reigning Corruption of this Age it is so contrived as to bear with equal Force against all the Principles that can be made use of to support Irreligion I know very well that the Folly and Unreasonableness of downright Atheism are so manifest and the pernicious Consequences of no Religion at all so visible in themselves and besides have been so justly and largely exposed already in many late Discourses that no body will dare to own the Title or Character of Atheist whatever his private Sentiments may be and therefore I have endeavoured to give such a Proof of Religion as will overthrow all the loose Principles and Objections now commonly made use of to evacuate the practical Force and Power of it all which may properly be rank'd under the Style of Irreligion if they will not be allowed to come under that of Atheism which as far as we are concern'd to know or do any thing in the World I take to be much the same thing as will be more fully made out in the Discourse it self The Being of a God is not indeed openly and directly question'd because the Theory of the Universe cannot be so easily and conveniently explained without some such Notion to which the Name of God may be given but if what some Philosophers vouchsafe to call by the Name of God be not an intelligent Being or be not Governour of the World or does not More particularly concern himself with the Actions of Men 't is all one to us whether there be any such Being as God or no all Hypotheses concerning the Origin Duration and present state of the World are then alike that is they are all equally fit to entertain our Imaginations and help us to be insensible of the Tediousness of living which if those notions of God that I have laid down are not true is all the Business we have to do here But still it will be urged that allowing that Notion of God which I have given there are few if any that can properly be called Atheists because the generality at least of those who are commonly thought to deserve that Name do profess to believe a God of all those Attributes I have ascribed to him and to acknowledge that Men are under some Obligations of Religion but if we examine all their Principles together and consider the necessary Consequences of them they are by Title and Profession only distinguish'd from Atheists and not by any real Difference in their Faith For the Religion of these Men is nothing else but a few honest Principles relating to Justice Friendship and Society which are wholly owing to their Complexion or Education and not to their Belief of a God and the practical Influence even of these commonly reaches no farther than that particular Set of Men whose Company or Interests they are most ingaged in and is intirely bounded and regulated by their present Ease Advantage or Reputation and not by any Future Prospects in another Life and those of them who seem to allow some Future State when they come to explain themselves make it such a one as Men need have very little regard for in this These are all the Principles which the generality of those who have lately insulted the Christian Faith do really believe and act upon this is the sum both of their Faith and Practice however they are pleased to magnify the Excellence and Perfection of natural Religion and whatever regard they pretend to have for the clear and easy parts of the Christian Revelation By Religion therefore I would here be understood to mean that whole Scheme of Humane Duties we find delivered in the Writings of the New Testament as recommended and inforced by such a future State as is there described which may properly be call'd with respect to the Author of it Christian Morality 'T is in this Sense and Extent of the Word that I have endeavoured to establish the Certainty and Necessity of Religion and 't is plain that the Arguments made use of for this purpose will fit no other Scheme but this there being no other Draught or Model of Life to be conceived that would be capable of producing such a noble Scene of Happiness as I have shewn would be the certain effect of an universal Practice of the Christian Morality I have not descended to a particular Defence of several Duties commonly insisted upon as Principles of natural Religion the Reasonableness and natural Obligation of which is questioned by some who are willing to lye under as few Restraints as they can this I say is not done not only because it was necessary to give a general Idea of Religion first and a particular Examination of the several Parts of it was too long a Task to come within that compass of Writing I was confined to but because I am fully satisfyed 'tis a truer and shorter way of reasoning to prove the Truth of the Christian Revelation and that being throughly proved to submit entirely to the Authority of it and regulate all our false and imperfect Views of Religion by that most perfect plan which God himself has given of it in the Scriptures 'T is for the same Reason I have made no farther inquiries into the Condition and Duration of our Future State and the Nature of those Rewards and Punishments we are to expect hereafter nor have pretended to explain the several Difficulties that occur in the Doctrine of Divine Providence because a particular and Satisfactory Account of these things can be had no other way than from Revelation and in general 't is a sufficient Answer to all Objections that can be raised from hence that there is a God that there are Marks and Tokens of Wisdom in the whole Oeconomy and Course of the World that Man is made and designed for Religion here while he lives and for a future State after Death If any of these Principles hold they all hold and no particular Difficulties that do not evidently overthrow the whole Scheme can have any force at all If there be no future State there 's no Religion if there is no such thing as Religion there is no such thing as Wisdom or Design in the Frame and Constitution of Man and if the Appearances of Wisdom here have no Reality under them no other Parts of Nature can afford us greater and consequently we can have no proof of such a wise and intelligent Being as God In this Process of Reasoning we argue upon a full and comprehensive Knowledge of the Principles we argue from because if there be no future Life after this we know the utmost that can be known of the State and Condition of Man But the seeming Inequalities of Providence in the Conduct of the Universe can be no Argument against any of the Principles before advanced because while we have certain Tokens of Wisdom remaining no doubtful Appearances of the contrary will be sufficient to overthrow them and all those must needs be so where we cannot
perfect Being which was the Cause of these Effects we perceive Can we from the Oeconomy of the World and the Course of Nature infer that there is no governing and directing Power in the Universe Can we from the Frame and Disposition of our own Minds prove that we are under no Law or Obligation of acting or that Religion is destructive of our Happiness Can we from the Circumstances of our Nature or the Constitution of things without us make it reasonable to think we shall not live again be conscious of all our former Actions and be happy or miserable according to the different Kinds of them However true these things may or are supposed to be in themselves they will by no means follow from the forementioned Principles and there can be no other but these imagined antecedent to them For if God Religion and a Future State are all possible as they must be acknowledg'd to be the real Existence of any thing else will never furnish any Argument for their Non-existence 2. In vain then do we expect any direct Proof of Irreligion In the next place therefore I shall consider the usual Ways and Methods of defending it which are these Four 1. Ridiculing Religion 2. Requiring a more certain Mathematical proof of it 3. Endeavouring to shew the Possibility of things subsisting without it 4. And raising some loose Objections against it which chiefly aim at the present Profession and Practice of it in the World 1. As to the First of these ways 't is certain that the Generality of those who advance or any of the forementioned Opinions contain'd under the Notion of Irreligion are such as barely deny the contrary Truths without giving any Reason for their Disbelief they speak a bold thing against God and Religion and so fall to their Sins without ever examining the Truth of what they say a light Word or Phrase applied to a serious Thing an odd Simile or Comparison a ridiculous Turn or Allusion is all they pretend to Now there 's nothing so well establisht or confirm'd but may be ridicul'd tho it cannot be confuted and the greater and more sublime the Subject is the fitter for Burlesque the Boldness of the Raillery heightens the Wit of it But I need not spend time to prove that a Jest is no Argument Besides I shall have occasion to consider the Persons of this Character in another place and so shall pass on 2. To the Second Way made use of by the Patrons of Irreligion to justifie their Infidelity and that is by alleging that the Doctrines of Religion and the Proofs given of it have not that Degree of Certainty they ought to have in order to their Conviction Why say they are not such important Points as those in which the Happiness of Mankind is so far concern'd made as plain and evident to our Understandings as any Proposition in the Mathematicks prove them to us in the same manner and we will believe them The Insufficiency and Absurdity of which Plea will manifestly appear from these following Considerations For first of all 't is very absurd for Persons to call for more and greater Proof towards confirming the Truth of any thing before they have confuted one of those Arguments that are already advanced and therefore the Proof that has been given of Religion whatever it be is sufficient till it is overthrown by contrary Allegations In the next place 't is ridiculous to ask for other Kind of Proof than the Nature of the Thing will bear it being the same as to desire that the Nature of Things should be chang'd and therefore to call for Mathematical Demonstration in Points of Religion is as much as to say let Religion be turn'd into Mathematicks and we will believe it the Meaning of which is only this that such Men as these like Mathematicks better than they do Religion For indeed the Persons that call for this kind of Proof in Religion will allow of no such thing as Demonstration any where but in Numbers and Figures whereas we have as clear Ideas of many other things and do as evidently perceive the Agreement or Disagreement of them and make as certain Deductions from them and that particularly in the present Subject where we have as clear and distinct Notions of Knowledge Will Power Duration and all those other original Ideas from whence we took our first Rise in the Proof of Religion as we have of Number and Figure we are also as certain of the Truth of those Propositions that Nothing can make it self that Something must be eternal that Motion must begin from Will and several other from whence all our Arguments for Religion are deduced as we are of such Mathematical Axioms as these that the Whole is bigger than any of its Parts that when equal Numbers are added to equal the whole is equal and the like and the Deduction of other Propositions from those former is in all the intermediate links of Connexion as evidently perceived there as here and the main Conclusions as certain as any Mathematical Conclusion at the same Distance from the first Principles of that kind of Knowledge In the Proof of a God this is very plain and if the Obligations of Religion and a Future State will not be allowed to have the same degree of Evidence yet they have all the Certainty 't is conceivable they should have by way of Deduction from any Ideas our Minds are furnisht with so that supposing them true they cannot be proved any otherwise from bare unassisted Reason and therefore 't is very unjust to require a further Demonstration of them when the rational Grounds they stand upon cannot be overthrown by contrary Proofs I do not mention the additional Advantage of Revelation not to be disproved by any Counter-revelation because that belongs to another place But besides all this where we are under a necessity of judging one way as we are in all such matters where it concerns our Happiness to act or not to act 't is contrary to Reason not to be determined by that degree of Evidence whatever it be that appears on one side when we have nothing on the other side to ballance it and therefore it must be very foolish and absurd to take the Party of Irreligion for no other reason but this that the Proofs of Religion have not all that Strength and Evidence of Conviction which some other Truths seem to have And yet this is the only Defence some People make for their Impiety and Unbelief 3. But others there are that pretend to build their Irreligion upon positive Principles some of which have made new Schemes or Hypotheses wherein they endeavour to explain the original Disposition and Conduct of things without a God but all that they prove is that they who only denied the common Doctrines concerning God Providence c. without advancing any other in their stead were the wiser Men For all these new Notions of theirs either signifie
the Soul should be granted to be Material and Mortal we should have all the same Reason to believe that God does require us to act after such a manner and will reward or punish us in another Life according as we behave our selves in this no Arguments made use of in the Proof of this Point being taken from the Immaterial and Immortal Nature of our Souls but from what we certainly by infallible Consciousness know of our selves and what by evident Demonstration we collect of the Nature of God which every Man that owns such a Being must ascribe to him Thus have I examined the Pretences of those Adversaries of Religion who take upon them to establish new Principles and Hypotheses to explain the State and Constitution of things by and have shewn that the utmost that they aim at is to make it seem possible that those Appearances in the World from whence we infer the Being of a God Religion and a Future State may be otherwise accounted for without endeavouring to destroy our Scheme or upon a just comparison in all points to shew that theirs is a more rational System But most of the Professors and Favourers of Irreligion we have now in these latter Times to deal with are such as never trouble themselves with Schemes and Hypotheses They come by their Opinions much easier and maintain them with less expence of Argument Some loose unconsider'd Objection against any Notion or Doctrine that goes under the name of Religion or any thing that has any relation to it is enough for their turn They never examine what is the just Inference that may be drawn from it or what Answer may be given to it but immediately condemn all Religion for the sake of some little remote Consequence their Imagination represents to them as inconsistent with it 3. Some of the principal of which Objections I shall answer very briefly and shew the Absurdity of them which is the Business I proposed to my self under the Third of those Heads into which I divided my Discourse concerning the Grounds and Pretences of Irreligion The chief and most common Objections against Religion are these Mysteries Inconsistencies and Absurdities in Scripture Extravagant Notions and pernicious Doctrines maintain'd under the Name of Religion Varitey of Opinions and Censures of one another among those that profess to own the same common Principles of Faith and argue from them Foolish and ridiculous Arguments brought by some in the Defence of true Opinions The Scandalous Lives of great Pretenders to Piety and Vertue and such as are peculiarly design'd to promote the Practice of them among others Religion the Effect of Fear and Education Religion a meer politick Contrivance As to the first of these Objections I shall consider it no farther than as it is made use of to weaken the Credibility of all Religion and 't is sufficient to expose the Weakness of it by shewing the Argument barely with its Consequences which is this Such a Passage in Scripture I cannot understand or reconcile to another or such a Story or Account of Matter of Fact does not agree with my Knowledge of things of the like Nature therefore this Passage or Account is false therefore the Book in which it was found is false therefore all the several Books in the whole Bible which were writ by several Men in several Places of the World and at several Times during the space of about two thousand Years are all false therefore there is no God or no Obligation of obeying him if there be or no Future State Most of the particular Cavils against Scripture have been fully answered by those who have purposely undertook the Defence of Revelation but this is sufficient at present to shew that nothing of this kind proves any thing against the Truth of Scripture in general much less against the first Fundamental Principles of Religion which I have endeavoured to establish The next thing objected against the Truth of Religion is Several absurd and pernicious Doctrines proposed to the World under the Name of Religion and warmly contended for by those that believe and maintain them Some Men place all their Religion in Shew and Pageantry their Worship is all Theatrical and a great deal of their Faith and Discipline extravagant and Romantick therefore all Religion is Priest-craft and all Scripture Legend saith the Atheist but Socrates and Plato would not have argued thus those wiser Heathens tho they laught at the Gods and Devotion of the People of their Times did not therefore turn Atheists but employed their whole Reason to search out higher Notions of God and frame to themselves a more rational Religion Bigotry and Superstition have oftentimes produced as dreadful and pernicious Consequences to a Country or Nation as the wild Liberties and Extravagancies of Atheism could do but what 's that to Religion which suffers equally both ways and is no more the Cause or Occasion of the one than the other Cruelty and Revenge and all Actions tending to the mischief or Destruction of Mankind are as contrary to the Nature of Religion when exercised by a superstitious Zealot as when practised by an Atheist tho the former covers them with that Name and the latter does not and therefore true Religion is very unjustly and unreasonably condemn'd upon this account Another foolish Objection is that variety of Opinions which is found among the Professors of Religion and their peremptory Censures of one another for holding false and absurd Doctrines What a strange Disagreement is there among Men in Points of Religion say those that have none at all Some believe one thing and some another some expound Scripture in this Sense and some in that Creed is set up against Creed and Altar against Altar what one Man thinks his Duty another apprehends Damnation from Supposing then we have our Opinions to chuse what is to be done in such a Case shall we take the strongest Side what the most or what we think the wisest believe or shall we examine the Reasons of all Sides impartially without Prejudice and let our Judgments be determined by the greatest Appearance of Evidence No we will do none of all this but without examining their several Pleas we will take up Opinions different from all of them and because one Man denies one thing and another another we will be sure to be free from those Errors they condemn one another for and deny what no Body else does what all the different Parties subscribe to and agree in These are the Resolutions of the Irreligious and what a strange Contradiction is this to make Unity of Consent the Character of Truth and yet allow no Opinions to be true but those that have the least pretence to it Neither is it more just and reasonable to condemn all Religion upon the account of the weak Defence and Patronage of some of its Professors What if the Atheists should be able to defeat some trifling Argument of ignorant well-meaning Honesty
or superstitious Zeal to triumph presently and cry out that Ignorance or Phrensy was the Mother of all Devotion would be as foolish a Boast as for a General to despise the Weakness and Cowardise of his Enemy because he had plundered two or three small open Villages when all the great Towns and the chief Strength of the Kingdom had been unassaulted or attempted in vain The scandalous Practices of Men of great Pretences to Piety and such as by their peculiar manner of Life are look'd upon to be wholly in the Interests of Religion is another very unwarrantable Occasion of some Mens disbelieving every thing that goes under that Name who infer from hence that such Persons as these do not believe Religion themselves and consequently there 's no more Reason to think that others do tho they disguise their Notions better in order to serve their present Interest especially if they be Men of such Sense as is sufficient to put them above the suspicion of vulgar Credulity But this Argument is false and unconcluding in all its Parts For First of all it does not follow That such Men as these believe nothing themselves of what they profess the truer Inference is That corrupt Nature vicious Habits and a loose Education are oftentimes too hard for Conscience and Reason it being very plain that the same thing happens in several other Cases For there 's no Man whatsoever be his Principles never so loose and wide his Reason never so much deprav'd but shall many times do what he himself shall condemn himself for doing and which contradicts the Principles he resolv'd to stand by and therefore for a Man to infer from some gross Sins of a Pretender to Religion that he does not believe any thing of what he professes is as absurd as to prove that an Atheist does certainly believe a God whatever he says to the contrary because he often swears by him and invokes him in his Curses Besides suppose this true of some Men who pretend to a great Sense of Religion themselves or undertake to promote it in others that they do not believe any thing of it as there are sometimes Presumptions strong enough to induce us to judg so what reason have we from hence to conclude that others of a more unsuspected Conduct are all of the same mind if we could but see to the Bottom of them or what if there be a great many false Pretenders to Religion how is this an Argument against the Truth of it we have no reason indeed to believe it upon their Word nor does their contradicting what they say by their Practice give us any more reason to disbelieve it Nor if some of those whose peculiar Employment it is and whose present Interest it seems to be to propagate and advance the Belief of Religion in the World should be supposed to believe nothing of it themselves would it follow from hence that their Unbelief was occasion'd by knowing more of it than others and being better acquainted with the whole Mystery and Contrivance this is evidently proved to be false by the Experience of those who have thought more and enquir'd further concerning these things than the rest of the World have done for the more they have consider'd the fundamental Doctrines of Religion and the more just and exact they have been in tracing and examining all their Reasonings about them the stronger have they been confirm'd in the Belief of them But if there really are such Men as for argument's sake we have supposed they were certainly Atheists before they put on the Garb of Religion and what should hinder an Atheist from taking up this Disguise and preparing himself for it by a close Dissimulation who thinks all Means lawful for the promoting his present Interest in this World and 't is not every Atheist's good fortune to be better provided for in another Condition of Life than he might probably be in acting a Religious Part. But if the Generality of all sorts of Men must be allow'd really to believe the Religion they profess this says the Unbeliever is the Reason of it A strange prevalence of Fear and strong Impressions of Education have captivated their Understandings and disposed them all to the same way of Reasoning Upon this account it is that there have been so few true Philosophers that were able to think rightly and judge clearly of things But now and then some bold Genius has ventured to shake off his Chains and assert the Liberty and Prerogative of human Nature and as one Alexander or Caesar so one Epicurus or Lucretius is enough for one Age such Spirits are not of the common Make and appear in the World but seldom and are therefore to be admired To which it may be sufficient to answer that I have already proved Religion to be the necessary Issue and Product of Reason and the first unquestionable Principles of all our Knowledge and therefore whatever else is assigned as a Cause of it must be false But I have this further Consideration to add viz. that the Effects of Fear and Education never are so uniform lasting and universal as the Belief of Religion is observed to be especially when they act contrary to the Truth and Reason of things as they are supposed to do in this case That Men are as much and as often disposed to deny as to believe what they fear when the Grounds and Reasons for fear are the same and more inclin'd to the former when the things feared are represented at a great Distance That sensual Appetites Habits of indulging them present Enjoyments or near Prospects of Pleasure and Customs of living contrary to the Rules of Religion have a much stronger and more powerful Influence upon the Judgments of Men than such Impressions of Fear or Education which contradict all these especially if Reason be of the same side with them as the Patrons of Irreligion must say And therefore neither Fear nor Education nor both together can be the true Cause of such a general Belief of Religion as is profess'd in the World but the Reason and Evidence of the things believed The last Objection I shall mention which the Atheist thinks the most formidable and a perfect Discovery of the whole Mystery is That Religion is a Politick Contrivance Now that which gives occasion for such a Suspicion is That all the chiefest Politicians in their wise Precepts of Advice have thought it necessary for every Prince to encourage and promote Religion in his Country and to have a Shew of it himself whatever his inward Sentiments were But this is so far from being any Plea for Atheism that 't is a very strong Argument for the Truth Reasonableness and Necessity of Religion For that is certainly highly rational which is most suitable and agreeable to the publick Reason of Mankind considered together in Society without which there would be little Use of Reason at all And if Men are born sociable Creatures if they
naturally desire Society and Society cannot possibly subsist without Religion as the Objection it self supposes then is Religion as agreeable to the Nature of Man and as necessary to his Happiness as Conversation and living together And were it not for other Mens having Religion the Atheist would find it very uncomfortable living in the World These are the chief Pleas Defences and Objections commonly urg'd and insisted upon by the Enemies of Religion And if there be any other which have not been here particularly considered they admit of the same Answers as those that are here mentioned or may be as easily accounted for out of the Proofs before given of the Truth and Certainty of Religion and therefore without spending more time in making little Cavils and groundless Suspicions look considerable by a formal Examination and Answer of them I shall pass to the 4. Next thing I proposed to do in order to shew the Absurdity and Folly of the Principles and Practice of those who reject the great important Truths of Religion and that is to make some general Reflexions upon the different Grounds and Foundations Religion and Irreligion stand upon and the different Conduct of those that act under the Influence of the one and the other Now upon a strict and impartial Review of all that has been offered or advanced in this Cause we shall find that all the several Propositions contained under the Notion of Religion have been proved to be true and agreeable to our Reason by a direct Deduction from the first Principles of our Knowledge which Deduction in most of the Parts of it has all the Evidence and Certainty any consequential Truths can have and in the other as much as the Nature of the things proved is capable of in the present Condition and Circumstances of our Being and such as the Mind fully assents to without being able to entertain the least Suspicion of a Mistake tho it cannot prove there is not a bare Possibility of Error It will likewise appear that Religion in all the particular Branches and Duties of it is admirably fitted for the promoting the Happiness of Mankind in general considering their present State and Condition in the World And further that 't is highly probable at least if not evident that the greatest degree of Happiness every particular Man absolutely speaking is capable of will be the Consequence of his regular Discharge of all the Obligations of Religion and that proportionably to a Man's Behaviour in this respect while he lives shall his Reward be in another State but in every proportion greater than can be conceived or imagined by us now And as the Truth of these Matters will appear to be made out from the Reason and Nature of things so will it be further manifest that the general Opinion of the World has always went the same way and if Testimony or Authority could be of any use here that far the most and greatest is on this Side Besides we shall not be only satisfied of these things by a positive direct Proof but we shall see the contrary Hypotheses proved absurd and impossible or where any thing possible is advanced we shall perceive it less probable in it self and the Consequences drawn from it false and ridiculous As we shall likewise be convinc'd that Libertinism and Irreligion do evidently and directly tend to the Misery of Mankind in general with respect to the State they now are in and will very probably if not certainly render every particular Person that owns or acts by these Principles inconceivably more miserable in another State of Life and that in proportion to his Neglect or Violation of the Duties prescribed by Religion On the contrary we shall find that the Doctrines of Irreligion have none of these Grounds of Credibility nor are or can be defended by any of these Ways or Methods by which Religion is establish'd That they consisting wholly in the Denial and Contradiction of other Propositions do not admit of any positive direct Proof but must be proved by overthrowing the Truth of the Assertions denied That the Assertions denied cannot be shewed to be false either from their Repugnancy or Disagreeableness to our Reason and antecedent Principles of Knowledge or their Inconsistence with our Happiness nor from the common Suffrage and Testimony of Mankind And that the negative Principles of Irreligion and the practical Consequences of them cannot upon a just Comparison be proved to be more suitable to our Reason or Happiness than the contrary Doctrines We shall likewise upon a slight Review of the common Arguments and Pleas for Irreligion be easily satisfied that nothing of all this is so much as pretended to but that the strongest Effort of human Invention that way reaches no further than an Offer at explaining the common Appearances the Original Order Course and Event of things without a God independently of him or with Exclusion to those particular Consequences respecting Men which go under the Name of Duty and Sin Reward and Punishment and that the most any Endeavours of this kind can amount to is to shew that 't is possible things may be after that particular manner they are explained to be These are the different Grounds and Proofs of Religion and Irreligion which if we carefully compare together it will easily appear that they do not only differ as more or less rational but that all the Reason lies on the side of Religion the Conception or Proof of a bare Possibility of the World 's subsisting without any such thing being no manner of Argument that there is none And therefore it must be very absurd to deny all the Principles of Religion and every thing brought in defence of them upon this account only But allowing there may be a great deal more said for Irreligion so as to render it something probable to be believed yet if the positive direct Proofs for Religion stand good without considering those which pretend to shew the Absurdity and Impossibility of a contrary Scheme the former cannot stand upon so sure and firm a bottom as the latter nor be advanced to so high a Degree of Credibility and therefore it must be very unreasonable to give our assent on that side where there is the least Appearance of Probability But supposing the Proof on both sides equal such different Consequences do attend the Belief of the one and the other that 't is the Extremity of Madness and Folly to prefer the Party of Irreligion Which besides the present particular Pains Troubles and Disadvantages it is said to bring upon the Persons that make this Choice and the Mischiefs and Inconveniences Mankind will certainly suffer from one another upon this account besides all this I say it is threatned with eternal inexpressible Misery to come after this Life And this is a Consequence so concerning and dreadful that it must be a vast Preponderancy of Proof that can justifie our running the hazard of it which I am
THE Certainty and Necessity OF Religion in General Or The First GROUNDS PRINCIPLES OF Humane Duty ESTABLISH'D In Eight Sermons Preach'd at S. Martins in the Fields at the Lecture for the Year 1697 founded by the Honorable Robert Boyle Esquire By FRANCIS GASTRELL B. D. Student of Christ-Church Oxon. LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in S. Paul's Churchyard 1697. TO THE Most Reverend Father in God THOMAS Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Sir Henry Ashurst Baronet Sir John Rotheram Serjeant at Law John Evelyn Senior Esquire Trustees by the Appointment of the Honorable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire Most Reverend and Honored HAving by your Appointment preach'd the following Sermons and publish'd them by your Command I humbly desire this Dedication of them to you may be accepted as some Acknowledgment for that great Trust you have been pleased to honour me with I have nothing to say for the Performance but that I have endeavoured all I could to proportion my Care to the Subject and Design of the Lecture and where the Management is faulty I have reason to hope the Evidence of the Truths I defend will bear me out I have taken the Liberty to Print my Sermons all together in a continu'd Discourse that the Strength of the Proofs there given may appear more plainly from their Connexion If it shall please God to render what I have done in any degree or measure serviceable towards the raising or promoting a Sense of Religion among us I shall extreamly rejoyce at my Success and I am sure I shall have my Satisfaction encreased by your Approbation of my Endeavours and by your farther Protection and Defence of the same Cause in which I am now particularly engaged and which ought to be the general Concern of Mankind I am Most Reverend and Honored Your most faithful and obedient Servant FRANCIS GASTRELL The PREFACE IN every Age of the World we have any Account of left us the Wickedness of Mankind has much the largest share in their History and if we believed the Complaints of the several Historians who acquaint us with what passed in their days we should be disposed to conclude that those particular times we were reading of were certainly a great deal worse than any that went before and that consequently Vice having been always growing and gathering Strength as the World advanced in Age the present Generation of Men must far exceed all their Predecessors in Wickedness but tho' I have a very ill Opinion of the Age we now live in I cannot look upon this Reflexion as just and well-grounded The true Occasion both of the Observation and the Complaints grounded upon it I take to be that variety of Wickedness whereby the several Ages and Countries of the World have been distinguish'd from one another For there have been as many different Methods and Fashions of sinning among Men as Forms of Government and as many Changes and Revolutions in Vice as in Empire Some Periods of Time have been remarkable for open Cruelty Rapine and Oppression others for Treachery and private Revenge and all the secret ways of Destruction other Ages there have been when Luxury and Riot and all manner of extravagant Lust and Debauchery were the publick reigning Vices sometimes Profaneness and a publick Contempt of Religion have prevail'd at other times Indifference and a careless Neglect of all that 's good sometimes Hypocrisy and an open pretence to Piety and Vertue have been used for a Cover to a close and secret practice of all manner of Vice and at other times Men have had the Impudence to defend the worst Actions by endeavouring to make them appear consistent with Religion These and many more such like Differences are observable in the History of former times but the peculiar distinguishing Character of this Age is a publick Denial of Religion and all the Obligations of it with an Endeavour to disprove the Evidences brought for it and to offer a more rational Scheme of Libertinism 'T is true indeed this ought to be the Plea of all wicked Men that are resolved to continue in their Vices and upon that account it may be justly wonder'd at that the number of Atheists and profest Libertines has not been much greater in former Ages than in this in which we pretend to juster Views and stronger Proofs of Religion than they had heretofore But 't is plain there never were more than there are now to whom those Characters do truly belong whatever softer Names they are pleased to distinguish themselves by and the reason of it I look upon to be this The Scriptures of the New Testament which are generally in this part of the World believed to contain the Revelations of God are so plain and particular so full and express in the Account they give of the Duties required of Men and the future Rewards and Punishments appointed for them according as they observe or neglect these Duties and the World is so inlightned now by the great Improvements of Knowledge that have been lately made especially by a critical and exact Search into the Design and Meaning of the Sacred Writings that 't is impossible for Men of Sense to reconcile a wicked debauch'd Life with those Ideas of God and Religion they meet with in the Scriptures and therefore they find themselves obliged in defence of their Vices which they cannot perswade themselves to part with to deny not only Revelation but all manner of Religion too since if there be any Religion at all they are forced to acknowledge the fairest and most rational Draught of it seems to be laid in the Writings of the New Testament This Method of reasoning is now found to have a stronger Influence in quieting the Conscience and making a wicked Man satisfied with himself than any Plea formerly used because it has a greater shew of Fairness and Sincerily in it 't is so very reasonable and honourable a thing for a Man to act up to his Principles that wicked Men are easily disposed to entertain a good Opinion of the Principles of Irreligion because the constant Agreeableness of their Practice to them makes their Character consistent and all of a piece and gives them a great Advantage both in point of Judgment and Honour over those who pretend to other Principles and yet act just as they do But whatever Preference may be due to these Men in a comparison of them with wicked Professors of Religion and whatever Ease and Satisfaction it may afford them in a continued Course of Vice that their Judgment and Practice agree together I think it may be made very evident that they have only found out a new Artifice to deceive themselves and that all their Reasonings are not only vain and groundless but directly opposite to the clearest Corruptions of Truth and Happiness Mankind is capable of This is the Design and the Pretence of the following Discourse and to render it more effectual for the checking and putting some stop to the
own Misery but by rectifying our Perceptions of Things which being future do not by immediate Impressions assure us that they really are what they appear to us to be And if we strictly examine our selves about these Matters we shall find that what we now actually feel or perceive we cannot possibly imagine to be otherwise than as we feel or perceive that is we must be undeceivably conscious of all our own Sensations and Perceptions But how we shall hereafter be affected we can no otherwise know than by knowing the different Natures of the Things that are to affect or be affected with the Connexion and Dependance of one thing upon another in order to promote or hinder the one's being so affected by the other Now as to the Knowledge we are capable of in this kind we are to consider these farther Observations upon our selves That there are some Ideas or Notions that appear with that Light and Clearness to our Understandings that we immediately perceive them in all their Extent and a necessary Agreement or Disagreement betwixt them and afterwards the Dependance or Independance of others upon them to the Truth of which Appearances we cannot possibly deny our Assent That there are some Propositions which do not appear with such Evidence as to command our Assent but have more to incline us to believe them true than false and this according to different degrees That there are others that appear with equal Motives of Credibility which hold us in Suspence and will hardly suffer us to determine either way And a great many things we have no manner of Notions of at all for the Truth or Falshood of which nothing at all appears to us But besides these general Differences in the Appearance of things as certain probable doubtful or exceeding our present Reach we are moreover to take notice of two other kinds of Difference the one between the real Nature of Things and their Appearances to us the other betwixt the Appearance of Things to us with respect to Truth or Falshood and their Appearance to us with respect to Action and the Consequences of it Happiness or Misery As to the first of these Differences we find that what we are once really certain of always appears certain to us and what cannot appear to us but as certain we cannot possibly conceive should be otherwise in its own Nature But what is in its own Nature certain may appear doubtful to us at one time and probable at another and what we assent to as probable now may afterwards command our Assent as certain and there are things which altho ' we are not certain of their Truth or Falshood we are sure we know as much as we can of by the strength of our present Faculties As to the other Difference in the Appearance of things with respect to Action and its Consequences it often so happens that where the Truth of a Thing seems doubtful to us it plainly appears to be safer and more to our present Advantage or affords a better Prospect of future Happiness to act one way than another and abundance of Instances there are in which we find our selves under a Necessity of Acting one way or other where neither side appears certainly true but one only probable or both equally doubtful This is all the Account of Humane Nature which I thought necessary to my present Design of establishing the Truth of Religion And I perswade my self I have said nothing upon this Subject which any Man that fairly consults himself can possibly call in question But if any Objections do lye against any part of what I have now laid down they shall be considered before I make use of it as a Proof of any thing else All Questions concerning the Origine and Substance of the Soul its Union with the Body and separate Existence I have purposely waved as things which do in a great measure lye out of the Reach of natural Reason and consequently admit of no certain Proof from thence are as commonly handled involved in great Ambiguity of Terms and which way soever explain'd I think as far as I have hitherto seen make no manner of change either as to the Truth or Nature of Religion Whether the Soul be infused or derived material or immaterial whether it depends upon the Body in all its Actions or sometimes acts of it self is dissolved with it or exists after it if what I said before concerning our own Experience be true it will be found that Religion has a very good bottom to stand upon without being supported by any of these Opinions But if the Soul came from without the Body is of a different Nature from it can Act independently of it and Exist after its Dissolution as there are several very probable Reasons and a great deal of certain Revelation for then are there so many additional Arguments for the Truth of what may be sufficiently prov'd without 'em from plainer and more undeniable Principles as I shall endeavour to make good in the following Discourse The next Thing I am to do is to consider the Nature of God or what that Notion or Idea is to which I affix that Name which in short is this An Eternal Being of all possible Perfections in himself and from whom every thing else deriv'd its Being and whatever belongs to it But to give a more particular Account of my Thoughts in this Matter I conceive God to be One unchangeable Being of an intelligent Nature who always necessarily Existed of himself who knows every thing that can be known who can do every thing that is possible to be done who does every thing he wills and nothing but what he wills himself who enjoys an unalterable State of the greatest Happiness that can be enjoy'd who never wills or does any thing inconsistent with this State who makes himself the ultimate end of all he does and next to that the Good or Happiness of all such Beings as are capable of it which together with all other Beings and every thing that belongs to them were from him and depend upon him for their Continuance and lastly who brings about whatever he wills or designs by the fittest and most proper Means This seems to me to be the easiest Notion of God we are capable of conceiving and if it can be proved that there really is such a Being as is here describ'd I think 't is all that 's necessary upon this Subject with respect to what I have undertaken For whether we represent God to our Thoughts as a pure and simple act a spiritual Substance or subtle Matter as the whole mass or Substance of the World taken all together or as the Soul and active Principle of it as confined to the Heavens or diffused through the whole extent of Being as the Maker and Creator of all things or as the Principle and Fountain from whence they flowed or consider him under any other Idea our Reason or Imagination can frame
if we allow all the Characters of a Deity before mentioned 't is the same thing as to Religion which soever of these Opinions we embrace as will hereafter appear But if any of them are urged to overthrow that Notion of a Deity I have given the Proof of such a Being to which that Notion belongs will be a full and sufficient Answer to them Now as to the Relation there is betwixt God and Man we thus conceive That God is our Creator and Parent the Author of our Being and Nature and all the Powers and Capacities of it and that we are his Creatures the Issue of his Power and the Workmanship of his Hands that God is our Protector Governor and Master and we are his Dependants Subjects and Servants that God is our Benefactor and Author of all our Happiness and we obliged and indebted to him for whatever we enjoy All which Relations do necessarily result from the Natures of the Being related as will plainly appear upon a just Comparison of them together and will be farther manifested when we enter upon the particular Proofs of Religion Supposing therefore that I have given a true Account of the Nature of Man which being taken from Experience can admit of no other Proof nor no greater Certainty the only thing remaining to be done before I come to the main Argument I propos'd is to prove II. That there is a God or a Being of such a Nature as I have endeavour'd to represent which is the second Thing I undertook In discoursing of which Subject that I may express my Thoughts with the more Clearness give every Argument its due weight and everywhere proportion my Building to my Foundation I shall consider the Being of God under the different Degrees of Possible Probable and Certain First then As to the Possibility of such a Being I cannot imagine any Man of such an irregular Make of Understanding as to apprehend that Description I have given of a Deity to be absurd and chimerical or to have any Inconsistency or Contradiction in it I am sure I have said nothing but what I very well conceive my self and I think is as easily conceivable by any Body else and I have used the plainest and most intelligible Expressions I could upon this Occasion But farther to assist the Weakness of our Understandings in framing a more distinct Conception of God we will consider the several Idea's of which this complex Notion is made and see whether they will not suit very well together Now 't is plain to any Man that reflects upon the Ideas he has in his Mind that he has a Notion of Time and the several Periods of it which he can place at what distance he pleases to measure the Duration of any thing by but never at such a distance by all the Addition his Imagination is capable of but that he can still suppose some Being to exist both before and after which Being before and after which he cannot conceive any Time or other Being he calls Eternal In like manner when we consider the Variety of Beings in the World with their several Modes and Relations we are not able to imagine or suppose such a number of any of them that there cannot still be a greater and this possible Variety of Things never to be exhausted is stiled Infinite And if we can conceive such an Infinity of Things possible we can conceive a Power proportionable that can produce whatever is possible to be produced and a Knowledge answerable to that which can know whatever can be known and that is whatever can be Thus it is we conceive an eternal intelligent Being of infinite Knowledge and Power And this we do very easily without such Intensness of Thought and nice Abstraction as People are apt to imagine for we find Infinity almost in every Thing All our Studies and Enquiries lead us to this Notion When we consider the Extent or Dimensions of Matter we lessen and magnify them till we are lost either way and still find our selves as far from any Bounds as when we first set out upon the Search When we run our Thoughts over the Variety of natural Bodies in the World the more Differences we observe the more we comprehend possible each new Difference taken notice of affording an inconceivable Variety of Combinations with those observ'd before 'T is the same thing if we contract our View and keep within the Compass of one Kind or Division of Bodies only as Plants Minerals and the like the farther we advance our Observations the more still do the Species or Sorts multiply upon us and the possible Variety of more does proportionably encrease till confounded with the growing Prospect we are content to admire what we tried in vain to reach 'T is thus also in the intellectual Nature The different Degrees of Knowledge Power and Happiness we are conscious of do sufficiently assure us that we are capable of greater and greater still and whatever Notion we can frame of our own State with respect to any of these Qualifications from the utmost top of what we are arrived to we can look farther still and conceive higher Advancements of each kind possible in our selves in other Men or at least in other Beings of larger Capacities and this in a continual Rise without any thing to terminate our View From whence we are farther enabled to conceive that God is infinitely happy as well as infinitely knowing and powerful that is that he enjoys all the Happiness that can possibly be enjoyed by any Capacity of being Having got thus far over the Notion of a Deity I think we may with less Difficulty conceive that such a Being as this did necessarily exist of himself that is that an eternal Being had nothing before it to be the Canse or Author of its Existence And farther that he is unchangeable or always the same that is that an eternal Being always is and a Being of infinite Knowledge Power and Happiness is always alike knowing powerful and happy The actual Production of all things which are not God from him and their Dependance upon him for their Continuance and all other Circumstances of their being are no hard Things to be conceived by those that acknowledge he can do all things possible and he that knows every thing that can be known may as easily be supposed to effect whatever he designs by the fittest and most proper means and that is to be infinitely wise And what other Reason or Motive can we frame for an intelligent Being of infinite Happiness to act upon but his own free Pleasure And who can hinder the Almighty from doing what he will But that the Happiness of all such Beings as are capable of it so far as it is consistent with his Wisdom to grant them the Enjoyment should be very agreeable to his Good Will and Pleasure we are not I believe disposed to doubt And this compleats the Account I have before given of the
here given a particular account Whether God has a Right and Title to our Obedience upon any other Foundation but that of his Power to make us happy whether 't is possible for Man to act voluntarily upon any other Reason or Motive but that of his own Happiness and whether Happiness be the ultimate End of all our Actions and the ultimate Ground of all Obligation or only a subordinate but necessary and inseparable Consideration if what I have already said upon these Matters does not satisfy I shall no farther dispute because I am very well assured that whatever other Grounds or Motives of our Obedience to God may be imagined by some who pretend to act upon more noble and disinteressed Principles than that of their own Happiness 't is impossible to persuade a Man who does not yet believe any Religion at all to become religious except it can be plainly or probably at least made out to him that he shall better his Condition by it This I am sure is the only Argument that can prevail upon an Unbeliever to embrace Religion and I sirmly believe whoever fairly consults himself will find that he neither does nor can act upon any other ground 'T is true indeed we often act without knowing or considering what the Consequences will be and we are made and disposed after such a manner that we readily acknowledge our selves obliged to submit to the Will and Commands of God without any express Consideration of future Happiness to be obtained by our Obedience but if it could be evidently prov'd to us that Misery would be the certain Consequence of those Actions we thought our selves upon the first View obliged to we should then be forced to acknowledge that we were mistaken in our first Judgments and that it would be more reasonable to act another way which we were assured would be more for our Happiness These Things being premised I return to the main Question Whether we are actually under any Obligations to God or which is the same thing in other terms Whether there be any such thing as Beligion And in this manner I shall prove there is First I shall shew that there is such a particular way of acting such a course of Actions or Scheme and Model of living which whoever duly and fairly reflects upon will be forced to acknowledge that if he did live after That manner he should approve himself for so doing and if he lived otherwise he should condemn himself for it and therefore he that finds himself necessarily determin'd to approve such a particular way of living and to condemn the contrary must acknowledge that he ought or is obliged to act accordingly From whence I shall draw this Inference that therefore all things considered it must be more for his Happiness to act this way than any other because were it not his free unbiassed Judgment could not upon a fair Ballance of all the several Reasons and Motives of Action approve him when he did so act and condemn him when he did not there being nothing else but the different Motives of Happiness and Misery that can determine the Mind to these different Acts And from thence it follows that he is truly and really obliged to act as he judges he ought to act Secondly I shall prove that God who was the Author of our Being gave us such a Nature by which we are neceflarily determined to judge after this manner with that End and Design that we should exercise and employ those other Faculties and Powers he has furnish'd us with suitably hereunto and that consequently what our Reason tells us ought to be done we are commanded by God to do that 't is God who proposes those prevailing Reasons and Motives which determine us to act and gives them all the Power and Influence they have over us and therefore what God has made to appear reasonable or unreasonable to us to do will accordingly conduce to our Happiness or Misgry and upon that account oblige us to act or not to act And farther I shall endeavour to shew under this Head that God purposely created us after such a manner with a Design to oblige us to such and such Performances not only from the general Consideration of the Make and Nature of Man but from many other Tokens and Indications of such an End or Design plainly visible in the World And the Sum of what we are thus obliged to by God is what we call our Religion Thirdly I shall positively and directly prove from the Nature of Religion it self that a regular Practice of all those Duties or Obligations of which it consists would certainly conduce to the greatest Happiness Man is capable of considered only in his present Condition as included within the Bounds of this Life Fourthly I shall shew that the Defect of such a Practice and the Consequences of it do necessarily lead us to the Acknowledgment of such a future State as is sufficient to determine us to prefer one particular way of acting before another upon such Reasons and Motives that is such Degrees of Happiness and Misery as we are sure greater and more powerful cannot be offered to us From all which Considerations the Certainty and Necessity of Religion will be plainly and fully evinced 1. First then I am to shew that there is one particular way of acting which we are necessarily determined to prefer to any other so that upon a clear and impartial View of pure natural Reason we cannot but like approve or be pleased with this way of acting and dislike condemn or be displeased with the contrary and farther that we must judge or acknowledge that what we thus like or approve we ought or are obliged to do and what we dislike or condemn we ought or are obliged not to do and consequently that we are really obliged to act according to such Judgments because it must be more for our Happiness so to act That there are some natural Notions of Good and Evil Right and Wrong or some such certain Distinctions founded in or resulting from the Natures and Relations of things as cannot be altered or destroyed by any arbitrary Agreement or Institution whatsoever and that these are perceivable by the bare use of our Reason the same way that any other part of our Knowledge is are Truths which the greatest and wisest part of Mankind have constantly owned however they may have differ'd in assigning which they were and what were the true Grounds and Foundations of them Now to put these Matters beyond all reasonable doubt and to cut off all occasion of Contest concerning them I only desire this may be granted me that there are some things so clearly and fully proposed to the Mind that a Man cannot deny or with-hold his Assent to them and that where-ever this happens there is the greatest Certainty we are capable of This being granted it necessarily follows that we may be as certain that such or such Things ought or
if besides the natural Pleasure which results from Religious Acts while we are practising them here God has given us a certain Prospect and well grounded Hope of a State of greater Bliss hereafter I dare venture to assert that generally speaking Religion will prove the surest way to Happiness even in this Life so that tho' sometimes the Sufferings of some particular Men upon that account may exceed all the noble Satisfactions Religion can afford them here yet all things consider'd and the different Methods of acting weigh'd together with all the probable Consequences that according to the common course of things may attend them there will be sufficient reason for a wise Man to prefer the practise of Religious Duties to the ways of Irreligion upon the score of the present Happiness he is very like to enjoy by that means reckoning in the Hopes and prospect only and not the Possession of another State as will more plainly appear under the next General Head of Discourse Which is a Proof of Religion from a Comparison of it with Irreligion and the necessary Consequences arising from thence ADVERTISEMENT WHat is here Printed was delivered in Five Sermons upon the first Mondays in January February March April and May. The Three remaining Sermons will be Preach'd upon the first Mondays in September October and November and be Published soon after in the same Volume and Character with the Pages continued which together with these will make up one entire Discourse The THREE Remaining SERMONS PREACHED at Mr. BOYLE's Lecture For the Year 1697. IIII. I have before given a positive direct proof of Religion from certain Principles drawn from the natures and relations of the Beings concerned in it I shall now endeavour to make good the same Truth by shewing what Absurd and Unreasonable things would follow from a denial of Religion and how Pernicious and Destructive to Mankind the establishment of a contrary Belief and Practice would be In the management of which Subject I shall first consider the several Steps and Degrees of Irreligion and then shew how far they all lead to the same Ends and what are the peculiar Consequences of each Irreligion so far as it consists in Opinion or Belief is of three Sorts For either men deny the being of a God and consequently all Religious Duty falls a course by the taking away the Foundation of it or they acknowledg a God but deny that Man is any ways Obliged by him to act such a particular way as we pretend he is or else they own they are in several Instances obliged to Worship God and to live according to those rational Principles of Action we have before mentioned but do not believe there is any future State of Rewards and Punishments after this Life Now these are very different Notions considered barely in themselves as matters of Speculation only but if we examine the practical Effects and Consequences of them we shall find that they all aim at the same thing though several ways which is the establishing a general liberty of Living as every man pleases upon Principles contrary to those of Religion This is plain of the two first Opinions which take away all manner of Religious obgation and upon strict examination will be found to be True of the last which so far Loosens and Weakens the Influence of Religion that it will not be able to bear up against the force of contrary Motives to Action But let us consider these Notions apart and then we shall the better perceive what the direct and immediate Consequences of each Opinion are and how far they fall in with one another First then we will suppose that there is no God and Consequently no Religion this being supposed what are we to think of our Selves What kind of Beings are we How came we first to exist and what are we to do while we continue to be That we are and that we feel our selves so and so Affected 't is impossible to doubt and among the several things that I am infallibly Conscious of I perceive such an Agreement and Connexion betwixt some of them that let me do what I can I cannot help perceiving them as together and such a disagrement betwixt others that I cannot help perceiving them as asunder or separate from one another These Complex Perceptions or Appearances I am assured of the same way I am assured of my own Being or any simple Perception whatsoever but if these things which I necessarily perceive as together or asunder and cannot possibly perceive otherwise should not be Joyned or Separated accordingly in the Nature and Reality of things but only in the Mind then do I know nothing certain beyond Appearances and the Affections of my own Mind and yet am invincibly Disposed to believe what may be False with so strong an assent that 't is the hardest thing in the World to command my self to entertain the least Sufpition of a bare possibility of its Falshood as any man may experience in himself if he will but try to Doubt of what we call a self-evident Proposition which is the reason that there are so few that pretend to be thorough Scepticks if there ever were really any such which I dare confidently affirm there never were But if it were possible that I could prevail with my Self to deny the Being of a God after a full and impartial Consideration of the Proof before given of this Truth I do not see where my Doubts could stop or what could determine my Assent to any thing else Reason Truth and Evidence would be bare uninforming Sounds which would cause no other Perceptions in me my whole Life would be nothing but Suspence and Amazement Darkness and Ignorance would cover my Understanding and continual Uneasiness would arise from a restless Succession of vain undetermin'd Thoughts If therefore there be no God notwithstanding all those appearances of Evidence that there is such a Being we have the same Reason to distrust all our other Knowledg And a continual desire of Knowing with a constant agitation of Thoughts in the search or pursuit of Knowledg joyn'd with a continual distrust of all appearances of Truth without any manner of Rest or Acquiescence which we should then feel in our Selves would be such an uneasie State as no man I believe could bear and I believe no man ever yet felt and yet this would be the consequence of the denial of a God supposing there is the same appearance of Evidence for his Being as we have for any other Truth as those that have fully examined the proofs of it must Acknowledg But this perhaps is too much to suppose it being very easie to imagine that there may be men who deny the Being of God and all manner of Religion without distrusting their other Knowledge who in all other matters Argue from the same Principles and Act by the same Rules as the rest of Mankind do T is very possible that persons who never gave
of Religion about them which their Reason and Education will not give them leave wholly to cast off But if the Ignorance of the one and Prejudices of the other were removed as if Atheism spread and came into a general Reputation they soon would be then should we feel the dismal Effects and Consequences of these Principles far greater and dreadfuller than we can imagine or describe For there 's a great deal of Difference between an ignorant or half-persuaded Atheist and one that is positively and fully so upon Judgment and Reflexion Should a Nation of People be duly taught and instructed in the Doctrines of Irreligion they would be much more astonishingly wicked than those that had never heard of God or retain'd some loose imperfect Notions of him And if God should suffer this to be the Result of the bold Talk and Arguing of the present Atheists of this Nation they would then repent that they did not keep their Atheism to themselves and make their Advantage of other Peoples Credulity For if all the People or any considerable Number of them were of their Opinions they would soon overturn Government and bring all things to an Equality and then farewel to all the Pleasures Enjoyments and Conveniencies of Living when every Man must labour to maintain his own Life and be in continual Fear of having it taken away by others What I have said of Atheism is with very little Difference applicable to all manner of Deism which is such an acknowledgment of a God as does not include any Religion in it For if the Deist be of the Epicurean Sect and makes his God an unconcern'd Spectator of Human Actions he must as to what concerns his own Conduct judge and act altogether the same way that the Atheist does For if God require nothing of him is not pleased or offended with any thing he does nor has annex'd any Rewards or Punishments to this or that sort of Life he has full Liberty to chuse for himself and prosecute his own Happiness in what way or manner he shall think fit which is exactly the Case of the Atheist 'T is the same thing in effect with those that make God a necessary Cause and Men necessary Agents For according to this Opinion all Actions are alike as being equally necessary and all Men must obey their own Determinations and there can be no general Rules or Principles for Men to act by there is no such thing as Obligation Reward or Punishment nor have any of those Notions or Distinctions taken away by Atheism any place or foundation under this Hypothesis As to the Persuasion of those who believe a God acknowledge some sort of Providence and think they ow some regard to the sovereign Author and Governour of the World but deny a future State There seems indeed to be a considerable Difference betwixt this and the other extravagant Suppositions and so indeed there is as to the Credibility of the Opinion but the Influence it has upon Practice is very near the same especially with respect to those of these latter days to whom the Certainty of a future State hath been more fully discovered For if we consider the present Posture and Constitution of Human Affairs and believe that things have always gone on in the same Course from the beginning without any sensible extraordinary Interposition of Providence as they that deny all Revelation must believe If I say we are of this Opinion and observe how things are managed in the World how Wickedness oftentimes thrives and flourishes and that not only for a season but strengthens and fixes itself upon as lasting Foundations as our Happiness stands upon and how on the contrary the Calamitics and Sufferings of the Righteous are commensurate to their Lives and a great many of them meerly owing to that Character what Force or Power can some slight Sentiments of Religion have upon us when the present Happiness of this Life may be promoted by acting contrary to it and we have nothing to lose or fear after Death I shall not examine how far we are oblig'd to act in such a case upon the account of the certain irresistible Power of God which he may exert if he will tho it should be granted that he has not hitherto done it or upon the account of the Benefits we have received from him but we shall find this true in fact that those who are firmly persuaded that God will exert his Power no otherwise than he has done already will not by those promiscuous Punishments they see light upon all sorts of Men at different Times and in different Circumstances be deter'd from prosecuting the Designs they have conceiv'd for the Attainment or Establishment of their own Happiness by any means they shall think likely to succeed Thus have I endeavor'd to give a true account and Representation of all kind of Irreligion and to shew the necessary Effects of it with respect to the Happiness of Mankind And now upon a fair and just comparison of Religion and Irreligion together according to the different Notions and Consequences of them Religion must needs appear not only more agreeable to the Reason and true Interest of Men in general more suitable and proportionate to the Capacities and Exigencies of Human Nature but more conducive to the Happiness of particular Men in the present Constitution and State of human Societies in the World so that upon a due Balance of all the usual Accidents of Life 't is very probable a Religious Man should enjoy more Happiness while he lives here than a Person of another Character as might be fully and particularly made out if there was occasion but this requiring a set Discourse on purpose and not falling directly within my present Design I think it sufficient to mention some few general Considerations only which shew the Advantages a Religious Man has above another that acts by contrary Principles Such as are these following He that acts upon a true thorough Sense of Religion has with respect to all the external Enjoyments of the World more contracted Desires and fewer Wants than another and consequently his Happiness does much seldomer interfere with any other Man's and is less obnoxious to the Assaults of Envy Ambition or Covetousness than the prosperous Condition of the Wicked He is not eager in the pursuit of the necessary Supports and lesser Conveniencies of Life and takes care to avoid all manner of Injury and Offence of others and therefore must be freer from the Effects of Anger Malice and Revenge than such as advance their own Ease or Fortune by disquieting and robbing others He professes to help and assist in promoting the Happiness of other Men without any Worldly Advantage to himself and therefore there will be a great many who will find it their Interest to defend and secure him and perform several Offices of Kindness to him to engage his future Endeavours for them when there shall be occasion whereas
aim at this End since the only way of attaining this End is by our Actions and we are assured by Experience that all our Actions do not lead to this End but Misery as well as Happiness may be the Effect and Consequence of our Actions it follows from hence that there must be one particular way of acting which if steadily pursued will certainly procure us greater Happiness than we can possibly attain by any other And farther if we are designed for Happiness and this Happiness be attainable only by one particular way of acting 't is certain that the same God who designed us for such an End must design also that we should act such a particular way as would conduct us thither In Conformity to which Designs we cannot but believe that as he has given us a certain Knowledge of and necessary Determinations toward our End he must have given us also sufficient Tokens and Indications of the Means that lead to it and upon Examination we are satisfied that he has so by framing our Minds after such a manner that we are necessarily determined to approve some Actions and to condemn others and to judge our selves obliged to do what we approve and to avoid what we condemn by giving us such natural Propensions and Aversions agreeable to the Judgments of our Reason as by a sudden and unperceivable Influence dispose us to and assist us in the Performance of the same Actions which Reason prescribes and by putting us into such a state or condition of Life with respect to one another where the different kinds of Government and Subjection and the Notions and Actions resulting from thence unavoidably lead us to the Acknowledgment of God's Superiority Power and Right of obliging and the Necessity of our Obedience to him in all the several Instances of Duty in which we conceive our selves bound to any governing Relation among Men but in a higher and more exalted manner as becomes the mighty Inequality between God and Man From whence we are farther led to conclude that all other Duties and Obligations we apprehend our selves under with respect to our selves or others are the Effect of our Obligation to God the Supreme Governour of the World whose Power and Right are over all things original and independent and all other Powers and Rights are derived from and dependent upon him the Sense of which Obligation makes all our Actions that are duely influenced by it termed Religious tho' God is not the immediate Object of them And these are sufficient Marks and Evidences to assure us that God does require us to act such a particular way and consequently that we are actually obliged to frame our Lives according to those Rules and Measures which come under the Name of Religion unless it can be shewn from more certain Discoveries of the Nature of Man and the Design of God that notwithstanding all these fair Appearances Religion is not the Way to Happiness But as 't is manifest from what we have already observed of the Nature of God and our own Frame and Constitution that no higher Assurances can be given us of the Truth of any thing than we have had in this matter from a Concurrence of our Reason natural Inclinations and external Condition and that we cannot be deceived in assenting to such Testimony so upon farther Experiences and Obserxations taken from our selves and the State of Mankind with relation to Religion we shall find that Religion is in its own Nature so suted and suited to the Nature of Man so propertion'd to the original Dispositions and Desires of the Soul as by a proper Tendency aad Esicacy to promote his Happiness This appears first by what we feel in our selves What just and impartial Reason approves we find a Pleasure in approving Inclination superadded to Judgment heightens the pleasing Sentiment acting what Nature inclines to and Reason warrants is accompanied with a new and higher Satisfaction all which we repeat and enjoy over again upon Reflexion And if any Pain or Uneasiness mixes with the Pleasure or attends it that does not arise from the same Thoughts or Actions that this does but from a contrary Application of Mind in our selves or others which opposes and obstructs us in the Practice of Religion or from some other extrinsical Caeuse that has no Dependance upon or Connexion with Religion so that the due Performance of any Religious Action is never properly the Cause of any Pain or Trouble to him that performs it however in some Instances it may seem to be the Occasion of it But in order to be farther satisfied of the natural Connexion betwixt Religion and Happiness and that we may more clearly perceive that the latter is the true and genuine Effect of the former we should take off our Thoughts from the present State of Mankind and represent to our selves another Generation of Men. living together in a constant regular Observance of all the Duties and Obligations of Religion for there we should behold such a glorious Scene of Happiness rising before us that considering the necessary Circumstances of our mortal Condition we could not possibly imagine or form an Idea of any thing in this Life beyond it This would be a State of universal Peace Safety Tranquility and Love where there would be no Injuries nor Tears no Envy nor Distrust where every Man would find all the Pleasures of Friendship in the Company of every Man and feel his own agreeable Thoughts towards others redoubled by knowing that they had all the same Sentiments for him In such a State as this all the natural Appetites and Desires of the Soul would be satisfied without a painful Eagerness in the Pursuit or Satiety in the Enjoyment and there would be no irregular imaginary Desires to create the Uneasiness of Disappointment then every Man would be pleased with all he did and have his Satisfaction heightned by a full and entire Assurance that his Actions were approved by the World and acceptable to God Was true Religion so universally and exactly practised among Men they would engage the Power and Wisdom of the supreme Governour in their Favour by the Honour Respect and Obedience they paid him they would be sure of all the Benefits and Advantages of humane Strength and Skill by a mutual Performance of all the Duties of Society and by an equal regular Conduct and Management of their own particular Capacities and Powers they would preserve themselves in the fittest and properest Condition of enjoying those agreeable Satisfactions God had put within their Reach and prolong the Enjoyment of them by continuing their Lives to the utmost Term they could by any Endeavours of their own carry them to Whoever takes a full and distinct View of Religion in all its Power and Extent must acknowledge that these are the true and necessary Effects of it where its Influence is freely dispensed without Check or Opposition from contrary Causes And what greater Happiness than this can we
without a larger Date of present Life or a prospect of another conceive our selves capable of or at least is attainable by any other Actions besides those of Religion But this I confess is all but an imaginary Scene a bare Idea or Pattern drawn by the Mind which never was and perhaps never will be exemplified in the reality of things and therefore it does not necessarily follow from hence that when the Generality of Men act contrary to Religion as now they do those few that are mixt with them and live exactly according to the Rules and I recepts of it shall enjoy more Happiness than any of the rest much less such whose Practice is inconstant and defective which is certainly the Case of the best and most careful Observers of those measures of acting which Religion prescribes However thus much I think may justly be inferr'd That Religion is in its own Nature productive of Happiness and nothing else and consequently was design'd and ordain'd by God that it should obtain this Effect From whence I conclude that if Man was made for Happiness and directed and disposed to seek it by the means of Religion and these means are found to be in their own Nature sufficient but are some way or other without the Fault of the Person that uses them render'd ineffectual for the present from hence I say we may certainly conclude that God who in his great Wisdom has order'd all these things did not order them in vain or with an Intention of deceiving but has contrived it so that some time or other the End to which they all point shall be obtained and therefore if a full and exact Observance of all the Duties of Religion be not attended with a suitable Happiness in this Life 't is a strong Proof that there will be a future State in which there will be Rewards answerable to the highest Performances and Expectations We have Reason also from the Goodness and Wisdom of God to hope that the sincere Endeavours of those whose Course is sometimes interrupted with voluntary Transgressions of the Rules prescribed them will notwithstanding by some Favour or Grace procure them a State of Happiness But this we may be sure of that God will put a mighty Distinction betwixt such as do but sometimes deviate from those religious measures they have proposed to themselves and those who constantly act by different Principles 4. The Proof of this Conclusion is the fourth thing I proposed in order to the Establishment of the Truth and Necessity of Religion Here then I am to shew that the Defect of a general and regular Practice of Religion and the Consequences of this Defect do necessarily lead us to the Acknowledgment of such a future State as is sufficient to determine us to prefer one particular way of Life before another upon such Reasons and Motives that is such degrees of Happiness and Misery as we are sure greater and more powerful cannot be offered to us 'T is very plain that Religion is not universally practised in the World nor do the generality of any Nation or Society of Men make their Duty to God the governing Principle of their Actions 'T is manifest likewise that those few who are sensible of their Obligations and endeavour to discharge them do in many Instances neglect them or act contrary to them upon which Accounts it happens that as there is a great deal more Misery in the World than our mortal Condition would otherwise subject us to so it oftentimes falls to the religious Man's Lot to have the greatest share of it Nor is all the Trouble and Uneasiness he suffers the Effect of vicious Habits and Impressions mixing with and obstructing the Performance of his Duty or carrying him to contrary Actions tho' very much is owing to this Cause but a great many Afflictions and Calamities are laid upon him by the Malice and Hatred of wicked Men purely for his being religious so that did he perfectly and compleatly fulfil all his Duty to God there 's Reason to believe his Misery would be proportionably encreased as far as it was in their Power to do it From whence it plainly follows that God has provided some other state of Happiness for such as live exactly according to his Purpose and Intention here which will be so full and sufficient a Recompence for all the Misery they have suffered in this Life as to justify their Obedience to God upon such Terms For if God design'd Man for Happiness as 't is certain he did and appointed Religion to be the means to it as manifestly appears from his annexing Pleasure to the purest and most unmixt practice of it as well as from several other Indications 't is impossible to suppose that God should suffer his Ends to be defeated after a due and proper Use of the means by the derived dependent Power and Contrivance of other Beings and order it so that those who were most diligent and exact in observing the truest measures of acting should for that very reason meet with the least Success Should we therefore suppose a few perfectly religious afflicted and tormented by wicked Men barely upon that account as there can be no other if they are what we suppose them to be we must then conclude that God has mighty Blessings in store for them in comparison of which their present Sufferings are as nothing From hence also we may infer that those whose sincere Resolutions and Endeavours are not attended with exact and universal Performance and yet who are rendred more miserable by the Actions of wicked men than they otherwise would have been for the sake of those degrees of Religion they come up to 't is reasonable I say to conclude that those will some time or other receive more Happiness or less Misery than others proportionably to the difference of their Obedience and Affliction now For according as they have pursued the Means so will their Attainments of the End be or if no Reward be due but to a full Discharge of all Obligations it cannot be imagin'd that those who have Perform'd some part of what they were obliged to and endeavoured at general Obedience should be punished as high as those who have been guilty of a greater or of a total Neglect Contempt or Volation of their Duty However therefore it be as to the manner of it 't is very agreeable to the Wisdom and Designs of God according to all the Indications he has given to Mankind of them to make the Condition of those who act by the Principles of Religion preferable to that of others who act by contrary Measures which it would not always be was there no other State of Life after this is ended From all which it plainly follows that there must be a Future State in which Men will be distinguish'd from one another by different degrees of Happiness and Misery according to the different regard they had to Religion in this Life The Certainty
of which State we are farther convinced of by the general Wants Miseries and Imperfections of our present Nature which proceed from some Principle or Disposition within us contrary to that of Religion which Principle or Disposition is the Reason of that universal Wickedness which reigns in the World Did Mankind enjoy all the Happiness they were otherwise capable of in this mortal Condition yet so long as they found in themselves Capacities and Desires of greater unknown degrees of Pleasure which from the present Frame and Constitution of things they had no Hope or Prospect of and felt an Uneasiness at the Thoughts of parting with those Enjoyments they were possess'd of by the unalterable Decree of Death which they knew themselves subject to were they I say in such a Condition they would have great Reason from hence to conclude that God did design them for some other more perfect State where their whole Capacities would be filled all their Desires satisfyed and no kind of Pain or Uneasiness check or allay the Fullness of that joy not that they had then any cause of Complaint as if God had not dealt kindly by them in granting them lesser degrees of Happiness than what they were capable of but because in such a case as is supposed their Capacities and Desires would be given them in vain which does not seem consistent with the Wisdom of God and moreover the Uneasiness of Defining what was impossible and the painful Fears and Apprehensions of what was certain which they would then experience would appear inconsistent with God's Design of making Man for Happiness and therefore t' would be more agreeable to all the Notions we have of God and all the Observations we have made upon his other Works to suppose that had this Life been the Extent of Mans Being and Happiness God would not have given him a sense or prospect of any other upon such a Supposition as this 't is highly rational to think that constant even Contentment would have bounded all his Thoughts that his Soul would always have remained at the same equal Poize and that he would have lived without desiring more than he enjoyed and died without any previous Fears of loosing that And if there is good ground to believe that there would be a State of future Happiness tho' Men enjoyed all they were capable of here according to the present Circumstances of their Nature and Condition because their Happiness here was not compleat by reason of some Pain and Uneasiness mixt with it and because their Capacities and Desires exceeded all their actual Enjoyments how much more reasonable is it to make the same Conclusion now when we every way fall so short of the Happiness the condition of this Life would allow us as will plainly appear if we compare the present State of the World with that Draught and Representation we have before given of Humane Life under a regular Practice of the Duties of Religion We are now not only conscious in general of larger Capacities of Happiness than what we enjoy but there are several kinds and degrees of it within our Knowledge and seemingly within our Reach and Power which with all the Endeavours we can use we are not able to attain and the more Wants we are sensible of and the better and more particularly we know what they are the stronger are our Desires and the greater the Uneasiness of Defeats and Disappointments which Experience assuras us are very frequent The Satisfactions we meet with are commonly very short and mixed with Pain and we have a great many other things to fear besides death But the Troubles and Calamities of Humane Life are too well known to need being insisted upon and too large a subject to be particularly treated of in this place 'T is sufficient to my purpose to remark in general what I think may very safely be affirmed that if what falls to every Man's share was fairly computed the Misery of the greatest part of Mankind would out-weigh their Happiness If therefore Man was design'd by God for Happiness and was so framed that he cannot enjoy compleat Happiness in this Life without a mixture of Uneasiness and yet has Capacities and Desires of greater than he can conceive belonging to his Nature and the necessary Circumstances of it here and farther if Mankind be now involv'd in such a State or Condition of Life in which they all actually enjoy much less Happiness than they find themselves by Nature capable of here and the greatest part of them have a larger Share of the Troubles than the Advantages of Life from hence I think it may be truly and certainly inferr'd that there will be another State of pure compleat Happiness answerable at least to the highest Notions and Conceptions we are able to frame of it But since as has before been proved God has not absolutely and unconditionally determined all Men to be happy but has made Happiness and Misery to depend upon our Actions and consequently has annex'd Happiness to a particular way of acting we have all the Reason in the World to believe that the Happiness of another State will be the Portion of those and those only who live according to the Rules of Religion here and this I believe no body is disposed to doubt of that owns a future State and therefore I shall spend no time in an unnecessary Proof of it And if there are none to be found that exactly discharge all the Obligations of Religion yet 't is more agreeable to our Reason to conclude that those who sincerely endeavour to do it shall by the especial Grace and Favour of God in some such way or manner as to his Wisdom shall seem fit be rendred capable of future Happiness than to believe that all Mankind shall be miserable and none obtain Happiness contrary to all the Marks and Indications of the Desâ—gn of God in making Man Granting therefore what I think has been sufficiently proved under this Head that there will be a future State in which all Men will be happy or miserable according as they have behaved themselves here with regard to what we call Religion this I say being allowed it manifestly follows from hence that it is more for our Happiness to act up to the Rules and Directions of Religion than to pursue any other Measures whatever we should happen to suffer in this Life for so doing because the Happiness of a future State will so far outweigh all the sufferings of this that when we come to enjoy it we shall be forced to acknowledge that the end and reward of our Labours was very well worth all the Troubles and Difficulties we found in the way to it and if it be absolutely with regard to the whole extent and duration of our Being more for our Happiness to live Religiously than otherwise then are we in the highest and strictest sense obliged to live so which was the thing I undertook to prove Nay further
appear very plainly if we consider 2. The second Consequence arising from the Supposition of no God nor Religion which is this That every particular Man is to act as he himself shall judge most convenient for his own particular Interest or Happiness There 's no other Principle Reason or Motive of Action imaginable in such a case And if all Men do and must act according to this Principle they must also if they will be consistent with themselves judge that there is no such thing as Authority or Duty Right or Property or any thing else commonly thought to be the Causes of them implied in them or to result from them that is That there can be no Action of their own or other Mens or any other Circumstance or Relation whatsoever that can be any bar or hindrance to any Man's Endeavours of bettering his Condition or advancing his Happiness when and in what manner soever he shall think fit Now that this is the necessary and only Principle such Persons as deny the Being of God and Religion can be influenc'd by in their Actions is very plain if we consider these two things which as has before been shewn Reason and Experience assure us of First That we are naturally and necessarily determined to seek and endeavour after our own Happiness whether there be a God or no or whatever other Notions we have of things Secondly That if there be no God no Man can be conceived to have such a Preeminence of Power above another that if he will he can certainly contribute so far to his Happiness or Misery that it must needs be unavoidably better for him to act that particular way he prescribes than any other and that the Person thus prescribed to cannot possibly help judging so And if no Man has such a Power there are no other higher Beings that we know of or if there be that without a God we can imagine should have greater Power over us than one Man has over another From whence it follows That every Man being necessarily determined to act for his own Happiness and no Man having Power enough to make the Obedience of another to him the certain way to Happiness no Man is to act according to the Will of another any further than he himself judges he shall be the happier for so acting And if we consider further how small the Differences of Power are among Men what reciprocal Advantages they have over one another how changeable all these distinguishing Circumstances are and what different Notions and Sentiments Men have of the Happiness of this Life If I say we carefully consider and weigh all this we shall be still more satisfied that there can be no such thing as Authority or Subjection Obligation Right or Property and better perceive the whole Force and Influence of the forementioned Principle of Action Supposing then Societies establish'd as we now find them and that due Care was taken to persuade Mankind that there was no such thing as God and Religion so that they had throughly worn off those Notions and all the consequential Prejudices that attended their former Belief and every Man was prepared to act what he judged most conducing to his own Happiness upon this Supposition I say it must needs follow that a great many Men would find themselves very uneasie in the want of several things which they saw others possess'd of and in the performance of several Actions by the command of others that were free from that Trouble themselves and what could hinder or restrain such Men from seizing upon what they wanted and freeing themselves from what was so troublesome to them but the consideration of worsting their Condition by a successless Tryal But this Thought could not hold them long because there would be so many that found themselves in these Circumstances that they would soon be sensible of their Strength and being enraged at the Unreasonableness of those few whom they saw distinguished from them by such over-proportioned Advantages of Life they would join together in a Design of bringing things to a greater Equality And those who had tasted the extraordinary pleasures of Government and Excess whose Imaginations had been entertain'd with the Pride and Elegance of Living would endeavour to support the Difference of their Condition and be restless under the Loss of it and employ all their Art and Strength to recover their Ground and trample upon the rest of Mankind This would be the Effect of a full Establishment of Irreligion in the World if we consider the prefent State and Constitution of all human Societies there being no Nation or Society of Men in which the far greatest Part of the People are not forced to use Abundance of Pains and undergo a great many Troubles and Difficulties in supplying their own Wants and in ministring to the Ease and Pleasure of others But let us suppose Men united together upon what Terms or Conditions we please however things are divided if every Man be convinc'd that there is no God nor Religiou the Confusion and Misery of all will be the certain Consequence of such a Belief For every Man being to act for his own Happiness and there being as many several Notions of Happiness as there are different Passions and Inclinations in the Soul of Man all which require different Methods of Pursuit 't is impossible but Men must clash and interfere one with another and every one's Happiness be built upon or promoted by the Misery of others which must end in the worst State of War imaginable When Lust Ambition or Revenge is the ruling Passion in a Mans Mind what should hinder him from making the Misery or Destruction of a Nation the way to his Satisfaction if he can do it securely or judges nothing more terrible than the Uneasiness of his present Condition And the same may be said of any thing else that a Man places his chief Happiness in whatever was the Cause of such a Choice All that can be alleged to avoid these dreadful Consequences that seem to be the certain immediate Effects of Atheism is that the Advantages of Society and Union are so very great and every Man is so sensible that his own particular Happiness is included in that of the Publick that by virtue of this very Principle Men will readily agree to observe all such things as tend to the common Preservation and Welfare of Society To which I answer That this indeed is a sufficient Motive to Persons who have felt or consider'd the Inconveniencies and Calamities of a State of Division to enter into or continue in Society upon such Terms as do then seem to conduce to their particular Happiness but if afterwards the breaking of any of these Terms and Conditions shall appear to any of them to contribute more to their Happiness than the keeping them they are as much oblig'd to act contrary to their former Promise Contract or Agreement as they were at first to make
sure is more than any Man that makes the venture can pretend to I do not here argue that a Man ought to prefer Religion before Irreligion meerly because 't is safer so to do because by the Confession of all Parties a Man shall not suffer any thing in another state by such a Choice whereas he that chuses Irreligion has only his own Opinion for his security and is threatned by the Persons of a contrary Persuasion with eternal Misery after Death I do not think this alone a sufficient reason to determine a Man's Choice to one side against all other Arguments to the contrary for then a Man might be threatned out of any thing but if the Evil threatned be very considerable and 't is full as probable that it should happen as it is that it should not which is the Case now supposed he acts very rationally and wisely who chuses rather to undergo some lesser Inconveniences at present than put himself in danger of greater Now that the Misery annex'd to Irreligion is very considerable cannot be denied it being supposed greater than can be imagined or conceived by us and that it is as probable it should be the Portion of all those that believe and act by such Principles as not must be allow'd whatever Hypothesis be true For if Chance made the World notwithstanding all the Characters of Wisdom we behold in it why may it not as well happen that there should be a Future State and that those we call Irreligious should be miserable in it and the Religious happy It looks indeed like Wisdom and so does the Regularity of the World and a great many constant Discriminations made there Why should the Wind blow down the rotten Fruit and leave the sound why should the Plague sweep away some and leave others in the same City or House but there are natural Reasons and Causes for these things so there may be for the other for ought we know the Wicked may be peculiarly disposed to be miserable the same Temper and Constitution of Body or Soul that inclined them to be wicked may to be miserable also when they live again and there is as much Chance for their living again as for their first Being But if all things exist by Necessity then a Future State may be necessary too and the Wicked necessarily miserable in it for any thing there is in this Hypothesis to the contrary Where every thing is supposed casual or every thing necessary 't is impossible to give any reason why any thing that may be conceived suture should or should not exist or should or should not be after such or such a manner and therefore all things of this nature must be equally probable nothing can be alleged to determine the Mind one way rather than another But if there be a God and the World and all things that are have been or are to be are acknowledged to be the Effects of his Will there are no Reasons to persuade us 't is more probable that God will not punish the Wicked in another State than that he will at least they have not yet been produced From whence it follows That it being equally probable in every Hypothesis that the Irreligious will be extreamly miserable they have no more reason to chuse that side they are of than the other by their own Confession and Account of things and therefore in this Case a Man must not act at all or if he does prefer acting one way rather than another the general Opinion of others concerning the safest side should determine him But moreover it is not only as probable that the Irreligious should be miserable in a future state allowing any of their own Hypotheses to be true but by their own way of Proof it appears that our Hypothesis is as likely to be true as any advanced by them nothing further than a Possibility of theirs being aim'd at And not only so but we do moreover pretend by many direct and positive Arguments to evince the Certainty of ours and at the same time to shew all theirs to be absurd and impossible Wherefore if upon an equal Probability we ought to take the safest measures much more are we obliged so to do when Reason and Happiness are both of the same Side Nay farther He that prefers that Faith and Practice which Eternal Misery in another State is denounc'd against ought not only to have more Grounds of Probability of his side but Certainty and Evidence of Conviction he should be fully satisfied from certain direct Principles that his own Opinions are right or that the contrary are absurd and irrational because the Consequences are of that vast importance that the present Inconveniences we are like to sustain by acting a contrary way can bear no proportion to the hazard or likelihood of Misery that attends this Thus do we of the Protestant Faith defend our selves against the Papists when they peremptorily condemn us to everlasting Misery for being of contrary Opinions to theirs without meeting with the same Returns from us and then urge us to take the safest side Thus I say do we answer did we believe their Opinions or Censures probable the 't was possible and to us perhaps seem'd as probable or more so that they might be false we would then allow some Weight in the Argument But we do not now go over to them upon the account of Safety because we not only think our Opinions certain and theirs impossible absurd or irrational and are fully persuaded we have proved them so but supposing our selves to err in all the Points in controversie betwixt us we think it demonstrable from common Principles own'd on both sides that none of these Errors which upon due care for better information are believed by us as Truths can expose us to the hazard of Damnation if in all things else we live up to the Principles of our Religion And if the Atheist and Irreligious can make the same Defence for himself if the Doctrines of Religion and the supposed Consequences of Irreligion seem as absurd and contrary to all the Principles of his Knowledge owned by him as the Popish Tenets do to a Protestant or as ridiculous and unwarrantable as the Visions Resveries or Predictions of every little Enthusiast or Fortune-teller to a Man of calm sedate Sense and he is able to make this good in the usual ways and methods of Reasoning then may he despise our Threatnings and laugh at the Misery of a Future State securely But to deny all these important concerning Truths without offering at any Proof of their Falshood to say they are doubtful and uncertain Points and yet to act with the same Assurance and Security as if they were certainly false to refuse our Assent to them for want of greater and more evident Proof without confuting the Arguments already advanced or producing stronger on the contrary side to laugh at the Terrors of the Lord without proving them first to be vain
or resistible to contradict the general Belief of the World without making any new Discoveries or Observations to lay aside a whole Scheme and System of things which has been proved and established in all the principal Branches and Connexions of it because we are not able to comprehend or account for some little remote Consequence and to venture eternal Misery upon a seeming Possibility of an Escape which very few perceive or allow These are all egregious Instances of the absurd Faith and foolish Conduct of the Enemies of Religion and consequently good Proofs of the Judgment and Wisdom of those who believe and act upon contrary Grounds and Measures There 's another thing also which the Atheist commonly discovers his Folly in and that is the publishing and propagating his Opinions For 't is more the Atheist's Interest that other People should have Religion than 't is the Religious Man's For his whole Happiness being in this Life the more other People are restrain'd and the better they are persuaded he acts by the same Rules they do the larger will his Liberty and Advantages be and the less he will suffer from their Designs and Pursuits whereas the Religious Man's Reversion is not endanger'd but confirm'd by what he loses or suffers here Other Proofs likewise of the Unreasonableness and Absurdity of Irreligion might be brought from the Inconsistency both of the Faith and Practice of such as are profess'd Favourers of it such as their Credulity and readiness of Belief in common indifferent Matters and sometimes embracing absurd Opinions exploded by all the World when at the same time they are distrustful of every thing upon the Subject of Religion their believing Matters that concern their present Happiness upon less Grounds their exposing themselves to greater Troubles and Inconveniences and running greater Hazards upon a fainter Prospect of future Happiness in this Life and sometimes on the contrary fearing and avoiding things upon a less Appearance or Likelyhood of Danger than what Religion affords and lastly their acting contrary to their own Principles and denying themselves what they esteem substantial Happiness out of a regard to imaginary Notions which have no Foundation but in the Opinion of Men. But these being Matters of common Observation and too long to be fully insisted upon here I shall think it sufficient to have hinted at them and so pass on to the VI. Sixth and last general Branch of my Discourse proposed in the beginning of it and that is To give some Account of the Causes of all Atheism and Irreligion or the Reasons that induce Men to take up such Opinions There 's nothing People are better satisfied of than the Power nnd Influence of Prejudices and false Motives of Judging every body being apt to resolve the Cause of another Mans differing in opinion from him into some particular Byass upon his Understanding But this we do commonly without examining whether the Person that differs from us has not better Reasons for his Dissent than we have for our Persuasion whether the Opinion he is of be not in the Reality of things true tho he believes upon false Grounds or whether we our selves are not disposed to judg as we do upon some of the like Motives we suppose him to be directed by By which means we are often not only guilty of the same Partiality we charge upon others but either confirm'd in our Errors or else prevented from making just Enquiries into the Truth of things so that if we are in the right it is by chance and more than we are able to prove to our selves or others Upon which account I think it a very preposterous and deceitful Method of proving a thing false to assign some peculiar Prejudices and wrong Motives of judging which may possibly induce Men to be of such an Opinion tho the Truth should be of the other side and which have often had the like Influence upon Men's Understandings in other Matters and from thence immediately without any further Proof to infer that such and such Persons have no other Reasons for their Belief of the point in question and consequently that they are in the wrong this I say is not a fair way of arguing But after plain and manifest Proofs of the Truth of an Opinion according to the standing Rules and Principles of Reasoning it is not only proper to enquire how any People came to be of a contrary Persuasion but the Strangeness and seeming Unaccountableness of the thing make it expected and in some respect necessary in order to a fuller Satisfaction of those who notwithstanding all the appearance of Evidence to themselves may be apt to have such favourable Notions of Mankind as not to imagine that Persons who have the same Faculties and all other Advantages of Knowledge as they have should deny what appears so plain to them without some rational Grounds for their Denial Having therefore as I persuade my self fully and evidently proved the Truth of Religion I think I may now be allow'd to say That all Atheism and Irreligion must be the sole Effect of Prejudice and Prepossession if any such Cause of it is assignable And if we search the Heart of Man and look into the hidden Mysteries of Iniquity lodg'd there if we consider all the false and corrupt Reasonings and the several Arts and Methods of Deceit which are used by Men to delude themselves we shall soon discover the secret Spring and Original of all Atheism and Unbelief Now the Causes from whence it proceeds are these two The Fear of an After-reckoning for a wicked Life and The Pride and Vanity of appearing greater or wiser than other Men. The first of which is the principal and most powerful Cause and is only assisted and strenghened afterwards by the Accession of the latter And what other Reason can be assigned It cannot be the Force and Evidence of Truth as plainly appears not only from the foregoing Proofs of Religion but from the Confession and Conduct of the Atheists themselves It is not because the Notions of God Immortality and a Future State shock the Understanding and contradict the plain Principles of Reason that they deny these Foundations of all Religion Was the Being of God consider'd only as an Hypothesis to solve the Difficulties of Nature by without those troublesome Consequences of Duty Sin and Punishment the Atheist would not scruple this Philosophy and Lucretius himself would easily grant the Soul to be immortal to be separated from the Body and reunited again would you allow him that Conclusion that neither separate nor reunited it hath any Sense or Remembrance of what was done before the Separation God should also enjoy the Fulness of Perfection he should be clothed with all the magnificent Attributes that Man could conceive so his whole Employment was the Comprehension of himself and the Contemplation of his own Glory and he was not unnecessarily troubled to take account of our Actions This is the dreadful
things as minister most occasion for Raillery and magnifying every bold thing that is said by any Man without any regard to his other Opinions or the Consequences even of that that is liked 't is no matter whether it really proves any thing against Religion or no so it is thought by the Professors of Religion to bear hard either upon the fundamental Principles or any remote acccessional Doctrines owned by them From whence it comes to pass that the present Atheism is a promiscuous Miscellany of all the bold notions that have ever been vented by those they stile Free-thinkers where whatever seems to be levelled against any Point of Religion is embraced as the most sensible and rational account that can be given of the thing but those Parts of Religion which are established by the same Authors are slighted and past over as weakly done whereas I will be bound to prove that there is never an Article or Duty of Religion profess'd by us but is own'd and maintain'd by some or other of these bold Free-thinking Authors which are so highly approved and commended by the present Atheists And what a gross Partiality is this not to allow those whom they cry up for unprejudic'd Men to talk a Word of Sense or Reason but when what they say makes for their Purpose 3. But Thirdly we have a more convincing Proof that the Doctrines of Irreligion are the genuine Issue and Effects of the Causes before assigned from the open Confession of several Atheists themselves who upon just Convictions of Conscience having disclaimed their Atheism have freely and sincerely owned that they threw off Religion without ever examining or considering the Proofs of it that they were disposed and induced to entertain irreligious Notions by the Power and Influence of their Lusts or such vicious Habits and Customs of living as they thought irreconcilable with a contrary Belief that the Reasons why they endeavoured to persuade themselves of what their Course of Life inclined them to believe were to defend those Liberties of Practice they took against the Censures of others and to secure their own Minds in an easie undisturb'd Enjoyment of them that commonly the first and strongest Impressions of Unbelief were occasioned by some bold Hints and Insinuations or some witty Ridicule or Raillery upon the Subject of Religion that as these either in Books or Discourse coming from others gave them very great Pleasure and by that means Assurance in embracing these new Principles so were they further pleased and confirm'd together in their Belief of them by applauded Trials and Exercise of their own Wit the same way especially when the general Disposition of the Persons they convers'd with made this Entertainment very agreeable and very frequent All this have several Atheists upon their Repentance acknowledg'd And that which strengthens the Argument drawn from hence is that those who have renounced their Irreligious Principles and given this account of themselves have been some of them Men of the best natural Abilities and greatest acquired Improvements of any that ever took the Party of Atheism and their Repentance has been free and voluntary and not extorted by any frightful Representations or importunate Addresses in the seasons of Fear and Weakness it has begun from themselves and been wholly owing to the over-ruling Impressions of a Divine Power and not to Human Persuasion and their Blindness and Prejudices being by this means removed the Arguments for Religion have prevailed upon them by their own Strength as suggested to them by their own Reason without receiving any Advantage from the Management and Art of others And this I think sufficient to shew that Atheism proceeds from strong Prejudices and false disproportioned Motions of judging and is not the result of just Reasoning and impartial Reflexion I have now gone through the several Branches of my Discourse I proposed to my self in the beginning of it and sinished the Proof I undertook of general or as 't is commonly called natural Reliligion All that I have further to add upon this Subject at present is to give some account of the Notions of Atheism and Deism which Words I have been forced to use sometimes promiscuously and in a different Sense from the common acceptation for want of a fit and proper Word to express a Belief or Profession of any such Opinions which take away the practical Influence and Power of Religion For which reason I think it convenient in this place that I may remedy any Confusion or Mistake the Liberty I have taken in the use of these Terms may have occasioned to set down distinctly what I look upon to be the common Notions of Atheism and Deism and what Ideas I should chuse to affix these Words to By an Atheist is commonly meant such a one as will own no Being under the Name and Title of God And he who does acknowledge such a Being let his Conceptions of him be what they will is no Atheist And in this Sense of the Word it may well be made a question Whether there be any such thing as an Atheist in the World For 't is hard to find a Man who has not some Idea in his Mind which he will allow the Name of God to tho upon Examination perhaps it will be found to be nothing else but a confused Notion of some vast Power First Cause Original Mover or Immortal Being enjoying Eternal Rest and Quiet Now according to this Notion of Atheism he who professes to believe a God whatever Nature Characters and Attributes he ascribes to him and Denies his Providence or Government of Mankind is called a Deist But in such places where the Pretences of Revelation are acknowledged and defended he that is called a Deist is one that owns a God and believes some sort of Providence and natural Obligations but denies all manner of Revelation confines his Duty to matters of Civil Justice and Commerce makes these his chief Principles not to injure another and to keep his Word grounds his Practice upon the Reason and Interest of Societies and his own present Advantage not Obedience to God or a future Prospect believes no future Life or at least such a one as can have no great Influence upon a Mans Actions here This is the common general Use of these Words But by an Atheist I think may properly and justly be meant not only he that absolutely denies the Being of a God but whosoever says there is no God that governs the World and judgeth the Earth there is no God that has appointed Laws and Rules for Men to act by there is no God to whom Men are accountable for all their Actions and by whom they shall be rewarded or punished in a future State according to their Behaviour here and in general whoever holds such an Opinion which exempts him from all Obligation of Duty to a Superiour Being or cuts off the Expectation of Rewards and Punishments consequent thereupon For Atheism is to be considered
as a Vice and not a meer Error in Speculation And therefore he that denies Providence Natural Law or a Future State is as much an Atheist as he that denies God's Being For it 's all one with respect to Practice to say there is no God as to say there 's no Obedience due to him or no Punishment for Disobedience if there be it is likewise all one to deny divine Punishment directly and to deny the Immortality of the Soul or the Scriptures in the Sense of those who at present deny these things For they who say the Soul dies with the Body think hereby to prove that God cannot punish and they who deny the Scriptures do it in order to shew that he will not punish that is in another Life and as to the present they perceive that those who are stiled Wicked fare as well and have as large a Portion of the good things of this World as their Righteous Brethren The End and Design then of all these Opinions is the same namely to establish a Liberty for every Man to live as he pleases and to do whatsoever is right in his own Eyes and what is this but to say there is no God in Israel This is the Notion I have of an Atheist and accordingly I have applied the word indifferently as I had occasion to any Persons that denied any of the Principles of Religion I have endeavour'd to establish And I have used the word Deist in the same Sense with that of Atheist every where but where I am particularly concern'd in the Proof of God's Being as distinguished from the other Parts of Religion But here in opposition to the Character I have now given of an Atheist by a Deist is to be meant such a one who acknowledges all the Principles of Religion here maintained who thinks he is obliged to inform himself truly of his whole Duty to God and to live up to the highest and purest Rules of Morality he can form to himself by the Assistance of his own Reason and the united Lights of other Men who looks upon all the moral or practical Part of the Scriptures as very useful and instructive and consequently to be read and valued as Tully and Aristotle are upon the same Subject but does not believe any such thing as Revelation or assent to any of those peculiar matters of Fact or Doctrines which are wholly grounded upon that extraordinary way of Conveyance and are not level to his Reason or discoverable by it And if a Deist be such as I have described it would be as just a matter of Enquiry whether there be any Persons to whom this Title belongs as whether there be any real Atheists in the World For my part I will not positively say there is no such thing as a true Deist in that sense I have given of the word because I believe there hardly was any Opinion known among Men that some body was not of but this I think I may venture to affirm that it would be the difficultest thing imaginable to find a Man in a Christian Countrey who was acquainted with the Books of Holy Scripture and the common Proofs of Christianity who was fully persuaded of the Truth of all the Principles of Natural Religion here laid down and seriously endeavoured to conform his Life according to the Moral Rules and Precepts of the Gospel and yet denied Revelation and all those particular Truths which stand distinguished by the Name of Revealed Religion such a Man as this I believe is hard to be met with For it is not Prophesies or Miracles or Mysteries that puzzle the Faith of those that now go under the Name of Deists but a plain and full Discovery of a future State of Rewards and Punishments This is the shocking repugnant Doctrine in comparison of which the Trinity and Incarnation are easie Notions and very reconcileable to their Reason Upon this account it is that I have several times mentioned Deists as Enemies of Natural Religion and so properly coming within my Subject and not as meer Opposers of Revelation which belongs to another Argument And now having pointed out who they are that are particularly concerned in the foregoing Discourse it might be expected that I should address my self to them to embrace those Principles of Religion I have there proved and to bestow some serious Thoughts about the Danger of their Unbelief but I am too well acquainted with their Character to trouble them with any Advice of this nature If they are not convinced and bore down by Arguments I am sure they will never yield to Persuasion neither indeed is it proper to go about to persuade Men to believe they only are to be applied to in this manner who are satisfied of the Truth of what you would persuade them to but want sufficient Motives and Incitements to practise I shall therefore shut up this whole Discourse with my earnest Prayers to God that he would be pleased to incline and dispose those who are doubtful and wavering in the Concerning Points of Religion to weigh and consider well the Proofs it stands upon before they venture to withdraw themselves from under the Influence and Government of it that he would defend the Innocent and such as are unacquainted with the Ways of Irreligion from the false Suggestions and Insinuations of Unbelievers that he would convince the Careless and Indifferent of the absolute Necessity of having some Religion and that he would be further pleased to enable those that are already convinced of this Truth to stop the mouths of Gain-sayers by a steady and uniform Practice of their Duty every way answerable to their Knowledge and Profession FINIS ERRATA In the Preface p. v. l. 2. for corruptions r. conceptions IN the Book Pag. 26. l. 9. for probable read possible p. 47. l. 21. the r. our p. 74. l. 24. extension-modification r. modification-extension l. 26. motion-matter r. matter-motion p. 89. l. 2â— than any r. than in any p. 95. l. ult del have p. 113. absolutely r. absolute p. 127. l. 22. d. him p. 132. latter end r. observations proportioned efficacy p. 142. l. 19. that r. their l. 27. defining r. desiring p. 151. l. ult r. p. 162. l. 15. to hap r. to his happiness p. 165. l. antepenult r. p. 169. l. antepenult when d. p. 174. l. 13. d. to p. 175. l. 16. and there r. and then there p. 187. l. 20. d. 4. p. 188. l. 1. r. advance or profess p. 189. l. 6. d. the. p. 194. l. 16. may make r. may be able to make p. 201. l. 8. r. variety p 208. l. antepenult r. are any such 209. l. ult one r. an p. 210. l. 10. these Considerations p. 238. l. 16. selve r. selves