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return upon us with double Strength: Hell and Damnation will conftantly play before our Eyes, and not suffer the least Glimpse of Comfort to enter, nor leave us Courage to repent of our Sins, or to fly to our last and only Hope, the Mercy of God. the Truth of what I say, witness the latest and the bittereft Hours of dying Sinners! Hours of Woe and Despair! in which the Soul, conscious of its own Deferts, anticipates the Pains of Hell, and fuffers the very Torments of the Damned! in which it feels the Worm which never dies beginning to gnaw, and lies expiring amidst the Terrors of Guilt, without Power either to think of God, or to forget Him! So that all that Sinners get by forming to themselves Refolutions of Unbelief (for that I take to be the true Cafe of fuch Unbelievers as we are now speaking of) is to render their Cafe more defperate; to cut off all Retreat to the Mercy of God, when the Day of their Distress overtakes them; and to lay up in store for themselves a double Portion of Mifery, both in this Life and that which is to come.

Since then even the Hopes which Sinners conceive from Unbelief in this World, that they shall undisturbedly enjoy the Pleasures

of

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of Vice without fuffering under the Rebukes of their own Minds, are fo very uncertain, fo liable to be diffipated by every cross Accident of Life; fince they cannot alter their Condition, except for the worse, in the Life to come; it muft needs be allowed that Sinners make a very ill Choice for themselves, when they facrifice the Powers of the Mind to the Paffions of the Heart. long as Men retain a Senfe of God and Religion upon their Minds, there is great Hope that fome Time or other Reason will prevail, and extricate the Man from the Mifery of Sin. Good Principles are the Seeds of good Actions: And, though the Seed may be buried under much Rubbish, yet, as long as there is Life in it, there is a reasonable Expectation of seeing Fruit from it fome time or other: But, when Reafon and Understanding are depraved, and as far corrupted as the very Paffions of the Heart; when thus the Blind leads the Blind, what else can we expect, but that both fall into the Ditch?

But Vice is not the only Root from which Infidelity springs; nor are all, who profess themselves Unbelievers, to be charged with uncommon Degrees of Wickedness. Happy

were it for Mankind, were there but one Temptation to one Vice! Common Diligence might then fecure the fingle Pass against the Enemy; whereas now, whilft we guard the moft fufpected Place, the strongest often falls into his Hands: And thus it fometimes happens in the Cafe before us, that, whilst we act with a Superiority to all the Vanities of the World, to all the Allurements and Temptations of bodily Pleasure, Reafon itself is betrayed by the Vanity of our Hearts, and finks under the Pride and Affectation of Knowledge. To know all that can be attained to by our utmost Diligence and Sagacity, to fearch into the hidden Caufes of Things, to examine the Truth and Reality of our Knowledge, is an Ambition worthy of a rational Soul. But all Kinds of laudable Ambition grow to be vicious and despicable, when, instead of pursuing the real Good, which is the true Object, they feek only to make a Shew and an Appearance of it. Thus it is that Ambition for Virtue produces Hypocrify; Ambition for Courage, empty Boaftings and unreasonable Refentments; and, by the fame Rule, Ambition for Learning and Knowledge produces Pedantry and Paradoxes: For he who would defire to

appear to know more than other Men, is ready to contradict the Senfe and Reason of all Men; for the fame Caufe that he who is defirous to be thought to have more Courage than others is ready to quarrel with every Man he meets. And this is a Temptation to which many daily facrifice the Innocence and Integrity of their Minds, whilft they mean little elfe by the Singularity of their Opinions, than to recommend themfelves to the World as Perfons of more than ordinary Difcernment. That this is no unfair Account of the Conduct of foine Unbelievers, will appear by obferving the very different, but equally natural, Workings of the Mind in these two different States of it; whilft it feeks real Knowledge and Truth, and whilst it aims only at the Credit and Reputation of Wisdom: And this will help us likewife in examining ourselves, and in judging whether we act with those impartial Views and Regards to Truth, that all rational Men ought to do.

He who fits down to examine Truth, and search after real Knowledge, will equally fift all his Opinions; will reject none, that he has been long poffeffed of, without good Reafon; will admit no new ones without fufficient

fufficient Authority and Weight of Argument to fupport them. Wherever he discovers Truth, he gains the Satisfaction he aimed at: His Mind acquiefces in it: Nor is he disappointed in the Event of his Labour and Study, when he finds himself at last in the fame Opinion with the reft of the World; with this only Difference, that his Perfuafion is the Effect of Reason, theirs perhaps of Prejudice and Custom; which is a Difference that affords much inward Satiffaction and Peace of Mind, but little or no outward Glory, or Credit of Wisdom and Understanding.

In the other Cafe, when Men aim at being thought wifer and more knowing than others, and labour only to poffefs the World with an Opinion of their Sagacity, they can have no Satisfaction in difcovering the Truth and Reasonableness of any Opinion that is commonly received in the World: For how will they appear wiser than other Men by profeffing to believe what other Men believe as well as they? They can no otherwife fatisfy their Ambition, than by differing from the common Senfe and Reason of Mankind; and the whole Bent of their Mind is to support

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