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but truth and fidelity are a lafting advantage: The righteous hath an everlasting foundation, Prov. x. 25. The lip of truth is established for ever; but a lying tongue is but for a moment, Prov. xii. 19. And religion does likewife 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 wife man hath told us, The diligent hand maketh, rich, Prov. x. 4. And again, Seeft thou a man diligent in business? he shall ftand before princes, he fhall not Stand before mean perfons, Prov. xxii. 29.

And where men, by reafon of the difficult circumftances of their condition, cannot arrive to any eminency of eftate; yet religion makes a compenfation for this, by teaching men to be contented with that moderate and competent fortune which God hath given them. For the fhortest way to be rich is, not by enlarging our eftates, but by contracting our defires. What Seneca fays of philofophy, is much more true of religion, Preftat opes fapientia, quas cuicunque fecit fupervacuas dedit: "It makes all thofe rich to whom it makes riches "fuperfluous;" and they are fo to those who are taught by religion to be contented with fuch a portion of them as God's providence hath thought fit to allot to them.

3dly, As to our reputation. There is nothing gives a man a more firm and establifhed reputation among wife and ferious perfons, whofe judgement is only var luable, than a prudent and fubftantial piety. This doth many times command reverence and efteem from the worfer fort of men, and fuch as are no great friends to religion; and fometimes the force of truth will extort an acknowledgement 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 overacting fome things in religion; by an indifereet zeal about things wherein religion is not concerned; by an ungrateful aufterity and fournefs, which religion doth not require; by little affectations, and an imprudent oftentation of devotion. But a substantial and solid, a difcreet and unaffected piety, which makes no great noife and fhew, but expreffes itself in a conftant and ferious devotion, and is accompanied with the fruits of goodness and kindness, and righteousness towards men,

will not only give a man a credit and value among the fober and the virtuous, but even among the vitious and more degenerate fort of men. Upon this account it is that the apoftle adviseth Christians, if they would recommend themselves to the esteem of God and men, earneftly to mind the weighty and fubftantial 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 Ghoft: for he that in thefe things ferveth Chrift, is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

It is true indeed, there are fome perfons of fo profli gate a temper, and of fuch an inveterate enmity to all goodness, as to fcorn and reproach even religion and virtue itself. But the reproach of such persons does not really wound a man's reputation. For why fhould any man be troubled at the contumelies of thofe whofe judgement deferves not to be valued, who defpife goodness and good men out of malice and ignorance? If these reproaches, which they cast upon them, were the cenfures of wife and fober men, a man's reputation might be concerned in them; but they are the rafh words of inconfiderate and injudicious men, the extravagant fpeeches of those who are unexperienced in the things they fpeak againft: and therefore no wife man will be trou bled at them, or think either religion or himself difpa raged by them.

4thly, As to our relations. Religion alfo conduceth to the happiness of thefe, as it derives a large and extenfive bleffing upon all that belongs to us; the goodnefs of God being fo diffufive as to fcatter his bleflings round about the habitations of the juft, and to shew merey unto thousands of them that love him, and keep his commandments. So David tells us,, Bleed is the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in his commandments. His feed fhall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright fhall be bleed. Wealth and rich-es fhall be in his houfe; and his righteoufnefs endureth for ever, Pfal. cxii. 1. 2. 3. And fo Solomon: A good man: leaveth an inheritance to his children's children, Prov.. xiii. 22. And again, In the fear of the Lord is ftrong confidence; and his children fhall have a place of refuge,. Pr.xiv. 26. But the wicked derives a curfe upon all that

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is.

is related to him: he is faid to trouble his own houfe, Prov.
xi.
29. And again, The wicked are overthrown, and
are not but the houfe of the righteous fhall ftand, Prov.
xii. 7.

But, fetting afide the confideration of God's provi dence, religion doth likewife, in its own nature, tend to the welfare of those who are related to us; because it Jays the ftricteft obligations upon men to take care of their families and relations, and to make the best provifion both for their comfortable subsistence here in this world, and their salvation in the next. And these who neglect thefe duties, the fcripture is fo far from esteeming them Chriftians, that it accounts them worse than Heathens and infidels : He that provideth not for his own, efpecially thofe of his own houfe, is worse than an infidel, and bath denied the faith, 1 Tim. v. 8. This I know is fpoken in refpect of temporal provifion; but it holds a fortiori as to the care of their fouls.

Befides, it is many times feen, that the pofterity of holy and good men, efpecially of fuch as have evidenced their piety towards God by bounty and charity to men, have met with unusual kindness and respect from others, and have, by a ftrange and fecret difpofition of divine providence, been unexpectedly cared and provided for; and that, as they have all the reafon in the world to believe, upon the account and for the fake of the piety and charity of their parents. This David tells us from his own particular obfervation: I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not feen the righteous forfaken, nor his feed begging bread, Pfal. xxxvii. 25. And that by the righteous is here meant the good and merciful man, appears from the defeription of him in the next words, He is ever merciful and lend eth and his feed is bleffed, ver. 26. And, on⭑ the con⚫ trary, the pofterity of the wicked do many times inherit the fruit of their fathers fins and vices; and that not only by a juft judgement of God, but from the natural courfe and confequence of things. And in this fenfe that expreffion in Job is often verified, that God lays up the iniquity of wicked men for their children, Job xxi 19. And doth not experience teftify, that the intemperate and unjuft do many times tranfmit their bodily infirmities and difcafes to their children, and entail a fecret

fecret curfe upon their eftates, which does either infenfibly wafte and confume it, or eat out the heart and comfort of it? Thus you fee how religion in all re

fpects conduces to the happiness of this life.

Secondly, Religion and virtue do likewise most certainly and directly tend to the eternal happiness and falvation 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 confiderations are less than nothing, and vanity. The worldly advantages that religion brings to men in this prefent life, are a fenfible recommendation of religion even to the lowest and meaneft fpirits. But to those who are raised above fenfe, and afpire after immortality, who believe the perpetual duration of their fouls, and the refurrection of their bodies; to those who are thoroughly convinced of the inconfiderableness of this fhort 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 fay, the confideration of a fu ture happiness, and of those unspeakable and everlasting rewards, which fhall then be given to holiness and virtue, is certainly the most powerful motive, and the most likely to prevail upon them. For those who are perfuaded that they shall continue for ever, cannot chufe but afpire after a happiness commenfurate to their duration; nor can any thing that is confcious to itself of its own immortality, be fatisfied and contented with any thing less than the hopes of an endless felicity. And this hope religion alone gives men; and the Christian religion only can fettle men in a firm and unshaken affurance of it. But because all men who have entertained any religion have confented to these principles, of the immortality of the foul, and the recompences of another world, and have always promised to themselves fome rewards of piety and virtue after this life; and because I did more particularly defign from this text to speak of the temporal benefits and advantages which redound to men from religion: therefore I fhall content myself to fhew very briefly, how a religious and virtuous life doth conduce to our future happinefs; and that upon these two accounts; from the promife of God, and from the nature of the thing..

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If, From the promise of God. Godliness (faith the apostle) bath the promife of the life that is to come, 1 Tim. iv. 8. God hath all along in the fcripture fufpended the promife of eternal life upon this condition. He hath peremptorily declared, that without obedience and holinefs of life no man fhall ever fee 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 neceffity of obeying the laws of God in order to our happinefs, and to perfuade us thereunto. For eternal life is the gift of God; and he may do what he will with his own. He is mafter of his own favours; and may difpenfe them upon what terms and conditions he pleases. But it is no hard condition that he hath impofed upon us. If religion brought no advantages to us in this world, yet the happiness of heaven is fo 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 impofed the most grievousand difficult things upon us, ought we not to have fubmitted to them, and to have undertaken them with chearfulness, upon fuch great and glorious encouragements As Naaman's fervants faid to him in another cafe, Had he bid thee do fome great thing, wouldst thou not have done it ? So if God had faid, that without. poverty and actual martyrdom, no man shall fee the Lord, would not any man that believes heaven and hell, and understands what these words fignify, and what it is to escape extreme and eternal mifery, and to enjoy unfpeakable and endless glory, have been willing to accept these conditions? How much more, when he hath only faid, Wafh and be clean; and, Let every man that bath this hope in him, purify himself, as he is pure? But. God hath not dealt thus with us; nor is the impofing of this condition of eternal life a mere arbitrary conftitution. Therefore I fhall endeavour to fhew,

2dly, That a religious and holy life doth, from the very nature and reafon of the thing, conduce to our fu ture happiness, by way of neceffary difpofition and preparation of us for it. We cannot be otherwife happy, but by our conformity to God; without this we cannot. poffibly love him, nor find any pleasure or happiness in

communion

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