And if religion be able to give to this, a greater commendation need not be given to religion.

But before I enter upon this argument, I fhall premife two things by way of caution.

1. That thefe kind of observations are not to be taken too ftrictly and rigorously, as if they never failed in any one inftance. Ariftotle obferved long fince, that moral and proverbial fayings are understood to be true generally and for the most part; and that is all the truth that is to be expected in them. As, when Solomon fays, Train up a child in the way wherein he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it; this is not to be so taken, as if no child that is pioufly educated did ever miscarry afterwards; but that the good education of children is the best way to make good men, and commonly approved to be fo by experience. So here, when it is faid, that great peace have they that love God's law, the meaning is, that religion hath generally this effect, tho' in fome cafes, and as to fome perfons, it may be accidentally hindered.

2. When I fay, that religion gives peace and tranquillity to our minds, this is chiefly to be understood of a religious ftate, in which a man is well fettled and confirmed, and not of our first entrance into it; for that is more or less troublesome, according as we make it. If we begin a religious courfe betimes, before we have contracted any great guilt, and before the habits of fin be grown ftrong in us, the work goes on eafily, without any great conflict or resistance. But the cafe is otherwise, when a man breaks off from a wicked life, and becomes religious, from the direct contrary courfe in which he hath been long and deeply engaged. In this cafe no man is fo unreasonable as to deny, that there is a great deal of fenfible trouble and difficulty in the making of this change; but when it is once made, peace and comfort will fpring up by degrees, and daily increase, as we grow more confirmed and established in a good course.

Thefe two things being premised, I fhall now endeavour to fhew, that religion gives a man the greatest plea fure and fatisfaction of mind; and that there is no true peace, nor any comparable pleasure, to be had in a contrary courfe and that from these two heads; from teftimony

ftimony of scripture; and from the nature of religion, which is apt to produce peace and tranquillity of mind.. Firft, From teftimony of scripture. I fhall felect fome of those texts which are more full and exprefs to this purpofe. Job xxii. 21. fpeaking of God, Acquaint thyself now with him, and be at peace. To acquaint ourselves with God, is a phrase of the fame importance with coming to God, and feeking of him, and many other like expreffions in fcripture, which fignify nothing elfe, but to become religious. Pfal. xxxvii. 37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. Or, as these words are rendered according to the LXX. in our old translation, Keep innocency, take heed to the thing that is right for that shall bring thee peace at the laft. Prov. iii. 17. where Solomon, fpeaking of wisdom, which with him is but another name for religion, fays, Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. If. xxxii. 17. The work of righteouf nefs fhall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietnefs and affurance for ever.. Matth. xi. 28. 29. Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you reft. Now, to come to Chrift, is to become his difciples, to believe and practife his doctrine; for fo our Saviour explains himself in the next words: Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; and ye shall find reft for your fouls. Rom. ii. 10. Glory, and honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good.

And, on the contrary, the fcripture reprefents the condition of a finner to be full of trouble and difquiet. David, though he was a very good man, yet when he had grievously offended God, the anguilh of his mind was fuch, as even to disorder and diftemper his body: Pfal. xxxviii. 2. 3. 4. Thine arrows Stick faft in me, and thy hand prefeth me fore. There is no foundness in my flesh, becaufe of thine anger: neither is there any reft in my bones, because of my fins. For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. If. lvii. 20. 21. The wicked are like the troubled fea, when it cannot reft, whofe waters caft up mire and dirt. There is no peace, faith my God, to the wicked.. And If. lix. 7.8. Mifery and deftruction are in their paths;: and the way of peace they know not: they have made them

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felves crooked paths whofoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Rom. ii. 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every foul of man that doth evil.

You fee how full and exprefs the fcripture is in this I come now, in the

matter.

Second place, to give you a more particular account of this from the nature of religion, which is apt to produce peace and tranquillity of mind. And that I fhall. do in these three particulars.

1. Religion is apt to remove the chief caufes of inward, trouble and difquiet.

2. It furnishes us with all the true caufes of peace and tranquillity of mind.

3. The reflection upon a religious courfe of life, and all the actions of it, doth afterwards yield great pleasure and fatisfaction.

I. Religion is apt to remove the chief caufes of inward trouble and difquiet. The chief causes of inward trouble and difcontent are thefe two: doubting, and anxiety of mind; and guilt of confcience. Now, religion is apt to free us from both thefe.

1. From doubting, and anxiety of mind. Irreligion and Atheism makes a man full of doubts and jealoufies, whether he be in the right, and whether at laft things will not prove quite otherwife than he hath rafhly deter mined. For though a man endeavour never fo much to fettle himself in the principles of infidelity, and to per fuade his mind that there is no God, and confequently that there are no rewards to be hoped for, nor punishments to be feared, in another life; yet he can never attain to a steady and unfhaken perfuafion of these things. And however he may please himself with witty reasons. againit the common belief of mankind, and smart repar tees to their arguments, and bold and pleasant raillery about these matters; yet I dare fay, no man ever fat down in a clear and full fatisfaction concerning them. For when he hath done all that he can to reafon himself out of religion, his confcience ever and anon recoils upon him; and his natural thoughts and apprehenfions rife up againft his reafonings, and all his wit and fubtility is confuted and borne down by a fecret and ftrong fufpicion, which he can by no means get out of his mind, that things may be otherwife..

And

And the reafon hereof is plain; becaufe all this is an endeavour againft nature, and thofe vigorous instincts. which God hath planted in the minds of men to the contrary. For whenever our minds are free, and not violently hurried away by paffion, nor blinded by prejudice, they do of themselves return to their first and most natural apprehenfion of things. And this is the reafon why, when the Atheist falls into any great calamity, and is awakened to an impartial confideration of things by the apprehenfion of death and judgement, and defpairs of enjoying any longer thofe pleasures for the fake of which he hath all this while rebelled against religion, his courage prefently finks, and all his arguments fail him, and his cafe is now too ferious to admit of jefting, and at the bottom of his foul he doubts of all that which he afferted with fo much confidence, and fet fo good a face upon before; and can find no eafe to his mind, but in retreating from his former principles; nor no hopes of confolation for himself, but in acknowledging that God whom he hath denied, and imploring his mercy whom he hath affronted.

This is always the cafe of thefe perfons when they come to extremity; not to mention the infinite checks. and rebukes which their own minds give them upon ather occafions: fo that it is very feldom that these men have any tolerable enjoyment of themselves, but are forced to run away from themselves into company, and to ftupify themselves by intemperance, that they may not feel the fearful twitches and gripings of their own minds.

Whereas he who entertains the principles of religion, and therein follows his own natural apprehenfions, and the general voice of mankind, and is not confcious to himself that he knowingly and wilfully lives contrary to these principles, hath no anxiety in his mind about thefe things; being verily perfuaded they are true, and that he hath all the reafon in the world to think fo: and if they fhould prove otherwife, which he hath no other cause to fufpect; yet he hath this fatisfaction, that Ire, bath taken the wifeft course, and hath confulted his own prefent peace and future fecurity infinitely better than the Atheist hath done, in cafe he should prove to be mistaken. For it is a fatal mistake, to think there is no God, if there be

one ..

one but a mistake on the other hand hath no future: bad confequences depending upon it, nor indeed any great prefent inconvenience; religion only reftraining a man from doing fome things, from most of which it is good he should be reftrained however. So that at the worft the religious man is only mistaken; but the Atheist is miferable if he be mistaken; miferable beyond all imagination, and past all remedy.

2. Another, and indeed a principal caufe of trouble: and difcontent to the minds of men, is guilt. Now,. guilt is a consciousness to ourselves that we have done amifs; and the very thought that we have done amifs, is apt to lie very crofs in our minds, and to caufe great anguifh and confufion. Befides that guilt is always attended with fear; which naturally fprings up in the mind of man, from a fecret apprehenfion of the mischief and inconvenience that his fin will bring upon him, and of the vengeance that hangs over him from God, and will overtake him either in this world,. or in the other.

And though the finner, while he is in full health and profperity, may make a fhift to divert and fhake off thefe fears; yet they frequently return upon him, and upon every little noife of danger, upon the apprehenfion of any calamity that comes near him, his guilty mind is prefently jealous that it is making towards him, and is particularly levelled against him. For he is fenfiblethat there is a juft power above him, to whofe indignation he is continually liable, and therefore he is always in fear of him; and how long foever he may have efcaped punishment in this world; he cannot but dread the vengeance of the other: and thefe thoughts are a continual disturbance to his mind, and in the midft of laughter make his heart heavy; and the longer he continues in a wicked courfe, the more he multiplies the grounds and caufes of his fears.

But now religion frees a man from all this torment,. either by preventing the caufe of it, or directing to the cure; either by preferving us from guilt, or clearing us of it in cafe we have contracted it. It preferves us from guilt, by keeping us innocent; and in cafe we have offended, it clears us of it, by leading us to repentance, and the amendment of our lives; which is the only way

to