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SER M. fhall be miserable, and undone for ever. CCXXIV. man that believes a GOD, and the revelations which he hath made, cannot but be fully fatisfied of this. And this will appear upon these two accounts. 1. From the nature and reafon of the thing. And, 2. From the promises and threatnings of God's word. 1. From the nature and reafon of the thing. Every man that believes a GOD, must believe him to be the fupreme good; and the greatest happiness to confift in the enjoyment of him; and a feparation from him to be the greatest mifery. Now GOD is not to be enjoyed, but in a way of religion. Holiness makes us like to God; and likenefs will make us love him; and love will make us happy in the enjoyment of him; and without this it is impoffible to be happy. There can be no happiness without pleafure and delight; and we cannot take pleasure in any thing we do not love; and there can be no love, without a likeness and fuitableness of difpofition. So long as GoD is good, and we evil; fo long as he is pure, and we unholy; fo long as he hates fin, and we love it; there can be no happy intercourse, no agreeable communion, and delightful fociety between GOD and us. So that if we be holy, happiness will refult from this temper; and if we be wicked, we are neceffarily and unavoidably miferable. Sin feparates between God and us, and hinders our happinefs; and it is impoffible that a wicked man fhould be near Gop, or enjoy him. GOD and a finner are fuch two unequal matches, that it is impoffible to bring them together; for "what fellowship hath righteoufnefs with unrighteoufnefs? or what com"munion hath light with darkness ?”

2. Every man who believes the revelations which God hath made, cannot but be fatisfied, how much religion

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religion is his intereft from the promises and threat- SER M. nings of God's word. GOD in his word hath in plain and exprefs terms promised everlasting glory and happiness to them that obey him; and hath threatened wicked men with dreadful and eternal punishments;" to them that by patient continuance " in well-doing, feek for glory, and honour, and im"mortality," he hath promised " eternal life: but to "them that obey not the truth, but obey unrighteouf

nefs," he hath threatned" indignation and wrath, "tribulation and anguish." Now if we believe the gofpel, which affures us of another life after this, and a future judgment which will determine all men to a ftate of everlafting happiness, or mifery, we cannot but know it to be our intereft, by all poffible means to endeavour to attain the happiness which God hath promised, and to avoid the mifery which he hath threatned. All men naturally defire happiness, and dread mifery and deftruction; and thefe defires and fears are intimate to our natures, and can never be feparated from them; because they flow immediately from those principles of felf-love, and felf-prefervation, which are deeply rooted in every man's heart, and are woven into the very make and frame of his nature, and will last as long as our beings. And so long as these principles remain in us, there is no man that is firmly perfuaded of the promises and threatnings of the gofpel, but muft believe it to be his highest intereft to be religious. Fear and hope are the two paffions which govern us; hope is as it were the fpur that quickens us to our duty, and fear is the curb that reftrains us from fin; and the greater 'the good hoped for, or the evil that is feared, the greater power and influence thefe paffions have upon 'us. Now there cannot be a greater good, than cont

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SER M. plete and everlasting happinefs; nor a greater evil, CCXXIV than extreme and eternal mifery. So that whoever

believes the promises and threatnings of the gospel, hath his hope raised to the expectation of the greatest good and happiness in cafe of obedience; and his fears extended to the expectation of the greatest evil and mifery in cafe of final impenitency and difobedience. And a true divine faith doth contain in it both this hope and fear for a faith in the promises of the gofpel is nothing elfe, but the hopes of eternal life, and a belief of the threatnings of the gofpel is nothing elfe, but the fear of hell and eternal mifery. So that a firm belief of the promises and threatnings of the gofpel, muft needs have as great influence upon men to make them religious, as the highest hopes and greatest fears can have: and thofe men that are not moved by the hopes of the greatest good, nor by the fears of the greatest danger, are not to be wrought upon in human ways, nothing will prevail with them.

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Thus I have fhewn you, what influence a divine faith hath upon religion; for as much as whoever believes there is a GOD, and that the fcriptures are the word of God, is fully fatisfied and convinced how reasonable it is, and how much it is his intereft to be religious. I come in the last place to the application of this discourse.

First, this fhews why there is fo little of true religion in the world; it is for want of faith, without which it is impoffible for men to be religious. Men are not firmly perfuaded that, there is a GOD; that there is a being above them that is omniscient, and knows every thing that they do, and takes notice of every word, and thought, and action; that is fo good, and fo powerful, as to make those happy that love and obey him; and so just and powerful, as to

make

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make those miserable who hate him, and rebel against SER M. him. Men are not perfuaded that their fouls are immortal; and that there is another life after this, in which men shall be happy or miferable to all eternity, according as they demean themfelves in this world. Men are not firmly perfuaded that the fcriptures are the word of God, and that the precepts and prohibitions of the bible are the laws of a great King, who will amply reward the observance of his laws, and feverely vindicate the breach and violation of them. Men do not believe that the promifes and threatnings of God's word are true, and that every jot and tittle of them shall be accomplished. For did TE men believe these things, they would be religious; they would not dare to live in any known fin or impiety of life: unless we can prefume that a man can be seriously unwilling to be happy, and have a longing defire to be miferable and undone for ever. For whoever believes the principles of religion, and the precepts, and promifes, and threatnings that are contained in this holy book, and yet after all this can continue in fin, he muft not only put off the principles of a reasonable creature, but muft quit the very inclinations of his nature; that is, he must knowingly refuse that which he naturally defires, which is happiness; and must embrace that which of all things that can be imagined he most abhors, and that is mifery.

So that if men were verily perfuaded, that the great, and holy, and just GoD looks continually upon them, and that it is impoffible to hide from him any thing that we do, they would not dare to commit any fin in his fight, and under the eye of him who is their Father and mafter, their fovereign and their judge, their friend and benefactor, who is invefted

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SER M. with all thefe titles, and stands to us in all these rela tions, which may challenge reverence and respect. Did men believe the holiness and justice of GOD, that he hates fin and will not let it go unpunished, would they venture to make him a witness of their wickedness, who they believe will be the avenger of it? Did men believe that they fhall live for ever, and that after this short life is ended, they must enter upon eternity; that when they leave the world, there are but two ways which all men must go, either into life everlasting, or into eternal and intolerable torments; did men believe this, would they not with all poffible care and diligence endeavour to attain the one, and avoid the other? Were men poffeft with a belief of eternity, how would they dispise temporal and tranfitory things? how would they neglect the concernments of this life, and overlook the little impertinencies of time, and refer all their thoughts, and cares, and endeavours to eternity? this great and important, intereft would fo fill their minds, and take up their thoughts, and employ their utmoft cares, and endeavours, and diligence, that they would.fcarce regard, or fpeak, or think of any thing elfe; they would be reftlefs and impatient, till they had fecured this grand affair and concernment; they would fubordinate all the interefts of this world to that of the other, and make all the concernments of time to ftoop to the grand concernment of eternity. Thus men would do, were they but firmly, perfuaded that there is another life after this, to which this bears no proportion.

Did men believe the fcriptures to be the word of GOD, and to contain matters of the highest importance to our everlafting happiness; would they neglect it and lay it afide, and study it no more than a

man

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