Men were forced to lend Money, to buy for their own Arms the heavy Shackles of Slavery;

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Tantum Religio potuit fuadere malorum.

to

Religion doubtless aims at Two great Designs; one is like the firft Table, to perfuade us to adore God Al mighty; another is to perfuade us, like to the Second Table, to love our Neighbour, and to be a Mean to fete tle all these Jealousies, and compefce all thefe Animofities which Intereft might occafion And this appears by the Doxology jubilied by the Angels at our Saviour's Birth; Glory to God, and Peace and Good-will towards Men. And therefore, as every private Christian should be tolerated by his Fellow-Subjects worship God inwardly according to his Confcience; fo all should confpire in that Exterior Uniformity of Worship, which the Laws of his Country enjoin. The firft Remark which God made of us after the Creation, was that it was not fit for man to be alone; there was only one Ark amongst the Jews by God's own Appointment. And feeing the Gofpel terms the Church Christ's Spouse, it were abfurd to think that He will divorce from her upon every Error or Efcape; efpecially Seeing his bleffed Mouth bath told us, that under the Gofpel it is not lawful to divorce upon all Occafions; and if He will not for thefe deny her to be His Spouse, much lefs fhould we deny her to be our Mother. May not one, who is convinced in his Judgment that Mor narchy is the best of Governments, live happily in Ve nice or Holland? And that Traveller were abfurd, who would rather fquabble with those amongst whom be fojourns, than obferve thofe Rites and Solemnities which are required by the Laws of the Places where be lives? What is once ftatuted by a Law, we all confent to, in chufing Commiffioners to Represent us in thefe Parliaments where the Laws are made; and fo if they ordain us to be decimated, or to leave the Nation

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if we conform not; we cannot fay, when that Law is put to Execution, that we are opprefs'd; no more than we could complain, if one did remove us legally from thofe Lands which be purchafed from our Trustee, whom we had empower'd to fell it.

As David faid to Saul, Sam. 26. 20. Why went the King out to catch a Flea? So may I Say to our great Divines, Why contravert they about Shadows? Is it fit that Chriftians, who find it too great a Task to govern their private Souls, fhould be fo much concerned how the Church is governed by others? Wherefore, feeing many have been faved who were most inexpert in thefe Questions; and that foolish Zeal, Paf fion, and too much Curiofity therein, bath damned ma my j I may conclude that to pry into thefe, is neither neceflary, because of the first, nor expedient, because of the laft.

3. Since Difcretion open'd my Eyes, I have always judg'd it necessary for a Christian to look oftner to his Practice of Piety, than to Confeffion of Faith; and to fear more the Crookedness of his Will, than the Blindness of bis Judgment; delighting more to walk on from Grace to Grace, working out the work of his own Sal vation with fear and trembling; than to stand still with the Galileans, curiously gazing up to Heaven. True Religion and undefiled, is to vifit the widow and the fatherless; and the Ditty drawn up against the damned Spirits fhall be, That when our Saviour's poor ones were hungry, they did not feed them; when they were naked, they did not cloath them; without mentioning any thing of their Unbelief in Mat xers of Controverfy, or Government. And therefore, I hope, that these to whom I addrefs my felf in this Dif courfe, will rather believe me to be their Friend, becaufe of their Piety, than their Enemy, because of their

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Virtuofo or Stoic.

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CHAP. I.

Of Atheism.

LBEIT Man be but a Statue of Duft kneaded with Tears, moved by the hid Engines of his reftlefs Paffions; a Clod of Earth, which the shortest Fever can burn to Ashes, and the leaft Shower of Rheums wash away to nothing; yet makes he as much Noife in the World, as if both the Globes (those glorious Twins) had been unwombed from that formlefs Chaos, by the Midwifry of his Wit; he fpeaks Thunder,looks Lightnings,breathes Storms, and, by the Eloquence of his own Vanity, perfuades himself that his Commands are able to unhinge the Poles. From which boundless Pride, I confidently conclude, that if a natural Instinct, or as the Stoics term it, προς τον θεον had not ir-· resistibly bowed his Faith to affent to a Deity, he had never, neither upon Defign, nor in compliance to Custom (as Atheists, alledge) suffer'd to creep into his Creed, that there was one greater than himself, who could rein his Affections, and bound their Affects, according to the Dictates of his irresistible Will.

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And albeit Regiments of Arguments, levyed both from the ftately Fabrick of Heavens arched Pend, and from the inimitable Embroidery of Earth's flowry Boul, be requifite for conquering the Infidelity of others, and for rendering them Tributaries to that All-forming Effence: Yet, doth my Faith render up the Arms of its depraved Reason, and turn Profelyte to this divine Truth, upon the fole fight of one of these dying Atheifts; who, upon any furprizal, do, with Amazement, throw up their Eyes to Heaven, as if they fent their Looks in Embaffage to beg Affiftance from thence; and cry, God fave me, as if thefe beaftly Souls, when attacked unexpectly, knew whence their Health were to be expected: Like to other fick Brutes, who when affaulted by Sickness, are, by the Hand of that fame Storge and Instinct, led to fome Herb or Flower, which is an Apothecary's Shop appointed by Nature for them.

Neither think I thofe Arguments which are twifted together of Three Propofitions fo ftrong as these Instincts are; where Truth, like the Sun, feems to dart home its Light in one unperceivable Act; whereas in thefe, purblind Nature may be mistaken, not only judging of the Truth of either of the Three Parts, but likewife of their Connexion and Alliance. I know that that Mifcreant, who began his Hell upon Earth, by being burnt at Tholoufe for Theorick Atheism, did, upon his first approach to the Fire, cry, O God: Whereupon, being tax'd by the affifting Jefuit, anfwered, that thefe and fuch like Expreffions were the Offspring of Cuftom: But poor Soul he might have confidered, that seeing he had crept from his Cradle into that Error, and had run his Glafs to its laft Sand, in propagating that hellish Conceit; that therefore this Expreffion was ra

ther

ther a Confeffion than an Escape; rather a Product of a rational Soul, than of depraved Cuftom; for as it was in it self a divine Truth, so it was in him contrary to a fettled Habit.

There is another Cabal of Atheists, who think that this Belief was at firft but the quaint Legerdemain of fome ftrongly-pated Statesman ; who to over-awe the Capricioufnefs of a giddy Multitude, did forge this Opinion of a Rewarder of all Human Actions: And to enforce this, do instance Numa Pompilius, and Mahomet, whofe palpable Cheats grew up in their Succeffors into Religions; and whofe Inventions were received with as much Bigotry, by the wifeft of Men, as is that Deity which is now the Object of our Adorations. Wherefore (fay they) feeing the Rational Soul hath failed fo oft, and fo abfurdly in its Discoveries, how, or why fhould we fubmit our felves flavishly to its Determinations? For that which doth at fome times err, can never at any time be concluded infallible.

To thefe I anfwer, that albeit, as to the particular way of Worfhip, the World is oft-times de-. luded: And albeit, even as to their Apprehenfions of this incomprehenfible Effence, Multitudes be fometimes milled, yet thefe ftaggering Fancies fix this great Truth, That there is a Supreme, who must be Adored: For if this innate Inftinct did not co-operate with thefe Impoftures, in gaining an Affent to their fictitious Religions and Hierarchies, it were impoffible for any Human Autho rity to establish Principles fo remote from Reafon, and to fubjugate by thefe, even the mildest Tempers. But I take the Root from which these Errors do fpring, to be, that the Twilight of darken'd Reafon glimpfing to Man that impreffa of the Divine Image, which though much decayed, yet refts ftill upon his Soul; and not being able,

be