the being of a God, and the immortality of the foul; fuch a one fhould be put into the first of thefe, the inquifition, as being a defperate heretic; but if any man fhould profefs to believe thefe things, and yet allow himself in any known wickedness, fuch a one fhould be put into bedlam; becaufe there cannot be a greater folly and madness, than for a man, in matters of great eft moment and concernment, to act against his best reafon and understanding, and by his life to contradict his belief. Such a man does perifh with his eyes open, and knowingly undoes himself: he runs upon the greatest dangers which he clearly fees to be before him, and precipitates himself into thofe evils which he profeffes to believe to be real and intolerable; and wilfully neglects the obtaining of that unfpeakable good and happiness.. which he is perfuaded is certain and attainable. Thus much for the fecond way of confirmation.

Thirdly, The third way of confirmation fhall be, by endeavouring to vindicate religion from those common imputations which feem to charge it with ignorance or. imprudence: And they are chiefly thefe three,

1. Credulity.

2. Singularity.

3. Making a foolish bargain.

1. Credulity. Say they, The foundation of religion is the belief of those things for which we have no fuffi cient reafon, and confequently of which we can have no good affurance; as, the belief of a God, and of a future ftate after this life; things which we never faw, nor did experience, nor ever spoke with any body that did. Now, it feems to argue too great a forwardness and eafinefs of belief, to affent to any thing upon infufficient grounds.

To this I anfwer,

1. That if there be fuch a being as a God, and fuch a thing as a future ftate after this life, it cannot, as I faid before, in reafon be expected, that we should have the evidence of fenfe for fuch things: for he that believes a God, believes fuch a being as hath all perfections; among which this is one, that he is a fpirit, and, confequently, that he is invifible, and cannot be feen. He likewife that believes another life after this, profeffeth to believe a flate of which in this life we have no

trial and experience. Besides, if this were a good objection, That no man ever faw these things, it strikes at the Atheist as well as us: for no man ever faw 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 prefent, fuppofing they were.

3. Those who deny these principles must be much more credulous; that is, believe things upon incomparable less evidence of reafon. The Atheist looks upon all that are religious as a company of credulous fools: but he, for his part, pretends to be wifer than to believe any thing for company; he cannot entertain things upon thofe flight grounds which move other men; if you would win his affent to any thing, you must give him a clear demonstration for it. Now, there is no way to deal with this man of reason, this rigid exacter of strict. demonftration for things which are not capable of it, but by fhewing 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 affents to more ftrange conclufions, upon weaker grounds. than those whom he fo much accufeth of credulity.

And, to evidence this, I fhall briefly give you an account of the Atheist's creed, and prefent you with a catalogue of the fundamental articles of his faith. He be-dieves that there is no God, nor poffibly can be; and, confequently, that the wife, as well as the unwife, 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 moft unnaturally confpired together to cozen themselves; or that this notion of God is a trick of po-licy, though the greateft princes and politicians do not at this day know fo much, nor have done time out of mind. He believes, either that the heavens, and the earth, and all things in them, had no original caufe of their being, or elfe that they were made by chance, and happened, he knows not how, to be as they are; and that in this laft thuffling of matter, all things have, by great good fortune, fallen out as happily and as regularly as if the greatest wisdom had contrived them; but yet he is refolved to believe, that there was no wif

dom

dom in the contrivance of them. He believes, that matter of itself is utterly void of all fenfe, understanding, and liberty; but for all that he is of opinion, that the parts of matter may now and then happen to be fo conveniently difpofed, as to have all thefe qualities, and moft dexterously to perform all thefe fine and free operations which the ignorant attribute to fpirits.

This is the fum of his belief. And it is a wonder, that there fhould be found any perfon pretending to reafon or wit that can affent to fuch a heap of abfurdities; which are fo grofs and palpable, that they may be felt. So that if every man had his due, it will cer tainly fall to the Atheist's fhare to be the most credulous perfon; that is, to believe things upon the flighteft reafons: for he does not pretend to prove any thing of all this; only he finds himself, he knows not why, inclined to believe fo, and to laugh at those that do not II. The fecond imputation is, fingularity; the affec tation whereof is unbecoming a wife man.

To this charge I anfwer,

1. If by religion be meant the belief of the principles of religion, That there is a God, and a providence that our fouls are immortal; and that there are rewards to be expected after this life: these are so far from being fingular opinions, that they are and always have been the general opinion of mankind, even in the most bar. barous nations; infomuch that the hiftories of ancient times do hardly furnith us with the names of above five or fix perfons who denied a God. And Lucretius ac knowledgeth that Epicurus was the first who did oppofe thofe great foundations of religion, the providence of God, and the immortality of the foul: Primum Grajus bomo, &c. meaning Epicurus.

2. If by religion be meant a living up to thofe principles, that is, to act conformably to our beft reafon and understanding, and to live as it does become those who do believe a God and a future ftate; this is acknowled, ged, even by those who live otherwise, to be the part of every wife man, and the contrary to be the very mad. nefs of folly, and height of diftraction; nothing being more ordinary than for men who live wickedly to acknowledge that they ought to do otherwise.

3. Though, according to the common courfe and practice

practice of the world, it be fomewhat fingular for men truly and thoroughly to live up to the principles of their religion; yet fingularity in this matter is fo far from being a reflection upon any man's prudence, that it is a fingular commendation of it. In two cafes fingularity is very commendable.

ift, When there is a neceffity of it in order to a man's greatest interest and happiness. I think it to be a reafonable 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 perifh with them; he is not difpofed to be a fool, and to be miferable 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 fhall be punished with everlasting deftruction from the prefence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.

2dly, It is very commendable to be fingular in any excellency; and I have fhewn, that religion is the greateft excellency. To be fingular in any thing that is wife, and worthy, and excellent, is not a difparagement, but a praife. Every man would chufe to be thus fingular.

III. The third imputation is, That religion is a foolifh bargain; because they who are religious hazard the parting with a prefent and certain happiness, for that which is future and uncertain.

To this I anfwer,

1. Let it be granted, that the affurance which we have of future rewards falls fhort of the evidence of fenfe. For I doubt not but that faying of our Saviour, Bleed is he who hath believed, and not feen, and thofe expreffions of the apoftle, We walk by faith, and not by fight, and, Faith is the evidence of things not feen, are intended by way of abatement and diminution to the evidence of faith; and do fignify, that the report and te ftimony of others is not fo great evidence as that of our own fenfes. And though we have fufficient affurance of another state, yet no man can think we have fo great evidence, as if we ourselves had been in the other world, and feen how all things are there.

2. We have fufficient affurance of these things, and fuch as may beget in us a well-grounded confidence, and free us from all doubts of the contrary, and per

fuade

fuade a reasonable man to venture his greatest interests in this world upon the fecurity he hath of another. For,

ift, We have as much affurance of these things as things future and at a distance are capable of; and he is a very unreasonable man that would defire more. Future and invisible things are not capable of the evidence of fenfe: but we have the greatest rational evidence for them; and in this every reasonable man ought to rest fatisfied.

2dly, We have as much as is abundantly fufficient to juftify every man's difcretion, who, for the great and eternal things of another world, hazards or parts with the poor and tranfitory things of this life. And, for the clearing of this, it will be worth our confidering, that the greatest affairs of this world, and the most important concernments of this life, are all conducted only by moral demonstrations. Men every day venture their lives and estates only upon moral affurance. For inftance: Men who were never at the Eaft or West Indies, or in Turky or Spain, yet do venture their whole eftate in traffic thither, though they have no mathematical demonftration, but only moral afsurance, that there are fuch places. Nay, which is more, men every day eat and drink, though I think no man can demonstrate, out of Euclid, or Apollonius, that his baker, or brewer, or cook, have not conveyed poison into his meat or drink. And that man that would be fo wife 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 wisdom, he muft die for fear of death. And for any man to urge, that though men in temporal affairs proceed upon moral affurance, yet there is greater affurance required to make men feek heaven and avoid hell, feems to me to be highly unreasonable. For fuch an affurance of things as will make men cir-. cumfpect, and careful to avoid a leffer danger, ought in all reafon to awaken men much more to the avoiding of a greater: fuch an affurance as will fharpen mens defires and quicken their endeavours for the obtaining of a leffer good, ought in all reafon to animate men more powerfully, and to infpire them with a greater vigour and induftry in the purfuit of that which is infinitely greater.