Considerations of the existence of God and of the immortality of the soul, with…

4. Truth and Reliance on God is our duty and privilege. Every being has a necessary dependence on Him for its subsistence; but Man of all the visible Creatures is only capable of affiance in Him, by reflecting upon his own Impotence, and by considering the Perfections of the Creator, that render him the proper object of trust. 'Tis is incommunicable honour of the Deity, to be acknowledged and regarded as the Supporter of all things. To put confidence in ⟨p. 137⟩our selves, in the advantages of Body or Mind or Estate, as if we were the Architects of our own felicity, is a sacrilegious usurpation. Yet vain Man foments a secret pride and high opinion of himself, as if by his own prudence and conduct he might acquire an happiness, till experience confutes his pleasing but pernicious error. The truth is, were there no God, whose powerful Providence governs all things, and has a special care and respect of Man, he were of all creatures the most miserable. So that besides the wickedness, we may clearly discover the folly of Atheism, that deprives Man of his chiefest Comfort at all times, and his only Comfort in the greatest exigencies. For in this mutable state he is liable to so many disasters and wretched accidents, that ⟨p. 138⟩none can have an assurance of prosperity one day. How frail and uncertain is Life, the foundation of all temporal Enjoyments? It depends upon so many things, that 'tis admirable it subsists for a little time. The least vessel in the Body that breaks or is stopped, interrupting the course of the Blood and Humours, ruins its economy. Sometimes in its vigorous consistence, when most distant from Sickness 'tis nearest to Death. A little eruption of Blood in the Brain is sufficient to stop the passages of the Spirits, and deprive it of motion and life. And the changes of things without us, are so various and frequent, so great and sudden, that 'tis an excess of folly, a dangerous rest to be secure in the enjoyment of them. The same person sometimes affords an ⟨p. 139⟩example of the greatest Prosperity, and of greater Misery in the space of a few hours. Henry the fourth of France, in the midst of the triumphs of Peace, was by a blow from a sacrilegious hand dispatched in his Coach, and his bloody Corps forsaken by his Servants, exposed to the view of all;