Can any man wish a better Support under affliction, than the Friendship and Favour of Omnipotence, of Infinite Wisdom and Goodness; that is both able, and willing and knows how to relieve him? Such a man can do all things through Chrift that Phil. 4.13. Strengtheneth him, he can patiently fuffer all things with cheerfull fubmiffion and refignation to the Divine Will. He has a fecret Spring of fpiritual Joy, and the continual Feaft of a good Conscience within, that forbid him to be miferable. But what a forlorn deftitute Creature is the Atheist in Distress: He hath no friend in Extremity, but Poison or a Dagger or a Halter or a Precipice. A violent Death is the laft refuge of the Epicureans, as well as the Stoicks. This, fays Lucretius, is the diftinguishing Lib. 3. Character of a genuine Son of our Sect, that he will not endure to live in Exile and Want and Disgrace out of a vain fear of Death; but dispatch himself refolutely into the State of eternal Sleep and Infenfibility. And yet for all this swaggering, not one of a hundred of them hath boldness enough to follow the Direction. The base and degenerous Saying of one of them is very well known; That Life is al- *Mecenas ways feet, and he should ftill defire to prolong it; though, after he had been maim'd and diftorted by les facito the Rack, he should lastly be condemn'd to hang bilem pede, on a Gibbet.

apud Se

101. Debi

Manu; de

coxa: &c.

And then, as to the Practical Rules and Duties of Religion as the Miracles of our Lord are peculiarly eminent above the Lying Wonders of Damons,in that they were not made out of vain Oftentation of Power, and to raise unprofitable Amazement; but for the real Benefit and Advantage of men, by feeding the Hungry, healing all forts of Diseases, ejecting of Devils, and reviving the Dead: fo likewife the Commands which he hath imposed on his Followers are not like the abfurd Ceremonies of Pagan Idolatry, the frivolous Rites of their Initiations and Worship, that might look like Incantation and Magick, but had no tendency in their Nature to make Mankind the happier. Our Saviour hath enjoyn'd Rom. 12.1. Us a Reasonable fervice; accommodated to the rational part of our nature. All his Laws are in themselves, abstracted from any Confideration of Recompence, conducing to the Temporal Intereft of them that obferve them. For what can be more availing to a mans Health, or his Credit, or Eftate, or Security in this World, than Charity and Meeknefs, than Sobriety and Temperance, than Honefty and Diligence in his Calling? Do not Pride and Arrogance infallibly meet with Contempt? Do not Contentiousness and Cruelty and Study of Revenge feldom fail of Retaliation? Are not envious and covetous, discontented and anxious minds tormen

ters

pud Cyrillum,p.134

ters to themselves? Do not we fee, that flothfull and intemperate and incontinent perfons destroy their Bodies with diseases, their Reputations with disgrace, and their Families with want? Are Adultery and Fornication forbidden only by Mofes and Chrift? or do not Heathen Law-givers punish such Enormities with Fines, or Imprisonment, with Exile or Death? 'Twas an Objection of Julian the JulianusApoftate; that there were no new Precepts of Morality in our Religion: Thou shalt not kill, Thou fhalt not fteal, Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife. Why all the World, fays he, is agreed about thefe Commandments and in every Country under Heaven, there are Laws and Penalties made to enforce all the Ten, excepting only the Sabbath and the Worship of Strange Gods. We can answer Him another way; but he may make our Infidels a fhamed to complain of thofe Ordinances as hard Impofitions, which the fenfe of all Nations has thought to be reasonable: which not only the Phi lofophers of Greece and Italy and the ancient World; but the Banians of Mogul, the Talapoins of Siam, the Mandarins of China, the Moralifts of Peru and Mexico, all the Wisdom of Mankind have declared to be neceffary Duties. Nay if the Atheists would but live up to the Ethics of Epicurus himself, they would make few or no Proselytes from the Chriftian

E 2

ftian Religion. For none revolt from the Faith for fuch things as are thought peculiar to Chriftianity; Not because they muft love and pray for their Matt.5.44. enemies, but because they must not poison

or stab

them: not because they muft not look upon a Woman ver. 28. to luft after her, but because they are much more reftrain'd from committing the Act. If wanton glances and lascivious thoughts had been permitted by the Gospel, and only the grofs Act forbidden; they would have apoftatized nevertheless. This we Plato de may conjecture from what Plato and others have 1886. told us, that it was commonly dels 6701Ed. Steph. Suv, immoderate Affections and Lufts, that in

Legib. lib.

p.

the very times of Paganism induced men to be Atheifts. It seems their impure and brutal Sensuality was too much confined by the Religion of thofe Countries, where even Venus and Bacchus had their Temples. Let not therefore voluptuous Atheists lay all the fault of their Sins upon the Infirmity of Humane Nature; nor plead that Flesh and Blood cannot refift thofe Temptations, which have all their force and prevalence from long Custom and inveterated Habit. What enticement, what plea. fure is there in common profane Swearing? yet neither the fear of God nor of the Law will perfuade men to leave it. 'Tis prevailing Example that hath now made it fashionable, but it hath not al

ways

ways been so, nor will be hereafter. So other Epidemical Vices, they are rife and predominant only for a season, and must not be ascribed to Humane Nature in the Lump. In fome Countries, Intemperance is a neceffary part of Conversation; in others Sobriety is a Vertue universal, without a ny respect to the Duties of Religion. Nor can they fay, that this is only the difference of Climate, that inclines one Nation to Concupiscence and Senfual Pleasures; another to Blood-thirstiness and Defire of Revenge. It would discover great ignorance in History, not to know that in all Climates a whole People has been over-run with some recently invented or newly imported kind of Vice, which their Grandfathers never knew. In the latest Accounts of the Country of Guiana, we are told that the eating of Humane Flesh is the beloved pleasure of thofe Savages: two Nations of them by mutual devouring are reduced to two handfulls of men. When the Gospel of our Saviour was preached to them, they received it with gladness of heart; they could be brought to forgo Plurality of Wives; though that be the main impediment to the converfion of the Eaft Indies. But the great Stumblingblock with these Americans, and the only Rock of Offence was the forbidding them to eat their Enemies: That irresistible Temptation made them

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