fame urgent Defire of Happiness makes them either overlook or wilfully neglect a more important future Interest for the Sake of a prefent and more immediate Pleasure. There is fome Temptation at least, some imaginary Appearance of Satisfaction in these Cases, and They are far from chufing Evil as fuch, or for its own Sake. But our Speculative Infidels feem to have arisen even to this unaccountable unnatural Pitch, and to triumph seriously in such a deplorable Scheme, as, One would think, must terrify all ferious confiderate Perfons. Our glorious Faith is renounced, and with an Appearance too of great Satisfaction, for a Perfwafion full of real Horror and Mortification, and the Profeffors of Christianity are even infulted and ridiculed, for being willing to acknowledge their own Title to an happy Immortality. Yet if This be not a Truth, It is fuch an Error, as We have certainly a natural Prejudice in Favour of, and therefore were the Advocates for unaffifted Reason guided in Earnest even by That only, yet the leaft They could impartially have done, had been to express with Concern, that They could not acquiefce in the Evidence of fo defireable a Creed, as We Chriftians profess. But on the contrary, Infidelity is made Matter of Mirth

and

and Triumph. They rejoyce, or at least profefs to do so, in having, as They think, discerned the infufficient Foundations of that Revelation, on which the Pardon of all our Sins, the Security of all our Hopes and our Title to everlasting Happiness depend. But is This at the lowest, on their own Principles, if I may call them fuch, a Matter of Sport and Satiffaction? or when confidered by a Chriftian, Does It call for our Pity rather, or our Indignation, to fee Men taking Pleasure in fuch miferable Principles, and exulting as if They had made a Discovery of great Confequence to the Benefit and Welfare of Mankind? The Illuftration of our better Hopes will be both an agreeable and a profitable Subject of Meditation, for in the Result the Whole Strength of Infidelity depends on the contrary Suppofition. It is not by mere Speculation and Argument, that We can expect to recover Those to our Holy Faith, who were never tempted and feduced from it by any Strength of ArguThe Evidences of Religion have been a thousand Times proved and demonftrated, and do and ever will ftand unanswered by them. Their Cavils at Scripture Difficulties have received diftinct and fatisfactory Solutions, and have indeed been answered to a fur

ment.

prizing

prizing Degree of Clearness, confidering the Distance of Time We stand at from their Original Promulgation. The only real Temptation therefore to Loofe Principles lies in this, that Men flatter Themfelves, that the Disbelief of Religion is a comfortable Thought, and that They may enjoy Themselves and their Pleasures more truly and fatisfactorily under this Refuge, than under the Acknowledgment of the Chriftian Faith. It cannot therefore be an unferviceable Work to detect this Error alfo; to fhew that our Religion is as well an amiable System as a certain Truth, and that the Delight and Comfort even of our present Station may and can only be provided for by the Influence of the Precepts and Promises of the Gofpel. And We cannot take Occafion to represent this from a more emphatical Expreffion, or more convincing Exigence, than That which the Text fets before Us, In whom fays St. Peter, Speaking of the Author and Finisher of our Faith, In whom, tho' now Ye fee Him not, yet Believing, Ye rejoyce with Joy unSpeakable and full of Glory.

It was addreffed by the Apoftle to Thofe, who were under the trying Circumstances of Perfecution for this very Profeffion, and yet even here He reprefents it as the Foundation

of

of fuch Joy, as could not be equalled either in Kind or Degree by any other Perfwafion. The Chriftian Faith in the ordinary Course of Things did plainly provide for their better Security from all Dangers, and by the beneficial Virtues, which It prefcribed, was calculated for Social and Perfonal Prosperity and Delight; and where extraordinary Violence and Calamities interrupted the natural Good Effects of fuch Heavenly Duties, there its future Felicities were applicable with greater Force, would enable Them to triumph under Affliction, and convert their heaviest Sorrows into a Subject of Joy and Confolation.

The Whole Paffage is full of this grateful Spirit of Triumph and Exultation on a View of the Bleffings of the Evangelical Dispensation, and that beft Support, which It would afford them in the worst Circumftances. Blef fed, fays the Apostle, be the God and Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, which according to his abun dant Mercy hath begotten Vs again unto a lively Hope, by the Refurrection of Fefus Chrift from the Dead, To an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, referved in Heaven for You; Who are kept by the Power of God thro' Faith unto Salvation, ready to be revealed in the laft Time. Wherein Te greatly

rejoyces

rejoyce, tho' now for a Season, (if need be) Ye are in Heavinefs thro' manifold Temptations; That the Trial of your Faith being much more precious than of Gold that perisbeth, tho' It be tried with Fire, might be found unto Praise and Honour and Glory, at the Appearing of Jefus Chrift: Whom having not seen Ye love, In Whom tho now Ye fee Him not, yet Believing Ye rejoyce with Foy unspeakable and full of Glory.

Indeed the Chriftian Faith is throughout the Whole Syftem joyous and delightful. The End It proposes to Us is ravishing and glorious, and The Means It prefcribes are falutary and beneficial. It reprefents the present Life as a Paffage to a better, its Enjoyments as Earnefts of more valuable Hopes, and even its Afflictions as Means of improving our Virtue and enhancing our final Recompence. The Sum of all its Doctrines and Precepts is either Delightful in itself, or made fo by this Article, in Relation to the After-Scene of our Existence, and therefore in this View highly deserves our Attention, and will encrease our Regard to the Religion that blesses Us with it.

Whether This Article be Peculiar to this Revelation alone, whether the Heathen Philofophers or Jewish Teachers believed a future State of Recompence, or not, (tho' I am firm

ly