fecret curfe upon their eftates, which does either infenfibly waste and confume it, or eat out the heart and comfort of it? Thus you fee how religion in all refpects conduces to the happiness of this life.

Secondly, Religion and virtue do likewife moft certain ly and directly tend to the eternal happiness and falvation of men in the other world. And this is incompa rably 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 immorta lity, who believe the perpetual duration of their fouls, and the refurrection of their bodies; to thofe 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 thefe, I fay, the confideration of a future happiness, and of thofe 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 fhall 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 unfhaken affurance of it. But becaufe all men who have entertained any religion have confented to the 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 becaufe I did more particularly design from this text to speak of the temporal benefits and advantages which redound to men from religion: therefore I fhall content myfelf to thew very briefly, how a religious and virtuous life doth conduce to our future happiness; and that upon these two accounts; from the promife of God, and from the nature of the thing,

1. From the promife of God. Godliness (faith the apostle) hath 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 conftitution 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 do what he will with his own. He is mafter of

may

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 happinels 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, would 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 unspeakable and endless glory, have been willing to accept thefe conditions? How much more, when he hath only faid, Wash 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 impoling 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 pre-paration 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.

:

communion with him for we cannot love a nature contrary to our own, nor delight to converfe with it. Therefore religion, in order to the fitting of us for the happiness of the next life, does defign to mortify our lufts and paffions, and to restrain us from the inordinate love of the grofs and fenfual delights of this world; to call off our minds from thefe inferior things, and to raife them to higher and more fpiritual objects, that we may be disposed for the happiness of the other world, and taught to relifh the delights of it: whereas, fhould we fet our hearts only upon these things, and be able to tafte no pleasure in any thing but what is fenfual and earthly, we must needs be extremely miferable when we come into the other world; because we fhould meet with nothing to entertain ourselves withal, no employment fuitable to our difpofition, no pleasure that would agree with our depraved appetites and vitious inclinations. All that heaven and happiness fignifies, is unfuitable to a wicked man, and therefore could be no felicity to him. But this I fhall have occafion to speak more fully to in my next difcourse.

From all that hath been faid, the reasonableness of religion clearly appears, which tends fo directly to the happiness of men, and is upon all accounts calculated for our benefit. Let but all things be truly confidered and caft up, and it will be found, that there is no advantage to any man from an irreligious and vitious courfe of life. I challenge any one to inftance in any real benefit that ever came to him this way. Let the finner declare what he hath found by experience. Hath lewdness and intemperance been more for his health than if he had lived chaftely and foberly? hath falfehood and injuftice proved at the long-run more for the advancement and fecurity of his eftate, than truth and honefty would have done? hath any vice that he hath lived in made him more true friends, and gained him a better reputation in the world, than the practice of holinefs and virtue would have done? hath he found that peace and fatisfaction of mind in an evil courfe, and that quiet enjoyment of himself, and comfortable affurance of God's favour, and good hopes of his future condition, which a religious and virtuous life would have given him? Nay, on the contrary, have not fome

.

fome of his vices weakened his body, and broken his health? have not others diffipated his estate, and reduced him to want? What notorious vice is there that doth not blemish a man's reputation, and make him either hated or despised; and that not only by the wife and the virtuous, but even by the generality of men? But was ever any wicked man free from the ftings of a guil ty confcience, and the torment of a restless and uneafy mind, from the fecret dread of divine displeasure, and of the vengeance of another world? Let the finner freely fpeak the very inward sense of his foul in this matter, and spare not; and I doubt not, if he will deal clearly and impartially, but that he will acknowledge all this to be true, and is able to confirm it from his own fad experience. For this is the natural fruit of fin, and the prefent revenge which it takes upon finners, be fides that fearful punishment which fhall be inflicted on them in another life.

What reason then can any man pretend against religion, when it is fo apparently for the benefit, not only of human fociety, but of every particular perfon; when there is no real intereft of this world, but may ordinarily be as effectually promoted, and purfued to as great advantage, nay ufually to far greater, by a man that lives foberly, and righteously, and godly, in the world, than by any one that leads the contrary course of life? Let no man then say, with those profane persons whom the prophet speaks of, It is in vain to ferve the Lord: and what profit is it that we have kept his commandments? Mal. iii. 14. God has not been fo hard a mafter to us, that we have reason thus to complain of him. He hath given us no laws, but what are for our good; nay, fo gracious hath he been to us, as to link together our duty and our intereft, and to make thofe very things the inftances of our obedience which are the natural means and caufes of our happinefs. The devil was fo far in the right, when he charged Job that he did not ferve God for nought. It is he himself that is the hard mafter, and makes men ferve him for nought, who rewards his drudges and flaves with nothing but fhame, and forrow, and mifery. But God requires no man's fervice upon hard and unreasonable terms. The greatest part of our work is a prefent reward to itself; and

for

for whatever elfe we do or suffer for him, he offers us abundant confideration. And if men did but truly and wifely love themfelves, they would, upon this very ground, if there were no other, become religious. For when all is done, there is no man can serve his own interest better than by ferving God. Religion conduceth both to our present and future happinels. And when the gospel chargeth us with piety towards God, and juftice and charity towards men, and temperance and chaftity in reference to ourfelves, the true interpreta. tion of these laws is this, God requires of men, in order to their eternal happiness, that they fhould do those things which tend to their temporal welfare; that is, in plainer words, he promises to make us happy for ever, upon condition that we will but do that which is best for ourselves in this world. To conclude, religion is founded in the interest of men rightly apprehended, So that, if the god of this world, and the lufts of men, did not blind their eyes, fo as to render them unfit to dif cern their true intereft, it would be impoffible, fo long as men love themselves, and defire their own happiness, to keep them from being religious; for they could not but conclude that to be their intereft; and being fo convinced, they would refolve to purfue it, and ftick to it,

SERMON

V.

The excellency of the Chriftian religion.

PHIL. iii. 8.

Tea doubtless, and I count all things but lofs, for the excellency of the knowledge of Chrift Jefus my Lord.

N the beginning of this chapter, the apostle makes a comparison between the Jewish and the Christian religion, and fhews the Chriftian to be in truth and fubftance what the Jewish was only in type and fhadow: ver. 3. We are the circumcifion, which worship God in

the