240 SERMONS upon Serm. XXXIL I. u S E, For Confutation of thole that will not believe or hope far any thing which they fee trot , they think Christians a company of credulous fools, that nothing is lure that is in- vilible; that the promifes of the Gofpei, are but like a dream of mountains of Gold, or Pearls dropt from the Sky; and all the comforts thence deduced, are but fanatical il- lutiions; that nothing fò ridiculous, as to depend upon unfeen hopes, that lie in another world ; they make the life of faith, amatter of fport and jeftiny Pfal. 22. 7, 8. All they that fee me,laugh me to forn,they Phut out the lip, and (hake the head ; faying,he crafted inGod that he would deliver him, let him deliver him,feeing he delighted in him. r Tim. 4.1o. We therefore labour and fufirreproach, becaufe we truft in the living God. Christians thought their reward lure, and endured all things ; Atheists and Infidels therefore fcoff at them, perfecute them. To thefe I (ball propofe two things. 1.1s nothing to be believed and hoped for, that is not teen ? Reafon will (hew you the contrary. Country people obey a King whom they never faw, but only know his pow- er by the effefts, in his Laws and Officers of Ju(tice; and doth not fenfe teach us the fame concerning Clod ? if we tranfgrels his laws, by omitting a duty, or committing a fin, we her from him, though we fee him not, Rom. 1. 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven againfl all ungodlinefs and unrighteoufnefs of men. And Heb. 2,, 2. For if the word fpoken by Angels was fledfafl, and every tranfgreffion and difobedience received a jufi recompence of reward. And for hope; do not men venture their eftates in forreign Coun- tries, in the hands of perlons whom they never law nor knew ? and (hall we venture no- thing on the promifes of God? 'Tis true, God liveth in another world, and our hopes lye there alto; but doth he not manifest himfelf from thence, to be concerned in our a &ions, whether they be good or evil ? And if he be concerned in them, will he not pu- nifh the evil, and reward the good ? bath not natural conscience a fenfe of thefe things? And therefore'ris unreafonable to queftion thefe things. 2. They think good people are credulous and eafie of belief; their own experience of thefe good people evidenceth the contrary, that they are too (low of heart to believe what God bath revealed concerning the other world ; and that by the ufe of all holy means, 'tis with difficulty accomplished. But what if we prove, that none fo credulous as the Atheilt or Infidel. Fir1t, you are not Cure there is no filch life ; 'ris impoffrble they (hould ever know or prove the contrary ; it may be queftionlefs, the Lord that made this world, can make a world to come, and the fame perlons to exi(t there, in ignominy, contempt and flume, that lived wicked here; and bellow honour on the godly and holy ; the question between the downright Infidel and the Chriftian, is not fo much, Whether there be a world to come ; but whether we can prove there is none. The belief of the poltice, That there is a God, That there is everlafting life, is neceffary to our hope ; but to their conviction, let them infallibly prove there is none; they can never do that ; you cannot difprove the reality of the Chri(tian hope, or by any found Argument evince that there is no heaven or hell ; for ought you can fay or know, there are both ; and if we (hould go on no further, it were bell to take the Curer fide, efpe- cially, when you part with no more than a few bafe pleafures and carnal fatisfaftions, that are not worth the keeping. In a Lottery, where there is but a look posftbility of gain- ing, men will venture a (billing, or a fmall matter, for a prize of an hundred pound. So, be there no heaven or hell, or be there one, you part with no more than the vain plea- fures of a fading.life; but if it Ihould prove true, in what a woful cafe are you then, when to gratifie a bruitifh mind, you run fo great au hazzard? the heathens granted it an Hypothefis conducing to vertue and goodness. Secondly, To the Atheifi and Infidel, bating all Scripture, it may be proved, That 'tis a thoufand to one, but it is fo, natural reafon will perfwade us of the immortality of the foul, and the fears of guilty confcience are (hrew'd perfages of eternal puni(hment; the tradition and confent of barbarous Nations, as well as the civilized, doth attest it ; desires of happinef is fo natural. So that thefe Bravadoes, that would outface the Reli- gion they are bred in, theweth none fo credulous as they that will hearken to every fond fuggeftion of their own carnal hearts, or Atheiflical companions, and prefer the braitilh conceits of their own frothy wit, before the common reafon of mankind, or that rational evidence wherewith the doCtrine of eternal life is accompanied. a. USE, is to reprove the finfual part of mankind, who are altogether for the prefent world, 2 Tim. 4. 10. Demas hathforfaken us, and imbraced the prefent world. They mutt have prefent delights; prefent fruition; a little thing in hand, is more than the promifes of chofe great things which are to come. The worldlings comfort wholly lyeth in chore- things
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