still retain a quick sense of pain and misery So that fear relies upon a natural love of our selves and is complicated with a necessary desire of our own preservation And therefore Religion usually makes its first entrance into us by this passion hence perhaps it is that Solomon more than once calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom 2. As for the Second phrase departing from evil the fitness of it to express the whole duty of man will appear if we consider the necessary connexion that is between the negative and positive part of our duty He that is carefull to avoid all sin will sincerely endeavour to perform his duty For the soul of man is an active principle and will be employed one way or other it will be doing something if a man abstain from evil he will do good Now there being such a strait connexion between these the whole of our duty may be expressed by either of them but most fitly by departing from evil because that is the first part of our duty Religion begins in the forsaking of sin Virtus est vitium fugere sapientia prima Stultitia caruisse Vertue begins in the forsaking of vice and the first part of wisedom is not to be a fool And therefore the Scripture which mentions these parts of our duty doth constantly put departing from evil first Depart from evil and do good Ps 34.14 37.27 Is 1.16 17. 55.7 Eph. 4.23 24. Cease to do evil learn to do well Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. We are first to put off the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts and then to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new man 1 Pet. 3.11 c. Let him eschew evil and do good To all which I may add this farther consideration that the Law of God contained in the ten Commandments consisting mostly of prohibitions Thou shalt not doe such or such a'thing our observance of it is most fitly expressed by departing from evil which yet includes obedience likewise to the positive Precepts implied in those Prohibitions Having thus explain'd the Words I come now to consider the Proposition contain'd in them which is this That Religion is the best knowledge and wisedom This I shall endeavour to make good these three ways 1. By a direct proof of it 2. By shewing on the contrary the folly and ignorance of irreligion and wickedness 2. By vindicating Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence I begin with the direct proof of this And because Religion comprehends two things the knowledge of the Principles of it and a suitable life and practice the first of which being speculative may more properly be called knowledge and the latter because 't is practical may be called wisedom or prudence therefore I shall endeavour distinctly to prove these two things 1. That Religion is the best knowledge 2. That 't is the truest wisdom 1. First That it is the best knowledge The knowledge of Religion commends its self to us upon these two accounts 1. 'T is the knowledge of those things which are in themselves most excellent Of those things which are most usefull and necessary for us to know First It is the best knowledge because it is the knowledge of those things which are in themselves most excellent and desirable to be known and those are God and our duty God is the sum and comprehension of all perfection It is delightfull to know the Creatures because there are particular excellencies scatter'd and dispers'd among them which are some shadows of the Divine perfections But in God all perfections in their highest degree and exaltation meet together and are united How much more delightfull then must it needs be to fix our minds upon such an object in which there is nothing but beauty and brightness what is amiable and what is excellent what will ravish our affections and raise our wonder please us and astonish us at once And that the finite measure and capacity of our understandings is not able to take in and comprehend the infinite perfections of God this indeed shews the excellency of the object but doth not altogether take away the delightfulness of the knowledge For as it is pleasant to the Eye to have an endless prospect so is it some pleasure to a finite understanding to view unlimited excellencies which have no shore or bounds though it cannot comprehend them There is a pleasure in admiration and this is that which properly causeth admiration when we discover a great deal in an object which we understand to be excellent and yet we see we know not how much more beyond that which our understandings cannot fully reach and comprehend And as the knowledge of God in his nature and perfections is excellent and desirable so likewise to know him in those glorious manifestations of himself in the works of Creation and Providence and above all in that stupendious work of the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ which was such a mistery and so excellent a piece of knowledge that the Angels are said to desire to pry into it 1 Pet. 1.12 And as the knowledge of God is excellent so likewise of our Duty which is nothing else but vertue and goodness and holiness which are the image of God a conformity to the nature and will of God and an imitation of the Divine Excellencies and Perfections so far as we are capable For to know our duty is to know what it is to be like God in goodness and pity and patience and clemency in pardoning injuries and passing by provocations in justice and righteousness in truth and faithfulness and in a hatred and detestation of the contrary of these In a word it is to know what is the good and acceptable will of God what it is that he loves and delights in and is pleased withall and would have us to do in order to our perfection and our happiness It is deservedly accounted a piece of excellent knowledge to know the laws of the Land and the customs of the Countrey we live in and the will of the Prince we live under How much more to know the Statutes of Heaven and the Laws of eternity those immutable and eternal rules of justice and righteousness to know the will and pleasure of the great Monarch and universal King of the World and the Customs of that Countrey where we must live for ever This made David to admire the Law of God at that strange rate and to advance the knowledge of it above all other knowledge I have seen an end of all perfection Psal 119.96 but thy commandment is exceeding broad Secondly 'T is the knowledge of those things which are most usefull and necessary for us to know The goodness of every thing is measured by its end
to is to let men loose to vice which is naturally attended with temporal inconveniences And if this be true then the Atheist cannot pretend this Reason of charity to mankind which is the onely one I can think of to dispute against Religion much less to rally upon it For it is plain that it would be no kindness to any man to be undeceived in these principles of Religion supposing they were false Because the principles of Religion are so far from hindering that they promote a man's happiness even in this world and as to the other world there can be no inconvenience in the mistake for when a man is not it will be no trouble to him that he was once deceived about these matters And where no obligation of conscience nor of reason can be pretended there certally the laws of civility ought to take place Now men do profess to believe that there is a God and that the common principles of Religion are true and to have a great veneration for these things Can there then be a greater insolence than for a man when he comes into company to rally and fall soul upon those things for which he knows the company have a reverence Can one man offer a greater affront to another than to expose to scorn him whom he owns and declares to be his best friend the patron of his life and the greatest benefactor he hath in the world And doth not every man that owns a God say this of him But when the generality of Mankind are of the same opinion the rudeness is still the greater So that whoever doth openly contemn God and Religion does delinquere in majestatem populi humani generis ' he does offend against the majesty of the People and that reverence which is due to the common apprehensions of Mankind whether they be true or not which is the greatest incivility that can be imagin'd This is the first consideration and it is the least that I have to urge in this matter But yet I have insisted the longer upon it because it is such a one as ought especially to prevail upon those whom I am afraid are too often guilty of this vice I mean those who are of better breeding because they pretend to understand the laws of behaviour and the decencies of conversation better than other men 2. Supposing it were doubtful whether there be a God or not and whether the Principles of Religion were true or not and that the Arguments were equal on both Sides yet it would be a great folly to deride these things And here I suppose as much as the Atheist can with any colour of reason pretend to For no man ever yet pretended to demonstrate that there is no God nor no life after this For these being pure negatives are capable of no proof unless a man could shew them to be plainly impossible The utmost that is pretended is that the arguments that are brought for these things are not sufficient to convince But if they were onely probable so long as no arguments are produced to the contrary that cannot in reason be denied to be a great advantage But I will for the present suppose the probabilities equal on both sides And upon this supposition I doubt not to make it appear to be a monstrous folly to deride these things Because though the arguments on both sides were equal yet the danger and hazard is infinitely unequal If it prove true that there is no God the religious man may be as happy in this world as the atheist nay the principles of Religion and Vertue do in their own nature tend to make him happier Because they give satisfaction to his mind and his conscience by this means is freed from many fearful girds and twinges which the Atheist feels Besides that the practice of Religion and vertue doth naturally promote our temporal felicity It is more for a man's health and more for his reputation and more for his advantage in all other worldly respects to lead a vertuous than a vitious course of life And for the other world if there be no God the case of the religious man and the Atheist will be alike because they will both be extinguisht by death and insensible of any farther happiness or misery But then if the contrary opinion should prove true that there is a God and that the souls of men are transmitted out of this world into the other there to receive the just reward of their actions Then it is plain to every man at first sight that the case of the religious man and the Atheist must be vastly different Then where shall the wicked and the ungodly appear And what think we shall be the portion of those who have affronted God and derided his word and made a mock of every thing that is sacred and religious What can they expect but to be rejected by him whom they have renounced and to feel the terrible effects of that power and Justice which they have despised So that though the arguments on both sides were equal yet the danger is not so On the one side there is none at all but 't is infinite on the other And consequently it must be a monstrous folly for any man to make a mock of those things which he knows not whether they be or not and if they be of all things in the world they are no jesting matters 3. Suppose there be a God and that the principles of Religion are true then is it not onely a heinous impiety but a perfect madness to scoff at these things And that there is a God and that the Principles of Religion are true I have already in my former discourse endeavoured to prove both from the things which are made and from the general consent of mankind in these principles of which universal consent no sufficient Reason can be given unless they were true And supposing they are so it is not onely the utmost pitch of impiety but the highest flight of folly that can be imagined to deride these things To be disobedient to the commands of God is a great contempt but to deny his Being and to make sport with his word and to endeavour to render it ridiculous by turning the wise and weighty sayings of that Holy Book into raillery is a most direct affront to the God that is above Thus the Psalmist describes these atheistical persons as levelling their blasphemies immediately against the majesty of heaven They set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth they do mischief among men but the affront is immediately to God Besides that this prophane spirit is an argument of a most incorrigible temper The Wise man every where speaks of the scorner as one of the worst sort of sinners and hardest to be reclaimed because he despiseth instruction and mocks at all the means whereby he should be reformed And then is it not a most black and horrid ingratitude
pretend to be infallible Fourthly That Mr. S. by his Principles does plainly exclude from salvation the generality of his own Church that is all that do not believe upon his Grounds And this is the necessary consequence of his reasoning in a late Treatise intituled The method to arrive at satisfaction in Religion The principles whereof are these That the Church is a Congregation of Faithfull The Faithfull are those who have true Faith That till it be known which is the true Faith it cannot be known which is the true Church That which is the true Faith can onely be known by the true Rule of Faith which is Oral Tradition And that the infallibility of this Rule is evident to common sense And from these principles he concludes * Sec. 21. that those who follow not this Rule and so are out of this Church can have no true Faith And that though many of the Points to which they assent are true yet their assent is not Faith for Faith speaking of Christian Faith is an assent which cannot possibly be false So that the Foundation of this Method is the self-evident infallibility of Oral Tradition which hath been sufficiently consider'd in the Answer to Sure footing which yet remains unanswer'd That which I am now concern'd to take notice of is the consequence of this Method which does at one blow excommunicate and un-Christian the far greatest part of his own Church For if all who do not follow Oral Tradition as their onely Rule of Faith are out of the Church and can have no true Faith then all who follow the Council of Trent are ipso facto no Christians For nothing is plainer than that that Council did not make Oral Tradition the sole Rule of their Faith nor rely upon it as such which hath been prov'd at large in the Answer to Sure footing But why is Mr. S. so zealous in this matter of infallibility There is a plain reason for it He finds that confidence how weakly soever it be grounde hath some effect upon the common and ignorant People who are apt to think there is something more than ordinary in a swaggering man that talks of nothing but Principles and Demonstration And so we see it in some other Professions There are a sort of People very well known who find that the most effectual way to cheat the People is always to pretend to infallible Cures I have now done with his Infallibility But I must not forget this Letter of Thanks I shall wholly pass by the passion and ill language of it which a man may plainly see to have proceeded from a gall'd and uneasie mind He would fain put on some pleasantness but was not able to conceal his vexation Nor shall I insist upon his palpable shussling about the explication of the Terms Rule and Faith He was convinc'd that he had explain'd them very untowardly and therefore would gladly come off by saying that he did not intend explication p. 7. but onely to praedicate or affirm something of them And yet the whole design of the first page of Sure-footing is to shew the necessity of beginning with the meaning of those words which express the thing under debate And this method he tells us he will apply to his present purpose and will examine well what is meant by those words which express the thing he was to discuss namely The RVLE of FAITH Now if to examine well what is meant by words be not to go about to explain them I must confess my self to be in a great errour Of the same kind in his Apology for his Testimonies as if they were * P. 105. not intended against the Protestants whereas his Book was writ against the Protestants and when he comes to his Testimonies he †Sure-footing P. 126. declares the design of them to be to second by Authority what he had before establish'd by Reason So that if the Rational part of his Book was intended against the Protestants and the Testimonies were design'd to second it I cannot understand why he should say one was less intended against them than the other But it seems he is so conscious of the weakness of those Testimonies that he does not think them sit to satisfie any but those who believe him already As to his charge of false citations it is but the common artifice of the Roman Controvertists when they have nothing else to say However that the world may see how little he is to be trusted I shall instance in two or three about which he makes the loudest clamour and leave it to the Reader to judge by these of his sincerity in the rest He says P. 62. I notoriously abuse the Preface to Rushworths Dialogues in citing the Author of it to say that such certainty as makes the cause always to work the same effect though it take not away the absolute possibility of working otherwise ought absolutely to be reckon'd in the degree of true certainty whereas says Mr. S. he onely tells us there p. 7. that by moral certainty some understood such a certainty as makes the cause c. To vindicate my self in this I shall onely set the Author's words before the Reader 's eyes They are these This term Moral certainty every one explicated not like but some understood by it such a certainty as makes the cause always work the same effect though it take not away the absolute possibility of working other ways Others call'd that a moral certainty which proceeds from c. A third explication of this word is c. Of these three the first ought absolutely to be reckon'd in the degree of true certainty and the Authors consider'd as mistaken in undervaluing it Is this onely to tell us that by moral certainty some understood c. Does not the Prefacer also expresly affirm that what these some understood by moral certainty ought absolutely to be reckon'd in the degree of true certainty which is the very thing I cited him for Another heavy charge is P. 65. that according to my usual sincerity I quote Rushworth's Nephew to say that a few good words are to be cast in concerning Scripture for the satisfaction of indifferent men who have been brought up in this verbal and apparent respect of the Scripture whereas says Mr. S. in the place you cite he onely expresses it would be a satisfaction to indifferent men to see the positions one would induce them to embrace maintainable by Scripture Does he onely say so let the Reader judge The words in Mr. Rushworth are these Yet this I must tell ye that it were a great satisfaction for indifferent men that have been brought up in this verbal and apparent respect of the Scripture to see that the Positions you would induce them unto can be and are maintain'd by Scripture and that they are grounded therein Certainly one would think that either this man has no eyes or no forehead But the greatest
the knowledge of our Creator and of the duty we owe to him the wisdom of pleasing God by doing what he commands and avoiding what he forbids This Knowledge and Wisdom may be attained by man and is sufficient to make him happy And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding These words consist of two Propositions which are not distinct in sense but one and the same thing variously express'd For wisedom and understanding are synonymous words here and though sometimes they have different notions yet in the Poetical Books of Scripture they are most frequently used as words equivalent and do both of them indifferently signifie either a speculative knowledge of things or a practical skill about them according to the exigency of the matter or thing spoken of And so likewise the fear of the Lord and departure from evil are phrases of a very near sense and like importance and therefore we find them several times put together in Scripture Pro. 3.7 Pr. 16.6 Fear the Lord and depart from evil By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil So that they differ onely as cause and effect which by a Metonymie usual in all sorts of Authors are frequently put one for another Now to fear the Lord and to depart from evil are phrases which the Scripture useth in a very great latitude to express to us the sum of Religion and the whole of our duty And because the large usage of these phrases is to be the foundation of my following discourse I shall for the farther clearing of this matter endeavour to shew these two things 1. That 't is very usual in the Language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by these and such like phrases 2. The particular fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion I. It is very usual in the Language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by some eminent principle or part of Religion The great Principles of Religion are knowledge faith remembrance love and fear by all which the Scripture useth to express the whole duty of man In the Old Testament by the knowledge remembrance and fear of God Religion is called The knowledge of the holy Prov. 30.3 Jer. 10.25 And wicked men are described to be such as know not God So likewise by the fear of the Lord frequently in this Book of Job and in the Psalms and Proverbs And Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another And the fear of God is expresly said to be the sum of Religion Eccl. 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole of man And on the contrary the wicked are described to be such as have not the fear of God before their eyes Ps 36.1 And so likewise by the remembrance of God Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth Eccl. 12.1 that is enter upon a religious course betimes And on the contrary the character of the wicked is that they forget God The wicked shall be turned into Hell Ps 9.17 and all the Nations that forget God In the New Testament Religion is usually expressed by faith in God and Christ and the love of them Hence it is that true Christians are so frequently called believers and wicked and ungodly men unbelievers And that good men are described to be such as love God all things shall work together for good to them that love God Ro. 8.28 Eph. 6.24 and such as love the Lord Iesus Christ Now the reason why these are put for the whole of Religion is because the belief and knowledge and remembrance and love and fear of God are such powerfull principles and have so great an influence upon men to make them Religious that where any one of these really is all the rest together with the true and genuine effects of them are supposed to be And so likewise the sum of all Religion is often expressed by some eminent part of it which will explain the second phrase here in the Text departing from evil The worship of God is an eminent part of Religion and Prayer which is often in Scripture expressed by seeking God and calling upon his Name is a chief part of Religious worship Hence Religion is described by seeking God Heb. 11.6 He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and by calling upon his name Acts 2.21 Whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved And so by coming to God and by departing from evil In this fallen state of man Religion begins with repentance and conversion the two opposite terms of which are God and Sin Hence it is that Religion is described sometimes by coming to God Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that he is that is no man can be religious unless he believe there is a God Is 59.15 sometimes by departing from sin And he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey that is such was the bad state of those times of which the Prophet there complains that no man could be religious but he was in danger of being persecuted II. For the fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion 1. For the first the fear of the Lord The fitness of this phrase will appear if we consider how great an influence the fear of God hath upon men to make them religious Fear is a passion that is most deeply rooted in our natures and flows immediately from that Principle of self-preservation which God hath planted in every man Every one desires his own preservation and happiness and therefore hath a natural dread and horrour of every thing that can destroy his Being or endanger his happiness And the greatest danger is from the greatest power and that is omnipotency So that the fear of God is an inward acknowledgment of a holy and just Being which is armed with an almighty and irresistible power God having hid in every Man's Conscience a secret awe and dread of his infinite power and eternal justice Now fear being so intimate to our natures it is the strongest bond of Laws and the great security of our duty There are two bridles or restraints which God hath put upon humane nature shame and fear Shame is the weaker and hath place onely in those in whom there are some remainders of vertue Fear is the stronger and works upon all who love themselves and desire their own preservation Therefore in this degenerate state of mankind fear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us and by which God and his Laws take the surest hold of us Our desire and love and hope are not so apt to be wrought upon by the representation of vertue and the promises of reward and happiness as our fear is from the apprehensions of Divine displeasure For though we have lost in a great measure the gust and relish of true happiness yet we
they be so or not and patiently to consider the arguments which are brought for them For many have miscarried about these things not because there is not reason and evidence enough for them but because they have not had patience enough to consider them Secondly Consider these things impartially All wicked men are of a party against Religion Some lust or interest ingageth them against it Hence it comes to pass that they are apt to slight the strongest arguments that can be brought for it and to cry up very weak ones against it Men do generally and without difficulty assent to Mathematical truths because it is no bodies interest to deny them but men are slow to believe moral and divine Truths because by their lusts and interest they are prejudiced against them And therefore you may observe that the more vertuously any man lives and the less he is enslaved to any lust the more ready he is to entertain the principles of Religion Therefore when you are examining these matters do not take into consideration any sensual or worldly interest but deal clearly and impartially with your selves Let not temporal and little advantages sway you against a greater and more durable interest Think thus with your selves that you have not the making of things true or false but that the truth and existence of things is already fix'd and setled and that the principles of Religion are already either determinately true or false before you think of them either there is a God or there is not either your Souls are Immortal or they are not one of these is certain and necessary and is not now to be altered the truth of things will not comply with our conceits and bend it self to our interests Therefore do not think what you would have to be but consider impartially what is and if it be will be whether you will or no. Do not reason thus I would fain be wicked and therefore it is my interest that there should be no God nor no life after this and therefore I will endeavour to prove that there is no such thing and will shew all the favour I can to that side of the question I will bend my understanding and wit to strengthen the negative and will study to make it as true as I can This is fond because it is the way to cheat thy self and that we may do as often as we please but the nature of things will not be imposed upon If then thou be as wise as thou oughtest to be thou wilt reason thus with thy self my highest interest is not to be deceived about these matters therefore setting aside all other considerations I will endeavour to know the truth and yield to that And now it is time to draw towards a conclusion of this long discourse And that which I have all this while been endeavouring to convince men of and to perswade them to is no other but what God himself doth particularly recommend to us as proper for humane consideration unto Man he said behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding Whoever pretends to reason and calls himself a man is oblig'd to acknowledge God and to demean himself religiously towards him For God is to the understanding of man as the light of the Sun is to our eyes the first and the plainest and the most glorious object of it He fills Heaven and earth and every thing in them does represent him to us Which way soever we turn our selves we are encountred with clear evidences and sensible demonstrations of a Deity For as the Apostle reasons The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen Rom. 1. being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they are without excuse that is those men that know not God have no apology to make for themselves Or if men do know and believe that there is such a being as God not to consider the proper consequences of such a Principle not to demean our selves towards him as becomes our relation to him and dependance upon him and the duty which we naturally owe him this is great stupidity and inconsiderateness And yet he that considers the lives and actions of the greatest part of men would verily think that they understood nothing of all this Therefore the Scripture represents wicked men as without understanding It is a Nation void of counsel Deut. 32.28 Psal 14.4 neither is there any understanding in them and elsewhere have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge Not that they are destitute of the natural faculty of understanding but they do not use it as they ought they are not blind but they wink they detain the truth of God in unrighteousness and though they know God yet they do not glorifie him as God nor suffer the apprehensions of him to have a due influence upon their hearts and lives Men generally stand very much upon the credit and reputation of their understandings and of all things in the world hate to be accounted fools because it is so great a reproach The best way to avoid this imputation and to bring off the credit of our understandings is to be truly religious to fear the Lord and to depart from evil For certainly there is no such imprudent person as he that neglects God and his soul and is careless and slothful about his everlasting concernments because this man acts contrary to his truest reason and best interest he neglects his own safety and is active to procure his own ruine he flies from happiness and runs away from it as fast as he can but pursues misery and makes haste to be undone Hence it is that Solomon does all along in the Proverbs give the title of fool to a wicked man as if it were his proper name and the fittest character of him because he is so eminently such There is no fool to the sinner who every moment ventures his Soul and lays his everlasting interest at the stake Every time a man provokes God he does the greatest mischief to himself that can be imagined A mad man that cuts himself and tears his own flesh and dashes his head against the stones does not act so unreasonably as he because he is not so sensible of what he does Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy and a chosen distraction and every sinner does wilder and more extravagant things than any man can do that is craz'd and out of his wits onely with this sad difference that he knows better what he does For to them who believe another life after this an eternal state of happiness or misery in another world which is but a reasonable postulatum or demand among Christians there is nothing in Mathematicks more demonstrable than the folly of wicked men for it is not a clearer and more evident principle that the whole is greater than a
to Religion Religion is against them and therefore they set themselves against Religion The principles of Religion and the doctrines of the holy Scriptures are terrible enemies to wicked men they are continnually flying in their faces and galling their consciences And this is that which makes them kick against Religion and spurn at the doctrines of that holy Book And this may probably be one reason why many men who are observed to be sufficiently dull in other matters yet can talk prophanely and speak against Religion with some kind of salt and smartness because Religion is the thing that frets them and as in other things so in this vexatio dat intellectum the inward trouble and vexation of their minds gives them some kind of wit and sharpness in rallying upon Religion Their consciences are galled by it and this makes them winch and fling as if they had some metal For let men pretend what they will there is no ease and comfort of mind to be had from atheistical principles 'T is found by experience that none are more apprehensive of danger or more fearfull of death than this sort of men Even when they are in prosperity they ever and anon feel many inward stings and lashes but when any great affliction or calamity overtakes them they are the most poor spirited creatures in the whole world The sum is the true reason why any man is an Atheist is because he is a wicked man Religion would curb him in his lusts and therefore he casts it off and puts all the scorn upon it he can Besides that men think it some kind of apology for their vices that they do not act contrary to any principle they profess Their practice is agreeable to what they pretend to believe and so they think to vindicate themselves and their own practices by laughing at those for fools who believe any thing to the contrary III. The third thing I propounded was to represent to you the heinousness and the aggravations of this vice And to make this out we will make these three suppositions which are as many as the thing will bear 1. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false 2. Suppose the matter were doubtfull and the arguments equal on both sides 3. Suppose it certain that there is a God and that the principles of Religion are true Put the case how we will I shall shew that the humour is intolerable I. Suppose there were no God and that the principles of Religion were false Not that there is any reason for such a supposition but onely to shew the unreasonableness of this humour Put the case that these men were in the right in denying the principles of Religion and that all that they pretend were true yet so long as the generality of mankind believes the contrary it is certainly a great rudeness or incivility at least to deride and scoff at these things Indeed upon this supposition there could be no such thing as sin but yet it would be a great offence against the laws of civil conversation Suppose then the Atheist were wiser than all the world and that he did upon good grounds know that all mankind besides himself and two or three more were mistaken about the matters of Religion yet if he were either so wise or so civil as he should be he would keep all this to himself and not affront other men about these things I remember that that Law which God gave to the people of Israel Thou shalt not speak evil of the Rulers of thy people is rendred by Josephus in a very different sense What other nations account Gods let no man blaspheme And this is not so different from the Hebrew as at first sight one would imagine for the same Hebrew word signifies both Gods and Rulers But whether this be the meaning of that Law or not there is a great deal of reason in the thing For though every man have a right in dispute against a false Religion and to urge it with all its absurd and ridiculous consequences as the Ancient Fathers did in their disputes with the Heathen yet it is a barbarous incivility for any man scurrilously to make sport with that which others account Religion not with any design to convince their reason but onely to provoke their rage But now the Atheist can pretend no obligation of conscience why he should so much as dispute against the principles of Religion much less deride them He that pretends to any Religion may pretend conscience for opposing a contrary Religion But he that denies all Religion can pretend no conscience for any thing A man may be obliged indeed in reason and common humanity to free his neighbour from a hurtfull error but supposing there were no God this notion of a Deity and the Principles of Religion have taken such deep root in the mind of man that either they are not to be extinguished or if they be it would be no kindness to any man to endeavour it for him because it is not to be done but with so much trouble and violence that the remedy would be worse than the disease For if this notion of a Deity be founded in a natural fear it is in vain to attempt to expell it for whatever violence may be offer'd to nature by endeavouring to reason men into a contrary perswasion nature will still recoil and at last return to it self and then the fear will be augmented from the apprehension of the dangerous consequences of such an impiety So that nothing can create more trouble to a man than to endeavour to dispossess him of this conceit because nature is but irritated by the contest and the man's fears will be doubled upon him But if we suppose this apprehension of a Deity to have no foundation in nature but to have had its rise from tradition which hath been confirmed in the world by the prejudice of education the difficulty of removing it will almost be as great as if it were natural that which men take in by education being next to that which is natural And if it could be extinguish't yet the advantage of it will not recompence the trouble of the cure For except the avoiding of persecution for Religion there is no advantage that the principles of Atheism if they could be quietly setled in a man's mind can give him The advantage indeed that men make of them is to give themselves the liberty to do what they please to be more sensual and more unjust than other men that is they have the priviledge to surfeit themselves and to be sick oftner than other men and to malte mankind their enemy by their unjust and dishonest actions and consequently to live more uneasily in the world than other men So that the principles of Religion the belief of a God and another life by obliging men to be vertuous do really promote their temporal happiness And all the priviledge that Atheism pretends
thus to use the Authour of our Beings and the Patron of our Lives to make a scorn of him that made us and to live in an open defiance of him in whom we live move and have our beings But this is not all As it is a most heinous so it is a most dangerous impiety to despise him that can destroy us and to oppose him who is infinitely more powerful than we are Will ye says the Apostle provoke the Lord to jealousie are ye stronger than he What Gamaliel said to the Jews in another case may with a little change be applied to this sort of men If there be a God and the principles of Religion be true ye cannot overthrow them therefore refrain from speaking against these things lest ye be found fighters against God I will but add one thing more to shew the folly of this prophane temper And that is this that as it is the greatest of all other sins so there is in truth the least temptation to it When the Devil tempts men with riches or honour to ruin themselves he offers them some kind of consideration but the prophane person serves the Devil for nought and sins only for sin's sake suffers himself to be tempted to the greatest sins and into the greatest dangers for no other reward but the slender reputation of seeming to say that wittily which no wise man would say And what a folly is this for a man to offend his conscience to please his humour and onely for his jest to lose two of the best Friends he hath in the world God and his own soul I have done with the three things I propounded to speak to upon this Argument And now I beg your patience to apply what I have said to these three purposes 1. To take men off from this impious and dangerous folly of prophaneness which by some is miscalled wit 2. To caution men not to think the worse of Religion because some are so bold as to despise and deride it 3. To perswade men to employ that reason and wit which God hath given them to better and nobler purposes in the service and to the glory of that God who hath bestowed these gifts on men 1. To take men off from this impious and dangerous folly I know not how it comes to pass that some men have the fortune to be esteemed Wits onely for jesting out of the common road and for making bold to scoff at those things which the greatest part of mankind reverence As if a man should be accounted a Wit for reviling those in Authority which is no more an argument of any man's wit than it is of his discretion A wise man would not speak contemptuously of a great Prince though he were out of his Dominions because he remembers that Kings have long hands and that their power and influence does many times reach a great way farther than their direct Authority But God is a great King and in his hand are all the corners of the earth we can go no whither from his Spirit nor can we flee from his presence where-ever we are his eye sees us and his right hand can reach us If men did truly consult the interest either of their safety or reputation they would never exercise their wit in dangerous matters Wit is a very commendable quality but then a wise man should always have the keeping of it It is a sharp weapon as apt for mischief as for good purposes if it be not well manag'd The proper use of it is to season conversation to represent what is praise-worthy to the greatest advantage and to expose the vices and follies of men such things as are in themselves truly ridiculous But if it be applied to the abuse of the gravest and most serious matters it then loses its commendation If any man think he abounds in this quality and hath wit to spare there is scope enough for it within the bounds of Religion and decency and when it transgresseth these it degenerates into insolence and impiety All wit which borders upon prophaneness and makes bold with those things to which the greatest reverence is due deserves to be branded for folly And if we would preserve our selves from the infection of this vice we must take heed how we scoff at Religion under any form lest insensibly we derive some contempt upon Religion it self And we must likewise take heed how we accustom our selves to a slight and irreverent use of the Name of God and of the phrases and expressions of the Holy Bible which ought not to be applied upon every light occasion Men will easily slide into the highest degree of prophaneness who are not careful to preserve a due reverence of the great and glorious Name of God and an awfull regard to the Holy Scriptures None so nearly disposed to scoffing at Religion as those who have accustomed themselves to swear upon trifling occasions For it is just with God to permit those who allow themselves in one degree of prophaneness to proceed to another till at last they come to that height of impiety as to contemn all Religion 2. Let no man think the worse of Religion because some are so bold as to despise and deride it For 't is no disparagement to any person or thing to be laught at but to deserve to be so The most grave and serious matters in the whole world are liable to be abus'd It is a known saying of Epictetus that every thing hath two handles By which he means that there is nothing so bad but a man may lay hold of something or other about it that will afford matter of excuse and extenuation nor nothing so excellent but a man may fasten upon something or other belonging to it whereby to reduce it A sharp wit may find something in the wisest man whereby to expose him to the contempt of injudicious people The gravest book that ever was written may be made ridiculous by applying the sayings of it to a foolish purpose For a jest may be obtruded upon any thing And therefore no man ought to have the less reverence for the principles of Religion or for the holy Scriptures because idle and prophane Wits can break jests upon them Nothing is so easie as to take particular phrases and expressions out of the best Book in the world and to abuse them by forcing an odd and ridiculous sense upon them But no wise man will think a good Book foolish for this reason but the man that abuses it nor will he esteem that to which every thing is liable to be a just exception against any thing At this rate we must despise all things but surely the better and the shorter way is to contemn those who would bring any thing that is worthy into contempt 3. And lastly to perswade men to employ that reason and wit which God hath given them to better and nobler purposes in the service and to the glory of that God who hath
to the good order and more easie government of humane Society because they have a good influence both upon Magistrates and Subjects 1. Upon Magistrates Religion teacheth them to rule over men in the fear of God because though they be Gods on earth yet they are subjects of Heaven and accountable to Him who is higher than the highest in this world Religion in a Magistrate strengthens his authority because it procures veneration and gains a reputation to it And in all the affairs of this world so much reputation is really so much power We see that piety and Vertue where they are found among men of lower degree will command some reverence and respect But in persons of eminent place and dignity they are seated to a great advantage so as to cast a lustre upon their very Place and by a strong reflexion to double the beams of Majesty Whereas impiety and vice do strangely lessen greatness and do secretly and unavoidably derive some weakness upon authority it self Of this the Scripture gives us a remarkable instance in David For among other things which made the Sons of Zurviah too hard for him this probably was none of the least that they were particularly conscious to his crimes 2. Religion hath a good influence upon the People to make them obedient to Government and peaceable one towards another 1. To make them obedient to Government and conformable to Laws and that not onely for wrath and out of fear of the Magistrates power which is but a weak and loofe principle of obedience and will cease when ever men can rebel with safety and to advantage but out of Conscience which is a firm and constant and lasting principle and will hold a man fast when all other obligations will break He that hath entertain'd the true principles of Christianity is not to be tempted from his obedience and subjection by any worldly considerations because he believes that whatsoever resisteth authority resisteth the ordinance of God and that they who resist shall receive to themselves damnation 2. Religion tends to make men peaceable one towards another For it endeavours to plant all those qualities and dispositions in men which tend to peace and unity and to fill men with a spirit of universal love and good will It endeavours likewise to secure every man's interest by commanding the observation of that great rule of equity Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them by enjoyning that truth and fidelity be inviolably observed in all our words promises and contracts And in order hereunto it requires the extirpation of all those passions and vices which render men unsociable and troublesome to one another as pride covetousness and injustice hatred and revenge and cruelty and those likewise which are not so commonly reputed vices as self-conceit and peremptoriness in a man 's own opinion and all peevishness and incompliance of humour in things lawful and indifferent And that these are the proper effects of true piety the doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles every where teacheth us Now if this be the design of Religion to bring us to this temper thus to heal the natures of men and to sweeten their spirits to correct their passions and to mortifie all those lusts which are the causes of enmity and division then it is evident that in its own nature it tends to the peace and happiness of humane society and that if men would but live as Religion requires they should do the world would be a quiet habitation a most lovely and desirable place in comparison of what now it is And indeed the true reason why the societies of men are so full of tumult and disorder so troublesome and tempestuous is because there is so little of true Religion among men so that were it not for some small remainders of piety and vertue which are yet left scatter'd among mankind humane society would in a short space disband and run into confusion the earth would grow wild and become a great forest and mankind would become beasts of prey one towards another And if this discourse hold true surely then one would think that vertue should find it self a seat where-ever humane societies are and that Religion should be owned and encouraged in the world until men cease to be governed by reason II. I come to vindicate this truth from the insinuations and pretences of atheistical persons I shall mention two 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God and a state of rewards and punishments after this life 2. That as for vertue and vice they are arbitrary things 1. That Government may subsist well enough without the belief of a God or a state of rewards and punishments after this life And this the Atheist does and must assert otherwise he is by his own confession a declared enemy to Government and unfit to live in humane society For answer to this I will not deny but that though the generality of men did not believe any superior Being nor any rewards and punishments after this life yet notwithstanding this there might be some kind of Government kept up in the world For supposing men to have reason the necessities of humane nature and the mischiefs of confusion would probably compel them into some kind of order But then I say withall that if these principles were banished out of the world Government would be far more difficult than now it is because it would want its firmest Basis and foundation there would be infinitely more disorders in the world if men were restrained from injustice and violence onely by humane laws and not by principles of conscience and the dread of another world Therefore Magistrates have always thought themselves concerned to cherish Religion and to maintain in the minds of men the belief of a God and another life Nay that common suggestion of atheistical persons that Religion was at first a politick device and is still kept up in the world as a State-engine to awe men into obedience is a clear acknowledgment of the usefulness of it to the ends of Government and does as fully contradict that pretence of theirs which I am now confuting as any thing that can be said 2. That vertue and vice are arbitrary things founded onely in the imaginations of men and in the constitutions and customs of the world but not in the nature of the things themselves and that that is vertue or vice good or evil which the Supream Authority of a Nation declares to be so And this is frequently and confidently asserted by the ingenious Author of a very bad Book I mean the Leviathan Now the proper way of answering any thing that is confidently asserted is to shew the contrary namely That there are some things that have a natural evil and deformity in them as perjury perfidiousness unrighteousness and ingratitude which are things not onely condemned by the positive laws and constitutions of
His Grace John Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury SERMONS PREACH'D Upon several Occasions By His Grace JOHN Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury The First Volume The Eighth Edition Corrected LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil and William Rogers at the Sun against St. Dunstans Church in Fleet-street 1694. To the Worshipfull the Masters of the Bench and the rest of the Members of the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn Gentlemen WHen I resolv'd to publish these Sermons there could be no dispute to whom I should dedicate them They do of right belong to you being most of them first preach'd among you besides my great obligation to you for your constant respects to me both in the favourable acceptance and in the generous encouragement of my labours ever since I had the honour and happiness to be related to you In a thankfull acknowledgment whereof I humbly present this small part of them to you hoping that by the blessing of God they may be of some use for the promoting of true piety and vertue which is the sincere wish and aim of Your most obliged and faithfull Servant John Cant. The Preface I Shall neither trouble the Reader nor my self with any apology for the publishing of these Sermons For if they be in any measure truly serviceable to the end for which they are design'd to establish men in the Principles of Religion and to recommend to them the practice of it with any considerable advantage I do not see what Apology is necessary and if they be not so I am sure none can be sufficient However if there need any the common heads of excuse in these cases are very well known and I hope I have an equal right to them with other men I shall chuse rather in this Preface to give a short account of the following Discourses and as briefly as I can to vindicate a single passage in the first of them from the Exceptions of a Gentleman who hath been pleas'd to honour it so far as to write a whole Book against it The Design of these Discourses is fourfold First To shew the unreasonableness of Atheism and of scoffing at Religion which I am sorry is so necessary to be done in this Age. This I have endeavour'd in the two first of these Discourses Secondly To recommend Religion to men from the great and manifold advantages which it brings both to publick Society and to particular persons And this is the argument of the third and fourth Thirdly To represent the excellency more particularly of the Christian Religion and to vindicate the practise of it from the suspicion of those grievous troubles and difficulties which many imagine it to be attended withall And this is the subject of the fifth and sixth Fourthly To perswade men to the practice of this holy Religion from the great obligation which the profession of Christianity lays upon men to that purpose and more particularly from the glorious rewards of another life which is the design of the two last Discourses Having given this short account of the following Discourses I crave leave of the Reader to detain him a little longer whilst I vindicate a passage in the first of these Sermons from the assaults of a whole Book purposely writ against it The Title of the Book is Faith vindicated from the possibility of Falshood The Author Mr. J. S. the famous Author of Sure footing He hath indeed in this last Book of his to my great amazement quitted that glorious Title Not that I dare assume to my self to have put him out of conceit with it by having convinc'd him of the phantasticalness of it No I despair to convince that man of any thing who after so fair an admonition does still persist to maintain * Letter of Thanks p. 24 c. that first and self-evident Principles not onely may but are fit to be demonstrated and †Ibid. p. 11. that those ridiculous identical Propositions that Faith is Faith and a Rule is a Rule are first Principle in this Controversie◠of the Rule of Faith without which nothing can be solidly concluded either about Rule or Faith But there was another reason for his quitting of that Title and a prudent one indeed He had forsaken the defence of Sure footing and then it became convenient to lay aside that Title for fear of putting people any more in mind of that Book I expected indeed after his Letter of Thanks in which he * P. 14. tells us he intended to throw aside the rubbish of my Book that in his Answer he might the better lay open the Fabrick of my Discourse and have nothing there to doe but to speak to solid Points I say after this I expected a full Answer to the solid Points as he is pleased to call them of my Book and that according to his excellent method of removing the rubbish in order to the pulling down of a building the Fabrick of my Book would long since have been demolish'd and laid even with the ground But especially when in the conclusion of that most civil and obliging Letter he threatn'd never to leave following on his blow till he had either brought Dr. Still and me to lay Principles that would bear the test or it was made evident to all the world that we had none I began as I had reason to be in a terrible fear of him and to look upon my self as a dead man And indeed who can think himself so considerable as not to dread this mighty man of Demonstration this Prince of Controvertists this great Lord and Possessour of First Principles But I perceive that great minds are mercifull and do sometimes content themselves to threaten when they could destroy For instead of returning a full Answer to my Book he according to their new mode of confuting Books manfully falls a nibbling at one single passage in it pag. 118. wherein he makes me to say for I say no such thing that the Rule of Christian Faith and consequently Faith it self is possible to be false Nay in his Letter of Thanks * P. 13. he says it is an avow'd Position in that place that Faith is possible to be false And to give the more countenance to this calumny he chargeth the same Position in equivalent terms of the possible falshood of Faith and that as to the chiefest and most fundamental Point the Tenet of a Deity upon the forementioned Sermon But because he knew in his conscience that I had avow'd no such Position he durst not cite the words either of my Book or Sermon lest the Reader should have discover'd the notorious falshood and groundlesness of this Calumny Nay he durst not so much as refer to any particular place in my Sermon where such a passage might be found And yet this is the Man that has the face to charge others with false citations to which charge before I have done I shall say something
II. The Second way of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to shew the ignorance and folly of irreligion Now all that are irreligious are so upon one of these two accounts Either First because they do not believe the foundations and principles of Religion as the existence of God the immortality of the soul and future rewards or else Secondly because though they do in some sort believe these things yet they live contrary to this their belief and of this kind are the far greatest part of wicked men The first sort are guilty of that which we call speculative the other of practicall Atheism I shall endeavour to shew the Ignorance and Folly of both these First Speculative Atheism is unreasonable and that upon these Five accounts 1. Because it gives no tolerable account of the existence of the world 2. Nor does it give any reasonable account of the universal consent of mankind in this apprehension That there is a God 3. It requires more evidence for things than they are capable of 4. The Atheist pretends to know that which no man can know 5. Atheism contradicts it self I. Because it gives no tolerable account of the existence of the world One of the greatest difficulties that lies in the Atheist's way is upon his own supposition that there is no God to give a likely account of the existence of the world We see this vast frame of the World and an innumerable multitude of creatures in it all which we who believe a God attribute to him as the Author of them For a being suppos'd of infinite goodness and wisedom and power is a very likely cause of these things What more likely to make this vast world to stretch forth the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth and to form these and all things in them of nothing than infinite power What more likely to communicate Being and so many degrees of happiness to so many several sorts of creatures than infinite goodness What more likely to contrive this admirable frame of the Universe and all the creatures in it each of them so perfect in their kind and all of them so fitted to each other and to the whole than infinite counsel and wisedom This seems to be no unreasonable account But let us see now what account the Atheist gives of these things If there be no God there are but these two ways imaginable for the world to be Either it must be said That not onely the Matter but also the Frame of this world is eternal and that as to the main things always were as they are without any first cause of their being which is the way of the Aristotelian Atheist those I mean who proceed upon Aristotle's supposition of the eternity of the world but yet deny it to be from God which he expresly asserts Or else the matter of the world being supposed to be eternal and of it self the original of this vast and beautifull frame must be ascribed morely to chance and the casual concourse of the parts of matter which is the way of the Epicurean Atheist But neither of these ways gives a tolerable account of the existence of the world 1. I shall first consider the Hypothesis of those whom for distinction sake I call the Aristotelian Atheists which is this That not only the matter but also the frame of the world is eternal and that as to the main it was always as it is of it self and that there hath been from all eternity a succession of men and other creatures without any first cause of their being It seems to be very hard and if that would do any good might be just matter of complaint that we are fallen into so prophane and sceptical an age which takes a pleasure and a pride in unravilling almost all the received principles both of Religion and Reason So that we are put many times to prove those things which can hardly be made plainer than they are of themselves And such almost are these Principles That God is and That all things were made by him which by reason of the bold cavils of perverse and unreasonable men we are now a-days put to defend That something is of it self is evident because we see things are And the things that we see must either have had some first cause of their being or have been always and of themselves One of these two is unavoidable So that the controversie between us and this sort of Atheist comes to this Which is the more credible opinion that the world was never made nor had a beginning but always was as it is and that there hath been from all eternity a succession of men and other creatures without any first cause of their being or that there was from all eternity such a being as we conceive God to be infinite in power goodness and wisedom which made us and all other things The first of these opinions I shall shew to be altogether incredible and the latter to have all the credibility and evidence of which a thing of that nature is capable and such evidence as is sufficient to convince any impartial and considerate man Now in comparing the probabilities of things that we may know on which side the advantage lies these two considerations are of great moment What the arguments are on each side and what the difficulties For if there be fair proofs on the one side and none at all on the other and if the most pressing difficulties be on that side on which there are no proofs this is sufficient to render one opinion very credible and the other altogether incredible These two things therefore I shall endeavour to make good in the matter that is now under our consideration First That there are fair proofs on our side and as convincing as the nature of the things is capable of but that there is no pretence of proof on the other And Secondly That the side on which there is no proof is incumbred with the greatest difficulties First That there are fair proofs on our side and as convincing as the nature of the thing is capable of but that there is no pretence of proof on the other This Question Whether the world was created and had a beginning or not is a question concerning an ancient matter of fact which can onely be decided these two ways by testimony and by probabilities of reason Testimony is the principal argument in a matter of this nature and if fair probabilities of reason concur with it this argument hath all the strength it can have Now both these are clearly on the affirmative side of the question viz. That the world was created and had a beginning 1. Testimony of which there be two kinds Divine and Humane Divine testimony as such is not proper to be us'd in this cause considering the occasion of the present debate For that would be to beg the first and main question now in controversie which is Whether there be a God
would be no hindrance or prejudice to any such design but very much for the advancement and furtherance of it Men that are good and vertuous do easily believe a God so that it is vehemently to be suspected that nothing but the strength of mens lusts and the power of vicious inclinations do sway their minds and set a byass upon their understandings toward Atheism 2. Atheism is imprudent because it is unsafe in the issue The Atheist contends against the religious man that there is no God but upon strange inequality and odds for he ventures his eternal interest whereas the Religious man ventures onely the loss of his Lusts which it is much better for him to be without or at the utmost of some temporal convenience and all this while is inwardly more contented and happy and usually more healthfull and perhaps meets with more respect and faithfuller friends and lives in a more secure and flourishing condition and more free from the evils and punishments of this world than the Atheistical person does however it is not much that he ventures And after this life if there be no God is as well as he but if there be a God is Infinitely better even as much as unspeakable and eternal happiness is better than extream and endless misery So that if the arguments for and against a God were equal and it were an even question whether there were one or not yet the hazard and danger is so infinitely unequal that in point of prudence and interest every man were obliged to incline to the affirmative and whatever doubts he might have about it to choose the safest side of the question and to make that the principle to live by For he that acts wisely and is a throughly prudent man will be provided against all events and will take care to secure the main chance whatever happens but the Atheist in case things should fall out contrary to his belief and expectation he hath made no provision for this case If contrary to his confidence it should prove in the issue that there is a God the man is lost and undone for ever If the Atheist when he dies should find that his soul remains after his body and has onely quitted its lodging how will this man be amazed and blank'd when contrary to his expectation he shall find himself in a new and strange place amidst a world of spirits entred upon an everlasting and unchangeable state How sadly will the man be disappointed when he finds all things otherwise than he had stated and determined them in this World When he comes to appear before that God whom he hath denied and against whom he hath spoken as despightful things as he could who can imagine the pale and guilty looks of this man and how he will shiver and tremble for the fear of the Lord and for the glory of his Majesty How will he be surprised with terrors on every side to find himself thus unexpectedly and irrecoverably plunged into a state of ruin and desperation And thus things may happen for all this man's confidence now For our belief or dis-belief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing We cannot fansie things into being or make them vanish into nothing by the stubborn considence of our imaginations Things are as sullen as we are and will be what they are whatever we think of them And if there be a God a man cannot by an obstinate disbelief of him make him cease to be any more than a man can put out the Sun by winking And thus I have as briefly and clearly as I could endeavoured to shew the ignorance and folly of speculative Atheisme in denying the existence of God And now it will be less needful to speak of the other two Principles of Religion the immortality of the soul and future rewards For no man can have any reasonable scruple about these who believes that there is a God Because no man that owns the existence of an infinite spirit can doubt of the possibility of a finite spirit that is such a thing as is immaterial and does not contain any principle of corruption in it self And there is no man that believes the goodness of God but must be inclin'd to think that he hath made some things for as long a duration as they are capable of Nor can any man that acknowledgeth the holy and just providence of God and that he loves righteousness and hates iniquity and that he is a Magistrate and Governour of the World and consequently concerned to countenance the obedience and to punish the violation of his Laws and that does withall consider the promiscuous dispensations many times of God's Providence in this world I say no man that acknowledges all this can think it unreasonable to conclude that after this life good men shall be rewarded and sinners punished I have done with the first sort of irreligious persons the speculative Atheist I shall speak but briefly of the other Secondly The practical Atheist who is wicked and irreligious notwithstanding he does in some sort believe that there is a God and a future state he is likewise guilty of prodigious folly The principle of the speculative Atheist argues more ignorance but the practice of the other argues greater folly Not to believe a God and another life for which there is so much evidence of reason is great ignorance and folly but 't is the highest madness when a man does believe these things to live as if he did not believe them When a Man does not doubt but that there is a God and that according as he demeans himself towards him he will make him happy or miserable for ever yet to live so as if he were certain of the contrary and as no man in reason can live but he that is well assured that there is no God It was a shrewd saying of the old Monk that two kind of Prisons would serve for all offenders in the world an Inquisition and a Bedlam If any man should deny the being of a God and the immortality of the soul such a one should be put into the first of these the Inquisition as being a desperate Heretick but if any man should profess to believe these things and yet allow himself in any known wickedness such a one should be put into Bedlam because there cannot be a greater folly and madness than for a man in matters of greatest moment and concernment to act against his best reason and understanding and by his life to contradict his belief Such a man does perish with his eyes open and knowingly undoes himself he runs upon the greatest dangers which he clearly sees to be before him and precipitates himself into those evils which he professes to believe to be real and intolerable and wilfully neglects the obtaining of that unspeakable good and happiness which he is perswaded is certain and attainable Thus much for the second way of Confirmation III. The third way
of confirmation shall be by endeavouring to vindicate Religion from those common imputations which seem to charge it with ignorance or imprudence And they are chiefly these three 1. Credulity 2. Singularity 3. Making a Foolish Bargain First Credulity Say they the foundation of Religion is the belief of those things for which we have no sufficient reason and consequently of which we can have no good assurance as the belief of a God and of a future state after this life things which we never saw nor did experience nor ever spoke with any body that did Now it seems to argue too great a forwardness and easiness of belief to assent to any thing upon insufficient grounds To this I answer 1. That if there be such a Being as a God and such a thing as a future state after this life it cannot as I said before in reason be expected that we should have the evidence of sense for such things For he that believes a God believes such a Being as hath all perfections among which this is one that he is a spirit and consequently that he is invisible and cannot be seen He likewise that believes another life after this professeth to believe a state of which in this life we have no trial and experience Besides if this were a good objection that no man ever saw these things it strikes at the Atheist as well as us For no man ever saw the World to be from eternity nor Epicurus his Atoms of which notwithstanding he believes the World was made 2. We have the best evidence for these things which they are capable of at present supposing they were 3. Those who deny these principles must be much more credulous that is believe things upon incomparably less evidence of reason The Atheist looks upon all that are religious as a company of credulous fools But he for his part pretends to be wiser than to believe any thing for company he cannot entertain things upon those slight grounds which move other men if you would win his assent to any thing you must give him a clear demonstration for it Now there 's no way to deal with this man of reason this rigid exactor of strict demonstration for things which are not capable of it but by shewing him that he is an hundred times more credulous that he begs more principles takes more things for granted without offering to prove them and assents to more strange conclusions upon weaker grounds than those whom he so much accuseth of credulity And to evidence this I shall briefly give you an account of the Atheist's Creed and present you with a Catalogue of the fundamental Articles of his Faith He believes that there is no God nor possibly can be and consequently that the wise as well as unwise of all ages have been mistaken except himself and a few more He believes that either all the world have been frighted with an apparition of their own fancy or that they have most unnaturally conspired together to cozen themselves or that this notion of a God is a trick of policy though the greatest Princes and Politicians do not at this day know so much nor have done time out of a mind He believes either that the Heavens and the Earth and all things in them had no Original cause of their being or else that they were made by chance and happened he knows not how to be as they are and that in this last shuffling of matter all things have by great good fortune fallen out as happily and as regularly as if the greatest wisedom had contriv'd them but yet he is resolv'd to believe that there was no wisedom in the contrivance of them He believes that matter of it selâ— is utterly void of all sense understanding and liberty but for all that he is of opinion that the parts of matter may know and then happen to be so conveniently dispos'd as to have all these qualities and most dextrously to performe all those fine and free operations which the ignorant attribute to Spirits This is the sum of his belief And it is a wonder that there should be found any person pretending to reason or wit that can assent to such a heap of absurdities which are so gross and palpable that they may be felt So that if every man had his due it will certainly fall to the Atheist's share to be the most credulous person that is to believe things upon the slightest reasons For he does not pretend to prove any thing of all this only he finds himself he knows not why inclin'd to believe so and to laugh at those that do not II. The second imputation is singularity the affectation whereof is unbecoming a wise man To this charge I answer I. If by Religion be meant the belief of the principles of Religion that there is a God and a providence that our souls are immortal and that there are rewa ds to be expected after this life these are so far from being singular opinions that they are and always have been the general opinion of mankind even of the most barbarous Nations Insomuch that the Histories of ancient times do hardly furnish us with the names of above five or six persons who denied a God And Lucretius acknowledgeth that Epicurus was the first who did oppose those great foundations of Religion the providence of God and the immortality of the soul Primum Grajus homo c. meaning Epicurus 2. If by Religion be meant a living up to those principles that is to act conformably to our best reason and understanding and to live as it does become those who do believe a God and a future state this is acknowledged even by those who live otherwise to be the part of every wise man and the contrary to be the very madness of folly and height of distraction Nothing being more ordinary than for men who live wickedly to acknowledge that they ought to do otherwise 3. Though according to the common course and practice of the world it be somewhat singular for men truly and throughly to live up to the principles of their Religion yet singularity in this matter is so far from being a reflexion upon any man's prudence that it is a singular commendation of it In two cases singularity is very commendable 1. When there is a necessity of it in order to a man's greatest interest and happiness I think it to be a reasonable account for any man to give why he does not live as the greatest part of the World do that he has no mind to die as they do and to perish with them he is not disposed to be a fool and to be miserable for company he has no inclination to have his last end like theirs who know not God and obey not the Gospel of his Son and shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2. It is very commendable to be singular in
any excellency and I have shewn that Religion is the greatest excellency to be singular in any thing that is wise and worthy and excellent is not a disparagement but a praise every man would chuse to be thus singular III. The third imputation is that Religion is a foolish bargain because they who are religious hazard the parting with a present and certain happiness for that which is future and uncertain To this I answer 1. Let it be granted that the assurance which we have of future rewards falls short of the evidence of sense For I doubt not but that saying of our Saviour blessed is he who hath believed and not seen and those expressions of the Apostle we walk by faith and not by sight and faith is the evidence of things not seen are intended by way of abatement and diminution to the evidence of Faith and do sign fie that the report and testimony of others is not so great evidence as that of our own senses And though we have sufficient assurance of another state yet not man can think we have so great evidence as if we our selves had been in the other world and seen how all things are there 2. We have sufficient assurance of these things and such as may beget in us a well grounded confidence and frees us from all doubts of the contrary and perswade a reasonable man to venture his greatest interests in this world upon the security that he hath of another For 1. We have as much assurance of these things as things future and at a distance are capable of and he is a very unreasonable man that would desire more Future and invisible things are not capable of the evidence of sense but we have the greatest rational evidence for them and in this every reasonable man ought to rest satisfi'd 2. We have as much as is abundantly sufficient to justifie every man's discretion who for the great and eternal things of another world hazards or parts with the poor and transitory things of this life And for the clearing of this it will be worth our considering that the greatest affairs of this world and the most important concernments of this life are all conducted onely by moral demonstrations Men every day venture their lives and estates onely upon moral assurance For instance men who never were at the east or West-Indies or in Turky or Spain yet do venture their whole estate in traffick thither though they have no Mathematical demonstration but onely moral assurance that there are such places Nay which is more men every day eat and drink though I think no man can demonstrate out of Euclide or Apollonius that his Baker or Brewer or Cook have not conveyed poison into his meat or drink And that man that would be so wise and cautious as not to eat or drink till he could demonstrate this to himself I know no other remedy for him but that in great gravity and wifedom he must die for fear of death And for any man to urge that though men in temporal affairs proceed upon moral assurance yet there is greater assurance required to make men seek Heaven and avoid Hell seems to me to be highly unreasonable For such an assurance of things as will make men circumspect and carefull to avoid a lesser dangér ought in all reason to awaken men much more to the avoiding of a greater such an assurance as will sharpen mens desires and quicken their endeavours for the obtaining of a lesser good ought in all reason to animate men more powerfully and to inspire them with a greater vigour and industry in the pursuit of that which is infinitely greater For why the same assurance should not operate as well in a great danger as in a less in a great good as in a small and inconsiderable one I can see no reason unless men will say that the greatness of an evil danger is an incouragement to men to run upon it and that the greatness of any good and happiness ought in reason to dishearten men from the pursuit of it And now I think I may with reason entreat such as are atheistically inclined to consider these things seriously and impartially and if there be weight in these considerations which I have offered to them to sway with reasonable men I would beg of such that they would not suffer themselves to be byassed by prejudice or passion or the interest of any lust or worldly advantage to a contrary perswasion First I would entreat them seriously and diligently to consider these things because they are of so great moment and concernment to every man If any thing in the world deserve our serious study and consideration these principles of Religion do For what can import us more to be satisfied in than whether there be a God or not whether our Souls shall perish with our bodies or be immortal and shall continue for ever And if so whether in that eternal state which remains for men after this life they shall not be happy or miserable for ever according as they have demeaned themselves in this world If these things be so they are of infinite consequence to us and therefore it highly concerns us to enquire diligently about them and to satisfie our minds concerning them one way or other For these are not matters to be slightly and superficially thought upon much less as the way of atheistical men is to be played and jested withall There is no greater argument of a light and inconsiderate person than prophanely to scoff at Religion It is a sign that that man hath no regard to himself and that he is not touched with a sense of his own interest who loves to be jesting with edg'd tools and to play with life and death This is the very mad-man that Solomon speaks of Prov. 26.18 who casteth fire-brands arrows and death and saith am I not in sport To examine severely and debate seriously the principles of Religion is a thing worthy of a wise man but if any man shall turn Religion into raillery and think to confute it by two or three bold jests this man doth not render Religion but himself ridiculous in the opinion of all considerate men because he sports with his own life If the principles of Religion were doubtfull and uncertain yet they concern us so nearly that we ought to be serious in the examination of them And though they were never so clear and evident yet they may be made ridiculous by vain and frothy men as the gravest and wisest person in the world may be abused by being put into a fools coat and the most noble and excellent Poem may be debased and made vile by being turned into burlesque But of this I shall have occasion to speak more largely in my next discourse So that it concerns every man that would not trifle away his soul and fool himself into irrecoverable misery with the greatest seriousness to enquire into these matters whether
may be mindfull of the words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets and of the commandment of in the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Knowing this first that there shall come in the last days scoffers c. The prophecy here spoken of is probably that famous prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem which is in the Prophet Daniel and before the fulfilling whereof our Saviour expresly tells us false prophets should arise and deceive many Mat. 24.11 Now the scoffers here spoken of are the false teachers whom the Apostle had been describing all along in the foregoing Chapter there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you These he tells us should proceed to that height of impiety as to scoff at the principles of Religion and to deride the expectations of a future judgment In the last days shall come scoffers walking after their own lusts and saying where is the promise of his coming In speaking to these words I shall do these three things 1. Consider the nature of the sin here mentioned which is scoffing at Religion 2. The character of the persons that are charg'd with the guilt of this sin they are said to walk after their own lusts 3. I shall represent to you the heinousness and the aggravations of this vice I. First we will consider the nature of the sin here mentioned which is scoffing at Religion There shall come scoffers These it seems were a sort of people that derided our Saviour's prediction of his coming to judge the world So the Apostle tells us in the next words that they said where is the promise of his coming In those times there was a common perswasion among Christians that the day of the Lord was at hand 2 Thes 3.2 as the Apostle elsewhere tells us Now this 't is probable these scoffers twitted the Christians withall and because Christ did not come when some looked for him they concluded he would not come at all Upon this they derided the Christians as enduring persecution in a vain expectation of that which was never likely to happen They saw all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world notwithstanding the apprehensions of Christians concerning the approaching end of it For since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the world Since the fathers fell asleep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may either be rendred from the time or else which seems more agreeable to the atheistical discourse of these men saving or except that the fathers are fallen asleep all things continue as they were Saving that men die and one generation succeeds another they saw no change or alalteration They looked upon all things as going on in a constant course One generation of men passed away and another came in the room of it but the world remain'd still as it was And thus for ought they knew things might hold on for ever So that the principles of these men seem to be much the same with those of the Epicureans who denied the providence of God and the immortality of mens souls and consequently a future judgment which should sentence men to rewards and punishments in another world These great and fundamental principles of all Religion they derided as the fancies and dreams of a company of melancholy men who were weary of the world and pleased themselves with vain conceits of happiness and ease in another life But as for them they believed none of those things and therefore gave all manner of licence and indulgence to their lusts But this belongs to the second thing I propounded to speak to namely II. The character which is here given of these scoffers They are said to walk after their own lusts And no wonder if when they denied a future judgment they gave up themselves to all manner of sensuality St. Jude in his Epistle gives much the same character of them that St. Peter here does ver 18 19. There shall come in the last days mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts sensual not having the spirit So that we see what kind of persons they are who prophanely scoff at Religion men of sensual spirits and of licentious lives For this character which the Apostle here gives of the scoffers of that age was not an accidental thing which happened to those persons but is the constant character of them who deride Religion and flows from the very temper and disposition of those who are guilty of this impiety it is both the usual preparation to it and the natural consequent of it To deride God and Religion is the highest kind of impiety And men do not usually arrive to this degree of wickedness at first but they come to it by several steps The Psalmist very elegantly expresseth to us the several gradations by which men at last come to this horrid degree of impiety Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly Psal 1 1◠nor standeth in the way of sinners nor sitteth in the seat of the scornfull Men are usually first corrupted by bad counsel and company which is called walking in the counsel of the ungodly next they habituate themselves to their vicious practices which is standing in the way of sinners and then at last they take up and settle in a contempt of all Religion which is called sitting in the seat of the scornfull For when men once indulge themselves in wicked courses the vicious inclinations of their minds sway their understandings and make them apt to disbelieve those truths which contradict their lusts Every inordinate lust and passion is a false byass upon mens understandings which naturally draws toward Atheism And when mens judgments are once byassed they do not believe according to the evidence of things but according to their humour and their interest For when men live as if there were no God it becomes expedient for them that there should be none And then they endeavour to perswade themselves so and will be glad to find arguments to fortifie themselves in this perswasion Men of dissolute lives cry down Religion because they would not be under the restraints of it they are loth to be tied up by the strict laws and rules of it 'T is their interest more than any reason they have against it which makes them despise it they hate it because they are reproved by it So our Saviour tells us that men love darkness rather than light John 3.19 20. because their deeds are evil for every one that doth evil hateth the light neither cometh to the light lest his deeds should be reproved I remember it is the saying of one who hath done more by his Writings to debauch the Age with Atheistical principles than any man that lives in it That when reason is against a man then a man will be against reason I am sure this is the true account of such mens enmity
in the practice of Religion and Vertue Because the publick happiness and prosperity depends upon it It is most apparent that of late years Religion is very sensibly declin'd among us The manners of men have almost been universally corrupted by a Civil War We should therefore all jointly endeavour to retrieve the ancient vertue of the Nation and to bring into fashion again that solid and substantial that plain and unaffected piety free from the extreams both of superstition and enthusiasm which flourished in the age of our immediate Forefathers Which did not consist in idle talk but in real effects in a sincere love of God and of our neighbour in a pious devotion and reverence towards the Divine Majesty and in the vertuous actions of a good life in the denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts and in living soberly and righteously and godly in this present world This were the true way to reconcile God to us to stop the course of his judgments and to bring down the blessings of Heaven upon us God hath now been pleased to settle us again in peace both at home and abroad and he hath put us once more into the hands of our own counsel Life and Death blessing and cursing prosperity and destruction are before us We may chuse our own fortune and if we be not wanting to our selves we may under the influences of God's grace and assistance which is never wanting to our sincere endeavours become a happy and a prosperous People The good God make us all wise to know and to do the things that belong to the temporal peace and prosperity of the Nation and to the eternal happiness and salvation of every one of our souls which we humbly beg for the sake of Jesus Christ to whom c. PSALM xix II. And in keeping of them there is great reward IN this Psalm David celebrates the glory of God from the consideration of the greatness of his Works and the perfection of his Laws From the greatness of his Works verse 1. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work c. From the perfection of his Laws verse 7. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul c. And among many other excellencies of the Divine Laws he mentions in the last place the benefits and advantages which come from the observance of them verse 11. and in keeping of them there is great reward I have already shown how much Religion tends to the publick welfare of mankind to the support of Government and to the peace and happiness of humane Societies My work at this time shall be to shew that Religion and obedience to the Laws of God do likewise conduce to the happiness of particular persons both in respect of this world and the other For though there be but little express mention made in the Old Testament of the immortality of the Soul and the rewards of another life yet all Religion does suppose these principles and is built upon them I. And First I shall endeavour to shew how Religion conduceth to the happiness of this life and that both in respect of the inward and outward man First As to the mind to be pious and religious brings a double advantage to the mind of man 1. It tends to the improvement of our understandings 2. It brings peace and pleasure to our minds 1. It tends to the improvement of our understandings I do not mean onely that it instructs us in the knowledge of divine and spiritual things and makes us to understand the great interest of our souls and the concernments of eternity better but that in general it does raise and enlarge the minds of men and make them more capable of true knowledge And in this sense I understand the following Texts Psal 19.8 The commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the eyes The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom Psal 111.10 a good understanding have all they that keep his commandments Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies Psal 119.98 which plainly refers to political prudence I have more understanding than all my teachers ver 99. for thy Testimonies are my meditation I understand more than the ancients because I keep thy precepts ver 104. ver 130. Through thy precepts I get understanding The enterance of thy word giveth light it giveth understanding to the simple Now Religion doth improve the understandings of men by subduing their lusts and moderating their passions The lusts and passions of men do sully and darken their minds even by a natural influence Intemperance and sensuality and fleshly lusts do debase mens minds and clog their spirits make them gross and foul listless and unactive they sink us down into sense and glew us to these low and inferiour things like birdlime they hamper and entangle our souls and hinder their flight upwards they indispose and unfit our minds for the most noble and intellectual considerations So likewise the exorbitant passions of wrath and malice envy and revenge do darken and distort the understandings of men do tincture the mind with false colours and fill it with prejudice and undue apprehensions of things There is no man that is intemperate or lustful or passionate but besides the guilt he contracts which is continually fretting and disquieting his mind besides the inconveniences he brings upon himself as to his health he does likewise stain and obscure the brightness of his Soul and the clearness of his discerning faculty Such persons have not that free use of their reason that they might have their understandings are not bright enough nor their spirits pure and fine enough for the exercise of the highest and noblest acts of reason What clearness is to the eye that purity is to our mind and understanding and as the clearness of the bodily eye doth dispose it for a quicker sight of material objects so doth the purity of our minds that is freedom from lust and passion dispose us for the clearest and most perfect acts of reason and understanding Now Religion doth purifie our minds and refine our spirits by quenching the fire of lust and suppressing the fumes and vapours of it and by scattering the clouds and mists of passion And the more any man's soul is cleansed from the filth and dregs of sensual lusts the more nimble and expedite it will be in its operations The more any man conquers his passions the more calm and sedate his spirit is and the greater equality he maintains in his temper his apprehensions of things will be the more clear and unprejudic'd and his judgment more firm and steddy And this is the meaning of that saying of Solomon He that is slow to wrath is of great understanding but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly Ira furor brevis est Anger is a short fit of madness and he that is passionate and furious deprives himself of his
own nature conduce to the preservation of our health and the lengthning of our days such as temperance and chastity and moderation of our passions And the contrary vices to these do apparently tend to the impairing of mens health and the shortning of their days How many have wasted and consum'd their bodies by lust and brought grievous pains and mortal diseases upon themselves See how the wise man describes the sad consequences of this sin He goes as an Oxe to the slaughter till a dart strike through his Liver Prov. 7.22 23. as a Bird hasteneth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life and v. 25 26 27. Let not thy heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths for she hath cast down many wounded yea many young men hath been slain by her her house is the way to Hell that is to the grave going down to the chambers of death How many have been ruin'd by intemperance and excess and most unnaturally have perverted those blessings which God hath given for the support of nature to the overthrow and destruction of it How often hath mens malice and envy and discontent against others terminated in a cruel revenge upon themselves How many by the wild fury and extravagancy of their own passions have put their bodies into a combustion and fir'd their spirits and by stirring up their rage and choler against others have arm'd that fierce humour against themselves 2. As to our estates Religion is likewise a mighty advantage to men in that respect Not only in regard of God's more especial providence and peculiar blessing which usually attends good men in their undertakings and crowns them with good success but also from the nature of the thing And this I doubt not is the meaning of those expressions of the Wise man concerning the temporal benefits and advantages of wisedom or Religion Pro. 3.16 In her left hand are riches and honour Pro. 8.21 They that love me shall inherit substance and I will fill their treasures and this Religion principally does by charging men with truth and fidelity and justice in their dealings which are a sure way of thriving and will hold out when all fraudulent arts and devices will fail And this also Solomon observes to us He that walketh uprightly walketh surely Pro. 10.9 but he that perverteth his way shall be known his indirect dealing will be discover'd one time or other and then loses his reputation and his interest sinks Falshood and deceit onely serve a present turn and the consequence of them is pernicious but truth and fidelity are of lasting advantage Pro. 10.5 The righteous hath an everlasting foundation Prov. 12.19 The lip of truth is established for ever but a lying tongue is but for a moment And Religion does likewise engage men to diligence and industry in their Callings and how much this conduces to the advancement of mens fortunes daily experience teaches and the Wise-man hath told us The diligent hand makes rich Prov. 10.4 and again Seest thou a man diligent in business he shall stand before Princes Prov. 22.19 he shall not stand before mean persons And where men by reason of the difficult circumstances of their condition cannot arrive to any eminency of estate yet Religion makes a compensation for this by teaching men to be contented with that moderate and competent fortune which God hath given them For the shortest way to be rich is not by enlarging our estates but by contracting our desires What Seneca says of Philosophy is much more true of Religion praestat opes sapientia quas cuicunque fecit supervacuas dedit it makes all those rich to whom it makes riches superfluous and they are so to those who are taught by Religion to be contented with such a portion of them as God's Providence hath thought fit to allot to them 3. As to our reputation There is nothing gives a man a more firm and establish'd reputation among wise and serious persons whose judgment is onely valuable than a prudent and substantial Piety This doth many times command reverence and esteem from the worser sort of men and such as are no great friends to Religion and sometimes the force of truth will extort an acknowledgment of its excellency even from its greatest enemies I know very well that good men may and often do blemish the reputation of their piety by over-acting some things in Religion by an indiscreet zeal about things wherein Religion is not concerned by an ungratefull austerity and sowerness which Religion doth not require by little affectations and an imprudent oftentation of devotion but a substantial and solid a discreet and unaffected piety which makes no great noise and show but expresses it self in a constant and serious devotion and is accompanied with the fruits of goodness and kindness and righteousness towards men will not onely give a man a credit and value among the sober and the vertuous but even among the vicious and more degenerate sort of men Upon this account it is that the Apostle adviseth Christians if they would recommend themselves to the esteem of God and men earnestly to mind the weighty and substantial parts of Religion Let not then your good be evil spoken of for the Kingdom of God is not meats and drinks but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men It is true indeed there are some persons of so profligate a temper and of such an inveterate enmity to all goodness as to scorn and reproach even Religion and Vertue it self But the reproach of such persons does not really wound a man's reputation For why should any man be troubled at the contumelies of those whose judgment deserves not to be valued who despise goodness and good men out of malice and ignorance If these reproaches which they cast upon them were the censures of wise and sober men a man's reputation might be concern'd in them but they are the rash words of inconsiderate and injudicious men the extravagant speeches of those who are unexperienc'd in the things they speak against and therefore no wise man will be troubl'd at them or think either Religion or himself disparaged by them 4. As to our Relations Religion also conduceth to the happiness of these as it derives a large and extensive blessing upon all that belongs to us the goodness of God being so diffusive as to scatter his blessings round about the habitations of the just and to shew mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments So David tells us Psal 112.1 2 3. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and delighteth greatly in his Commandments His seed shall be mighty upon earth The generation of the upright shall be blessed Wealth and riches are in his house and his righteousness endureth for ever Prov. 13.22 And so Solomon
A good man leaveth an inheritance to his Childrens Children Prov. 14.26 and again In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his Children shall have a place of refuge But the wicked derives a curse upon all that is related to him he is said to trouble his own house and again Prov. 11.29 The wicked are overthrown and are not Prov. 12.7 but the house of the righteous shall stand But setting aside the consideration of God's Providence Religion doth likewise in its own nature tend to the welfare of those who are related to us because it lays the strictest obligations upon men to take care of their Families and Relations and to make the best provision both for their comfortable subsistance here in this world and their salvation in the next And those who neglect those duties the Scripture is so far from esteeming them Christians that it accounts them worse than Heathens and Infidels 1 Tim. 5.8 He that provideth not for his own especially those of his own house is worse than an Infidel and hath deny'd the faith This I know is spoken in respect of temporal provision but it holds à fortiori as to the care of their souls Besides it is many times seen that the posterity of holy and good men especially of such as have evidenc'd their piety towards God by bounty and charity to men have met with unusual kindness and respect from others and have by a strange and secret disposition of Divine providence been unexpectedly car'd and provided for and that as they have all the reason in the world to believe upon the account and for the sake of the piety and charity of their Parents This David tells us from his own particular observation Ps 37 2◠I have been young and now am old yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread And that by the righteous is here meant the good and mercifull man appears from the description of him in the next words Ver. 26. He is ever merciful and lendeth and his seed is blessed And on the contrary the posterity of the wicked do many times inherit the fruit of their fathers sins and vices and that not onely by a just judgment of God but from the natural course and consequence of things And in this sense that expression in Job is often verifi'd that God lays up the iniquity of wicked men for their Children Job 21.19 And doth not experience testifie that the intemperate and unjust do many times transmit their bodily infirmities and diseases to their Children and entail a secret curse upon their estates which does either insensibly waste and consume it or eat out the heart and comfort of it Thus you see how Religion in all respects conduces to the happiness of this life II. Religion and Vertue do likewise most certainly and directly tend to the eternal happiness and salvation of men in the other world And this is incomparably the greatest advantage that redounds to men by being Religious in comparison of which all temporal considerations are less than nothing and vanity The worldly advantages that Religion brings to men in this present life are a sensible recommendation of Religion even to the lowest and meanest spirits But to those who are rais'd above sense and aspire after immortality who believe the perpetual duration of their souls and the resurrection of their bodies to those who are throughly convinc'd of the inconsiderableness of this short dying life and of all the concernments of it in comparison of that eternal state which remains for us in another life to these I say the consideration of a future happiness and of those unspeakable and everlasting rewards which shall then be given to holiness and vertue is certainly the most powerfull motive and the most likely to prevail upon them For those who are perswaded that they shall continue for ever cannot chuse but aspire after a happiness commensurate to their duration nor can any thing that is conscious to its self of its own immortality be satisfyed and contented with any thing less than the hopes of an endless felicity And this hope Religion alone gives men and the Christian Religion onely can settle men in a firm and unshaken assurance of it But because all men who have entertain'd any Religion have consented to these principles of the immortality of the soul and the recompences of another world and have always promis'd to themselves some rewards of piety and vertue after this life and because I did more particularly design from this Text to speak of the temporal benefits and adavantages which redound to men from Religion therefore I shall content my self to shew very briefly how a religious and vertuous life doth conduce to our future happiness And that upon these two accounts from the promise of God and from the nature of the thing 1. From the promise of God 1 Tim. 4.8 Godliness saith the Apostle hath the promise of the life that is to come God hath all along in the Scripture suspended the promise of eternal life upon this condition He hath peremptorily declar'd that without obedience and holiness of life no man shall ever see the Lord. And this very thing that it is the constitution and appointment of God might be argument enough to us if there were no other to convince us of the necessity of obeying the Laws of God in order to our happiness and to perswade us thereunto For eternal life is the gift of God and he may do what he will with his own He is master of his own favours and may dispense them upon what terms and conditions he pleases But it is no hard condition that he hath imposed upon us If Religion brought no advantages to us in this world yet the happiness of heaven is so great as will abundantly recompence all our pains and endeavours there is temptation enough in the reward to engage any man in the work Had God thought fit to have impos'd the most grievous and difficult things upon us ought we not to have submitted to them and to have undertaken them with cheerfulness upon such great and glorious encouragements As Naaman's servants said to him in another case Had he bid thee doe some great thing wouldest thou not have done it So if God had said that without poverty and actual martyrdom no man shall see the Lord would not any man that believes heaven and hell and understands what these words signifie and what it is to escape extream and eternal misery and to enjoy unspeakable and endless glory have been willing to accept these conditions How much more when he hath onely said wash and be clean and Let every man that hath this hope in Him purifie himself as he is pure But God hath not dealt thus with us nor is the imposing of this condition of eternal life a meer arbitrary constitution therefore I shall endeavour to shew 2dly That a
Religious and Holy life doth from the very nature and reason of the thing conduce to our future happiness by way of necessary disposition and preparation of us for it We cannot be otherwise happy but by our conformity to God without this we cannot possibly love him nor find any pleasure or happiness in communion with him For we cannot love a nature contrary to our own nor delight to converse with it Therefore Religion in order to the fitting of us for the happiness of the next life does design to mortifie our lusts and passions and to restrain us from the inordinate love of the gross and sensual delights of this world to call off our minds from these inferiour things and to raise them to higher and more spiritual objects that we may be disposed for the happiness of the other world and taught not to relish the delights of it whereas should we set our hearts onely upon these things and be able to taste no pleasure in any thing but what is sensual and earthly we must needs be extremely miserable when we come into the other world because we should meet with nothing to entertain our selves withall no employment suitable to our disposition no pleasure that would agree with our deprav'd appetites and vicious inclinations All that Heaven and Happiness signifies is unsuitable to a wicked man and therefore could be no felicity to him But this I shall have occasion to speak more fully to in my last Discourse From all that hath been said the reasonableness of Religion clearly appears which tends so directly to the happiness of men and is upon all accounts calculated for our benefit Let but all things be truly considered and cast up and it will be found that there is no advantage to any man from an irreligious and vicious course of life I challenge any one to instance in any real benefit that ever came to him this way Let the sinner declare what he hath found by experience Hath lewdness and intemperance been more for his health than if he had liv'd chastly and soberly Hath falsehood and injustice prov'd at the long run more for the advancement and security of his estate than truth and honesty would have done Hath any vice that he hath lived in made him more true friends and gain'd him a better reputation in the world than the practice of holiness and vertue would have done Hath he found that peace and satisfaction of mind in an evil course and that quiet enjoyment of himself and comfortable assurance of God's favour and good hopes of his future condition which a religious and vertuous life would have not some of his vices weaken'd his body and broken his health have not others dissipated his estate and reduc'd him to want What notorious vice is there that doth not blemish a man's reputation and make him either hated or despis'd and that not only by the wise and the vertuous but even by the generality of men But was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience and the torment of a restless and uneasie mind from the secret dread of Divine displeasure and of the vengeance of another world Let the sinner freely speak the very inward sense of his soul in this matter and spare not and I doubt not if he will deal clearly and impartially but that he will acknowledge all this to be true and is able to confirm it from his own sad experience For this is the natural fruit of sin and the present revenge which it takes upon sinners besides that fearful punishment which shall be inflicted on them in another life What reason then can any man pretend against Religion when it is so apparently for the benefit not onely of humane society but of every particular person when there is no real interest of this world but may ordinarily be as effectually promoted and pursued no as great advantage nay usually to far greater by a man that lives soberly and righteously and godly in the world than by any one that leads the contrary course of life Let no man then say with those prophane persons whom the Prophet speaks of Mal. 3.14 It is in vain to serve the Lord and what profit is it that we have kept his Commandments God has not been so hard a master to us that we have reason thus to complain of him He hath given us no Laws but what are for our good nay so gracious hath he been to us as to link together our duty and our interest and to make those very things the instances of our obedience which are the natural means and causes of our happiness The Devil was so far in the right when he charg'd Job that he did not serve God for nought 'T is he himself that is the hard master and makes men serve him for nought who rewards his drudges and slaves with nothing but shame and sorrow and misery But God requires no man's service upon hard and unreasonable terms The greatest part of our work is a present reward to it self and for whatever else we do or suffer for him he offers us abundant consideration And if men did but truly and wisely love themselves they would upon this very ground if there were no other become Religious For when all is done there is no man can serve his own interest better than by serving God Religion conduceth both to our present and future happiness and when the Gospel chargeth us with piety towards God and justice and charity towards men and temperance and chastity in reference to our selves the true interpretation of these Laws is this God requires of men in order to their eternal happiness that they should do those things which tend to their temporal welfare that is in plainer words he promises to make us happy for ever upon condition that we will but do that which is best for our selves in this world To conclude Religion is founded in the interest of men rightly apprehended So that if the God of this world and the lusts of men did not blind their eyes so as to render them unfit to discern their true interest it would be impossible so long as men love themse ves and desire their own happiness to keep them from being religious for they could not but conclude that to be their interest and being so convinc'd they would resolve to pursue it and stick to it PHIL. III. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. IN the beginning of this Chapter the Apostle makes a comparison between the Jewish and the Christian Religion and shews the Christian to be in truth and substance what the Jewish was onely in type and shadow v. 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the spirit And then he enumerates the several priviledges he was partaker of by virtue of his being born in the Jewish Church v. 4 5 6. Though I might
will among men a readiness to forgive our greatest enemies to doe good to them that hate us to bless them that curse us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us And does inculcate these precepts more vehemently and forbid malice and hatred and revenge and contention more strictly and peremptorily than any Religion ever did before as will appear to any one that does but attentively read our Saviour's Sermon upon the Mount And as Christianity hath given us a more certain so likewise a more perfect Law for the government of our lives All the precepts of it are reasonable and wise requiring such duties of us as are suitable to the light of nature and do approve themselves to the best reason of mankind such as have their foundation in the nature of God and are an imitation of the Divine excellencies such as tend to the persection of humane nature and to raise the minds of men to the highest pitch of goodness and vertue The Laws of our Religion are such as are generally usefull and beneficial to the world as do tend to the outward peace and the health to the inward comfort and contentment and to the universal happiness of mankind They command nothing that is unnecessary and burdensome as were the numerous rites and ceremonies of the Jewish Religion but what is reasonable and usefull and substantial And they omit nothing that may tend to the glory of God or the welfare of men nor do they restrain us in any thing but what is contrary either to the regular inclinations of nature or to our reason and true interest They forbid us nothing but what is base and unworthy to serve our humours and passions to reproach our understandings and to make our selves fools and beasts in a word nothing but what tends either to our private harm and prejudice or to publick disorder and confusion And that this is the tenour of the Laws of the Gospel will appear to any one from our Saviour's Sermons and Discourses particularly that upon the Mount wherein he charges his Disciples and followers to be humble and meek and righteous and patient under sufferings and persecutions and good and kind to all even to those that are evil and injurious to us and to endeavour to excell in all goodness and vertue This will appear likewise from the Writings of the holy Apostles I will instance but in some few passages in them St. Paul represents to us the design of the Christian doctrine in a very few words but of admirable sense and weight Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appear'd to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world The same Apostle makes this the main and fundamental condition of the Covenant of the Gospel on our part 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that names the name of Christ depart from iniquity St. James describes the Christian doctrine which he calls the wisdom that is from above by these characters It is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie St. Peter calls the Gospel 2 Pet. 1.3 4. the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and vertue whereby saith he are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of a divine nature having escap'd the corruption that is in the world through lust and upon this consideration he exhorts them to give all diligence to add to their faith the several vertues of a good life V. 5 6 7. without which he tells them they are barren and unfruitfull in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ I will conclude with that full and comprehensive paslage of St. Paul to the Philippians Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatsoever things are of venerable esteem whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure or chast whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things But the perfection and the reasonableness of the Laws of Christianity will most plainly appear by taking a brief survey of them And they may all be referr'd to these two general heads They are either such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men singly and personally good or such as tend to the peace and happiness of humane Society First Such as tend to the perfection of humane nature and to make men good singly and personally consider'd And the precepts of this kind may be distributed likewise into two sorts such as enjoyn piety towards God or such as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the enjoyments and pleasures of this life 1. Such as enjoyn Piety towards God All the duties of Christian Religion which respect God are no other but what natural light prompts men to excepting the two Sacraments which are of great use and significancy in the Christian Religion and praying to God in the name and by the mediation of Jesus Christ For the sum of natural Religion as it refers more immediately to God is this That we should inwardly reverence and love God and that we should express our inward reverence and love of him by external worship and adoration and by our readiness to receive and obey all the revelations of his will And that we should testifie our dependence upon him and our confidence of his goodness by constant prayers and supplications to him for mercy and help for our selves and others And that we should acknowledge our obligations to him for the many favours and benefits which every day and every minute we receive from him by continual praises and thanksgivings And that on the contrary we should not entertain any unworthy thoughts of God nor give that honour and reverence which is due to him to any other that we should not worship him in any manner that is either unsuitable to the excellency and perfection of his nature or contrary to his revealed will that we should carefully avoid the prophane and irreverent use of his Name by cursing or customary swearing and take heed of the neglect or contempt of his Worship or any thing belonging to it This is the sum of the first part of natural Religion and these are the general heads of those duties which every man's reason tells him he owes to God And these are the very things which the Christian Religion does expresly require of us as might be evidenc'd from particular Texts in the New Testament So that there is nothing in this part of Christianity but what agrees very well with the reason of mankind 2. Such precepts as require the good order and government of our selves in respect of the pleasures and enjoyments of this life Christian Religion
of the greatest part of Christians How grosly and openly do many of us contradict the plain precepts of the Gospel by our ungodliness and worldly lusts by living intemperately or unjustly or prophanely in this present world As if the grace of God which brings salvation had never appear'd to us as if we had never hear'd of Heaven or Hell or believ'd not one word that the Scripture says concerning them as if we were in no expectation of the blessed hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ whom God hath appointed to judge the world in righteousness and who will bestow mighty rewards upon those who faithfully serve him but will come in flaming sire to take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Let us not then deceive our selves by pretending to this excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord if we do not frame our lives according to it For though we know these things never so well yet we are not happy unless we do them Nay we are but the more miserable for knowing them if we do them not Therefore it concerns every one of us to consider seriously what we believe and whether our belief of the Christian Religion have its due effect upon our lives If not all the Precepts and Promises and Threatnings of the Gospel will rise up in judgment against us and the Articles of our Faith will be so many Articles of Accusation and the great weight of our charge will be this that we did not obey that Gospel which we profess'd to believe that we made confession of the Christian Faith but liv'd like Heathens Not to believe the Christian Religion after so great evidence and confirmation as God hath given to it is very unreasonable but to believe it to be true and yet to live as if it were false is the greatest repugnancy and contradiction that can be He that does not believe Christianity either hath or thinks he hath some reason for with-holding his assent from it But he that believes it and yet lives contrary to it knows that he hath no reason for what he does and is convinc'd that he ought to do otherwise And he is a miserable man indeed that does those things for the doing of which he continually stands condemn'd by his own mind and accordingly God will deal more severely with such persons He will pardon a thousand defects in our understandings if they do not proceed from gross carelesness and neglect of our selves but the faults of our wills have no excuse because we knew to do better and were convinc'd in our minds that we ought not to have done so Dost thou believe that the wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men and dost thou still allow thy self in ungodliness and worldly lusts Art thou convinc'd that without holiness no man shall see the Lord and dost thou still persist in a wicked course Art thou fully perswaded that no whoremonger nor adulterer nor covetous nor unrighteous person shall have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God and Christ and dost thou for all that continue to practise these vices What canst thou say man why it should not be to thee according to thy faith If it so fall out that thou art miserable and undone for ever thou hast no reason to be surpriz'd as if some unexpected thing had happen'd to thee It is but with thee just as thou believ'dst it would be when thou didst these things For how couldst thou expect that God should accept of thy good belief when thou didst so notoriously contradict it by a bad life How couldst thou look for other but that God should condemn thee for the doing of those things for which thine own Conscience did condemn thee all the while thou wast doing of them When we come into the other world there is no consideration that will sting our consciences more cruelly than this that we did wickedly when we knew to have done better and chose to make our selves miserable when we understood the way to have been happy To conclude we Christians have certainly the best and the holiest the wisest and most reasonable Religion in the world but then we are in the worst condition of all mankind if the best Religion in the world do not make us good 1 JOHN 5.3 And his commandments are not grievous ONE of the great prejudices which men have entertain'd against the Christian Religion is this that it lays upon men heavy burdens and grievous to be born that the Laws of it are very strict and severe difficult to be kept and yet dangerous to be broken That it requires us to govern and keep under our passions and to contradict many times our strongest inclinations and desires to cut off our right hand and to pluck out our right eye to love cur enemies to bless them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us to forgive the greatest injuries that are done to us and to make reparation for the least that we do to others to be contented with our condition patient under sufferings and ready to sacrifice our dearest interests in this world and even our very lives in the cause of God and Religion All these seem to be hard sayings and grievous commandments For the removal of this prejudice I have chosen these words of the Apostle which expresly tells us the contrary that the commandments of God are not grievous And though this be a great truth if it be impartially consider'd yet it is also a great paradox to men of corrupt minds and vicious practices who are prejudic'd against Religion and the holy Laws of God by their interest and their lusts This seems a strange proposition to those who look upon Religion at a distance and never try'd the experiment of a holy life who measure the Laws of God not by the intrinsecal goodness and equity of them but by the reluctancy and opposition which they find in their own hearts against them Upon this account it will be requisite to take some pains to satisfie the reason of men concerning this truth and if it be possible to make it so evident that those who are unwilling to own it may yet be asham'd to deny it And methinks I have this peculiar advantage in the argument I have now undertaken that every reasonable man cannot chuse but wish me success in this attempt because I undertake the proof of that which it is every man's interest that it should be true And if I can make it out this pretence against Religion will not onely be baffled but we shall gain a new and forcible argument to perswade men over to it Now the easiness or difficulty of the observation of any Laws or commands depends chiefly upon these three things First Upon the Nature of
Rom. 1.16 18. because therein the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men So that if we call our selves Christians we profess to embrace the holy doctrine of the Christian Religion which is perfectly opposite to all impiety and wickedness of life We profess to be governed by those laws which do strictly enjoyn holiness and vertue We profess to be perswaded that all the promises and threatnings of the Gospel are true which offer such great and glorious rewards to obedience and threaten transgression and disobedience with such dreadfull punishments And if so we are obliged both by our reason and our interest to live accordingly 2. He that professeth himself a Christian professeth to live in the imitation of Christ's example and to follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Son of God came into the world not onely by his Doctrine to instruct us in the way to happiness and by his death to make expiation of sin but by his life to be an example to us of holiness and vertue Therefore in Scripture we find several Titles given him which import his exemplariness as of a Prince and a Captain a Master and a Guide Now if he be our pattern we should endeavour to be like him to have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus to walk in love as he also hath loved us and given himself for us We should aspire after the highest degree of holiness make it our constant and sincere endeavour to please God and do his will and to fulfill all righteousness as he did Does any man profess himself a Christian and yet abandons himself to intemperance and filthy lusts is this like our Saviour Are we cruel and unmercifull is this like the High Priest of our profession Are we proud and passionate malicious and revengefull is this to be like-minded with Christ who was meek and lowly in Spirit who prayed for his enemies and offer'd up his blood to God on the behalf of them that shed it If we call our selves Christians we profess to have the life of Christ continually before us and to be always correcting and reforming our lives by that pattern 3. He that calls himself a Christian hath solemnly engaged himself to renounce all sin and to live a holy life By Baptism we have solemnly taken upon us the profession of Christianity and engaged our selves to renounce the Devil and all his works and obediently to keep God's commandments Anciently those who were baptized put off their garments which signified the putting off the body of sin and were immers'd and buried in the water to represent their death of sin and then did rise up again out of the water to signifie their enterance upon a new life And to these customs the Apostle alludes when he says How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Rom. 6.2 3 4 5 6. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death Therefore we are buried with him in baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we might not serve sin So that by Baptism we profess to be entered into a new state and to be endued with a new nature to have put off the old man with his deeds to have quitted our former conversation which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to have put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness And therefore Baptism is called the putting on of Christ Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ Now if we profess to have put on Christ we must quit and renounce our lusts because these are inconsistent as appears by the opposition which the Apostle makes between them Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 And as we did solemnly covenant with God to this purpose in Baptism so we do solemnly renew this obligation so often as we receive the blessed Sacrament of Christ's Body and Blood Therefore the cup in the Sacrament is called the new Covenant in his Blood that is this represents the shedding of Christ's blood by which rite the covenant between God and man is ratified And as by this God doth confirm his promises to us so we do oblige our selves to be faithfull and obedient to him and if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth that is after we are become Christians we account the blood of the Covenant a common thing that is we make nothing of the solemnest rite that ever was used in the world for confirmation of any covenant the shedding of the blood of the son of God And that this was always understood to be the meaning of this holy Sacrament to renew our Covenant with God and solemnly to confirm our resolutions of a holy life is very plain from that account which Pliny * Plin. Epist L. 10. Epist 97. gives us of the worship of the Christians in a Letter to Trajan the Emperour in which he tells him that they assembled early in the morning before day to sing a Hymn to Christ as God and then saith he they do sacramento se obstringere bind themselves by a sacrament or oath not to rob or steal or commit adultery not to break their word or falsisie their trust and after they have eaten together they depart home Which is plainly an account of the Christians celebrating of the holy Sacrament which it seems was then look'd upon as an oath whereby Christians did solemnly covenant and engage themselves against all wickedness and vice Thus you see what obligation the profession of Christianity lays upon us to holiness of life From all which it is evident that the Gospel requires something on our part For the Covenant between God and us is a mutual engagement and as there are blessings promised on his part so there are conditions to be performed on ours And if we live wicked and unholy lives if we neglect our duty towords God we have no title at all to the blessings of this Covenant The contrary doctrine to this hath been greedily entertained to the vast prejudice of Christianity as if in this new Covenant of the Gospel God took all upon himself and required nothing or as good as nothing of us that it would be a disparagement to the freedom of God's grace to think he expects any thing