before he entred into his Glory Nor is it any more unbecoming or unworthy the Majesty of God to unite himself with a Humane Body which his own hands have fashioned and which is fearfully and wonderfully made than it was for the Divine Presence to take up its Residence in the Jewish Temple and dwell in a House of Stone Lastly That Jesus Christ should be made the visible Judge of Men and Angels is no less congruous and rational 1. In respect of himself this Honour and Triumph of the Divine Life being a just Reward of his voluntary Sufferings and Humiliation which is the Account our Saviour Christ gives himself John 5.27 And hath given him Authority to execute Judgment also because he is the Son of Man That is because he humbled himself to so high a degree as not only to take upon him our Flesh and Blood with all its harmless Infirmities and Imperfections but endured with wonderful Patience the Contradictions of Sinners the opprobrious Tauntings and Revilings of a Rude Generation and submitted himself at last to a Death full of Pain Ignominy and Disgrace 2. In regard of wicked Men and Devils For this visible Appearance of Jesus Christ in so solemn a manner attended with innumerable Legions of mighty Angels descending into these lower Regions near the Earth the Glory of whose Presence will be conspicuous to all the World must needs be a very sensible Conviction to all Wicked Persons of the Folly of their Doings when they shall see the same Jesus that delivered the Will of God to them now come to call them to an account for not obeying it And since there may be and doubtless are many Scoffing Atheistical Spirits in the Aerial Regions as well as here on Earth who ascribe all great Mutations in the World to Chance and Fortune or the necessary Combinations of Matter this appearance of our Lord and Saviour in such a visible manner according to the sure Predictions of the Holy Scriptures will effectually confute their vain Philosophy and force them even against their Wills to acknowledge the Interposition of a Divine Power and Providence Neither will it be a less afflicting Abasement of the insulting Pride of that Old Serpent and his Rebellious Associates who so long Tyrannized over Mankind with such Contempt and Scorn to feel themselves cast down into everlasting Destruction by that Nature which they had so much vilified and abused 3. In respect of those who have been faithful Adherents of Christ Jesus and firmly persisted in Goodness notwithstanding the many discouragements they met withal his Appearance in such a sensible manner will be exceeding comfortable and joyful for they beholding him coming down from Heaven with such transcendent Power and Glory must needs overflow with transports of Joy to find that now their Redemption will be fully compleated For what may not they hope for at his hands who is both their merciful Redeemer and their Judge And this very sight of their long-expected Saviour will invigorate their Souls with such a high degree of Life as shall through the inward Operation of the Divine Spirit transform their vile Bodies into the similitude of the glorious Body of the Son of God and in these fiery Chariots like Elijah they shall ascend from these mortal Regions to augment the Train of this great and Almighty Judge So every way agreeable are the Articles of our Christian Faith 2. We come now to the second Part of the Doctrines of Christianity which consists of such things as are commanded as Duties and matters of our Practice Which are only a reviving the natural Inscriptions and Laws of Righteousness Engraven upon our Souls at their first Creation For it cannot be thought but that that long Degeneracy we lay under and the powerful and vigorous growth of our Animal Faculties must exceedingly impair if not wholly obliterate the fair Impresses of the Divine Nature upon us so that we have need to have all those eternal Rules of Righteousness and Holiness to be laid down to us afresh And the manifestation of the Duties and Obligations that Christianity lays upon us is the exsuscitating and raising up that decaying and almost dying spark of Divine Life yet left in us and which may gain such strength by the powerful energy of the Spirit of Christ as to consume or convert into its Nature all that Rubbish which hindred and obstructed it And according to these Measures the Commands and Laws of Christianity are framed so that they are a part of the ancient Intellectual Furniture of our own Souls For furely there can be nothing more natural and consistent with our rational Frame than to Love and Honour God from whose infinite Fulness we and all things received their Being with all our Hearts and with all our Strength To depend upon him for all our Supplies and to acknowledge our own Nothingness that all that we have proceeds and flows from his inexhausted Bounty To sit quiet and contented under the various Dispensations of his Providence and to bring our Minds into a Subordination and perfect Conformity to his Holy Will in all things And as Christianity enjoyns us to pay all Duty and Service and Obedience to God so it strictly Commands all manner of Justice and Righteousness to others forbidding all harm and wrong to any thing living and instead of that requiring every Man in his several Station and Capacity to do all that Good that at any time lies in his Power To be kind and compassionate forgetting and forgiving all manner of Injuries done unto us and returning Good for the Evil that we have received Furthermore Christianity commands us to avoid all Lying and Hypocrisie as things beneath the excellency and dignity of our Nature and to speak the Truth in sincerity and singleness of Heart To banish out of our Minds all Malignity Rancour Malice and Envy as being the most contrary to the Nature of God who delights in the Prosperity and Happiness of his Creatures and therefore the Soul of a Christian above all others is enlarged and widened with an universal Love and Charity readily undertaking the help and relief of the Necessitous and Indigent looking upon all Mankind as Brethren and thereby joying and delighting in the Felicity of the whole World Now as to our selves we are engaged by the Precepts of our Holy Religion to exercise great Temperance and Moderation Sobriety and Chastity in reference to all Corporeal Satisfactions and Delights Not to defile and pollute our selves with debauched and sensual Pleasures but to remember that our Souls once came from the pure and incorruptible Mansions of Heaven and therefore that it is very unbecoming to suffer them to wallow and tumble in the Dirt and Mire of the Earth And since we are of a Divine Extraction Religion puts us in Mind to behave our selves as Citizens of that Heavenly Country and to release and withdraw our Affections from this World and to think of our return thither
Natures would lead them to that they cannot be so wicked as they would be For fear and sense of Pain have a greater force upon our Minds in this Earthly State than the strongest and most refined Deductions of Reason We cannot but see how weak and ineffectual those Humane Laws are which have no Punishment annexed for the Transgressors and by how much the greater the Penalty is by so much the more cautious it renders the Actions of Men. Now as no Humane Laws do directly intend Punishment so neither do the Laws of GOD but this severe Penalty is added as a Fence and Security and serves to fright Men out of the Arms of their Sins and is a powerful Bar against the wild Excursions of Flesh and Blood Having now so fully manifested that Christianity hath nothing unreasonable in it whether we look upon the Frame and make of it in General or whether we reflect upon the Doctrines contained in it we may draw some few Inferences from hence As 1. That every Christian according to his Capacity ought to look upon it as his Duty to be able to give a Reason of his Faith It is the Apostles advice 1 Pet. 3.15 Be ready to give an Answer to every Man that asks you a Reason of the hope that is in you And again 1 Thess 5.21 Prove all things hold fast that which is good For since GOD hath so far complied with our Weakness as to suit the whole business of Religion to our Measures and Capacities and yet made all its Commands and Doctrines to bear so grateful and pleasing a Harmony with our Rational Frame he expects that we should be able to say more for it than a Jew for the Mosaical Law or a Turk for the Alcoran or a Pagan for his ancient Superstition And yet so supinely negligent are the greatest part of those that profess Christianity that they can give no better Account why they are Christians than that it is the Religion which their Forefathers lived and died in or because it is that which by Law is established amongst them and they have been trained up from their Infancy in such a Persuasion which is no more than what multitudes of the greatest Hereticks have had to plead for themselves Whereas Christian Religion bearing in its Face the evident Marks and Characters of the eternal Reason must surely admit of a better Apology And the great cause why we do not discern the beauty and agreeableness of it must be attributed to our Slothfulness and Negligence and to the prevalency of those naughty Affections that we suffer to lead us about For it is certain that a Mind that is puffed up with Pride and Vain-glory that is filled with the Thoughts of the World and Earthly Vanities that is sunk down and drowned in bodily Pleasures is in no fitter Disposition to make a Judgment of Religion than a Blind Man to difference and distinguish Colours 2. From hence we see That GOD does not require us to believe without giving us good Grounds and Reasons For GOD in the structure of Christianity adapting it so far to the Imbecility and Imperfection of our Nature and taking all possible care for our Satisfaction that we may not believe blindfold without enquiring or asking a Reason it is a sure sign that he would have us make use of those Faculties that he has given us And moreover the great Cognation there is between the Laws of Religion and the Primitive Inscriptions of our Souls puts us out of all doubt that they are not the Effects and Results of mere Arbitrarious Will but the Products of immutable and eternal Wisdom Wherefore as GOD has given us our bodily Eyes to secure us from harm and danger and to direct us in the several Actions of our Lives so has he given us our Reasons and Understandings to perform the same Offices for our Souls that our Eyes do for our Bodies 3. Lastly There is no Man can despise and undervalue the Gospel but he must be given over to a Prophane and Atheistical Spirit For since there appears such signal Notices and characteristical Marks of Divinity all along in the Scriptures and that there is such a thing as Justice and Injustice Truth and Falshood antecedent to all Positive Laws whatever and these Notions engraven at their first Creation upon the Souls of Men it must necessarily argue a strange Disease and Distemper of Mind to contradict those things which are so symmetrical and agreeable with their intellectual Frame I confess there are some who as St. Paul speaks of the Gentiles or Pagans Rom. 1.18 do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unjustly detain and imprison the Truth that whereas their natural Faculties suggest to them the Being of a GOD and that this All-perfect Being can communicate his Will and Pleasure to us Mortals yet will rather stupifie besot and bedead the choicest Powers of their Souls than suffer them to entertain a Truth so uncomplying with their carnal Lusts and Affections And this the same Apostle expresses in another place 2 Thess 2.10 By not receiving the Love of the Truth i. e. not carrying such a pliable ductile and sequacious Temper of Mind as ought to receive and embrace what is so congenerous with it self And nothing sooner throws the Soul into this forced and preternatural State wherein it loses that Criterion that should distinguish between Good and Evil Truth and Falshood than Sensuality and the love of the Animal Life For this petrefies stiffneth and makes the Mind so insensible and obdurate as not to be rouzed up and awakened with the Voice of Thunder Wherefore when Religion is made so fully unexceptionable to deride and scoff at it as a mean jejune and contemptible Thing against all the Sence and Reason that ever Mankind was endued withal is as horrid a piece of Impiety as any one can be guilty of and will at last lead to the uncomfortable Chambers of eternal Destruction A DEFENCE OF Revealed Religion SERMON IV. ROM I. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ WE have taken away in what has been already discoursed from these Words the two first Causes or Grounds which may induce a Man to be ashamed of any Matter or Doctrine propounded to gain belief to it And they were if it were neither true nor reasonable 3. The third is if it be not intelligible i. e. if it be not delivered in such plain and easie terms as that those to whom it is delivered may understand it Now as to this Particular we shall lay down this conclusion That Christian Religion so far as concerns the Salvation of Mankind is so plain and open that the most mean and vulgar sort may understand it And this we shall prove not only very reasonable that it should be so but absolutely necessary and could not be otherwise And that upon these Accounts 1. Christianity was given to be the Religion of all Men not only of Philosophers and
from whence we have so long banished our selves For certainly nothing so much effeminates debases and shrivels up the Mind of Man as Covetousness and a sordid pursuit of Riches rendring it unfit for any Noble and Generous Action and is really the most despicable Drudgery and Slavery that any one can fall under It were endless to pursue every single Vertue that is propounded and countenanced in the Rules of Christianity and therefore this may suffice to conclude this Head withal that there is nothing that is truly Heroical and Divine nothing that is Graceful and Lovely and matter of good Report and Praise but it is a part of the Duty of a Christian And now we may safely appeal to the common understanding of all Men whether any of these things are unreasonable or whether they are not rather adapted for the advancement of our Souls to their highest Perfection Indeed if we look upon every thing to be unreasonable that goes cross to our corrupt Lusts and Affections and that any way contradicts our carnal and sensual Desires then Christian Religion will be the most unreasonable thing in the World But this were to become brutish and not to discern what is really the Advantage and Perfection of Humane Minds For the denying the Cravings of our corrupt Appetites and the dying to our Corporeal Affections is the enlivening that better and diviner Part of us and the asserting our selves into our true Liberty and Freedom 3. The third Head under which we comprehended the Doctrines of Christianity is the Promises of great Rewards to all those that sincerely and conscientiously obey the Gospel and severe Punishments threaten'd to the Stubborn and Refractory We shall consider both these Parts distinctly and severally I say therefore That God should annex Rewards to the Performance of his Commands will appear very reasonable and becoming if not wholly necessary 1. In regard of the Weakness of our State and Condition For that long Degeneracy we lay in under Sin had through constant exercise and continuance of Time so vitiated and weakned our best Powers and Faculties that we could never by our own solitary endeavours recover our selves And though Vertue be in it self exceeding lovely and amiable and attractive of the Hearts of all those whose Eyes are in some good measure opened to discern the Beauty of it Yet the generality of Men have the Eyes of their Minds so fast closed that the brightness and excellency of it can make no sensible Impression upon them Therefore it is not only very becoming that Evangelical Oeconomy GOD has set on Foot but necessary that there should be some further powerful encouragement made use of than what is derived from the naked Contemplation of Vertue it self For if Vertue alone be so charming it will be much more when it comes accompanied with the security of Immortal Glory And if some Men can make such hopeful Beginnings and overcome many Difficulties and endure much Hardship for the Attainment of Vertue as many of the Poor Heathens did meerly for Vertue 's sake without any consideration of Reward surely there is none that can flinch or give back when besides the Pleasure of the thing it self there is so stupendious a Reward annexed to it So that in this GOD hath both consulted the Weaknesses and Necessities of Mankind and taken such a course as may render the Recovery of his own Nature in them to become effectual 2. GOD hath so attempered things that he hath left room sufficient for Ingenuity to show and exercise it self and they that Love GOD because he hath proposed a Reward do yet in effect do it for the transcendent excellency of his Nature Because no Man can have a certain and assured Hope of this Reward but it must flow from the consideration of the infinite Goodness and Benignity of GOD displayed to the World Therefore when GOD has proposed a Reward to the Love of Vertue it doth not extinguish that natural Love which the Soul retains of so excellent an Object but heightens and inflames it The Reward serves as a Spur to quicken and sharpen our Desire and Contention after that which we apprehend has so much Pleasure and Satisfaction in it 3. Rewards are congruously enough annexed to the Laws and Commands of GOD that Men might not look upon him as rigid and severe but as a Being that truly desires their Good and Well-being For Vertue and Holiness and that new Nature that is required of us under the Gospel being every way so ungrateful to Flesh and Blood as tending to the extirpation of all carnal Desires if there had been no Rewards proposed sinful and unworthy Men would have had jealous and suspicious thoughts of GOD as if he had been either Severe and Tyrannical or that Vertue and Goodness had not been a thing of that Value and Consequence that now we see it is But now by proposing so great a Reward and making such ample Promises to unfeigned Piety it is a clear Evidence that he would have this to take effect and that he is ready to promote it so far as may consist with the Nature of Rational Creatures And as for the Commination of extremest Punishments to those that forget GOD it will appear no less reasonable upon these two Accounts 1. To uphold the Righteous Government of GOD in the World For in that GOD is an infinite Purity and Holiness and has endued Men and Angels with such a large Portion of this his Nature that nothing but their own perverse Wills could divest them of this happy State it is hard to conceive that GOD could by any better way manifest his hatred and Detestation of all Sin and Evil than by exposing it publickly to a deserved Punishment For should this Pure and Holy Being never step forth in a signal and remarkable manner to Punish Wickedness and Vice bold and daring Sinners would conclude as formerly they have done Psal 50.21 That God was altogether such an one as themselves That Sin and Evil were only Fantastick Things and that GOD did not trouble himself with the Actions of Men. Such Thoughts as these cast the highest reproach upon GOD and his Government and Providence in the World And therefore he is in a very great manner concerned to vindicate the Justice and Righteousness of his Proceedings and to shew in some solemn way his Hatred and Indignation of all Iniquity To which we may add that the Nature of Men and Angels is so framed as must necessarily make them fit and capable Objects of GOD's distributive Justice For there being such a Sui Potestas Liberty or Freedom in reference to their own Actions essential to them they will unavoidably be accountable to that Divine Nemesis which will never leave scourging and beating of Sin till it have driven it quite out of the World 2. The threatning of severe Punishments is a strong Curb and Restraint to keep Men off from those Exorbitances which otherwise their corrupt
Jesus Christ who took our Flesh and Blood upon him parted with his own Life to Redeem us from an inevitable Danger which would have undone us for ever And in recompence of this great Love he desires us only to make our selves Happy by taking upon us his easie Yoke and light Burthen And can we be so ungrateful as to slight him for it and forget his Commands What Bands or Cords can tye Souls nearer together than that Love which is stronger than Death Or what Words make deeper Impressions upon the Hearts of Men than those that are spoken by their dying Friends It is not possible for the Heart of Man to conceive a more effectual way to expell Sin and Wickedness and more conducing to the furthering of Goodness and Holiness than the consideration of the Death of Christ For that the Son of GOD who had no Sins of his own to satisfie for should descend from Heaven and submit himself to the Weakness Frailty and Drudgery of our Mortal State and endure such deep Agonies of Spirit as forced him to sweat drops of Blood and after suffer an inglorious and painful Death upon the Cross and this merely upon our Account and out of a mighty sense of Compassion for our Misery is so astonishing a Love as must needs thaw our icy Hearts and dissolve them into Tears and a ready Conformity to his Will How can any Man go on and continue in Sin when he considers that his Saviour came for this only end into the World that he might destroy the Works of Sin and Satan and present all Men a glorious Church to GOD without Spot or Wrinkle Whatever Sin therefore it be that assaults thy Soul present unto it thy dying Saviour who with his out-stretched Arms on the Cross sues for admittance into thy strongest Affections Art thou insnared with Pride How canst thou look upon thy self without watry Eyes when thou beholdest the Son of GOD born a helpless Infant of a poor Virgin subject to all the Hardships and sinless Infirmities of our Nature and at last breathing out his innocent Soul on the Cross for his bitter Enemies Art thou Covetous and too desirous of worldly Enjoyments then remember Judas and consider what a heinous and bloody Act his Covetousness betrayed him to even the delivering up his harmless Lord and Master to the malicious and implacable Jews And whoever sets his Heart upon the World he does with Judas sell his Saviour Thus you may see of what great usefulness this one Consideration of the Death of Christ is to the Mortification of all our Sins And this the Gospel every where holds forth to the same purpose that we should express his Death on the Cross in our Souls by our dying unto Sin and Crucifying all our corrupt Lusts and Affections 4. Another powerful means by which Men are drawn off from their Sins and engaged in Holiness is the example of our Holy Lord and Master Whose Life and Actions were therefore carefully written by his Disciples that Men might learn of him and follow his Steps And that we may more clearly discover wherein we are to imitate and follow the example of our Lord and Saviour we must distinguish between those Actions which our Lord did as a publick Person invested with Authority from Heaven As likewise those Actions of his which he did to confirm his Mission we must distinguish these I say from those wherein he is set as an Example for us to imitate 1. Therefore we are not called to imitate Christ in those Actions which he performed as a publick Person For there were many things which he did that related wholly to his Office as he was the Messiah the great Representative of Mankind who took upon him and came down from Heaven to reconcile the World to GOD. Thus he gave new Laws of Life to Men and forgave Sins by his own Power and Authority and laid down his Life as a publick Victim and Sacrifice for the World To these we may add his Fasting forty Days and forty Nights His leading a single Life and refusing all Earthly Honour and Dignity And hitherto likewise we may referr that Action of Zeal wherewith our Lord was possessed for the Honour of GOD and in behalf of the despised Gentiles against a corrupt Generation who only pretended but had really nothing of true Zeal or the Honour of GOD in them when as St. Matthew relates it Chap. 21.12 He went into the Temple of God and cast out all them that Sold and Bought in the Temple and overthrew the Tables of the Money-Changers and the Seats of them that sold Doves 2. Nor are we called to follow and imitate Christ in those Actions which he did to testifie the Truth of his Mission that he came from GOD and acted by his sole Authority Such were all his miraculous Works His giving Sight to the Blind Speech to the Dumb and hearing to the Deaf His commanding the Winds and Waves of the Sea which instantly obeyed him His multiplying Bread according to his own Pleasure so that a few Loaves should be sufficient to satisfie some Thousands of Eaters His curing all bodily Diseases and Distempers and shewing his Power over Evil Spirits which upon his sole Command and Word were forced to leave those Bodies they had vexed and tormented But above all his raising the Dead to Life shewing that he had a Power not only here but in the Regions of separate Souls likewise Now in neither of these are we called to imitate our Lord and Saviour But though we are not enjoyned to follow him in these yet are they not therefore thrown away or recorded to no purpose We may make a good use of every one of these Actions of our Saviour though we lie under no necessity to imitate him in them nay it were a presumption in us so to do When we read that he fasted Forty days we may learn that the further we withdraw our Minds from bodily Lusts and Affections we are in a greater Forwardness and better Disposition to converse with GOD. When we hear that our Saviour Christ stedfastly declined all Earthly Dignities and Honours It shews us what a light esteem GOD puts upon these things in comparison of the participation of his Nature in true Goodness and Righteousness And so of all our Lord 's Miraculous Actions which were as so many Credentials and Seals from Heaven that attested and verified his Commission and the Authority by which he acted There is something still that we may draw for our encouragement and support in that holy and unblameable Life which he came to propagate in the World When we find him by a Miracle redressing the Infirmities of Mankind and easing them of their Sorrows by curing their bodily Distempers Does not this teach us to be of a Compassionate Temper to sympathize with others in their Miseries and as far as we are able to lend our assisting hand to free them from them When
and fretting Passions of Pride Envy and Malice are the Causes that disturb Mens own Quiet and that of the Society wherein they live and makes them like those Disconsolate Spirits we read of in the Gospel continually wandring up and down seeking rest but finding none But if they would strive to suppress the Boilings and irregular Fermentations of their Spirits and endeavour to turn them into Calmness and Meekness if they would give that Honour and Deference to their present Governors that Christ's Law Commands and bear a hearty Love and Benignity to all their Fellow Creatures it is impossible but that a lasting Peace and Concord should ensue upon such fit and duly qualified Preparations They would then see that our present establishment which Divine Providence hath so miraculously brought about is not only for our own but the universal Good and Happiness of all Europe 2. Another Publick Blessing is Plenty which cannot be more desirable than it is ascertain'd and secur'd by the Laws of Christianity For what can more contribute to a general Plenty than that every Man be industrious in his proper Calling The Christian Doctrine enjoyns Diligence which like a provident Governess sollicites and excites the torpid and languishing Members of our Earthly Frame to a careful discharge of the several Offices of Humane Life Religion is a thing that retrenches the unruly Appetites of Men and cuts off those superfluous Expences which Luxury and Debauchery make them obnoxious to And this it does by teaching Temperance and Frugality and by shewing Men a nobler and more profitable way of converting their Abundance by Charity to the Necessitous and Indigent which is indeed a true imitation of that divine and overflowing Goodness which the whole Creation in their several Measures and Capacities tastes of 3. A third Publick Blessing is Safety and Security from Danger Which Religion hath so far an influence upon that it tells us it is only the true fear of GOD that can make us dwell in safety And That no Evil shall happen to the Just but the Wicked shall be filled with Mischief Again Righteousness exalteth a Nation but Sin is the Reproach of any People When Men once become Treacherous to their GOD they seldom prove true to his Vicegerent here below And if they had walked up sincerely to the Prescriptions of Christianity the Fears of a Foreign Invasion had been needless It is want of Religion that makes Men betray their Native Country correspond with its Enemies and puts them upon such courses as the braver and more generous Heathens looked upon as Wretched and Ignoble For surely those Persons who can let themselves loose to unhinge an established Government to weaken and undermine a Prince who upon juster Accounts Merits to be called Deliciae humani generis than that Noble Roman Emperor whatever pretences they may make to Christianity will find it the hardest thing in the World to prove they have any Religion at all Where a People are truly Religious submissive to their lawful Governours and Charitably affected towards one another there the invisible Ministers of GOD's Providence are engaged in their Protection and Defence and those Chariots and Horses of Fire are as ready now to preserve true Goodness as heretofore to secure the Prophet Elisha from the Attempts of the Syrian Army 'T is only when a Nation grows deplorably Wicked that their Guardian Providence is withdrawn and those kind and officious Spirits say as of old of Babylon Forsake her and let us go By this it appears that Religion and Vertue are abundantly serviceable for the obtaining Publick and General Blessings Now for those that relate to every particular Man's Person they are either the Blessings of the Soul or Body or of both Those of the Soul are 1. Joy and Contentment of Mind when the Soul enjoys it self in a perpetual Calm and is not ruffled and discomposed with boisterous Passions I do not mean that our Passions should be eradicated by a Stoical Apathy for that were to deprive the Soul of the choicest Furniture which GOD and Nature has bountifully conferred upon it and to turn Men into some other Species of Being than what they are Desire being the Feet and Wings of the Mind in its vigorous contention after Vertue and Hope and Gladness the Arms that embrace so great a Good But that when the Affections are kept within their due Bounds and Limits and all subjected to the Imperium and Command of the first mover Divine Love the Soul sustains and keeps it self so firm and compacted by that inward Power and Strength that the most violent Storm of external Accidents cannot shake or dissettle that Satisfaction and Contentment it reaps from the Exercise of Vertue And indeed this is such an inestimable and solid Treasure as is justly to be preferred before the choicest Gratifications of the bodily Life All worldly Joy is flashy and dilute and carries with it much of an Earthly Composition But that satisfaction of Mind that arises from a sence of well-doing is substantial and immoveable and can neither be destroyed by Time nor damp'd and choak'd by the most Calamitous Circumstances of Humane Life Who are there in the World that live so pleasantly and contentedly as they that are truly Religious Whose Minds are free from all distrustful Fears and Jealousies believing themselves secure under the Royal Mantle of Heavens Care and Providence and who can look back upon their past Lives without any sense of Terror and Guilt So that if our Hearts and Consciences condemn us not for Sin and Vice they will set us above all those anxious Fears and Sollicitude that render a Man's Life uncomfortable On the other side it is certain that every Vice fatally draws after it a Chain of Misery and Affliction and he that makes a Trade of Sin cannot but look upon himself as a Person always obliged to Punishment And this creates a perpetual distrust and misgiving of Mind affording him nothing to support his Patience under here nor any hope of bettering his Condition hereafter But besides these disquieting Fears and Terrors the constant Attendants of Vice which produce restless Days and sleepless and uneasie Nights those Evil and wicked Affections to which Men in this Life are enslaved have a very Evil Influence upon their Souls in the other World For whatever it be that the Mind of Man pursues as its ultimate Good and Felicity those Passionate Desires and Emigrations of Spirit after it follow him even into the next Life The Covetous Person who spins out his Life in a golden Thread hath his Appetite and Hunger keenly edg'd in the next World after the Idol which he ador'd in this And the Lascivious Man burns with those Flames his Debauched Soul had kindled here below And because the future State denies the acting of those Vices in such Circumstances as here upon Earth it rends the perplexed Mind with a perpetual Thirst after that which she can
abundance yet he is better satisfied to die Poor than to become Rich by the Spoils of Widows and Orphans by the Arts and Intrigues of Fraud Deceit and Circumvention of others which are the usual Methods of growing Rich in the World However it remains equally firm that the Good Honest Frugal and Diligent Person is in the surest way to prosper and that he that pursues nothing as his ultimate end but the true Love of GOD and Vertue is invisibly made successful in his outward Circumstances by a favourable and kind Providence By this Deduction of Particulars it is evident how much Religion contributes to our Happiness in this Life And from what has been said we see the great Worth and Excellency of true Christianity whose salutary Influences and effects we experience both in this Life and the other As for Vice it is of such a pitiful and crazy Nature that it cannot stand upon its own Legs but is forced to use the shadow and countenance of Vertue for its support No Man dares to own or make a Profession of Vice for it self but evermore covers it with some Sanctimonious Colour and Disguise Judge then what Worth or Value can there be in that which is not able to uphold it self but is betrayed by its very Weakness Let not then our ungovernable Appetites deprive us of that Happiness which is entailed upon a Vertuous Life This will stand by us and support us in all Estates 'T is the Grace and Glory of our Youth to be found Vertuous and Good and 't will be the comfort of our old Age when we have passed our days and need no Repentance Vertue makes the best Provision for the Happiness of Man in this Life For if we would enjoy a long and prosperous Life here there is no surer way to it than through the Paths of Holiness length of Days are in her Right-hand and in her Left-hand Riches and Honour Would we transact our Lives in Tranquility and Pleasure There is no Peace so lasting no Pleasure so pure as that which springs from an honest Heart The ways of Religion are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace Indeed if we are only in Love with sensual Pleasures and make it our whole business to pursue the satisfaction of Brutes we can never attain to any grateful and affecting relish of Holiness Because Vertue is a thing that cannot be seen with Corporeal Eyes nor can the true discriminating sence of it be discerned by the outward Taste But there is an inward sence which is only awakened by the constant and serious Acts of Religion that gives a true representation of Vertue and affects the Mind with the solid Pleasures of Religion Holiness is of a permanent and stable Nature whose comfortable influence is most discernible in the worst state of things and never leaves nor forsakes a Man in the Agonies of Death it self But alas what are all bodily Delights with which the Lives of Men are so much taken up How frail and evanid How fleeting and uncertain and how void of all true Satisfaction and Content What remains then but that we seriously put in practice all the Acts of unfeigned Piety and Religion Which if we have any Care of our best Interest we are strictly obliged to For whether we consider Christianity as to its usefulness to the next Life or its Serviceableness to this in both these Cases the Profit and Advantage of it evidently appears And now having finished what I have to say upon this Text I shall conclude with this That Christianity is so fram'd in all its Parts that no Man has any the least shadow of Reason to be ashamed of it Blessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our Learning Grant that we may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by Patience and Comfort of thy Holy Word we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed Hope of everlasting Life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen FINIS See a late Treatise Intituled A Letter to a Deist John 20.29 1 Tim. 4.9 See Dr. Cudworth Intel. Syst l. 1. c. 4. p. 468. De Deo Socratis Caesar Comment Mat. 24.31 Psal 4.8 Prov. 12.21 Prov. 14.34 Eccles 8.1