own nature conduce to the preservation of our health and the lengthning of our days such as temperance and chastity and moderation of our passions And the contrary vices to these do apparently tend to the impairing of mens health and the shortning of their days How many have wasted and consum'd their bodies by lust and brought grievous pains and mortal diseases upon themselves See how the wise man describes the sad consequences of this sin He goes as an Oxe to the slaughter till a dart strike through his Liver Prov. 7.22 23. as a Bird hasteneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life and v. 25 26 27. Let not thy heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths for she hath cast down many wounded yea many young men hath been slain by her her house is the way to Hell that is to the grave going down to the chambers of death How many have been ruin'd by intemperance and excess and most unnaturally have perverted those blessings which God hath given for the support of nature to the overthrow and destruction of it How often hath mens malice and envy and discontent against others terminated in a cruel revenge upon themselves How many by the wild fury and extravagancy of their own passions have put their bodies into a combustion and fir'd their spirits and by stirring up their rage and choler against others have arm'd that fierce humour against themselves 2. As to our estates Religion is likewise a mighty advantage to men in that respect Not only in regard of God's more especial providence and peculiar blessing which usually attends good men in their undertakings and crowns them with good success but also from the nature of the thing And this I doubt not is the meaning of those expressions of the Wise man concerning the temporal benefits and advantages of wisedom or Religion Pro. 3.16 In her left hand are riches and honour Pro. 8.21 They that love me shall inherit substance and I will fill their treasures and this Religion principally does by charging men with truth and fidelity and justice in their dealings which are a sure way of thriving and will hold out when all fraudulent arts and devices will fail And this also Solomon observes to us He that walketh uprightly walketh surely Pro. 10.9 but he that perverteth his way shall be known his indirect dealing will be discover'd one time or other and then loses his reputation and his interest sinks Falshood and deceit onely serve a present turn and the consequence of them is pernicious but truth and fidelity are of lasting advantage Pro. 10.5 The righteous hath an everlasting foundation Prov. 12.19 The lip of truth is established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a moment And Religion does likewise engage men to diligence and industry in their Callings and how much this conduces to the advancement of mens fortunes daily experience teaches and the Wise-man hath told us The diligent hand makes rich Prov. 10.4 and again Seest thou a man diligent in business he shall stand before Princes Prov. 22.19 he shall not stand before mean persons And where men by reason of the difficult circumstances of their condition cannot arrive to any eminency of estate yet Religion makes a compensation for this by teaching men to be contented with that moderate and competent fortune which God hath given them For the shortest way to be rich is not by enlarging our estates but by contracting our desires What Seneca says of Philosophy is much more true of Religion praestat opes sapientia quas cuicunque fecit supervacuas dedit it makes all those rich to whom it makes riches superfluous and they are so to those who are taught by Religion to be contented with such a portion of them as God's Providence hath thought fit to allot to them 3. As to our reputation There is nothing gives a man a more firm and establish'd reputation among wise and serious persons whose judgment is onely valuable than a prudent and substantial Piety This doth many times command reverence and esteem from the worser sort of men and such as are no great friends to Religion and sometimes the force of truth will extort an acknowledgment of its excellency even from its greatest enemies I know very well that good men may and often do blemish the reputation of their piety by over-acting some things in Religion by an indiscreet zeal about things wherein Religion is not concerned by an ungratefull austerity and sowerness which Religion doth not require by little affectations and an imprudent oftentation of devotion but a substantial and solid a discreet and unaffected piety which makes no great noise and show but expresses it self in a constant and serious devotion and is accompanied with the fruits of goodness and kindness and righteousness towards men will not onely give a man a credit and value among the sober and the vertuous but even among the vicious and more degenerate sort of men Upon this account it is that the Apostle adviseth Christians if they would recommend themselves to the esteem of God and men earnestly to mind the weighty and substantial parts of Religion Let not then your good be evil spoken of for the Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men It is true indeed there are some persons of so profligate a temper and of such an inveterate enmity to all goodness as to scorn and reproach even Religion and Vertue it self But the reproach of such persons does not really wound a man's reputation For why should any man be troubled at the contumelies of those whose judgment deserves not to be valued who despise goodness and good men out of malice and ignorance If these reproaches which they cast upon them were the censures of wise and sober men a man's reputation might be concern'd in them but they are the rash words of inconsiderate and injudicious men the extravagant speeches of those who are unexperienc'd in the things they speak against and therefore no wise man will be troubl'd at them or think either Religion or himself disparaged by them 4. As to our Relations Religion also conduceth to the happiness of these as it derives a large and extensive blessing upon all that belongs to us the goodness of God being so diffusive as to scatter his blessings round about the habitations of the just and to shew mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments So David tells us Psal 112.1 2 3. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his Commandments His seed shall be mighty upon earth The generation of the upright shall be blessed Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endureth for ever Prov. 13.22 And so Solomon
apprehension of a God doth spring from an infinite jealousie in the mind of man and an endless fear of the worst that may happen according to that divine saying of the Poet which he can never sufficiently admire Primum in orle Deos fecit timor Fear first made Gods So that it is granted on both sides that the fear of a Deity doth universally possess the minds of men Now the question is whether it be more likely that the existence of a God should be the cause of this fear or that this fear should be the cause why men imagine there is a God if there be a God who hath impressed this image of himself upon the mind of Man there 's great reason why all men should stand in awe of him But if there be no God it is not easie to conceive how fear should create an universal confidence and assurance in men that there is one For whence should this fear come It must be either from without from the suggestion of others who first tell us there is such a being and then our fear believes it or else it must arise from within from the nature of man which is apt to fansie dreadfull and terrible things If from the suggestion of others who tell us so the question returns who told them so and will never be satisfied till the first Author of this report be found out So that this account of fear resolves it self into tradition which shall spoken to in its proper place But if it be said that this fear ariseth from within from the nature of man which is apt to imagine dreadfull things this likewise is liable to inexplicable difficulties For First The proper object of fear is something that is dreadfull that is something that threatens men with harm or danger and that in God must either be power or justice and such an object as this fear indeed may create But Goodness and Mercy are essential to the notion of a God as well as power and justice now how should fear put men upon fansying a being that is infinitely good and merciful No man hath reason to be afraid of such a being as such So that the Atheist must joyn another cause to fear viz. hope to enable men to create this imagination of a God And what would the product of these two contrary passions be the imagination of a being which we should fear would do us as much harm as we could hope it would do us good which would be quid pro quo and which our reason would oblige us to lay aside so soon as we have fansied it because it would signifie just nothing But Secondly suppose fear alone could do it how comes the mind of man to be subject to such groundless and unreasonable fears The Aristotelian Atheist will say it always was so But this is to affirm and not to give any account of a thing The Epicurean Atheist if he will speak consonantly to himself must say that there happened in the original constitution of the first men such a contexture of Atomes as doth naturally dispose men to these panick fears unless he will say that the first men when they grew out of the earth and afterwards broke loose from their root finding themselves weak and naked and unarmed and meeting with several fierce Creatures stronger than themselves they were put into such a fright as did a little distemper their understandings and let loose their imaginations to endless suspicions and unbounded jealousies which did at last settle in the conceit of an invisible being infinitely powerful and able to do them harm and being fully possest with this apprehension nothing being more ordinary than for crazed persons to believe their own fancies they became religious and afterwards when mankind began to be propagated in the way of generation then Religion obliged them to instill these Principles into their Children in their tender years that so they might make the greater impression upon them and this course having been continued ever since the notion of a God hath been kept up in the world This is very suitable to Epicurus his Hypothesis of the original of men But if any man think fit to say thus I cannot think it fit to confute him Thirdly whether men were from all eternity such timorous and fancifull Creatures or hapned to be made so in the first constitution of things it seems however that this fear of a Deity hath a foundation in nature And if it be natural ought we not rather to conclude that there is some ground and reason for these fears and that nature hath not planted them in us to no purpose than that they are vain and groundless There is no principle that Aristotle the great assertor of the eternity of the world doth more frequently inculcate than this That nature doeth nothing in vain and the Atheist himself is forc'd to acknowledge and so every man must who attentively considers the frame of the world That although things were made by chance yet they have happen'd as well as if the greatest wisedom had the ordering and contriving of them And surely wisedom would never have planted such a vain principle as the fear of a Deity in the nature of man if there had not been a God in the world Secondly If fear be not a sufficient account of this universal consent the Atheist thinks it may very probably be resolved into universal Tradition But this likewise is liable to great exception For whence came this Tradition It must begin some time it must have its original from some body and it were very well worth our knowing who that man was that first raised this spirit which all the reason of mankind could never conjure down since Where did he live and when In what Countrey and in what Age of the world What was his name or his sons name that we may know him This the Atheist can give no punctual account of only he imagines it not improbable that some body long ago no body knows when beyond the memory of all Ages did start such a notion in the world and that it hath past for current ever since But if this Tradition be granted so very ancient as to have been before all Books and to be elder than any History it may for any thing any body can tell have been from the beginning and then it is much more likely to be a notion which was bred in the mind of man and born with him than a Tradition transmitted from hand to hand through all Generations especially if we consider how many rude and barbarous Nations there are in the world which consent in the opinion of a God and yet have scarce any certain Tradition of any thing that was done among them but two or three Ages before Thirdly But if neither of these be satisfactory he hath one way more which although it signifie little to men of sober and severe Reason yet it very unhappily hits
will among men a readiness to forgive our greatest enemies to doe good to them that hate us to bless them that curse us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us And does inculcate these precepts more vehemently and forbid malice and hatred and revenge and contention more strictly and peremptorily than any Religion ever did before as will appear to any one that does but attentively read our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount And as Christianity hath given us a more certain so likewise a more perfect Law for the government of our lives All the precepts of it are reasonable and wise requiring such duties of us as are suitable to the light of nature and do approve themselves to the best reason of mankind such as have their foundation in the nature of God and are an imitation of the Divine excellencies such as tend to the persection of humane nature and to raise the minds of men to the highest pitch of goodness and vertue The Laws of our Religion are such as are generally usefull and beneficial to the world as do tend to the outward peace and the health to the inward comfort and contentment and to the universal happiness of mankind They command nothing that is unnecessary and burdensome as were the numerous rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Religion but what is reasonable and usefull and substantial And they omit nothing that may tend to the glory of God or the welfare of men nor do they restrain us in any thing but what is contrary either to the regular inclinations of nature or to our reason and true interest They forbid us nothing but what is base and unworthy to serve our humours and passions to reproach our understandings and to make our selves fools and beasts in a word nothing but what tends either to our private harm and prejudice or to publick disorder and confusion And that this is the tenour of the Laws of the Gospel will appear to any one from our Saviour's Sermons and Discourses particularly that upon the Mount wherein he charges his Disciples and followers to be humble and meek and righteous and patient under sufferings and persecutions and good and kind to all even to those that are evil and injurious to us and to endeavour to excell in all goodness and vertue This will appear likewise from the Writings of the holy Apostles I will instance but in some few passages in them St. Paul represents to us the design of the Christian doctrine in a very few words but of admirable sense and weight Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appear'd to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world The same Apostle makes this the main and fundamental condition of the Covenant of the Gospel on our part 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity St. James describes the Christian doctrine which he calls the wisdom that is from above by these characters It is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie St. Peter calls the Gospel 2 Pet. 1.3 4. the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue whereby saith he are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of a divine nature having escap'd the corruption that is in the world through lust and upon this consideration he exhorts them to give all diligence to add to their faith the several vertues of a good life V. 5 6 7. without which he tells them they are barren and unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ I will conclude with that full and comprehensive paslage of St. Paul to the Philippians Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever things are of venerable esteem whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure or chast whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things But the perfection and the reasonableness of the Laws of Christianity will most plainly appear by taking a brief survey of them And they may all be referr'd to these two general heads They are either such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men singly and personally good or such as tend to the peace and happiness of humane Society First Such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men good singly and personally consider'd And the precepts of this kind may be distributed likewise into two sorts such as enjoyn piety towards God or such as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the enjoyments and pleasures of this life 1. Such as enjoyn Piety towards God All the duties of Christian Religion which respect God are no other but what natural light prompts men to excepting the two Sacraments which are of great use and significancy in the Christian Religion and praying to God in the name and by the mediation of Jesus Christ For the sum of natural Religion as it refers more immediately to God is this That we should inwardly reverence and love God and that we should express our inward reverence and love of him by external worship and adoration and by our readiness to receive and obey all the revelations of his will And that we should testifie our dependence upon him and our confidence of his goodness by constant prayers and supplications to him for mercy and help for our selves and others And that we should acknowledge our obligations to him for the many favours and benefits which every day and every minute we receive from him by continual praises and thanksgivings And that on the contrary we should not entertain any unworthy thoughts of God nor give that honour and reverence which is due to him to any other that we should not worship him in any manner that is either unsuitable to the excellency and perfection of his nature or contrary to his revealed will that we should carefully avoid the prophane and irreverent use of his Name by cursing or customary swearing and take heed of the neglect or contempt of his Worship or any thing belonging to it This is the sum of the first part of natural Religion and these are the general heads of those duties which every man's reason tells him he owes to God And these are the very things which the Christian Religion does expresly require of us as might be evidenc'd from particular Texts in the New Testament So that there is nothing in this part of Christianity but what agrees very well with the reason of mankind 2. Such precepts as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the pleasures and enjoyments of this life Christian Religion