PART 3:

 

THE ARGUMENT OF THE THIRD CONFERENCE.

 

 SEBASTIAN and PHILANDER, meeting together at the house of BIOPHILUS, in pursuance of a former resolution taken between them, represent to him the whole scheme of religion, and now render it as rational in itself, as before they had showed it to be prudent and important. Then they entertain one another with pious and useful discourses, partly of the necessity of constancy in religion, and the considerations that will maintain it; partly of the means of obtaining and preserving an even temper of spiritual comfort through the whole course of a Christian Life.

 

 SEBASTIAN. Well met, again, gentlemen: I hope we shall one day meet in heaven.

 

 PHILANDER. GOD grant it, good SEBASTIAN; and truly for my part, I am persuaded we shall the sooner get there, the more we have of your company and conversation in the mean time.

 

 SEBAST. No compliments, PHILANDER. I am glad to observe you so cheerful. Come, gentlemen, what think you of our journey I hope by this time BIOPHILUS is resolved. You promised, Sir, to consider of it.

 

 BIOPHILUS. I have considered a little; but in truth, I think winter no good time for traveling, especially for the undertaking of so long a journey.

 

 SEBAST. Be not discouraged, Sir; the journey is not so long as you may fancy, and the way is very good.

 

 You will think it strange, perhaps, but it is very true, that no time is so good as winter for this expedition; the short days, dark and cold nights, the very dirt and wet, and all the seeming disadvantages of the season, (which probably may run in your head, BIOPHILUS,) all make for our purpose. The severities of the weather, which constrain us to lay aside other business, give us the more leisure to attend to this; the short days are followed with long evenings, which afford us opportunity to set things in order, to discourse together, and to instruct and animate one another in our intended enterprise; and in the dark solitary nights, our minds being then free from the distraction of variety of objects, our thoughts will run this way with wonderful speed, if we do but direct them aright. So that, in truth, we may make real progress towards our designed port, even as we sit here.

 

 BIOPH. But, in earnest, I am somewhat too old and crazy to undertake the journey.

 

 SEBAST. Nay, believe me, the older the better. An old man, if he set to it in earnest, will outstrip all others in this voyage; such men will lose no time in trifles: experience has taught them caution, and made them very wary of all diversions and impediments. In short, such men are so sensible of the inconveniences of this our present country, that it is great odds, but they will put on so vigorously as to get to their journey's end before the youngest of us all.

 

 Though I should have been right glad to have found you better resolved, and hoped that this present Conference should rather have been directed to the encouraging one another in our course, than spent in disputing our port; yet, in hopes that at length you will become a votary for the holy land, I will present to you two things First, The influence of religion on civil society. Of this you will easily be sensible, if you consider how inconceivable it is, that mere external force, or fear of human punishment, should be sufficient to keep the world in order, when (as it often happens) flagitious men find themselves either secured from that danger by the secrecy of their plots, or protected by their strength and multitude. And then you must acknowledge, that to the ends aforesaid there is a necessity that some superior Power not only protect governors from violence, but also strike the minds of men with an awful apprehension of them as his favorites and vicegerents; but this cannot be done but upon such principles of religion as we now speak of; therefore he that infringes that, weakens both law and government, and is an enemy to civil society.

 

 Again, there can be no obligation of oaths, and consequently no security of faith and trust between man and man, but upon supposition of a GOD that takes notice of what men do, and who will call them to an account in another world; so that the man who is destitute of these persuasions, can neither give security of loyalty to his Prince, nor of fidelity to his friend or neighbor, or any man he deals with.

 

 BIOPH. Why, I pray you, SEBASTIAN, may not men trust one another upon the security of honor, good nature, or gratitude, or some such obligation, without those fetters of conscience which you speak of

 

 SEBAST. Alas, BIOPHILUS, all those bonds which you mention are too weak to restrain the licentious humor of men; they may put some little bias upon men's spirits, but they cannot bridle their passions, curb their desire of revenge, nor prevail with them to deny their extravagant inclinations, when they shall have an opportunity to gratify them, as we find by daily experience; for in all the obligations below religion and conscience, a man is supposed to be accountable only to himself, and therefore may dispense with himself, and acquit himself upon what terms he pleases; and therefore wise men, and especially wise Princes, use not to trust to any of those securities, but only to that of religion.

 

 BIOPH. Well, but have not pretenders to religion played fast and loose with laws and government, as well as other men Nay, generally you shall observe, that a bigoted sort of men are the principal actors in most of the tumults and disorders in the world.

 

 SEBAST. If I should object to you the daily and horrible violations of faith amongst the pretenders to honor, ingenuity, and gratitude, I know you would answer me, that those persons were not really men of honor, but only pretenders: and so you may answer yourself in this case, that they are but pretenders to the real principles of religion, that falsify their faith, and disturb government.

 

 Besides, if I should grant you that the very bonds of religion are not able always to restrain the rage and folly of some exorbitant persons, yet certainly it is the most powerful means to that end, and incomparably beyond all. those you have named; and therefore you may remember, when upon occasion PTOLEMY, King of Egypt, sent one THEODORUS, in the quality of his ambassador to LYSIMACHUS, this latter refused to treat with him, or admit him under that character, because he was a reputed Atheist; and being such, he looked upon him as a person with whom there could be no security of civil intercourse.

 

 BIOPH. I remember the story; but I pray you, if LYSIMACHUS's objection against THEODORUS was sufficient, how came PTOLEMY, notwithstanding, to trust him with the management of his affairs

 

 SEBAST. Truly, I can give you no other answer, but that he had not so much prudence as his neighbor. But lest that pass, if you please; and give me leave in the next place to represent to you every man's personal concern in the truth of religion, which is such, that no man can either live or die comfortably without it.

 

 BIOPH. With all my heart. Let Princes alone to manage their. own matters. Show me but that one point, and it shall suffice.

 

 SEBAST. For that, BIOPHILUS, you will easily apprehend that no man can die cheerfully without the supports of religion, (I mean, if he die sensibly,) because the very best of such a man's expectations can be but this, That he shall die like the beast, and that vital principle in him, which we call the soul, shall be absolutely extinguished; so that he shall thenceforth as perfectly cease to be what he was, as if he had never been. Now this, I suppose you will readily grant me, must needs be not only a very uncomfortable prospect, but such a condition as a man cannot think of without just abhorrence, nor be reconciled to, without as great a contradiction, as it were for him to be supposed to hate his own being.

 

 Yet this is the very best of the irreligious man's case, and that of which he can never be secure, will be the worst that shall befall him; for if it shall prove that there is another world, (and at least it may do so for aught he knows,) then his case is so much worse, that now, by death, he must enter upon an estate for ever, which he has had no foresight of, nor made any preparations for. He encounters a GOD, whom he has taken no care to propitiate towards himself in all the course of his life, and what a dismal plunge must the approaches of death (together with such a surprisal of necessity put such a man into!

 

 BIOPH. As for death, I shall easily grant all you say, for that is no very comfortable thing at the best; the only refuge I know is, to make a virtue of necessity, and seeing die, we must, to take it patiently. But for that reason I am resolved to live as long as I can, and as, cheerfully too and why may not this be done without the business of religion

 

 SEBAST. In truth, BIOPHILUS, the impossibility of living comfortably, without the helps of religion, is every whit as evident as that of doing so, and for the very same reason; forasmuch as whatsoever renders death terrible, must needs make life uneasy too. For since death is acknowledged to be unavoidable, it cannot choose but run in such a man's head,-Shortly I must die, and either everlastingly cease to be, or (which is far worse) begin to be eternally miserable; the least of which two things (without the miserable refuge of a perpetual debauch to keep such a man from thinking) must be of force enough to make his heart ache, and to spoil all the pleasures of the present life. Especially considering withal the uncertainty of the tenure, and the innumerable accidents of human life, which last circumstance makes it to become just matter of fear at all times, that by some or other of those accidents of mortality, his frail thread may abruptly be broken; and consequently, who knows but tomorrow, not only all his projects and contrivances, but all his delights and entertainments, will suffer a total interruption

 

 But then, if there be a God and another world, (which he can never be sure that there is not,) he can expect nothing less than very suddenly to fall under the vengeance of that Great Majesty whom he has always provoked, and never appeased.

 

 Besides all this, as we commonly observe that atheistical persons are of all men the most timorous, so there is great reason for it, if we consider what a dark and melancholy thing it must needs be, for so impotent a creature as roan is, to live in a world without a God, and without the security of providence; for there are a thousand things confessedly too strong for us, and which are able to crush and destroy us every moment; and in this case, where a man has no help in himself, if he have no guardian about him neither, if, I say, he cannot look up to some higher Being as his patron and protector, it were mere madness to be valiant; for all the grounds of courage fail him, and therefore no wonder if his spirits be broken and baffled by the danger of his case, and the lonesomeness of his condition.

 

 Upon which account, a great wit of this present age acknowledged, "That although he, for his part, had no feeling of the comforts of religion, yet he accounted those to be happy men that had it." For indeed, life is not life without those supports which that, and that only, affords us. But when a man has, by the benefit of that holy prudence, put all his interest into GOD's custody, and secured himself of another world, then he begins to live indeed; then he may laugh at the present world, despise temporal life, and defy death; forasmuch as thenceforth he is out of the reach of chance, fate, or fortune.

 

 PHIL. It is true, BIOPHILUS; it is true, as SEBASTIAN says, the world to come is the only reality, and religion the only comfort. O happy we that know there is a GOD in the world, under whose providence we live! And blessed be that divine goodness, which has provided another world to receive is, and there promised us eternal life!

 

 O heaven, thou end of cares and fears, and beginning of joy without end! Thou rest of souls, and only satisfaction of great and wise minds! I am ravished with the thoughts of thee! I am so transported with hopes of thee, that I am become all life and spirit. Methinks I begin to have wings, and could fly to heaven.

 

 BIOPH. You discourse ingeniously, SEBASTIAN; but I pray let me see if you can excuse this transport of PHILANDER from fanaticism.

 

 SEBAST. Why, BIOPHILUS, do you think a man cannot be cheerful, unless he be either mad or drunk

 

 BIOPH. It seems, then, in your opinion, fanaticism is madness.

 

 SEBAST. Truly, Sir, I take it to be little better; especially, if it be in any high degree. For what, I pray you, is it to be mad, but for a man's fancy or passions so to get head of him, that he is hurried on, wildly and extravagantly, by such an unaccountable impetus, that his reason is not able to govern him And on the other side, what is it for man to fear without danger, and to hope without ground; to believe without reason, and to think, or speak, or do such things, whereof he can give no account which is intelligible by the rest of mankind This I take to be fanaticism; and this is plain madness.

 

 BIOPH. I am very glad to hear these things from you, SEBASTIAN; and that you have so slight an opinion of that sort of men, who make such a figure, or rather such a dust in the world.

 

 SEBAST. So far then we are agreed; but all this which I have said will make nothing towards the proof of your charge against PHILANDER; for though I impute unreasonable and extravagant raptures to fancy rather than faith, and account them rather a distemper of the body, than the devotion of the mind; yet I must tell you after all, that true and manly religion is no cold and comfortless thing; it is not a lukewarm notion, not a formal round of duties; but is lively, vigorous, and sparkling, and has its joys and ravishments too, only they are more sedate and governable, as well as more rational and accountable, than those we spake of before; and so, I suppose, you will find it to be with PHILANDER. He has expressed some heat, but not without light; ,and is both able to govern his expressions, and to give a sober reason for them.

 

 PHIL. Hearty thanks, dear SEBASTIAN, for vindicating me from the misapprehensions my innocent joy had exposed me to; and herein you have not only done me a kindness, but obliged all good men, and done a right to true piety itself, which is apt to be put out of countenance with the imputation of fanaticism: and so far it suffers thereby, that a great many well-disposed, but bashful and timorous men, are tempted to a strange kind of hypocrisy, and to pretend themselves worse than they are, for fear of incurring the censure of being zealots.

 

 But now I shall adventure to let my light shine out abroad, as well as burn within my breast. And I cannot forbear upon this occasion to return my most humble thanks to GOD, who has given me cause to hope in his goodness, and the cordial of that hope has antidoted me against the troubles of this present world; for I profess to you, there is so much of care and fear, of labor and pain here below, what by disappointments, what by the malice of evil men, or by the follies, peevishness, and jealousies of weak men, that were it not for the prospect of a better state of things above, I should be very far from being fond of this life. But when I consider that at the worst I am under a Providence, so that nothing befalls by chance, or by the mere will of man, but by divine appointment and ordination, and consequently there is nothing but what he both can and will make to work for good in the conclusion; and when withal, I find myself resolved to submit to his wise purposes, by which means it is in my power to be wiser and better by all occurrences, and in so doing have my hopes improved into an assurance, that I shall in due time be translated into those happy regions above: this comforts my heart under all the present inconveniences, and not only supports my spirits, but cheers them, and refreshes my very, countenance; and sometimes, the more the vexations of the world had depressed me, the higher do these contemplations raise me; so that I break out into such a holy triumph as that which you, BIOPHILUS, took notice of.

 

 SEBAST. BIOPHILUS, what is there to amaze you in this matter Consider with yourself, how can it be otherwise, but that he who is thoroughly satisfied that it is neither blind chance, nor surly fate, nor some ill-natured and unlucky being; but contrariwise, a great, and wise, and good GOD, that governs the world; how can it be, I say, but that such a man must needs be very comfortable under such a protection.

 

 Or how can it come to pass that a man, who approves himself to his own reason and conscience, and, as near as he can, to the mind of that great God who made and governs the world, should be tormented with panic fears of he knows not what; since, whether he looks upward or downward, into himself or abroad, there is nothing that can hurt him, nothing but what must needs cheer him with a hopeful expectation of a good issue in the upshot of things; especially if he have a firm belief of eternal life in another world, and of unspeakable joy and felicity there, and certainly to be enjoyed by him that pursues it by a course of virtue and piety How can you imagine that such a man should be able to smother such hopes, and conceal such joys No; they are too great to be kept secret in his bosom; they will break out now and then in triumphant expressions.

 

 Eternity, BIOPHILUS, (eternal life, I mean,) is so great, so glorious, so admirable a happiness, that I can never be persuaded that man really believes it, and has good hope that he shall attain it, who can be so reserved and stoical as to keep his countenance whenever he thinks of it.

 

 Do but judge with yourself, if you could have ground to believe you should never forego this present life, but for ever enjoy your house, your wife and children, nor ever be parted from those friends you have made choice of; that no accident, no disease, nor malice of men, or evil spirits, could reach you; but you might pursue your designs, and meet with nothing to interrupt the train of your thoughts and projections; in this case you may easily imagine how much at ease a man's thoughts would be, how secure his mind, how bold his spirit, and how cheerful his countenance. But now to live for ever in the glories of the kingdom of heaven; to be not only secure from all pain or care, fear or danger, but to be in possession of perfect bliss; to enjoy the favor of God, the presence of the ever blessed JESUS, and the perpetual society of all good men, made perfect and free from their ignorances, errors, passions, and infirmities; this is a state of life that I cannot think of without astonishment, nor speak of without passion, nor hope for without rapture.

 

 BIOPH. I should easily consent to you in all this, SEBASTIAN, if I thought it was real; but in truth, I suspect-all these things you talk of, to be but pleasant dreams, and high rants of fancy.

 

 SEBAST. But why should you think so, BIOPHILUS, seeing it is very plain, that the soberest and best men are of this persuasion; and for the most part, the better the men are, the more lively is their sense of these things. Can you imagine that either ALMIGHTY GOD should put a cheat upon the best of mankind, and upon them especially Or can you think, that the best of men should be the greatest liars, and pretend to that of which they had no real grounds I pray, therefore, be free with me, and tell me the causes of your mistrust in this case.

 

 BIOPH. I think I have reason to doubt these high pretences to the wonderful comforts of religion; in the first place, because I observe the state of mankind to be generally very uneasy, and the world to be full of nothing more than melancholy and complaint; which sure could Plot be, if there were such effectual remedies ready at hand, and such a heart's ease in religion.

 

 SEBAST. I will answer that presently; but I pray first tell me (by the way) what do you think is the reason there are so many sickly people in the world

 

 BIOPH. Truly, I think we may resolve the greatest part of those tedious distempers, under which so many people languish into surfeits and other instances of their own riot and luxury.

 

 SEBAST. Very well: But do you not think there are a great many amongst those that pine away under these lingering distempers, who might possibly receive help and ease, if they took due care of themselves

 

 BIOPH. Yes, doubtless, for in those chronical diseases there is time for advice and application, and fit inter. missions for medicines to take place in; but the mischief is, some men are humorsome and obstinate, and will take no advice, whatever comes of it: others deliver themselves up to empirics and unskillful persons, who often make the disease worse than it was; and there are some so soft and delicate, that although they have good advice given them, will not follow the rules that are prescribed to them.

 

 SEBAST. Very good: Now you have answered-your own objections against the comfortableness of religion: for there are the same three accounts to be assigned of the uncomfortableness of men's spirits, which you have given of the sickly state of their bodies, viz.,

 

 In the first place, there are some men who fancy themselves either too wise to be advised, or think the case of human nature too desperate to be cured; and therefore grow morose and skeptical, and will rather cloak themselves up in a melancholy reserve for the present, and run the venture of all for the future, than give themselves the trouble of any serious thoughts of religion. Now you cannot expect these men should find the comfort of religion, who are so far from making experiment of it, that they are afraid of it, like those wise men that, for fear they should one time or other be poisoned, will never eat any meat.

 

 BIOPH. If you would pardon my interrupting you, I could tell you for all this, that there are some men in the world (though not many I confess) who enjoy themselves very well, and yet never were in debt to religion for it. 

 

 SEBAST. Very likely, BIOPHILUS; for so (as I remember) King JOHN killed a fat stag that had never heard mass in its life; and so you shall see an ox in the stall, let him but have meat and drink, and ease enough, he never repines at the approach of the day of slaughter. In like manner there are a sort of dull unthinking men, that pass away their time in a pleasant dream of sensuality, and never feel any want of the consolations of religion; but it is not because there is no need of them, but because such persons do not feel the need, nor indeed are sensible of any thing else that is manly and generous.

 

 If I should tell you it was dangerous being upon such a precipice, I suppose you would not think it a confutation of my caution to tell me, that, notwithstanding, a certain blind man slept and snored upon it: for real danger is danger, whether men be apprehensive of it or no.

 

 BIOPH. Your pardon again: It is not only true that some stupid persons are at ease without religion, but you shall observe some of a better mould, polite and ingenious men, live very pleasantly, and yet are not beholden to religion for it.

 

 SEBAST. It may be so; but then I doubt they must be beholden to the bottle for it, which they must ply continually too, to keep them from thinking; for I have showed you already, that it is as impossible for a thinking man (out of a debauch, and who cannot but be sensible that he must die) to be comfortable without the aids of some religion or other, as it is for you or me to caper and frolic upon the brink of a precipice. In short, such men as have eyes in their heads, have no other refuge but to wink hard, that they may not be sensible of their danger.

 

 And-so much for that: Now if you please I will proceed; In the second place there is (as you well observed) another sort of men, who though they are not so refractory and contumacious as to defy the whole art of physic, (as a perfect cheat,) yet will apply themselves only to quacks and mountebanks; who, instead of curing the present infirmities, by unskillful management, render them more dangerous and intolerable. So it is in religion, there are those who do not abandon themselves to desperate Atheism, nor cast off all care of religion, but find they cannot be at ease without some provision for another world; yet (not falling into the hands of those that were able to principle them right) they entertain such imperfect and inconsistent notions of religion, as can afford them no solid consolation. And this is a second cause' why the world is so uncomfortable, notwithstanding all the relief that religion may give.

 

 As for example: Suppose a man believes there is a God; yet if he look upon hint under the notion of a cruel and unrelenting tyrant, governed by mere will, and who aims at nothing but the securing and greatening his own power, and consequently is so far unconcerned for any of his creatures, that it is all one to him whether they be saved or damned eternally; you will easily grant, that the belief of such a Goes cannot be very comfortable, since a man cannot think of him, nor much less exercise any act of devotion towards him without horror and affrightment.

 

 Or, again, suppose a man should entertain a more kindly notion of Goo, but yet find himself perfectly at a loss how to please the Divine Majesty, in regard he knows of no declaration of his will that he has made, (because he either never heard of, or doth not believe, the Holy Scriptures,) it is impossible but a devout mind in this case must be very much perplexed and uneasy; and the more devout the man is, the more will his perplexity be, in regard that when he has done all he can to please God, he cannot rest satisfied, whether he has served or disserved him all the while; which in a great measure was the condition of the gentile world, for lack of Divine Revelation and therefore they were necessitated in their devotions to make use of abundance of various rites in hopes that if one sort of them missed, the other might hit to be acceptable to the Deity; and when all was done, they were not sure that either, or any of them, was agreeable to his mind: therefore their devotion must needs be attended with panic fears and uncomfortable apprehensions.

 

 Farther, let, us suppose a man had some intimations of the divine will, as to matter of fact, but yet was under a dispensation which (at least in the letter of it) consisted mainly of nice and curious observances; such as the abstaining from such or such meats; the performing such or such rites and ceremonies (which was the case of the superstitious Jews, as it is also of a sort of degenerate Christians;) now it is plain that this state of religion must needs be very uncomfortable also; because a man must of necessity drag on heavily where his reason doth not go before him, and his judgment is not convinced- of the goodness and excellency of those observances, as well as the necessity of them.

 

 Such principles of religion as any of the aforementioned, must needs be very uncomfortable but all these, BIOPHILUS, are as manifestly false, as they are sadly melancholy, and therefore it is not any defect in religion that the spirits of men are uncomfortable, but the fault of those bad notions they have taken up, instead of the true principles of religion. And so much for that second sort of men.

 

 BIOPH. I am wonderfully pleased with this last discourse of yours, in which you have not more demonstrated the uncomfortable ness, than exposed the absurdity of a great number of religionists. I must tell you, it makes as much against yourself as any of them, so far as concerns the point in hand. For after all it is undeniable, that some men, of very different persuasions, are as cheerful in their several ways one as the other: Now, forasmuch as these cannot all be true, in regard they contradict each other, doth it not follow, that the comfortableness of men's spirits doth not depend merely upon religion, but upon something else

 

 SEBAST. In truth you follow me very close; yet I have two or three things to say, which, I do not doubt, will acquit me in what I have said, and hope may satisfy you.

 

 First, it is to be considered, that a man may be sound in his principles of religion, and right for the main, who yet may differ from other men, and perhaps from the truth too, so much as to make him be reputed of a different religion; yet, notwithstanding those great principles which he is sound in, and that honest zeal he shows in the prosecution of them, will enable him to live very comfortably; for fervent devotion will cover a multitude of errors as well as charity doth u a multitude of sins. "And this, it is to be hoped, is the condition of a great many well-meaning but deluded people. Again, Secondly, it is observable in this case, that many warm themselves by "sparks of their own kindling," and are heated more by their own motion than by the grounds and causes of it zeal warms the blood, and whatsoever warms, in some measure, comforts too; insomuch that some men of such opinions, as -in the consequences of them tend to hell, are yet raised up to heaven by the power of a heated fancy.

 

 But after all, you must remember, (what I said before,) that truth is truth, and dream is dream. My meaning is, the man of a mighty zeal in his way, may please himself, (whatever his principles be,) but it is only the man of sound principles of religion, that can be truly, and understandingly, and constantly, comfortable.

 

 And now I suppose I may come to the third and last sort of men which disparage religion, (just as an unruly patient discredits his physician,) namely, those who, though they have right notions of religion, yet live carelessly, and are by no means answerable to their principles in the conduct of their lives.

 

 Now it can be no wonder, nor any slander to religion, that such men who live wickedly, should be uncomfortable in their spirits; for we may as well expect to warm ourselves by a glow-worm, or a painted fire, as that any man's heart should be truly cheerful by the advantage of a religion which consists only in notion. Nay, it would be a wonder if such a man should not be often melancholy, as lying under the lashes of his own conscience. And this is so far from reflecting any dishonor upon religion, that it is a mighty vindication of the truth and power of it, when a man's own heart shall revenge upon him his contempt of her dictates and sentiments.

 

 But now, take a man who to right principles joins a holy life, and (as there is all the reason in the world for it, so) it is a thousand to one but he lives comfortably. And thus I think I have fully acquitted myself of your prime objection against the comfortableness of religion.

 

 BIOPH. I confess, SEBASTIAN, you have spoken a great deal of reason, but yet, perhaps you are not so clearly come off as you imagine; for I have still to object, that many men of your principles, and who carry it sometimes with full sail of joy and courage, yet at other times are not able to maintain this tide, but flag, and are as much down as other men; nay, do you not observe that there are men in the world, whose principles I know you will allow, and withal, whose lives you cannot blame, and yet these very men shall be remarkably uncomfortable, and no men fuller of complaints than they. Therefore, it seems religion is neither such a stable principle of comfort, nor such a general remedy of the troubles of life, as is pretended: If you can reconcile this with your former assertions, I shall then be forced to yield you the' cause.

 

 SEBAST. It is true, that sometimes those who seem to have all the advantages of religion, are, notwithstanding, uncomfortable under them, and yet this may be no impeachment either of the truth, or of the efficacy of those principles: for this may come to pass upon several other accounts, as, namely:-

 

 In the first place, it may -be, that he in whose life we ,can observe no blemish, may, notwithstanding, be justly charged by his own conscience for several such miscarriages as may well make him uneasy, until he has made his peace with God and himself again. Now you must not impute this to the defect of consolation in religion, but to the man's own defect of piety: for whensoever we see a man troubled for violating the rules of his religion, we have a kind of sensible experiment of the great reality and mighty power of it; and this may happen, though you see not the causes of it.

 

 Again: It may be, the person who now lives very virtuously, has formerly been a great sinner:. and now, though he has made his peace with GOD, and so there is nothing justly to interrupt his comfort; yet, as often as he reflects upon the heinousness of-his former miscarriages, no wonder if the briskness of his spirit be abated, if it be but by the consideration of the danger he has escaped.

 

 Again: It may happen, that he who is not conscious to himself of any guilt which should deject his confidence towards God, yet, by the malicious artifice of the great enemy of mankind, may have such frightful fancies raised in his head, as may much discompose him for the present, until by prayer, and the grace of GOD, he overcomes them.

 

 Moreover, sometimes, when all is well within, and a man's own heart doth not accuse him, yet it may happen that outward afflictions may be so -sharp, that, for a time, even -a good man's spirits may be disordered, until he recollect himself, and Samson-like, shake off those Philistines that are upon him; I mean, until he rally the forces of his reason, or rat-her, until by faith he take sanctuary in the impregnable fortress of religion, and there be securely weathers out the storm, and all becomes serene and calm again.

 

But after all, allowance must still be made for an unhappy temper of body; for it must be remembered, that religion is a medicine of the soul, and not for bodily diseases. You know the intimate correspondence between those two inmates, soul and body, which is such, that like HIPPOCRATES'S twins, one of them cannot well enjoy itself, if the other be in disorder. Do but consider how exceeding difficult it is to maintain the rate of a man's common conversation, when the body is but a little sickly and discomposed. And then, how can you imagine but that there will be an unevenness of temper in a melancholy man's deportment, notwithstanding that the comforts of religion should be as solid and stable as I have represented them to be

 

 BIOPH. But by your leave, Sir, I understood you that there was such a catholic antidote of all sorrow to be found in religion, that your pious man could never have been sad any more; neither outward accidents could discompose him, nor bodily infirmities interrupt his enjoyments.

 

 SEBAST. Sure, BIOPHILUS, you did not think I took every good man to become a god, or the powers of religion to be so omnipotent, as that because they can recreate a man's spirits, they should therefore make him entirely another creature. You might as well imagine I asserted that this spiritual remedy should preserve men from dying, as from being sick or melancholy, when their constitution is prone to it. For although by reason of the near relation between soul and body, it is not to be doubted but the comforts of the mind may, in a good measure, cheer the bodily spirits; yet on the other side, it is to be expected that the body will have its influence reciprocally; and when it is infirm, will depress and clog the mind that it, shall be sensible of the burthen, and move the less briskly in its course. In short, the business between the soul and body stands thus As, on the one hand, the body can affect the mind so far as to retard its motion, and check its flight, but not so as altogether to hinder them; on the other hand, the mind (if that be comfortable) comforts and refreshes the bodily spirits; but is not able entirely to alter them: for temper will be temper, and melancholy will be melancholy still.

 

 That, therefore, which I assert, and which the common experience of pious men attests, is this, That there are never-failing springs of consolation in religion, provided

 

the issues of them be not obstructed by some or other of the aforesaid occasions.

 

 PHIL. There is one thing runs in my thoughts, concerning which I would gladly ask your opinion.

 

 I have observed several Divines, amongst the causes of perplexity and uncomfortableness of good men, to reckon one, of which you have hitherto taken no notice; namely, the case of desertion, which they define to be " when GOD withdraws himself arbitrarily from such persons for a time, and hides his face from them upon the sole account of his prerogative, or some reason best known to himself, but without the least guilt or provocation on their parts." Now if this be true, it may then not only happen that the very best, and also the most cheerful men naturally, may be very uncomfortable; but the very state of spiritual comfort will be very uncertain and fluctuating; and, which is worst of all, there will be a disease without a remedy; a case that admits of no consolation. For what can all counsels and discourses, or all the exercises of faith or reason avail against a peremptory act of GOD

 

 SEBAST. It is very true, PHILANDER, as you observe, there has been such a notion broached, and the effects and consequences have been bad enough; for besides what you have alleged, under the pretence hereof, some have been so abused as to indulge their own humor, and, as JONAS said, "be did well to be angry;" so they fancy they ought to be melancholy, when GOD (as they imagine) sets himself against them, and they thereby are tempted to think hardly of the Divine Majesty, as if he was a great tyrant, who took pleasure in the complaints of his creatures; and, which is worse than that, (if worse can be,) sometimes evil men get this notion by the end; and then, whensoever their wicked lives render their consciences uneasy to them, they presently conceit it may be only the withdrawing of the Divine favor from them; and how can they help it, since it is the case of good men to be so dealt with

 

 But what ground there is for this, I cannot imagine. It is true, we ought not to dispute the Divine Prerogative, or what he may do if he pleases: for we find it dangerous to take upon us to limit the prerogative of earthly princes; and if they may have reasons for such things as we do not understand, much more has God, whose wisdom is infinite and unsearchable: Therefore, not to define what God may or may not do, it is plain that there is no foundation in Holy Scripture, (which is the declaration of his will,) to think he will take such a course as this; and besides, it seems inconsistent with his sincerity and goodness, and can by no means be reconciled with that settled and immoveable delight, he declares himself to take in good men, that he should play fast and loose with them, or (as some have rudely expressed it) play at bo-peep with his children.

 

 No, PHILANDER, assure yourself, Infinite Goodness will not disguise itself, and put on a frightful vizard merely to scare his weak children; so far from that, contrariwise, so long as men continue constant, loyal, and dutiful towards him, he will be unchangeable in his favor, and constantly shine out upon them in the bright beams of love and kindness: and if it shall happen that the melancholy of men's constitution shall rise up in such black fumes, as not only to cloud their minds, but that (consequently thereof) they may entertain dismal apprehensions of him; yet he is ready to assist and comfort them by his HOLY SPIRIT, if he be devoutly applied to: But to be sure he will never exasperate the condition of a sincerely good man by any unprovoked act of his own. He has told us, " He will not break a bruised reed, nor quench smoking flax;" (Matt. 12: 2O;) and that, "if men draw nigh to him, he will draw nigh to them: " (James 4: 8:) And he neither needs it, nor is inclined to try experiments upon poor melancholy men. Let us have a care, therefore, of charging the effects of our own changeable humor (either of body or mind) upon the unchangeable GOD; for so long as we walk by the light of his word, we may live under the light of his countenance, if (at least) our own melancholy interpose not, and eclipse it to us: and we may upon those terms, in a good measure, enjoy heaven upon earth; we may be as bold as lions, as cheerful as angels; in a word, as full of joy as our hearts can hold for the principles of religion will bear all this out; and God will never interrupt the efficacy of them.

 

 PHIL. O blessed, for ever blessed be the Divine goodness I and GOD's blessing on your heart, SEBASTIAN, for the good report and assurance you have given us of it. And now, friends, why should we not be comfortable Have we not a God, who is a just and a faithful Creator, a wise and benign Being, that is tender of, and exorable towards his creatures; how then can we choose but love him, and delight in him

 

 Has not his Divine Majesty made his mind so well known to us, that we cannot be to seek what will please him, but may go on cheerfully in the course of our duty without distrust or scruple And can we doubt his constancy to himself, and to that declaration he has made of his will, that we should suspect the end if we use the means; since we may read our own' destiny before-hand, and anticipate the sentence of the great day Are not all his laws so just and rational, that they agree with the very sense of our own mind, so that "his service is perfect freedom " Forasmuch as, in a proper sense, we are governed by our own laws, those of the Gospel being enacted in our own consciences.

 

 And are we not satisfied that we shall be so far from losing our labor in religion, that we have the fullest assurance, that in reward of faithful serving GOD in this life, we shall after death be raised up again, and live for ever and ever with him in his kingdom of heaven Surely all this together is sufficient to make us fervent and hearty in the exercise of religion, and comfortable in our spirits.

 

 SEBAST. I add to what you have said, why should we be afraid to be alone, or in the dark, since we believe God is every where, and, in the greatest solitude, will afford us the comfortable effects of his presence and providence Or why should we be under dreadful apprehensions of the power of evil spirits upon us, seeing we are convinced "that greater is He that is with us, than he that is in the world "

 

 Why should we be dejected at worldly losses, when we know that "in heaven we have a more enduring substance." Why should we be dismayed at the infliction of any pain upon our bodies, either by the hand of God in a violent disease, or by the cruelty of men; since God has promised " that no temptation shall overtake us, but what we shall be able to bear." That is, he both can, and will, either abate the torments, or support us under them.

 

 In a word, what need we be afraid of death itself, since it cannot kill the soul, and is no more, but only a dark passage to a kingdom of light and glory.

 

 BIOPH. You talk bravely, gentlemen; but I protest I am amazed at you, for to this very day I never looked upon religion as any other than an austere and melancholy course of life, and the most undesirable thing in the whole world.

 

 PHIL. Tell me then, BIOPHILUS, what is comfortable, if religion be melancholy Is the world so very comfortable, when you know it, is full of nothing but care and folly, vexation and disappointment Is sin so comfortable, which (after the commission of it) perpetually dogs a man with guilt, and ordinarily disorders his fortunes, impairs his health, and cows and debases his spirit Or is death so comfortable a thing, which represents to a man nothing but a horrible pit of darkness, and the land of oblivion.

 

 What, I say, can be comfortable, if that be not so, which is the only remedy against all the former For it is plain that nothing but the hopes of a better world at last, can enable a man to enjoy himself tolerably in this present; and nothing but eternal life is a sufficient antidote against the fears of death: and all these are the effects and benefits of religion. Therefore if this be uncomfortable, man must needs be the most unhappy being in the whole world. For though other creatures are in some sort fellow sufferers in the common calamity of this world; yet besides that their share is ordinarily not so great as his, it is evident that they fear nothing for the future, but only feel the present evil, and they have no restraint upon them from what they desire, nor any remorse for what they have done; therefore if man have not the glory of his conscience when he does well, to set against the checks of it when he does amiss; and if he have not hopes to counterbalance his fears, and a reward hereafter for his self-denial at present, his condition is far the worst of any creature in the world. Therefore, as I said, religion is the peculiar concern, and singular advantage, as that which only can repair all his misfortunes.

 

 SEBAST. But I pray, BIOPHILUS, what do you apprehend in religion, that can make it look so melancholy to you Is it because it sets a GOD before you, than which nothing can be more desirable "For GOD is love," is "rich in goodness," nay, goodness itself; insomuch, that if it were possible any thing in the universe should be more good than he, that would be GOD. He made man, preserves him, loves him, delights in him, designs him to live eternally with himself. In a word, all imaginable comfort is so wrapped up in this one word, GOD, that I remember a brave Heathen said, "He would not be willing to live a day in the world, if he thought there was not a God in it.

 

 It may be, you will say, this God is just and holy, and jealous of his honor, and will revenge himself upon stub born and incorrigible sinners: All this is true, but what

 

need you be one of those that provoke him And then, the more just and holier he is, the better and more comfortable it is for you; or if you have offended him heretofore, yet if you repent and turn to him, he is so exorable and pitiful, that no tender parent has more yearning bowels, or more open arms to receive his prodigal and lost son, returning home to him, than God has towards penitent sinners.

 

 Will you object the self-denials required by religion, as that a man must restrain himself of many things that are pleasant to flesh and blood It is true there are such things required, but they are not so many as that a man may not live very pleasantly notwithstanding; and if they were more than they are, who would not comply with them to obtain the favor of such a God, and to gain eternal life.

 

 I am sure you cannot object against the direct and positive duties of religion, such as prayers and praises to GOD, reading and meditating on his word, or acts of beneficence and charity towards mankind; for there is nothing more pleasant, nothing more delicious than these, if they be rightly understood. So that, in short, it is no better than a mere slander to call religion uncomfortable, and such as could proceed from nothing but the Devil himself; or if from men, it must be such as had never tried it, nor were resolved ever to do so.

 

 BIOPH. You must pardon me, gentlemen; I tell you plainly, I never felt any of these comforts of religion which you speak of.

 

 PHIL. Aye, there is the business: now you have said all. Here hes the bottom of all the scandalous reports of religion, as if it was a sour, melancholy thing. Try it, BIOPHILUS, and you will quickly confute yourself; experience will do it for you. You used to say, seeing is believing; now in GOD's name make the experiment; "taste and see how good the Lo RD is: " and let me tell you this, for your encouragement, There were never yet any who effectually made the experiment and were disappointed.

 

 BIOPH. But, what do you mean by trying' What would you have me to do I should be very glad to live comfortably.

 

 PHIL. By trying, we mean no more but this: Apply yourself in earnest to the knowledge and practice of religion; the very first step to which is gravity and seriousness of spirit. It was, I remember, the short and weighty counsel of the great HUGO GROTIUS, when he lay on his death bed, to some about him, who asked his advice; ' Be serious,' said he, ' and your work is half done.' Do not please yourself in a trifling pretence to extraordinary sagacity in finding flaws in so weighty a concern as this; but be willing to believe, and then resolve to live up to the convictions of your conscience, and you will find the comfort of so doing.

 

 SEBAST. As soon as you set your face towards heaven, you shall find your mind easy, and your spirits cheered with an admirable serenity; and when, in consequence of such beginning, you worship GOD devoutly, you will find a comfort in his presence, and a sweet sense of him then you will feel a power in your mind to resist all kinds of sin, and that will be followed with an unspeakable pleasure in victory over your passions, and corrupt inclinations, and thenceforward you shall be able to look towards the other world with hope and desire; and then, finally, the HOLY SPIRIT will come into your soul, and "seal you to the day of redemption," and give you such a relish of the glories above, that you shall despise the present world, and be able to look through the dark vault of death, and take a view of heaven.

 

 BIOPH. But, I pray, what religion must a man be of, that he may make this experiment.

 

 SEBAST. Nay, sure enough it must be the old religion, or you will lose your labor. The way to peace of conscience and spiritual joy,, is not to be of such an opinion, sect, or party; or to be zealous of such a mode or ceremony but to have a firm faith in GOD, to live a holy and devout life; this is the old religion, truly so called; for it is as old as the Gospel itself; and consequently, is the tried way to solid consolation. But, I pray, upon this occasion, give me leave to ask you a bold question What religion are you of at present

 

 BIOPH. It is a free question, I confess; but (knowing whom I am amongst) I will give you as free an answer. Truly, SEBASTIAN, I am of no religion at all that I know of, unless you make me to be of one.

 

 PHIL. Then I do not wonder you are such a stranger to the comforts of religion; for it seems all was romance to you: but I hope, however, you do not look upon it as a piece of gallantry to be without religion. Take heed of that, for God will not be mocked.

 

 BIOPH. You see I do not, PHILANDER; but I know on the other side, you would not have me dissemble and play the hypocrite neither; and therefore I have told you the very truth.

 

 SEBAST. I pray give me leave to inquire how you came to be in this condition I am confident you have not drowned your religion in drink; (as some have done;) for I take you to be a wiser man, and more careful of your life and health; and I am as confident that you have not carelessly lost it in your travels in foreign countries, as some young gentlemen have done. What then has the hypocrisy of some high pretenders made you ashamed of it Or (which has been very common in this age) have you run a wild round through all opinions, until at last, being come to the point you set out from, you concluded, according to the proverb, ' As good never a whit as never the better '

 

 BIOPH. You can never find. what was never lost; nor can I have lost what I never had. I tell you again, I neither have, nor ever had any religion that I know of.

 

 PHIL. You might have spared those last words; for I will undertake for you, you have no religion indeed, if you do not know of it. Religion is not like a disease, to be caught before we are aware; nor can it be imposed upon us without our consent and privity. Besides it is so active a principle, that it will discover itself, and a maim way as well carry fire in his bosom and not be burned, as harry religion in his heart, and not be sensible of it.

 

 SEBAST. You increase my wonder: I am at a loss how this could come to pass. Did you grow like a mushroom out of the earth Or what was the manner of your education

 

 BIOPH. My birth, SEBASTIAN, was, I suppose, like other men's; but perhaps my breeding might have something peculiar in it; for, amongst other things that happened to me, it fell out that one of those persons who should especially have taken care of my institution, was of the opinion, that the SPIRIT of God (as his phrase was) must immediately and by himself, effect all the good that is in any man; and therefore he concluded, it would not only be lost labor, but a derogation from the grace of God, to make use of any means, or to be much concerned about my education. And then, for the rest of them to whom I was committed in my minority, they were great politicians, and pretended they should consult my interest most, by keeping me disengaged from any party in religion; that so I might be always at liberty to join myself with that which should prove most to my temporal advantage.

 

 SEBAST. Here was a beginning bad enough, I confess; but when you grew a man, and became at your own disposal, what kept you unresolved in this great affair

 

 BIOPH. My setting out in the world, fell about the late times of, public distraction; and then I observed there were so many religions, that it was not easy to resolve which to choose.

 

 SEBAST. Nay, BIOPHILUS, there you was wanting to yourself, as much as your guardians had been wanting to you before; for the more disputes concerning religion there are in the world, it is the greater probability that there is at least some general truth amongst them, though many of the particulars must needs be mistaken. Besides, if you had considered that matter diligently, you would have found that few or none of those disputes were about the fundamentals of religion, but only about certain notions, or modes and forms; and you mights have abstracted from them, and been a good Christian nevertheless.

 

 BIOPH. It may be so, and I confess I had sometimes such thoughts; but then, whenever I began to look that way, there were those brisk young men about me, who, observing me to grow a little serious, would preach to me at this rate: What, BIOPHILUS, do you grow weary of your liberty Do you not know there are bonds iii religion as well as in matrimony Are you not aware how it restrains the pleasures of life, and damps all jollity If once you let loose that thing called conscience, it will cost you -a great deal of art and pains to hamper it again. Do but observe, say they, that whensoever any man comes under the power of religion, it abates his courage, and renders him tame and sheepish, liable to be affronted by every body. In a word, said they, all that they call the fear of GOD, and concern for another world, is nothing but ignorance, pedantry, or hypocrisy.

 

 PHIL. What pity it is that such men, as you speak of, were not condemned to wear fools' coats; or that they have not some mark set upon them, that men might avoid diem as lepers, or men infected with some such loathsome and contagious disease.

 

 SEBAST. BIOPHILUS speaks like a man of sense and ingenuity; and Give me leave to say, Sir, I cannot tell whether I ought more to applaud the sagacity of your mind, or to deplore the unhappiness of your education and acquaintance: it is a thousand pities the former should he under the fatal prejudices of the latter; and I should account nothing to have befallen me in my whole life more desirable, than an opportunity of rescuing such a temper from such a calamity. But, I pray, with the same ingenuity, tell me, have you gone away currently with this unconcernedness for religion Have you not sometimes had conflicts within yourself

 

 BIOPH. I confess I have; for sometimes, whereas I could not but observe this business, religion, to be the great theme of the world; I mean, to be that which the generality of mankind are solicitous about; surely, thought I, these men believe themselves, and then, why should I make the adventure alone It may become me in prudence to have some concern about it too; especially when I considered that I must shortly die, and it was impossible for me to be certain what might or might not come afterward, and what strange revolutions might succeed my going off the stage of this world, within the compass of that vast tract of time which I was likely to leave behind me. Hereupon, me thought, it became me in discretion to provide for the worst. To all which I must add, that I have at several times had unaccountable misgivings of heart, which not a little startled me for the present; but then, I endeavored to check them as the effects of melancholy and mere panic fears; notwithstanding, in spite of my heart, they would return upon me, and gave me suspicion that they might have some other ground than I was aware of.

 

 SEBAST. Well, and would not these things prevail upon you to a serious consideration of religion

 

 BIOPH. No truly, they did not; for I had other thoughts came into my mind, which seemed to counterbalance the former. I suspected my suspicions, and fell in doubt whether those odd kind of bodings and presages of my own mind, which I told you of; concerning God and a future state, might not proceed from the mere weakness of human nature; or from ignorance, melancholy, or natural superstition, without any just and reasonable foundation. And then, as for those apprehensions of religion, which I observed to be generally in other men, I suspected the arts of politicians, who might have design to cheat others into those persuasions which they had no sense of themselves. Upon such considerations as these, I was inclined, on the other side, not to give myself any trouble about what seemed so dark and uncertain.

 

 SEBAST. I pity you with all my heart, BIOPHILUS; and yet my wonder is almost equal to my pity, that a man of your sagacity should be staggered by such groundless fancies; for in the first place, you cannot but have observed, that many of the shrewdest men in the world are as much under an awful sense of religion, as the most easy and injudicious. Nay, ordinarily, the more throughly learned and wise any omen are, the more hearty they are in this affair. From whence you cannot (without doing violence to your discretion) but conclude, that religion is far from being the mere effect of ignorance and imposture; whatever some shatter brained and debauched persons would fain-persuade themselves and others.

 

 And then, in the second place,, when you consider that the most courageous do as well take sanctuary in religion, and embrace it as ardently as the most cowardly; you will have no more reason to impute the rise of piety to pusillanimity, than you had before to charge it upon folly and ignorance, but must be forced to conclude this great business to be more deeply founded, and to depend upon higher causes.

 

 BIOPH. You say well, Sir, and I should be apt to think so too, if I could learn what those higher causes are: and herein I would gladly have your advice, who (as I am persuaded) have too great judgment to be led away with popular errors. Tell me therefore, I beseech you, into what real causes I ought to resolve, either those private impressions of religion I have found in myself, or those more public effects of it, which I have observed in others.

 

 SEBAST. Play the man; BIOPHILUS, and judge with yourself,- into what causes should you, or can you, resolve such effects, but those that are as real and substantial as the effects themselves; namely, the plain reasonableness of that thing (called religion) approving itself to the inward sense of your own mind; there is a natural impress of religion, which GOD has left upon the consciences of men, which is, as it were, the internal sense of the soul. And then, when the reason reflects also upon this, weighing and estimating the reasons for it, and the objections against it, together with the importance of the thing, IT pronounces it the most necessary concern of mankind.

 

 BIOPH. But if you will make me your disciple, I must entreat you to deal more particularly with me, and to open the foundations of the thing in question. But I pray deal plainly and rationally with me, seeing otherwise, if I should become your convert, you will have but little credit by me, since, in that case, my zeal would be without knowledge. Therefore pray make me to understand, that religion is as reasonable in itself, as you have represented it to be important in its consequences.,

 

 SEBAST. I have gone more than half way in that already; for having showed you the consequence of religion to be such, that a man can neither live nor die comfortably without it, there is all the reason in the world for it; for he that proves a think to be necessary, does more than prove it to be real.

 

 BIOPH. That was a side-blow which I did not expect, I confess.

 

 SEBAST. But it is a home-thrust; for it obliges you, as you are a man, and pretend either to prudence or self-love, to apply yourself seriously to this affair; nay, if there should be wanting such other proofs as you require, still you will acknowledge, that self preservation is the first and surest principle in nature; and sure that is good proof, which proves that man to be worse than a fool who does not follow it.

 

 BIOPH. That is home indeed: but let me tell you, it is one of my greatest prejudices against religion, that the most zealous defenders of it talk of probable arguments, and prudential. considerations. Now, for my part, I require direct proofs, and nothing less will satisfy me.

 

 SEBAST. There is one thing I would ask first, that you will be willing to believe religion, if you see reason for it.

 

 BIOPH. That is not an ingenuous demand, SEBASTIAN, if I understand you for whilst you seem to ask my consent, you plainly beg your cause; whereas you are to prove it with that evidence, which will make me believe it, whether I will or no.

 

 SEBAST. There it is now that makes the necessity of my demand apparent; for it is a mighty mistake, BIOPHILUS, to think that any arguments whatsoever can be sufficient to make a man believe, whether he will or no. It is a question whether ALMIGHTY GOD can make man believe against his will; indeed it seems a contradiction to suppose it. He has given men freedom of will, and a put them in the hand of their own counsel, bid them choose life or death;" by which means, as wise and good men have the comfort to co-operate towards their own happiness, so perverse and obstinate men have the shame and remorse of being guilty of their own destruction. For when both parties have light to guide them, and motives and arguments to persuade them, the one ingenuously complies, but the other willfully refuses, and employs the prerogative of his nature both against GOD and his own soul.

 

 But in a human way it is plainly impossible; for if a man have taken up his post, which he resolves to maintain, it is not in the power of reason to remove him from it. The will is immoveable by any thing but itself, and reason is no equal match for it. Now this is the case of a great part of the adversaries to religion, and this is the main disadvantage of its cause, that such men have no mind it should be true, and then, *; they will hold the conclusion in spite of the premises. And this is the reason why I require of you to be willing to believe, before I begin my argument; not that I require you should believe without proof; but that you should not oppose prejudice to my argument, but be true to your reason, and to the evidence that shall be given.

 

 BIOPH. If that be all you mean, it is granted also; and now that you have done with your cautions, before you enter upon the business, I must ask one thing of you; namely; that you will not be too prolix in your arguments.

 

 SEBAST. Indeed, BIOPHILUS, if I had thought of it, I ought to have cautioned against that very thing which you now demand; for this is another capital mistake in those men that are strangers to these matters. They expect to jump into the full understanding of religion presently, whensoever they make it the subject' of their, discourse; and if it be not decided in one syllogism or two, they immediately begin a triumph. I confess to you, that GOD, out of compassion to mankind, has discovered a short cut over to the other world; I mean, a very compendious way to a full knowledge of, and satisfaction in, all the mysteries of religion; and that is by the Holy Scripture, which he devised on purpose, because some men's capacities will not reach to a long argument, and the occasions and busy life of others will not give them leisure to attend the laborious process of reason. But as you reject that, and will not permit God to judge you, but will be your own judge in the case, therefore you must have patience in this way of probation you put me upon. For if a man will take nothing for current coin, but what he has wrought out of the ore himself, nor believe any thing to be truth but what he has drawn out of the depth by his own skill and strength, he must be content to take a great deal of pains, and be at the expense of a great deal of time, before he can arrive at satisfaction: however, I hope you shall have no occasion to accuse me of tediousness in this argument.

 

 BIOPH. You speak reason, I confess; and I yield you this, together with all your other preliminaries. Now therefore to the business.

 

 SEBAST. Know then, BIOPHILUS, (without any farther preface,) that all this great fabric of religion stands upon these three pillars, viz.

 

 First, That there is a Gov, as the object of devotion and religious observance.

 

 Secondly, That this GOD exercises a Providence over his creatures, and mankind especially; and so by observing how they carry themselves towards him, and consequently being able to reward or punish them, lays an obligation upon them to observe and worship him.

 

 Thirdly, That man is a subject capable of such an obligation, and of paying such devotion and observance to the Deity.

 

 Mistake me not; I say, upon all these three in conjunction doth the truth and reason of religion depend: but if any one of them were wanting, religion would vanish into a romance, and come to nothing.

 

 For, first, if there was no GOD, it would not only be certain that there is nothing to whom religion could be due; but it would be as certain that there could be no Providence, nor other consideration, to enforce it; and then let the constitution of mankind be as capable of noble performances as can be imagined, yet there could be no ground nor foundation of religion.

 

 Again, if we should acknowledge the being of a GOD, and him also fit to be worshipped; yet if there be no Providence, so that this GOD doth not mind whether men serve or disserve him, and consequently could not reward or punish accordingly; though it might be fancied a decent. thing for all creatures to pay some kind of homage to so excellent a Being, yet there can be no danger to them if they do not; so, consequently, no sufficient obligation upon them to perform it.

 

 And lastly, if there be both a GOD and a Providence acknowledged, and consequently an obligation to religion; yet if man be not a subject capable of it,-that is, if either he has it not in his power to know GOD's will, or it is not in his choice to serve or disserve him, the business of religion cannot concern him, nor can it be expected from him. But if all these three things prove certainly true, then is religion immoveable as the foundations of heaven and earth. For the first proposition describes the object, the third qualifies the subject, and the second hex's the obligation of religion, which is all that can be required in the case.

 

 BIOPH. The pinch of the business therefore lies in the proof of those three assertions; and if you are able to make out the truth of them severally, I must be a proselyte; there is no help for it. But the first I allow,-that there is a Gon. Prove the second if you can.

 

 SEBAST. That there is a Providence, I doubt not to convince any considerate man of, these two ways, 

 

 1. From the causes and reasons of it.

 

 2. From the visible effects of it.

 

 In the first place, there is very great reason to assure one's self that GOD exercises a providence over the world, from the consideration of those perfections which appear to be in the Divine Nature, namely, infinite wisdom and power; both which we must necessarily ascribe to him, whom we allow to be the Creator of the world. Now there can be no reason to doubt whether it be in his power to look over and mind all the passages of the world, when we have acknowledged his power to have been sufficient to give beginning to that which was not, and to make a world out of nothing, which is incomparably the more difficult province.

 

 And then, if we are satisfied that such a providence is not impossible, the same wisdom which joined with his power in making the world, will oblige him to exert himself in the management of it when he has made it. For it is not conceivable that a wise Being should wholly abandon that piece of workmanship, which he has made the greatest demonstration of art and skill in the contrivance of. Such a supine negligence as this is not easily to be suspected in the meanest of intelligible beings, and therefore there can be no color of reason that the most perfect of Beings should be thought guilty of it.

 

This I take to be a sufficient argument of a providence between you and me, now that you acknowledge a God and Creator of the world; but I will not insist upon it, because I promised to give such evidence of this point, as should at the same time (and a majori, as they say) conclude the former principle also: I mean, that there is a God.

 

 And therefore I shall now come to the second way of probation, ziz., from the visible effects of a providence. But, you remember, I have already prevented myself herein, by what passed between us in a former Conference, where I showed, at large, the evident footsteps of providence in his managing or overruling the ordinary course of nature in two remarkable instances, viz.: 1. In the prophecies and predictions of things to come, which have been so admirably verified in the event, as must argue an all-seeing eye over all the motions of second causes. And, 2. In the miracles that have been wrought in the several ages of the world, wherein the Divine Majesty has apparently interposed, and either suspended or overruled, heightened or accelerated, the motion and force of natural causes, and by both together given proof of his being, and of his minding the affairs of the world.

 

 I assure myself I shall not need to repeat that argument at large, but may trust your memory for it; only if now, upon so long consideration, you have any thing material to object, I am ready to make good what I have asserted