try a thousand ways to weaken the favour of God towards him; and that it was without all peradventure the safest way to prefer an exprefs command, before an uncertain suggestion. That it was below the Almighty to fay and unfay, to forbid, and yet permit, to caution, and yet to connive; to declare his will to day, and countermand it to morrow; and that fuch weaknesses are scarce reconcileable to the temper of a wife Man on Earth, much lefs to the Rules of infinite Wisdom. Had his mind taken a view of fuch arguments as these, and of the uninterrupted profperity and immortality he was promis'd upon his obedience; it's not the charms, or rhetorick, or soft language of a Wife, nor the fubtilty of a Serpent, nor the pretended Omniscience, the Devil flatter'd him withal, would have made him leave that happy state, which the infinite goodness of Heaven had plac'd him in. But while he fuffers the pleasure of a Garden to transport his Soul, and to blind it, fears no ill, no mifchief, no danger among the Rofes and Flowers of Paradife, embraces the deceitful fuggeftion, without examining the cause, the manner, or the end of it, fwallows the fatal bait without chewing, believes a Wife, and a Beast, without confidering the consequence of the fact, and inquires not how God may refent his curiofity, he falls into death and mifery, and drags all his Posterity after him.

Had the Inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha reflected, like rational Men, on the reproofs and admonitions of righteous Lot, ruminated on his paffionate expreffions, taken notice of the Motives he ufed, of the incouragements he alledg'd, of the commiffion he produced, of the authority by which he acted, confider'd the kindness of the Almighty, in fending them fuch a Preacher, and thought with themselves, That fure it could not be the Preachers interest, to fet himself against their vices; That except Conscience, and a Divine Commiffion had prompted him to attempt their Reformation, it was not probable, he would enrage a debauched City against himself, and make himself obnoxious to the fury of the People; that the righteous man fpake nothing but reason, and fought nothing but their good; That God's patience would certainly be tried ere long, and his long-fuffering turn into vengeance; that the fire of their luft would fhortly pull down other fire, and the heat of their unclean defires break into more confuming flames; That fins against Nature made Men worse than Beafts, and for God not to revenge fuch Crimes, would certainly give the World occafion to believe there was no Governour, that took care of fublunary objects, or be a means to destroy Humane Society; That God would not always put up affronts, nor fuffer his methods to reclaim them, to be baffled everlaftingly; That they could not hope to escape God's indignati

on,

on, no more than the Men of the first World, and when their fins were equal, God's Judg ments would overtake them, as well as they. did their Brethren; That God could intend them no harm, by calling them to repentance; and being the great Preferver of Men, could not but defign their Well-being and felicity.

Had they fuffered their thoughts to dwell on fuch truths as thefe, made fuch Confiderations familiar to their Souls, they would have melted and humbled themfelves, and kept back that fire and brimstone, which afterwards confumed them. Want of Confideration made them fecure in fin, and that fecurity prepared them for their devastation.

Indeed, there is no fin almoft, but is committed for want of Confideration. Men confider not what fin is, nor how loathfom it is to that God, who carries them on his wings, as the Eagle doth her young, nor what injury they do to their own Souls, nor what the dreadful effects, and confequences of it are, and that makes them fupine and negligent of their duty.

To give a few inftances: Did the Atheist but look up to Heaven; did his fwinish and bruitish appetite but give him leave to contemplate that glorious Fabrick, the orderly pofition of the Stars, the regular motion of those Celestial Lamps, and the Mathematical contrivance of that curious Globe; how is it poffible

toms,

he could dream of a cafual concurrence of Aor forbear to acknowledge a most wise, most perfect, and most powerful Architect, even that God, who commanded them into being, and still preferves them from decay and

ruine ?

Would he but confider, how things that have a beginning, could not make themselves, unless they were before they were, (which implies a contradiction) and therefore muft certainly be made, and produced at first by fome Supreme caufe, that is Eternal and Omnipotent. Would he but reflect on the univerfal confent of Mankind, how not onely the civiliz'd, but the most barbarous Nations in all Ages, have had a fenfe of a Deity; and how this fenfe never changes, although Kingdoms, and Republicks, their Government, Laws, Conftitutions, Inhabitants, and Customs change; and how improbable it is, that all Mankind fhould confpire into fuch a Cheat, if there were no Supreme Power; how rational it is, that when Men of different Conftitutions, Complexions, Principles, Defires, Interests, Opinions, do all, or most of them agree in one thing, there muft necessarily be fomething more than ordinary in't, and the Notion must be supposed either imprinted by God on the hearts of all Men, or carefully deliver'd to Pofterity by the first Planters of the World, which, in all probability, they would not have done, except they had very good ground and reason for it 3

and

and though here and there fome few have been' found, who either out of ambition of being thought Wits, or in a humour, or through fome ftrange corruption of their minds, have denied the Being of a Deity,or have believed none, yet that thofe few are inconfiderable, compared with the greatest part of Mankind, and guided rather by their lufts and vices, whofe interest it is, there should be no God to take notice of them, and not by the true light of reafon; Would the Fool, Ifay, but think seriously on these familiar Arguments, how could he fay in his heart, There is no God?

How could the Wretch deny a Providence, if he did but take notice, how all things are preserved in those stations, fpheres, and tendencies, they were at first created in. How things contrary to one another, are kept from destroying one another. How every thing prosecutes the end for which it was produced. How the Sea, that's higher than the Earth, is kept from overrunning and drowning it. How Kingdoms, Empires, and Common-wealths are continued and conferved in the World. How one Countrey is made a Scourge to the other for their fin; and how the foberer Nation many times conquers the more debauched and vicious, till the formers fobriety dying, proves a presage of the funeral of their happiness. How Men are fuffered to tyrannize, and to rage, that their fall afterward may be more grievous and terrible. How fin is punished with fin; and with

what