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greater. For why the fame affurance fhould not operate, as well in a great danger as in a lefs, in a great good as in a small and inconfiderable one, I can fee no reafon; unless men will fay, that the greatness of an evil and danger is an encouragement to men to run up. on it; and that the greatnefs of any good and happinefs ought in reason to dishearten men from the pursuit of it.

And now I think I may with reafon intreat such as are Atheistically inclined, to confider these things feriously and impartially; and if there be weight in thefe confiderations which I have offered to them to fway with reafonable men, I would beg of fuch, that they would not fuffer themselves to be biaffed by prejudice or paffion, or the intereft of any luft, or worldly advantage, to a contrary perfuafion."

First, I would intreat them seriously and diligently to confider these things, because they are of fo great moment and concernment to every man. If any thing in the world deserve our ferious ftudy and confideration, these principles of religion do. For what can import us more to be fatisfied in, than whether there be a God, or not? whether our fouls fhall perish with our bodies, or be immortal, and fhall continue for ever? and if so, whether in that eternal state which remains for men after this life, they fhall not be happy or miserable for ever, according as they have demeaned themfelves in this world? If these things be fo, they are of infinite confequence to us; and therefore it highly concerns us, to inquire diligently about them, and to fatisfy our minds concerning them one way or other. For thefe are not matters to be flightly and fuperficially thought upon; much lefs, as the way of Atheistical men is, to be played and jefted withal. There is no greater argument of a light and inconfiderate perfon, than profanely to fco at religion. It is a fign that that man hath no regard to himself, and that he is not touched with a sense of his own intereft, who loves to be jefting with edged tools, and to play with life and death. This is the very madman that Solomon fpeaks of, who cafteth firebrands, arrows, and death; and faith, Am I not in fport? Prov. xxvi. 18. To examine feverely and debate seriously the principles of religion, is a thing worthy of a wife

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man: but if any man fhall turn religion into raillery, and think to confute it by two or three bold jefts, this man doth not render religion, but himself, ridiculous, in the opinion of all confiderate men; because he sports with his own life. If the principles of religion were doubtful and uncertain, yet they concern us fo nearly, that we ought to be ferious in the examination of them. And though they were never fo clear and evident, yet they may be made ridiculous by vain and frothy men; as the gravelt and wifest person in the world may be abufed, by being put into a fool's coat, and the most noble and excellent poem may be debafed, and made vile, by being turned into burlefque. But of this I fhall have occafion to speak more largely in my next discourse.

So that it concerns every man, that would not trifle away his foul, and fool himfelf into irrecoverable misery, with the greatest seriousness to inquire into these matters, whether they be fo or not, and patiently to confi der the arguments which are brought for them. For many have miscarried about these things, not because there is not reafon and evidence enough for them, but because they have not had patience enough to confider them.

Secondly, Confider these things impartially. All wicked men are of a party against religion. Some luft or intereft engageth them against it. Hence it comes to pass, that they are apt to flight the strongest arguments that can be brought for it, and to cry up very weak ones against it. Men do generally, and without difficulty, aflent to mathematical truths, because it is no body's interest to deny them: but men are flow to believe moral and divine truths, becaufe by their lufts and interests they are prejudiced against them. And therefore you may obferve, that the more virtuoufly any man lives, and the lefs he is inflaved to any luft, the more ready he is to entertain the principles of religion.

Therefore, when you are examining thefe matters, do not take into confideration any fenfual or worldly intereft, but deal clearly and impartially with yourselves. Let not temporal and little advantages fway you against a greater and more durable intereft. Think thus with yourselves: That you have not the making of things true or falfe; but that the truth and exiftence of things VOL. I.

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is already fixed and fettled; and that the principles of religion are already either determinately true or falfe before you think of them: either there is a God, or there is not; either your fouls are immortal, or they are not; one of these is certain and neceffary, and is not now to be altered. The truth of things will not comply with our conceits, and bend itself to our interefts. Therefore do not think what you would have to be; but confider 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 intereft that there fhould be no God, nor no life after this; and therefore I will endeavour to prove, that there is no fuch thing, and will fhew all the favour I can to that fide of the queftion: I will bend my understanding and wit to ftrengthen the negative, and will study to make it as true as I can. This is fond, because it is the way to cheat thyfelf; and that we may do as often as we pleafe but the nature of things will not be impofed If then thou be as wife as thou oughteft to be, thou wilt reafon thus with thyfelf: My higheft intereft is, not to be deceived about thefe matters; therefore, fetting afide all other confiderations, I will endeavour to know the truth, and yield to that.

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And now it is time to draw towards a conclufion of this long difcourfe. And that which I have all this while been endeavouring to convince men of, and to perfuade them to, is no other than what God himself doth particularly recommend to us as proper for human confideration: Unto man he faid, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is swifdom; and to depart from evil, is understanding. Whoever pretends to reafon, and calls himfelf a man, is obliged to acknowledge God, and to demean himself religioufly towards him: for God is to the understanding of man, as the light of the fun is to our eyes; the firft, and the plaineft, and the moft glorious object of it. He fills heaven and earth; and every thing in them doth reprefent him to us. Which way foever we turn ourselves, we are encountered with clear evidences and fenfible demonftrations of a Deity: for (as the Apoftle reafons) the invifible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly feen, being under

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food by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead ; εἰς τό εἶναι αὐτες αναπολογήτες, το that they are without excufe, Rom. i. 20.; that is, thofe men that know not God, have no apology to make for themselves. Or, if men do know and believe that there is fuch a being as God, not to confider the proper confequences of such a principle, not to demean ourselves towards him, as becomes our relation to him, and dependence upon him, and the duty which we naturally' owe him; this is great ftupidity and inconfiderateness.

And yet he that confiders the lives and actions of the greatest part of men, would verily think that they underflood nothing of all this. Therefore the fcripture represents wicked men as without understanding: It is a nation void of counfel, neither is there any underftanding in them, Deut. xxxii. 28.; and elfewhere, Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Pfal. xiv. 4.; not. that they are deftitute of the natural faculty of underftanding, but they do not ufe 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 glorify him as God, nor fuffer the apprehenfions of him to have a due influence upon their hearts and lives.

Men generally ftand 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 fo great a reproach. The beft way to avoid this imputa-tion, 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 fuch imprudent perfon, as he that neglects God, and his foul, and is care-lefs and flothful about his everlafting concernments; be cause this man acts contrary to his trueft reason, and best interest: he neglects his own fafety, and is active to procure his own ruin: he flies from happinefs, and runs away from it as faft as he can; but purfues mifery, and makes hafte 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 fitteft character of him; becaufe he is fo eminently fuch.. There is no fool to the finner, who every moment ven-

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tures his foul, and lays his everlasting intereft at the ftake. Every time a man provokes God, he does the greatest mifchief to himfelf that can be imagined. A madman, that cuts himself, and tears his own flesh, and dafhes his head against the ftones, does not act fo un reafonably as he; because he is not fo fenfible of what he does. Wickedness is a kind of voluntary frenzy, and a chofen distraction: and every finner does wilder and more extravagant things, than any man can do that is crazed, and out of his wits; only with this fad difference, that he knows better what he does. For to them who believe another life after this, an eternal state of happiness or mifery in another world, which is but a reasonable poftulatum or demand among Christians, there is nothing in mathematics more demonftrable than the folly of wicked men; for it is not a clearer and more evident principle, That the whole is greater than a part, than that eternity, and the concernments of it, are to be preferred before time.

I will therefore put the matter into a temporal case, that wicked men, who understand any thing of the rules and principles of worldly wifdom, may fee the impru dence of an irreligious and finful courfe, and be convinced, that this their way is their folly, even themselves being judges.

Is that man wife, as to his body, and his health, who only clothes his hands, but leaves his whole body naked; who provides only against the toothach, and neglects whole troops of mortal diseases that are ready to ruth in upon him? Juft thus does he who takes care only for this vile body, but neglects his precious and immortal foul; who is very folicitous to prevent fmall and temporal inconveniencies, but takes no care to escape the damnation of hell.

Is he a prudent man, as to his temporal eftate, that lays defigns only for a day, without any profpect to, or provifion for, the remaining part of his life? Even fo does he that provides for the fhort time of this life, but takes no care for all eternity; which is to be wife for a moment, but a fool for ever; and to act as untowardly, and as crossly to the reafon of things, as can be imagined; to regard time as if it were eternity, and to neglect eternity as if it were but a short time.

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