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Senfes, without proftituting our Reafon; to comfort Nature, without debauching it; and enjoy our Being, not as Animals, but as Men. It will have a proper Influence on our Purfuits, and regulate our most unruly Affections; it will teach us to acquire Wealth without Anxiety, and Honour without Ambition. Under this happy Influence, we shall neither be elevated by Succeffes, nor depreffed by Disappointments.—Such is the Temper of Mind which Religion infuses, and it has vifible Advantages, if confidered only in a rational and philofophical Light.

Indeed it is that Temper of Mind, that Mediocrity of Conduct, if I may so say, which a fhort fo View of the State and Circumstances of our Nature, and of the wife Intention and Appointment of Providence in the Difpofition of them, will immediately fuggeft to us. A thousand Arguments concur to perfuade us, that this Life cannot be confidered with any Propriety in any other Light than that of a State of Probation, or Preparation for another. It will be worth while to attend to fome of the principal. Now if this Life is the Whole of our Existence, how comes it to pass that Happinefs is not attainable in it? If it is not the Whole of our Existence, how comes it to pass that the Generality of Mankind act as if it was attainable? How comes it to pass that the neceffary Belief of

this certain Truth, that it is appointed unto Men to die, fhould not univerfally produce the Effects that might naturally and reasonably be expected from it? What can this be owing to, but Men's Inattention to the plain and true Design of God in implanting in us a Love of this Life, and giving us Appetites, and Faculties capable of it's Enjoyments? For if there was nothing to foften and allay the Apprehenfions of certain Death, if we lived under the perpetual Influence of it's Terrors, we should become inevitably indifposed to all Offices and Duties whatsoever, either as Individuals, or as relative and focial Creatures. Indeed the very human Species would be at an End. God therefore, in the infinite Wisdom of his Providence, has fo ordered this Matter, that though Happiness is confeffedly unattainable here, and every Man is more or lefs born even to Trouble as the Sparks fly upwards, yet Life has it's Sweets under almost every fuppofable Circumftance. No Man, even in Agony, ever wished for Death as the End of Being, but as the Cure of Pain.-But then, on the other hand, it is as certain that Life and all it's Sweets, in their most exquifite Perfection, is inadequate to our Defire of Happiness. The Libertine himself, unless he could fecure Duration to them (which he will not pretend to do) must unavoidably grant that he is only making the best of a bad State. Surely then, if he would reafon

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with himself, his own Conceffion would direct him to the Defire and Expectation of a better, and lead him to conclude, that as it would be ridiculous to deny our natural Appetites in reasonable Gratifications, to renounce the innocent Enjoyment of Life, and in effect never to live, because we must die; fo would it be equally abfurd to devote ourselves to fenfual Gratifications, to be wholly folicitous about worldly Enjoyments and Attainments, and to place real Happiness in acknowledged Uncertainty.

This Temper of Mind then will be abundantly sufficient, I mean generally speaking, for the great Purposes of Chriftianity; it renders needlefs, and even abfurd, the many Burdens, Mortifications, and Aufterities, with which Superftition and Folly have loaded and oppreffed human Nature.― Regularity is Self-denial, and ftrict Temperance the trueft Faft. Corporeal Inflictions, affected Abftinence, and cloistered Solitudes, do not fo properly correct Nature, as deftroy it; they rather incapacitate us for this World, than qualify us for the next; as there can be no Goodness in Cowardice, or Virtue in Inability. True Religion is of an active, generous, and focial Spirit; It fhines before Men, and is confpicuous by good Works: It fights openly and manfully under the Banner of Christ, and, putting on the Armour of God, does not flee from

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the Devil, but refift him. 'Tis true, particular Seasons, and extraordinary Occafions, require Severities from us in folemn and vifible Inftances, and oblige us to more than ufual Expreffions of Penitence and Humiliation.-But if our Affections are fet on Things above by the conftant Performance of religious Duties, and our Members which are on the Earth be mortified by perpetual Restraints, the main Purposes of such Severities are answered, and the principal Benefits arifing from them are derived to others by the Piety and Decency of our Example. And if our Affections be not set on Things above, and our Members be unmortified, all occafional Severities do but mock God, and reproach ourselves; for it is ridiculous to suppose, that the Humiliation of a Day will atone for the Luxury of a Year.

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Nor can the Examples of our Blessed Lord himfelf, and his Apoftles, be with any Propriety alledged against what is here advanced: The glorious Office the former had undertaken, and the important Commiffion he gave the latter to execute, required indeed a more than ordinary Renunciation of the World and it's Enjoyments, and an almoft total Devotion of themselves to the Things pertaining unto the Kingdom of God. However, even these Examples do by no means countenance, and much less prescribe unneceffary Self-punishment,

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ftudied Mortifications, or ftoical Infenfibility. Jefus Chrift took our Nature upon him with all it's Appetites and natural Infirmities; he was without Sins, but not without Paffions; or, as the Apostle expreffes it, he was in all Points tempted like as we are, yet without Sin.-The firft Miracle he wrought at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee, proves him to have been no Enemy to focial Life, and is a kind of Permiffion to us in fuch a free Ufe of God's Creatures as is productive of innocent Mirth, or improving Converfation.-The Concern and Anguish he discovered upon the Death of his Friend Lazarus fhew how fufceptible he was of the fofteft Impreffions; and we may prefume there was no fmall Emotion of Sorrow at his Heart, when Jefus wept.-Nay, he was no Stranger to Paffions of a more tumultuous Nature; he was fometimes affected to a certain Degree of Anger and Indignation; as, when he inveighed against the Scribes and Pharifees; when the Zeal of God's Houfe had eaten him up, and he drove the profane Money-Changers out of the Temple with a Scourge.

-And if we could be made acquainted with all the Particulars of the Lives and Actions of the bleffed Apoftles, though we know them to have been much exercised as the Minifters of God, in Afflictions, in Labours, and Faftings, yet furely we should find them allowing themselves the common Comforts and Conveniencies of Life, as far as was

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