The reasons of the Christian religion the first part, of godliness, proving by natural…

TO THE HYPOCRITE READERS; Who have the Name of Christians, and the Hearts and Lives of Atheists and Unbelievers.

TO THE HYPOCRITE READERS; Who have the Name of Christians, and the Hearts and Lives of Atheists and Ʋnbelievers.

IT is the great Mercy of God to you, that you were born of Christian Parents, and in a Land where Christianity is the professed Religion, and under Governors and Laws which countenance it: But this which should have helped you to the intelligent and serious entertainment of Religion, hath been abused by you to detain you from •t: You have contented your selves to have Religion in your Princes, and your Parents Precepts, in Libraries and Laws, and to say over some of these by •ote; whilst you banished it from your Hearts and Lives, if not also from your sober thoughts and understanding! And having indeed no Religion of your own (because the labour of understanding and obeying it, seemed too dear a price to purchase it) you •ve thought it most serviceable to your quietness ⟨image 12⟩and your reputation to seem to be of the Religion of your Parents or your King, be it what it will. This is indeed the common course of the rude and irreligious Rabble, in all Nations of the World. O that I might be your effectual Monitor, to awaken you to consider what you have been doing? and yet if you are Men, to suffer your Reason to look behind you, within you, and before you, and seriously think what it is to be in Heaven or Hell for ever, and prudently to manage your own Concernments! Can you think that that man hath any Religion who hath no God? Or hath he indeed a God, who preferreth his lust, or wealth, or honour, or any thing in the World before him? Or that is not devoted to his Obedience and his Love? Is he a God that is not better than the Pleasures of the Flesh and World? Or that is not greater than a mortal man? or is not fully sufficient for you? Did you know what you did when you owned your Baptismal Vow and Covenant? which is when you usurp the name of Christians, and join in visible communion in the Church? Do you know what it is to believe that there is a God, and a Life to come, and to renounce the Flesh, the World, and the Devil, and give up your selves to a Saviour and a Sanctifier? Or can you think while you are awake and sober, that Perfidiousness will save you, and be taken by God instead of Christianity? will God accept you for a perjured Profession? to be that and do that which never came into your hearts? Is Hypocrisy a Virtue? And will Lying bring a man to Heaven?