of perceptions than Creatures of mere sense are And this Principle by which we differ from them does render us capable of thinking or considering what is best for us of looking forward and backward and debating with our selves upon the nature and several circumstances of our own actions whetuer such or such a thing be fit and proper to be done or whether that which we have done be not to be corrected and of checking and controuling our bodily inclinations and appetites and of determining us to this or that course of actions as they appear to be best for us And if this be the Frame of Humane Nature as I doubt not but the greatest friend to a sensitive life does find it is it is plain there must be such a thing as Religion because such a make does
they have not the Wit to discern that they take a Course that thwarts their Devices when they neglect Religion and that they are extremely beholding to Religion for giving them those Rules without which they can never long enjoy what they would have If it be an Argument of Folly not to know how to adapt means suitable to the Ends we aim at the wicked irreligious Man must pass for the veriest Fool that is for living as he does when it is the Welfare of his Body that he pretends to aim at If he be wise in the Choice of his End he can never avoid the Imputation of Folly for living otherwise than according to the Rules of Temperance and Moderation that Religion gives Neither is it in the Opinion of all that know him onely that he is guilty of so much Weakness and Folly but his own Thoughts do upbraid him with it when a surfeited Body does force him to submit to those very Rules as reasonable and just which at other times he condemns as rigid and severe As much as he cries out upon Religion for imposing them he has nothing to except against them when they are prescribed by his Physician And how preposterously does this Man act in despising those Restraints when put upon him for preserving his Body healthfull and vigorous which he flies to as the onely means to restore it when it is decayed He out of a tender regard to his Body does check his Appetites when it is for the Recovery of his lost Health and believes he cannot take a better Course for the freeing himself from the Languishings of a Surfeit and a Debauch and yet he pretends it is out of love to his Body that he lets his Appetites loose when he is in health So that this Man has no other way to prove himself no Fool but by satisfying the World how that way of Life can be unreasonable which he believes is good for his Botly or that good for his Body which he himself is forced to condemn as hurtfull to him And now 3. How much Reason have we to think well of and to live in a constant Practice of Religion For this is to live according to the proper instincts of and to take an Account of our Duty from our Nature 'T is the Business we are in a peculiar manner framed for and in our regard to which we give Honour to our Reason and consult our greatest good We ought from the Dignity of Nature saith Hierocles to take an Account of our Duty In Carm. Pyth. p. 93. and to weigh how we ought to act and speak And again It is from the Ignorance of our Nature that all kind of Evil breaks in upon us So that if we know our selves and reject those things that are a Reproach to our Reason we judge rightly of our Duty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Epictetus Arrian Lib. 2. Chap. 8. Thou art a Principal part of God's Handy-work thou art something taken from God Himself thou hast some Part of God in thee Why therefore art thou not mindfull of thy Nobility Why dost thou not consider from whence thou comest When thou eatest or speakest wilt thou not remember who thou art that eatest and whom thou feedest that thou nourishest a God and carriest a God about with thee If thou wast a Statue carved by the Hand of Phidias when thou considerest whose Work thou wast if thou couldest know it thou wouldest endeavour to do nothing unworthy either of so famed an Artist or of thy self nor wouldest thou be seen in an undecent Garb by those that should behold thee And since thou art the Workmanship of God wilt thou take no care of thy self God has committed thee to thy own Care neither did he know of any that would be more faithfull to such a Trust Be sure saith he to preserve this Depositum such as it is in its own Nature 'T is then by having a Recourse to our own Nature that we must learn the way of Life that we are framed for And since Religion has such a near Relation to us that without it our best Faculties are of little or no Use to us and in spight of our natural Depravity we cannot but desire that all the Principles thereof were true and its Duties put in practice who can doubt but that this ought to be the Business of our Lives It is that Business by which we must gratifie our Reasons and improve our Minds and delight our Consciences And if this ought not to be our Business why have we such Faculties as require it It is as necessary that we live in the Practice of Religion as that we live like Men and discover a Difference between a Man and a Beast He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what does the Lord require of thee i.e. Since God has display'd more of his Goodness to thee than to the Creatures of Sense what is it that he expects from thee but to do Justice to love Mercy and to walk humbly with thy God Micah 6. 8. And hence it is that Lactantius makes the Difference between a Man and a Beast to consist in this that we are capable of Religion and they are not For saith he take away Religion and Righteousness De Ira Dei c. 12. and Man degenerates to the Folly of a Brute or which is worse having lost his Reason to their Immanity and Fierceness And he tells us that the Heathens although they mistook in the Object of their Worship Instit l. 2. c. 3. yet did acknowledge the chief Duty of Man to lie in Religion by maintaining an Appearance of it in their false Worship because the Chief if not the onely Difference between Man and a Brute does lie in Religion This then is the onely calling in the World that every Man is bound to follow and which will find a full Imployment for all our Heads and Hearts and Hands every Man of what Quality or Condition soever he is is indispensibly bound to fear God and keep his Commandments Neither need any Man fear that he shall debase himself thereby For as Reason is the Noblest faculty of his Nature there is nothing so fit for his Reason to converse with as Religion Now this can be said of no other Calling beside For although the Benefit of every Man 's secular Imployment does reach to the whole Society yet if every Man was of one Calling no body would be the better for it and the best is and Imployment of that Nature as will find Work for the Souls and Bodies of every Man and which the more it is practised by every Man the better it is for all the World Nay further it is a Calling that every Man must manage in his own Person or else neither he will receive any benefit by it nor the World by him 'T is possible that any of those secular Callings that are for the Relief of our present Necessities
be fit that we be under restraints why does he find fault with Religion upon that account But if it be not why is he a friend to Government Either he is very resh in condemning Religion or he has not well weigh'd the Nature of Humane Liberty when he lays us under the Yoke Humane Laws For the same argument whereby he would set us at liberty from the one ought to destroy the other But if it be not fit that we should have the liberty he contends for it is highly reasonalbe that we should be under the restraints that he is an enemy to because they take the fastest hold upon us and are the surest means to make Society usefull to and Governement to have its proper effect upon us And this I shall more particularly endeavour to make appear 4. By considering how well Religion does provide for the Well-being of the World And none I am confident that knows either what it commands or how powerfully it persuades can make any doubt of its sufficiency to this purpose 1. If we consider what it commands For it favours every man's true Interest secures every man's Right and makes it penal to invade any man's Property It is the best Patron and Protector of the Poor for it preservs their Persons from contempt and provides a good relief for their necessities For it requires all Men to be kindly affectioned one to another with Brotherly love in Honour preferring one another and not to mind high Things but to condescend to Men of low Estate It is the surest defence to every man's Estate the best preservative of their Honours and Privileges and is a much better guard to their Persons and Possessions than all the weapons of defence they can make use of For it takes care of their Honours by requiring Inferiours to give honour to whom honour is due and of their Fortunes by obliging all Men to abstain from Violence and Wrong and to live by Principles of Conscience and Integrity And there is this further to be said in the behalf of the Commands of Religion That all Men do acknowledge the Reasonableness of them It s very Enemies confess that the Restraints it lays upon us and the Duties it obliges us to are for the good of Mankind nd necessary to the Well-being of the World They know that Sobriety is more for the Health of the Body than Intemperance and that Justice and Integrity conduce more to the preservation of Peace and Order in Societies than Craft and Knavery And however they are not willing that we should practise these things as Religious Duties yet they insist upon a necessity of practising them The meaning of which is nothing less than this They would not have us believe we are obliged in Conscience to do them though they have all the reason of the World on their side They would have us live as Religion directs though they would not have us believe there is any They do not think it reasonable that we should break its Commands though they think it very reasonable we should pay no respect to it So that with the same breath they both commend the observing the Duties thereof and ridicule the belief of it However when they confess That Conversation cannot be maintain'd without Uprightness and Simplicity nor Society stand without Faith and Truth nor Mankind be govern'd wighout a respect to Justice and Honesty 't is such a Concession as will easily persuade any Man to believe that they have such a secret sense of the Truth and Reasonableness of Religion and such an inward veneration for its Excellency that nothing but their Lusts do hinder them from being its greatest Patrons But there is one thing farther in which the Excellency of the Commands of Religion does consist and which above all other things does tend to preserve the World in a peacealbe and flourishing condition And that lies in its speaking to our Minds and obliging us not to harbour any ill thought or indulge any extravagant humour or yield to the motions of any violent passion For by requiring us to lay aside all Malice and Guile and Hypocrisies and Envy not to give way to Anger and Wrath or to suffer a revengefull Thought to live in our Hearts it strikes at the root of that wickedness that is vexatious and troublesome to the World And in this respect Religion is a much better foundation of Peace than the best Government in the World can possibly be It builds our Peace and Happiness upon an honest Mind and a vertuous Disposition whereas Humane Laws can take no cognizance of any thing that is within nor lay any restraints upon the malice of an ill-disposed Mind Upon which account the severest Proclamations and Edicts of the Civil Magistrate without Religion would be too weak to keep the World in order For Men may be as malicious and spightfull as envious and ill-natur'd as they please in spight of any Civil Sanctions and so long as these Passions are suffer'd to dwell quietly within us they will be corrupting our Actions and frequently compell us to let them loose to save our selves from their rage But further 2. Let us consider the Motives where with it persuades For to such a perverseness is our Nature depraved that unless we be awed and influenced by something that is very considerable no Command can be sufficient to oblige us to do our Duty This all Governments are aware of and therefore those in Authority do not content themselves with prescribing Rules of Life and telling us That such and such Actions are not for the good of Socieyt or not convenient for our Interests but enforce their Commands with Threats of punishment in case of disobedience And when the Atheist does allow of the Reasonableness of these Restraints he must grant That the more powerfully we are Aw'd the better it is for Society and that he has no reason to quarrel with Religion for obliging us to do our Duty to one another by setting Everlasting Considerations before us For these are Motives that he will acknowledge we ought not to despise till we are convinced that they are false which is an acknowledgment that Religion does take the most essectual course to keep us within bounds if the Considerations it makes use of be but true For doubtless the Rewards and Punishments it sets before us are of much greater force to encourage Obedience and discourage Disobedience than those that the Civil Magistrate can make use of The utmost punishment he can inflict is Death But who will much stand in awe of that when any considerable advantage tempts him if there be nothing to be fear'd afterwards Or what is there that is terrible in such a punishment to awe a desperate Mind The pain is but short and the shame is not like to sollow him and when this is put in the Scale with forty or fifty years pleasure how easie is it to despise the one for the other
Religion but do all agree in this That it is by Justice and Righteousness by Faith and Truth and the like Vertues that the World stands and that the Vices that are contrary thereto do shake the very foundations of the Earth And therefore go where you will you will find no People so rude and destitute of Knowledge but you will find some kind of Laws for the suppressing Vice and the maintaining Vertue and very great care used to punish Evil-doers and to encourage those that do well All Nations are not 't is true equally Cultivated and Civilized but yet that there are some so barbarous as to live upon Spoil and Rapine Theft and Robbery is rather owing to the illness of their Religion than their Belief that there is none But yet although there are some sort of people that are generally addicted to some particular Vices and that by publickly tolerating them do seem to have no sense of the illness of them yet there are none that have so totally lost all sense of the differences between Vertue and Vice as to allow of the rage of every Passion and to show to kind of respect to any one Vertue And besides it is very obvious that they who allow of such barbarous Custome among themselves have some secret Apprehensions of the illness of them because they are for revenging it as a wrong when their own Houses are plunder'd and their Territories invaded Though they allow of these Vices in themselves yet they do believe them so great Wickednesses in others as to be reason enough thy they be such Enemies to their own Customs as by Fire and Sword to endeavour the exterminating them Why should they believe them not fit to be tolerated among they believe them not fit to be tolerated among their Neighbours If they believe them to be generous and noble Actions why are they provoked and exasperated by them and contribute their endeavours to preven their spreading through the World Surely it is not much for the reputation of these Actions that those that favour them most cannot brook them Now whence is it that Mankind should generally agree to set a mark of disgrace and infamy upon some kind of Actions and bear witness to the Excellency and Usefulness of others that some should be resented and others favour'd by us that some should be prosecuted and others encouraged and Men should be accounted either good or bad Neighbours according as they practise either the one or the other if there was no difference at all between them and Humane Nature was no more framed for the one than the other Those I know who would have all Men think as lightly of Religion as they do tell us That the difference that is between Vertue and Vice does not lie in the Nature of them or the agreeableness that the one has to our Nature more than the other but does arise from the Laws of Men that forbid and make it unjust and penal to do the one and encourage the practice of the other That Man consider'd in his natural state is no more obliged to do Justice or love Mercy than to be cruel and oppressive but that these and all other Laws of right Reason do obtain the force of Laws by being commanded by those that have the power of Dominion in their hands Now to this I reply 1. That this Principle over-throws the Divine Authority and leaves it to our own choice or the Will of the Civil Magistrate whether he shall have any Rule or Dominion over us For if it be true that we are under no Obligation to observe the Dictates of our own Consciences or the Commands of our Reason any more than the Laws of our sensual Appetites till the one is declared pious and holy and the other impious by the Decrees of the Civil Magistrate all the reason then that we have to fear Almighty Power and love infinite Goodness and to obey the highest Authority in the World must be because the Laws of our Country have declared it is good and reasonable to do so This wicked Doctrine is expressly taught in a very bad Book Tract Theel. Polit. 215 216. where we are told that Religion whether natural or revealed is of no force till we think good to receive it or it be establish'd by the Civil Authority And accordingly that the Religion that God gave the Jews did not oblige them till by a common consent they had determin'd to obey it or rather till by transferring their natural Right to every thing upon Moses they gave him a power to oblige them to worship the God that had deliver'd them This is so vile a Doctrine that one would think the very naming it should be enough to expose it For if the case be thus as to Religion what is it then that we must fear or love believe or obey if not that Power that can do us the most hurt or that Goodness that can do us the most good or that Truth which is the most infallibly certain or that Authority which is the most soveraign Why are these Affections planted in our Nature if Nature must not tell us what use we are to make of 'em till we have the Command of the Civil Magistrate And further if this be true the Jews were not bound to believe the Religion God had given and the Truths he had reveal'd to them to have any Excellency or Truth in them when they lived under the Authority of such Princes as were Enemies to them neither had God any reason to blame them for revolting from him when they worship'd Jeroboam's Calves or Manasses's Idols And when they were in Babylon the three Children were guilty of a great Wickedness in disobeying Nebuchadnezzar's Command to worship his Golden Image and Daniel was justly thrown to the Lions for asserting the Authority of the God of Israel against the express Command of Darius For both he and all the Jews were then bound to believe that the God whom they and their Fathers had worship'd in their own Land had lost his Authority over them since they were carried into a strange Land and that they were under the strictest ties to think as meanly of him as their Enemies would have them And indeed if that Sense of Religion that is among Men does owe it self to the Edicts of Princes we cannot be under an Obligation always to believe that to be an infallible Truth which now we are bound to believe is so neither can we say that we are for ever bound to Honour and Love the God whom we now Reverence and Adore nor to pay a perpetual respect to those Revelations which now we must confess are Divine For a Christian among the Turks must be lookt on as an impious Person if he don't believe according to the Laws of the Alchoran And none can tell but it may become a necessary Duty to contemn and blaspheme the God whom he now Adores Neither is this the worst