fent, as well as future, Reward to a good Life; and has fo interwoven our Duty and Happiness together, that, while we are dif charging our Obligations to the one, we are, at the fame Time, making the beft Provifion for the other. How much then do they derogate from the Honour of God, who reprefent Religion as an unprofitable and unpleasant Tafk! when it is plain to any Man, that confiders Things rightly, and is it not under the Prejudice of his Lufts and Paffions, that the great Defign of Religion is to make us happy here, as well as hereafter. Accord. ingly, all its Rules and Precepts are fo admirably fuited to this End, that, would Men be perfuaded to live in the Practice of them, we should find this World a kind of Heaven upon Earth. But, had the Practice of our Duty been ever fo irksome and uneafy, and had no-thing but Trouble and Mifery been the Lot of good Men in this World; yet, when we confider, that this Life will shortly havė an end, and that there is an eternal Weight of Glory referved in Heaven for those that truly love and ferve God; what wife Man would would not prefer the rugged Paths of Virtue and Religion, which he knows will shortly lead him into an Eternity of Blifs and Happiness, to the Ways of Sin and Wickednefs, (how pleasant foever he might find them) where he is in Danger every Moment of falling into the Pit of Destruction, and which, he is fure, will, in a little Time, bring him into a Place of endless Mifery and Torment ? But, fince there is nothing in Religion but what tends to make our Lives eafy, chearful, and contented; nothing but what is fuitable to our Natures, and agreeable to the Dictates of right Reafon; nothing but what will ennoble our Minds, enlarge our Understandings, and infpire us with a generous Principle of univerfal Love, and Charity, and Good-will, to Mankind; in fhort, fince the Commands of God are not grievous, but his Yoke is eafy, and bis burthen light; it manifeftly follows, that, as a good Life is the highest Wisdom, fo a wicked one is the Extreme of Folly and Madness. A PRAYER, A PRAYER. MOST gracious God! who, MOST gracious out of thy great Love and tender Regard for Mankind, haft fet before us Life and Death, Bleffing and Curfing; and haft endued us with a Freedom of Will, and Liberty to choose the one, and avoid the other and, to encourage us to make a right Choice, haft annexed a prefent as well as future Reward to our Obedience to thy Laws, and made the Ways of Religion Ways of Pleafantnefs, and all its Paths to be Peace: O give me Wisdom and Understanding, that I may not be carried away by the deceitful Pleafures of this World; but may fee, and know, and choofe, the Things which make for my Peace, and wherein my true and only Happiness doth confift. Convince me more and more, that Sin is the greatest of all Evils; that Guilt and Mifery are always infeparable; and that there there is no other folid and substantial Happinefs to be attained in this Life, but that which refults from the Teftimony of a good Confcience, and the Hopes of thy Favour and Acceptance: and grant that these momentous Truths may be fo deeply impreffed upon my Mind, that I may make it the fincere Endeavour of my whole Life to please and obey Thee, who art my fovereign Good and Happiness; the only fure Foundation of all my Hopes both here aud hereafter; and in Comparison of whose Favour all the Honours, Riches, and Enjoyments, of this World, are as nothing. Deliver me, I befeech Thee, from the Shame and Anguifh, the Horror and Confufion of a guilty Confcience; and give me that Comfort and Complacency of Mind, which arifes from the Confciousness of having been faithful in thy Service, and obedient to thy Will. And, fince thou hast been gracioufty pleased to make thy Service the most perfect Freedom, and the Practice of our Duty fo conducive to our prefent as well as future Well-being; O make me fteadfaft and immoveable in the Ways of thy Laws |