city; fince daily experience must convince him of the contrary. Upon how much better a foundation do we Chriftians build our hopes of happiness, even upon the veracity of God who cannot lye; and in confe quence thereof upon his goodness, which hath been by the clearest demonstration evinced to us in Chrift Jefus. In gofpel language, holiness or righteousness is called, in one word, obedience; fin or vice, difobedience. Hence do we learn, that virtue (or godliness, as Revelation calls it) is to be defired and followed, because commanded by God, who beft knows what is right and true and as we and all things else received our being from his will and appointment, what he commands must be good and juft, and his will must be the rule of goodness to all his creatures. This is that eternal foundation which cannot be shaken; this the rock upon which Chrift hath builded his Church fo firm, that it cannot be overthrown.

The chief arguments amongst the heathens to enforce the love and practice of

e Tit. i. 2.

virtue sprang from this principle, the hope of glory among men after their decease, or a pofthumous reputation, which they dignified with the pompous name of immortality. Hence one of their gravest writers hefitates not to affirm, that there would be nothing left to encourage worthy men to virtuous actions, if we take away the reward of praife and glory'. Though this fame philofopher wrote a treatise to prove, that virtue alone is fufficient to make men happy. And yet this very virtue which was thus to confer all this felicity, he did not deem to be the gift of God, but a perfonal acquifition ",

Nullam enim virtus aliam mercedem laborum, pericu-. lorumque defiderat, præter hanc laudis, et gloriæ.

Cicero. Orat. pro Archia Poeta, S. 11. The fame reflection occurs in the fifth Philippick; and in a fragment preserved by Lactantius he expreffes himself in thefe words Vult plane virtus honorem; nec eft virtutis ulla alia merces. Lactantius, L. v. S. 18.

Tufcul. Difput. L. v.

h Virtutem nemo unquam acceptam Deo retulit. Nimirum recte propter virtutem enim jure laudamur, et in virtute recte gloriamur: quod non contingeret, fi id donum a Deo, non a nobis haberemus. . . Num quis, quod bonus vir effet, gratias Diis egit unquam ? at quod dives, quod honoratus, quod incolumis, jovemque optimum, maximum, ob eas res appellant, non quod nos juftos, temperatos fapientes efficiat, fed quod falvos, incolumes, opulentos, copiofos.... Judi

cium

Alas! what a strange kind of immortality was that, which depended upon a breath of air, and the applause of a capricious multitude, without any other view, than to have a name recorded in the annals of hiftory. The hopes of a future ftate could

have no weight with men of this class: They knew not what it meant. The love of fame, not the defire of happiness, was their ruling paffion. Not but that fear of punishment was as much the check, as this luft of renown was the fpur to their outward actions. Poor incentives these to real inward virtue, which is neither to be enforced by terror like a flave, nor allured by the wages of an hireling.

With nobler views doth Gospel Theology, which is morality exalted, perfuade Men. To know by exprefs Revelation, that godliness bath the promise of the life that

cium hoc omnium mortalium eft, fortunam a Deo petendam, a feipfo fumendam effe fapientiam.

De Nat. Deorum, L. iii. S. 36.

What a falling off is here, from the grand and elevated fentiments delivered in Sea. 66. Book ii, of the same work.

now

now is, and of that which is to come', is the utmost that wise and good men could wish for, to direct and animate them in the pursuit and practice of Religion. Can we think, that virtue when alone is more Lovely and defireable, than when the affurance of God's love and favour is fuperadded to the pleafing consciousness of having done our duty? Though it may be poffible to attain to such refinement in speculation, as to disregard present advantages; yet who can be fuppofed fo negligent and unwife, as to defpife that perfection of virtues which unquestionably leadeth to everlasting life?

Some indeed of the brightest characters of antiquity pushed their enquiries fo far as to arrive at fome confused notion of the immateriality of the foul, but mixed with fo much uncertainty and error, and spoken of with so much doubt and diffidence, that it may well be queftioned whether they really believed it or no*. Some

1 Tim. iv. 8.

See Dr. Randolph's Sermon upon Rom. i. 20. entitled, The Ufe of Reafon in Matters of Religion, p. 24.

imagined

imagined human fouls to be particles of the Deity, or anima mundi; that as fuch they might have pre-existed in an unknown separate state; and might, as probably, exift after the diffolution of the Body. Others fuppofed a tranfmigration of them from one body to another; and that they went to some fortunate islands or elyfian fields during their state of feparation from the Body. With fuch extravagant and chimerical reveries did they amuse themselves; betraying utter ignorance of the subject in question, and that all which they said, was mere fiction and groundless conjecture.

But whatever imaginary notions they might entertain of a future state, it was only the fuppofition of the foul's separate existence. They had not the least thought or apprehenfion of the immortality of the body by a resurrection from the dead. Here the voice of natural Religion was totally filent. Indeed fome elevated minds, in their philofophical retreats, went fo far as to imagine the body might perhaps be nothing more than the hell or covering, not the man himself. Sometimes they called it

the