to a great many inconveniencies every moment of his life, and is continually infecure, not only of the good things of this life, but even of life itself. And befides all this, after all his endeavours to the contrary, he finds himself naturally to dread a fuperior being that can defeat all his defigns, and disappoint all his hopes, and make him miferable beyond all his fears. He has oftentimes fecret mifgivings concerning another life after this, and fearful apprehenfions of an invifible judge; and thereupon he is full of anxiety concerning his condition in another world, and fometimes plunged into that anguish and defpair, that he grows weary of himfelf. So that the Atheift deprives himself of all the comfort that the apprehenfions of a God can give a man, and yet is liable to all the trouble and difquiet of those apprehenfions.

I do not fay that these inconveniencies do happen to all; but every one is in danger of them. For man's nature is evidently fo contrived, as does plainly difcover how unable he is to make himself happy: fo that he muft neceffarily look abroad, and feek for happiness fomewhere else. And if there be no fuperior being, in whofe care of him he may repofe his confidence, and quiet his mind; if he have no comfortable expectations of another life to fuftain him under the evils and calamities he is liable to in this world, he is certainly of all creatures the moft miferable. There are none of us but may happen to fall into thofe circumftances of danger, or want, or pain, or fome other fort of calamity, that we can have no hopes of relief or comfort but from God alone; none in all the world to fly to but him. And what would men do in fuch a cafe, if it were not for God? Human nature is moft certainly liable to defperate exigencies; and he is not happy that is not provided against the worst that may happen. It is bad to be reduced to fuch a condition as to be deftitute of all comfort. And yet men are many times brought to that extremity, that if it were not for God, they would not know what to do with themselves, or how to enjoy themfelves for one hour, or to entertain their thoughts with any comfortable confiderations under their prefent anguifh and fufferings. All men naturally fly to God in extremity; and the most Atheistical perfon in the world,

when

when he is forfaken of all hopes of any other relief, is forced to acknowledge him, and would be glad to have fuch a friend.

Can it then be a wife and reafonable defign, to endeavour to banish the belief of a God out of the world? Not to fay how impious it is in respect of God, nothing can be more malicious to men, and more effectually undermine the only foundation of our happiness. For if there were no God in the world, man would be in a much more wretched and difconfolate condition than the creatures below him: for they are only fenfible of prefent pain; and, when it is upon them, they bear it as they can. But they are not at all apprehenfive of evils at a distance, nor tormented with the fearful profpect of what may befal them hereafter: nor are they plunged into defpair, upon the confideration that the evils they lie under are like to continue, and are inca pable of a remedy; and as they have no apprehenfion of these things, fo they need no comfort against them. But mankind is liable to all the fame evils, and many others; which are fo much the greater, because they are aggravated, and fet on by the reflefs workings of our mind, and exafperated by the fmart reflections and frettings of our own thoughts. And if there be no God, we are wholly without comfort under all these, and with out any other remedy than what time will give. For, if the providence of God be taken away, what fecurity. have we against those innumerable dangers and mifchiefs to which human nature is continually exposed? what confolation under them, when we are reduced to that condition that no creature can give us any hopes of relief? but if we believe that there is a God that takes care of us, and we be careful to please him, this cannot but be a mighty comfort to us, both under the prefent fenfe of affliction, and the apprehenfion of evils at a diftance. For in that cafe we are fecure of one of thefe three things; either that God by his providence will prevent the evils we fear, if that be befl for us; or that he will fupport us under them when they are prefent, and add to our ftrength as he increafeth our burden; or that he will make them the occafion of a greater good to us, by turning them either to our advantage in this world, or the increafe of our happiness in the next VOL. I. Now,

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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 should be fo much more miferable 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 reafon 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 underftood 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 ftraits, when nothing else can; to preferve us in our greateft 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 ourselves? that will punish any man that fhould go about to injure us, or to deal otherwise with us than himfelf 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 miscarriages, upon our repentance and amendment? And we have reafon 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 himself 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 dismal 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 wifh the greatest good to himself he could devife; after he had fearched heaven and earth, the fum of all his wishes would be this, That there were juft fuch 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 Atheist himfelf, 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 himfelf 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 reason, we cannot but believe 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 ourfelves fo.

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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 interest to be wicked. It is for the general good of human fociety, and confequently of par ticular perfons, to be true and juft; it is for mens health to be temperate and fo I could inftance in all other vir tues. But this is the mystery of Atheism: Men are wedded to their lufts, and refolved upon a wicked courfe; and fo it becomes their intereft to wish there were no God, and to believe so, if they can: whereas, if men were minded to live righteoufly, 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 eafily believe a God; fo that it is vehemently to be fufpected, that nothing but the strength of mens lufts, and the power of vitious inclinations, do fway their minds, and fet a bias upon their understandings towards Atheism.

2. Atheism is imprudent, becaufe it is unfafe in the iffue. The Atheist contends against t religious man, that there is no God: but upon ftrange inequality and odds; for he ventures his eternal intereft: 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 respect and faithfuller friends, and lives in a more fecure and flourishing 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 unfpeakable