But to believe this important doctrine in a manner becoming a rational creature, is to bear in mind a conftant and habitual impreffion of an infinitely perfect nature, the Author and Fountain of exiftence, the wife and righteous Governor of the univerfe, who is every where prefent, beholding all the actions and intentions of his creatures, to whom all rational beings are accountable, and upon whofe favour or difapprobation their fate to all eternity wholly depends. To think of the Supreme Being in any other way than this, is not believing His exiftence in a rational and confiftent

manner.

And did men really admit the rational belief of a God; did they imprefs their minds with a fixed and conftant attention to the awful thought of their being. under the continual infpection of their judge, we should not fee them proceed in the manner they do. For I afk, How the bulk of mankind could behave worse than they do, if they were fure there was no God? We fee them ready to catch at every unwarrantable gratification of paffion or appetite; to put every fraudulent or wicked fcheme in execution, from which they are not reftrained either by human laws, or by fear of lofing the esteem and confidence of their fellow-creatures, with the advantages connected with it. What could they do more, if there was no God? Is there, taking mankind upon an average, one of an hundred who hefitates at any vicious thought, word, or action, from the fingle confideration of its being perhaps difpleafing to God? Is their one of an hundred who habitually regulates his thoughts, words, and actions, by the standard of the Divine Will, and would rather lofe the favour and approbation of all the men on earth, and all the angels of heaven, than his Maker's alone? How feldom do we meet with an inftance of a perfon, who will not truckle and temporize, commute and compound with confcience, or even ftifle its remonftrances to gain the favour of the great? Whereas, if men acted upon the principle of a rational belief of a God, they would rather make a point of giving up all human favour, to make fure of keeping ftrictly to their duty; they would take

Care

care always to be on the fafe fide, to be fcrupulously\ exact, rather than too free, in their lives and conver-, fations; they would labour, if poffible, to do more than the exact duty of their stations; and to avoid even the leaft appearance of evil; as they who would make their court to a prince, do not grudge any extraordinary, fervice, attendance, or expence for him; are coutons of fo much as feeming to look toward what may be difagreeable to his humour or inclination, or in the latt favouring, or feeming to favour, thofe whom he does not approve. Did men in any rational and comiftent manner believe the existence of a God, or think of him as the Governor and Judge of the world, under waofe immediate inspection we ftand at all moments, we fhould fee their conduct corrected and regulated by that conftant awe and fear, which becomes dependent, accountable beings, whofe minds are duly impreffed with a fense of their prefent condition and future expectations. Their belief would be practical as well as fpeculative. It would affect their hearts, as well as imprefs their understandings.

How fome men contrive to fatisfy their own minds. upon the fubject of their duty to God, is inconceivable. One would imagine it impoffible for a being, at all capable of thought, to bring himself to believe, that tho' he owes his existence, his body, his foul, his reafoning faculty, fpeech, and all his powers, corporeal and mental. with whatever he enjoys now, or hopes for hereafter. to an infinitely perfect and amiable Being, who ha made him capable of apprehending his perfections, and his abfolute power over him; one would imagine it impoffible, I fay, for a being endowed with a reafoning faculty to believe all this, and yet think he owes no duty at all, no gratitude, love, or fervice, no pofitive adoration or praife to his Creator, Governor, and Judge. Yet is there, even in this enlightened age, and this land of knowledge, a perfon among an hundred who makes confcience of regularly and habitually performing, in a rational and devout manner, the positive duties of meditation upon the Divine perfections, in order to raise his mind to an imitation of them; of addrefling God

by prayer for the fupply of all his wants; or of praifing him for the bounties received? On the contrary, is there not too much reafon to conclude, that by far the greatest part of mankind have not God in all their thoughts; or if they have, the thought of him produces no visible effect? They attend the public worship indeed from a sense of decency. But it is plain, from their general levity of behaviour, that their hearts are not in it. And, as for worshipping God daily in their houses, with their families, or by themfelves in their closets, they fee no neceffity for it, and conclude, that whoever lives foberly, and is good-natured, though he habitually neglects the whole third part of his duty, is likely to meet with the Divine approbation, and to be happy at last.

It is proved above, that the Author of all things muft be infinite in his effence, and in all poffible perfections, as wisdom, power, goodness, and rectitude. If so, it is evident, not only that he is the proper object of the admiration, love, gratitude, and every other noble affection, of the minds of fuch low creatures as mankind, who are probably the meaneft of all rational beings; but that it is the glory of the highest archangel in heaven to adore Infinite Perfection; nay, that the whole of the reverence, love, and praife of any conceivable number of created beings, paid by them through all eternity, must fall infinitely fhort of what is juftly his due: because the whole of the tribute of honour and fervice, which all created beings can pay, will be finite; whereas the Divine Perfections are infinite: Now every finite is infinitely deficient, when compared with what is infinite.

To be more particular; the confideration of the Divine Immenfity, or Omniprefence, ought to ftrike every thinking mind with the moft profound awe and veneration, which ought to dwell upon it conftantly and habitually, of its being at all times furrounded with the Divinity, which pervades all matter, and is the Spirit within every spirit, feeing, or rather intimately feeling, every motion of every mind in the universe. Whoever has just and habitual impreffions of the Divine Omniprefence, will no more prefume to do any thing amifs,

or even to think a bad thought, than a confiderate perfon will dare to behave rudely in the royal prefence. A thinking mind confiders itfelf as at all times, by day and by night, in public and in private, abroad and at home, in the immediate and intimate prefence of the great King of the World, whofe boundless palace is the whole univerfe. It will therefore be continually and habitually on its guard; and, as one who appears before an illuftrious character, whofe favour he greatly values, will be above all things fearful of mifbehaving; fo will the confiderate mind dread the danger of lofing the approbation of that ever-prefent Judge, upon whom his fate depends, infinitely more than pain, or poverty, or fhame, or death, and will cheerfully expofe himself to any or all of them, rather than act an unbecoming part before that Eye, which is not to be deceived. He, who thinks how vice, or even frailty, muft appear before that Being, whofe very nature is rectitude in perfection, and who knows not the leaft fhadow of error, or deviation; can he think of voluntarily departing from the eternal rule of right, or allowing himself in any practice, which muft offend Infinite Purity?

The confideration of the eternity, or perpetual exiftence hereafter, of the Divinity, together with that of the neceffary immutability of his nature, fuggests to the pious and well-difpofed mind, the comfortable profpect, that after all the changes and revolutions which may happen to it, to the kingdoms, and empires of this world, and to the world itfelf; after all the visible objects, which now are, have performed their courfes, and are vanished, or renewed; after a period of duration long enough to obliterate from all human memory the the idea of a fun, and ftars, and earth; till he, who is now Governor of the Univerfe, will continue to fill the Supreme Throne, and to rule with boundless and uncontrouled fway over his infinite dominions; and confequently, that whoever is fo wife as to ftrive above all things to gain his favour, may depend upon being always fecure of the enjoyment of the happiness affigned him by the general Judge, and that no change in the affairs even of the whole univerfe, will ever remove him

from

from that ftation which has been appointed him. For the Univerfal Governor will raife no one to happiness hereafter, but fuch as he finds qualified for it. Nor will the time ever come, when it will not be in his power to keep those beings happy, which he has once made fo; for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and of his kingdom there will never be an end. Nor will the time ever come, when he will change his purpose or scheme of government; or, like a weak earthly prince, degrade his favourites, or reverse his laws, to indulge uncertain caprice.

This fhews the Supreme Being to be a very proper object of the truft of all his creatures. Had I the favour of all the crowned heads in the world, it is evident, that in fo fhort a time as a century hence, it must be of no manner of value to me. Death will, in all probability, before that fhort period be elapfed, remove every one of them, and myfelf too, into a ftate, in which no favour will be of any avail, but that of the King of Kings, upon whom they must be as much de. pendent as I. But to truft to Him who is eternal in his nature, and unchangeable in his purpose, and who has it in his power to make and keep his favourites eternally happy, is building upon a fure foundation.

Here it is to be remembered, that it is only in a courfe of obedience that we have any pretence to truft in God. All confidence in him, that is not founded in well-doing, is vain and prefumptuous, and will in the end be difappointed. As the king on the throne has power to raise any perfon, whom he may judge worthy of honour, at the fame time that it is vain and prefumptuous to think of trufting to him in any other way, than fuch as may be likely to gain his favour; fo, though the Supreme King of the Univerfe has power to raise any of his creatures to inconceivable happiness, it is not to be expected that he will below his favour upon any, but fuch as fhall be found worthy of it. And his infinite wisdom will effectually prevent his being mistaken in his judgment of characters; and renders it impoffible that he fhould beftow his approbation amifs. So that there is no ground of confidence for any, but thofe who

make