Now, every one of thefe confiderations has a great deal of comfort in it; for which, if there were no God, there could be no ground: nay, on the contrary, the most real foundation of our happiness would be laid in our reafon; and we fhould be fo much more miserable than the beafts, by how much we have a quicker apprehenfion and a deeper confideration of things.

So that, if a man had arguments fufficient to perfuade him that there is no God, as there is infinite reason to the contrary; yet the belief of a God is fo neceffary to the comfort and happiness of our lives, that a wife man could not but be heartily troubled to quit so pleasant an error, and to part with a delufion which is apt to yield fuch unspeakable fatisfaction to the mind of man. Did but men confider the true notion of God, he would appear to be fo lovely a being, and fo full of goodness, and of all defirable perfections, that even thofe very perfons who are of fuch irregular understandings as not to believe that there is a God, yet could not, if they underflood themselves, refrain from wifhing, with all their hearts, that there were one. For is it not really defirable to every man, that there fhould be fuch a being in the world as takes care of the frame of it, that it do not run into confufion, and in that disorder ruin mankind; that there fhould be fuch a being as takes particular care of every one of us, and loves us, and delights to do us good; as understands all our wants, and is able and willing to relieve us in our greatest straits, when nothing elle can; to preferve us in our greatest dangers, to affift us against our worst enemies, and to comfort us under our fharpeft fufferings, when all other things fet themfelves against us? Is it not every man's interest that there fhould be fuch a governor of the world, as really defigns our happiness, and hath omitted nothing that is neceffary to it; as would govern us for our advantage, and will require nothing of us but what is for our good, and yet will infinitely reward us for the doing of that which is beft for ourfelves? that will punish any man that fhould go about to injure us, or to deal otherwife with us than himself in the like cafe would be dealt withal by us? in a word, fuch a one as is ready to be reconciled to us when we have offended him; and is fo far from taking little advantages against us for e

very failing, that he is willing to pardon our most wilful mifcarriages, upon our repentance and amendment? And we have reason to believe God to be fuch a being, if he be at all.

Why then fhould any man be troubled that there is fuch a being as this, or think himfelf concerned to fhut him out of the world? How could fuch a governor as this be wanting in the world, that is fo great a comfort and fecurity to mankind, and the confidence of all the ends of the earth? If God be fuch a being as I have defcribed, woe to the world if it were without him. This would be a thousand times greater lofs to mankind, and of more difmal confequence, and, if it were true, ought to affect us with more grief and horror, than the extinguishing of the fun.

Let but all things be well confidered, and I am very confident, that if a wife and confiderate man were left to himself and his own choice, to with the greatest good to himself he could devife; after he had searched heaven and earth, the fum of all his wifhes would be this, That there were just such a being as God is : nor would he chufe any other benefactor, or friend, or protector for himself, or governor for the whole world, than infinite power, conducted and managed by infinite wisdom, and goodness, and juftice; which is the true notion of a God.

Nay, fo neceffary is God to the happiness of mankind, that though there were no God, yet the Atheift him felf, upon fecond thoughts, would judge it convenient that the generality of men fhould believe that there is one. For when the Atheist had attained his end, and, if it were a thing poffible, had blotted the notion of a God out of the minds of men, mankind would, in all probability, grow fo melancholy, and fo unruly a thing, that he himself would think it fit in policy to contribute his best endeavours to the reftoring of men to their former belief. Thus hath God fecured the belief of himself in the world against all attempts to the contrary, not only by rivetting the notion of himself into our natures, but likewise by making the belief of his being neceffary to the peace and tranquillity of our minds, and to the quiet and happiness of human society.

So that, if we confult our reafon, we cannot but be-Eye that there is; if our intereft, we cannot but heartily wish that there were fuch a being as God in the world. Every thing within us and without us gives notice of him. His name is written upon our hearts; and in every creature there are fome prints and footsteps of him. Every moment we feel our dependence upon him; and do, by daily experience, find that we can neither be happy without him, nor think ourselves fo.

I.confefs, it is not a wicked man's intereft, if he refolve to continue fuch, that there fhould be a God. But then it is not mens intereft to be wicked. It is for the general good of human fociety, and confequently of particular perfons, to be true and juft; it is for mens health to be temperate and fo I could inftance in all other virtues. But this is the mystery of Atheism: Men are wedded to their lufts, and refolved upon a wicked courfe; and fo it becomes their interest to wish there were no God, and to believe fo, if they can: whereas, if men were minded to live righteously, and foberly, and virtuously, in the world, to believe a God would be no hinderance or prejudice to any fuch defign, but very much for the advancement and furtherance of it. Men that are good and virtuous, do easily believe a God; fo that it is vehemently to be fufpected, that nothing but the ftrength of mens lufts, and the power of vitious inclinations, do fway their minds, and fet a bias upon their understandings towards Atheism.

2. Atheifin is imprudent, because it is unfafe in the iffue. The Atheist contends against the religious man, that there is no God: but upon ftrange inequality and odds; for he ventures his eternal interest: whereas the religious man ventures only the lofs of his lufts, which it is much better for him to be without, or at the ut moft, of fome temporal convenience; and all this while is inwardly more contented and happy, and ufually, more healthful, and perhaps meets with more refpect and faithfuller friends, and lives in a more fecure and ourishing condition, and more free from the evils and punishments of this world, than the Atheistical perfon does. However, it is not much that he ventures; and, after, this life, if there be no God, is as well as he; but, if there be a God, is infinitely better, even as much as unspeakable

unfpeakable and eternal happiness is better than extreme and endless mifery. So that, if the arguments for and against a God were equal, and it were an even queftion, Whether there were one or not? yet the hazard and danger is fo infinitely unequal, that, in point of prudence and intereft, every man were obliged to incline to the affirmative; and, whatever doubts he might have about it, to chufe the fafeft fide of the question, and to make that the principle to live by. For he that acts wifely, and is a thoroughly prudent man, will be provided against all events, and will take care to fecure the main chance, whatever happens. But the Atheist, in cafe things fhould fall out contrary to his be-lief and expectation, hath made no provifion for thiscafe. If, contrary to his confidence, it should prove in the iffue, that there is a God, the man is loft and undone for ever. If the Atheist, when he dies, fhould find that his foul remains after his body, and has only quitted its lodging, how will this man be amazed and blanked, when, contrary to his expectation, he fhall find himself in a new and strange place, amidst a world of fpirits, entered upon an everlasting and unchangeable ftate? How fadly will the man be difappointed, when he finds all things otherwife than he had stated and determined them in this world? When he comes to ap pear before that God whom he hath denied, and a-gainst whom he hath spoken as defpiteful things as he could, who can imagine the pale and guilty looks of this man, and how he will fhiver and tremble for the fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty ? How will he be furprised with terrors on every fide, to find himself thus unexpectedly and irrecoverably plunged into a state of ruin and defperation! And thus things may happen for all this man's confidence now. For our belief or disbelief of a thing does not alter the nature of the thing. We cannot fancy things into be-ing, or make them vanifh into nothing, by the ftubborn confidence of our imaginations. Things are as fullen as we are, and will be what they are, whatever we think. of them. And if there be a God, a man cannot, by an obftinate disbelief of him, make him ceafe to be, any more than a man can put out the fun by winking. And thus I have, as briefly and clearly as I could, ep-deavoured

D-3

deavoured to fhew the ignorance and folly of fpecula tive Atheism in denying the exiftence of God: And now it will be lefs needful to fpeak of the other two principles of religion, the immortality of the foul, and future rewards. For no man can have any reasonable fcruple about those who believe that there is a God; becaufe no man that owns the existence of an infinite fpirit, can doubt of the poffibility of a finite fpirit; that is, fuch a thing as is immaterial, and does not contain any principle of corruption in itfelf. And there is no man that believes the goodness of God, but must be inclined to think, that he hath made fome things for as long a duration as they are capable of. Nor can any man, that acknowledgeth the holy and juft providence of God, and that he loves righteoufnefs, and hates iniquity, and that he is a magiftrate and governor of the world, and confequently concerned to countenance the obedience, and to punith the violation of his laws; and that does withal confider the promifcuous difpenfations many times of God's providence in this world: I fay, no man that acknowledges all this, can think it unrea fonable to conclude, that after this life good men thail be rewarded, and finners punished. I have done with the first fort of irreligious perfons, the fpeculative Atheift. I thall fpeak but briefly of the other.

Secondly, The practical Atheift, who is wicked and irreligious, notwithstanding he does in feme fort believe that there is a God, and a future ftate, he is likewife guilty of prodigious folly. The principle of the fpecufative Atheift argues more ignorance, but the practice. of the other argues greater folly. Not to believe a God, and another life, for which there is fo much evidence of reafon, is great ignorance and folly: but it is the higheft madness, when a man does believe these things, to live as if he did not believe them; when a man does not doubt but that there is a God, and that, according as he demeans himself towards him, he will make him happy or miferable for ever, yet to live as if he were certain of the contrary, and as no man in reafon can live, but he that is well affured that there is no God. It was a fhrewd faying of the old monk, That-two kind of prifons would ferve for all offenders in the world; an inquifition, and a bedlam: if any man fhould deny

the