he never had or was like to exift actually in

nature.

And now, as to the present advantages which we owe to religion, they are very confpicuous; whether we confider mankind, first, Separately; or fecondly, under fociety and government.

1. And firft, in a fingle capacity. How is agood Christian animated and cheered by a stedfast belief of the promises of the Gospel; of an everlasting enjoyment of perfect felicity, fuch as after millions of millions of ages is ftill youthful and flourishing and inviting as at the first? no wrinkles in the face, no grey hairs on the head of eternity; no end, no diminution, no fatiety of those delights. What a warm and vigorous influence does a religious heart feel from a firm expectation of these glories! Certainly this hope alone is of ineftimable value; it is a kind of anticipation and pledge of those joys; and at least gives him one heaven upon earth, though the other should prove a delufion. Now what are the mighty promises of Atheism in competition. with these? let us know the glorious recompences it proposes. Utter extinction and cefsation of being; to be reduced to the fame condition, as if we never had been born. O dismal reward of infidelity! at which nature does fhrink and fhiver with horror.

C 4

What

h

fome of the learnedeft doctors among the Jews have esteemed the most dreadful of all punishments, and have affigned for the portion of the blackeft criminals of the damned; fo interpreting Tophet, Abaddon, the Vale of Slaughter, and the like, for final excision and deprivation of being; this Atheism exhibits to us, as an equivalent to heaven. It is well known what hath been difputed among Schoolmen to this effect. And it is an obfervation of Plutarch, that the generality of mankind, árTES OÙ πão, as well women as men, chofe rather to endure all the punishments of hell, as described by the poets, than part with the hope of immortality, though immortal only in mifery. I easily grant, that this would be a very hard bargain; and that not to be at all is more eligible, than to be miferable always; our Saviour himself having determined the question; Woe to that man, by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! good were it for that man, if he had never been born. But however thus much it evidently fhews, that this defire of immortality is a natural affection of the foul; it is felf-prefervation in the highest and trueft, meaning; it is interwoven in the very frame

k

h Vide Pocockii Notas ad Portam Mofis, p. 158, &c. Plutarch, "Cri¿dì, &c. p. 1104, 1105. edit. Ruald. * Matth. xxvi. 24.

and

and conftitution of man.

How then can the

Atheist reflect on his own hypothesis without extreme forrow and dejection of spirit? Will he fay, that, when once he is dead, this defire will be nothing; and that he that is not, cannot lament his annihilation? So indeed it would be hereafter according to his principles. But nevertheless, for the prefent, while he continues in life, (which we now fpeak of,) that dusky scene of horror, that melancholy profpect of final perdition will frequently occur to his fancy; the sweetest enjoyments of life will often become flat and infipid, will be damped and extinguished, be bittered and poisoned by the malignant and venomous quality of this opinion.

Is it not more comfortable to a man to think well of himself, to have a high value and conceit of the dignity of his nature, to believe a noble origination of his race, the offspring and image of the great King of Glory; rather than that men first proceeded, as vermin are thought to do, by the fole influence of the fun out of dirt and putrefaction?

Is it not a firmer foundation for contentment and tranquillity, to believe that all things were at first created, and are fince continually ordered and difpofed for the best, and that principally for the benefit and pleasure of man; than that the whole univerfe is mere

bungling

bungling and blundering; no art or contrivance to be seen in it; nothing effected for any purpose and design; but all ill-favouredly cobbled and jumbled together by the unguided agitation and rude fhuffles of matter?

Can any man with a better support under affliction, than the friendship and favour of Omnipotence, of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness; that is both able and willing, and knows how to relieve him? Such a man can do all things through Chrift that ftrengtheneth him; he can patiently fuffer all things with cheerful fubmiffion and refignation to the divine will. He has a secret spring of spiritual joy, and the continual feast of a good confcience within, that forbid him to be miserable. But what a forlorn deftitute creature is the Atheist in distress! He hath no friend in extremity, but poifon, or a dagger, or a halter, or a precipice. A violent death is the laft refuge of the Epicureans, as well as the Stoics. This, fays m Lucretius, is the distinguishing character of a genuine son of our fect, that he will not endure to live in exile and want and disgrace out of a vain fear of death; but dispatch himself refolutely into the state of eternal sleep and infenfibility. And yet, for all this fwaggering, not one of a hundred of them hath boldness enough to follow

1 Phil. iv. 13.

m Lib. iii.

the

the direction. The bafe and degenerous faying of one of them is very well known; "That. life is always fweet, and he should ftill defire to prolong it; though, after he had been maimed and diftorted by the rack, he should laftly be condemned to hang on a gibbet.

And then, as to the practical rules and duties of religion. As the miracles of our Lord are peculiarly eminent above the lying wonders of dæmons, in that they were not made out of vain oftentation of power, and to raise unprofitable amazement; but for the real benefit and advantage of men, by feeding the hungry, healing all forts of diseases, ejecting of devils, and reviving the dead: fo likewife the commands which he hath impofed on his followers are not like the abfurd ceremonies of Pagan idolatry, the frivolous rites of their initiations and worthip, that might look like incantation and magic, but had no tendency in their nature to make mankind the happier. Our Saviour hath enjoined us a ° reafonable fervice, accommodated to the rational part of our nature. All his laws are in themselves, abstracted from any confideration of recompence, conducing to the temporal interest of them that obferve them. For what can be

n Mecenas apud Senec. Ep. ci. Debilem facito manu, debilem pede, coxa, &c.

• Rom. xii. 1,

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