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SER M. called, Religion itself is least of all concern

II.

ed: For Religion is not concerned about things of an indifferent Nature, but about Matters weighty and fubftantial. The Kingdom of God, fay St Paul, is not Meat and Drink, but Righteoufnefs and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghoft: For he that in these things ferveth Chrift, is acceptable to God, and approved of Men. So that the true Religion is not that which lies out of our Reach, nor does it confift of trifling Speculations, but it goes into the Heart as well as the Head, and fhines forth in our Lives.

But this only by the way. Now taking it for granted, that that which directs us to the best End is the only true Wisdom, becaufe 'tis agreeable to the Dictates of a rational Creature acting as fuch, I fhall prove that Religion directs us to the best End, and therefore that it is the only true Wisdom. The best and most defirable End that can be imagined is eternal Happiness; and tho' 'tis what all Men wish for, yet nothing but Religion points it out to us, because nothing but that can give us any Certainty or Affurance of a future State, where alone it is to be had; and which the Christian Religion especially has made manifest by

the

II.

the Appearance of our Saviour Jefus Chrift, SERM. who hath brought Life and Immortality to Light thro' the Gospel. This was a great Secret to the wifeft of the Gentile World, who, after all their curious Searches, and philofophical Inquiries, could not find where to fet up their Place of Reft; and after all their Disputes about the Nature of Happiness, they made it a thin metaphysical Shadow rather than any thing real, and either left it as they found it, or else explained it by what wanted to be explained again, and was still the Matter in Difpute: And indeed 'tis no wonder that they who can't see beyond the Grave, with any Clearness or Certainty, can't difcover the Seat of Happiness, and find out a Reward for the Righteous. Nature itfelf can never demonftrate this; nor can they who dwell in Houses of Clay, without fome Affiftance from Above, have any tolerable Apprehenfions of Houses not made with Hands, eternal in the Hea. vens. The Stoicks afferted, that Virtue was itself a fufficient Recompence, and an an ample Reward for all the Pains, Troubles and Sufferings that Men undergo in this Life; which, tho' it is indeed an honourable Opinion of Virtue, and a noble Advance in Favour of Religion; and tho' it be likewife

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SERM. wife certain, that a good Man will be fatisfied from himself, yet all this is only true in part, and will amount to no more than this, that it is very lovely and defirable, and which every wife and good Man would certainly chufe, and that too upon its own Account, by reafon of the Satisfaction that arifes from it. But if the Good and Bad go down together in the Duft, if one thing befalleth Men and Beafts, and as the one dieth fo dieth the other, and we shall be hereafter as if we had never been, what is become of the Reward then? Shall it be a Reward to them who are not in a Capacity of apprehending it? who have not a Being to enjoy it in? Had they confider'd it not as the End, but only as the Means, they would not have pull'd down with one Hand what they endeavour'd to build up with the other, but would have given Virtue its due Praife and Honour, and not have detracted from it, by cutting off that Reward which will one Day be the Confequence of it; for furely, fays Solomon, there is a Reward, and thine Expectation shall not be cut off. And indeed this is as reasonable for a Man that has a Soul, and performs the Conditions required, to expect, as it is for a God of infinite Bounty and Goodness to

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bestow.----Hard would have been the Lot

of holy Men of old, who fuffered the moft
cruel Afflictions that Malice could invent,
or refolute Goodness undergo, and delivered
up their Lives in the Caufe of Virtue, had
there been no Recompence of Reward; for
if in this Life only we have Hope in Chrift,
we are of all Men moft miferable. But we
are fure they acted upon a wife and good
Principle, even upon the ftrong Founda-
tion of Faith; for they were tortured not
accepting Deliverance, that they might ob-
tain a better Refurrection, a Refurrection
to true and eternal Happiness.---- But Re-
ligion tends to make us happy in this World
alfo, as far as Happiness is to be had here,
as well as in the next; for it has the Pro-
mife of the Life that now is as well as of
that which is to come: And this it does,
not by pleafing the Fancy, and gratifying
the Senses; this is a mean and fordid Hap-
piness, which, depending upon the Body, is
in the Power of every little Accident to.
obftruct; but in giving Eafe to the Mind,
and Peace to the Confcience, which brings
us as near Heaven as we can poffibly be
while we are upon Earth. And after all,
what doth a wicked Life tend to? What
Profit hath the wicked Man of all his La-

bour

SER M.

II.

SERM. bour which he taketh under the Sun? Only

II.

to wear away a few Days of Sorrow and Mifery here, and then to go into a State of endless Misery hereafter; where their Candle fhall be clean put out, and their Light hall be turned into Darkness. But, on the other hand, the Righteous fhall fine farth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Thus doth Religion obtain its End; and an End it is truly worthy of a rational Creature, acting up to the Perfection of its Na ture; and if, according as the End is more or lefs noble, fo is the Wisdom in obtaining it, Religion must be the only true Wisdom, because it directs us to the best and most noble End, viz. eternal Happiness. I come now to fhew in the

Second Place, that it is the only true Wif dom, because it affords us the best Means of obtaining it. Now thofe Means are certainly the best that never fail of obtaining their End, which are only to be found in Religion. All other Means, by fome unforeseen Accident or other, are often dif appointed of the End they were defigned to obtain; of which there is no Occafion for any Proof, becaufe every one has, one Time or other, made the Experiment: But we

are

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