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

¹My argument is from our Obligation to seek it before all, to the certain being of it. 1. That no man is certain that there is no life to come, I need not prove, as long as no man ever proved such an opinion, and the boldest Atheists or Infidels say no more, than that they think there is no other life, but all confess that they have no assurance of it.

1. 1Dii boni! quid est in hominis vita diu? Mihi ne diuturnum quidem quicquam videtur, in quo est aliquid extremum. Cum enim id advenit, tum illud praeteriit, effluxit: Tantum remanet quod virtute & rectè factis sit consecutus. Horae quidem cedunt, & dies, & menses, & anni, nec praeteritum tempus unquam revertitur: nec quid sequatur sciri potest. Cicer. Cat. Maj.

2. If so, then that the possibility or probability obligeth us to regard it in our hopes, fears, and endeavours before all this World, is evident from the incomparableness of them, or great disparity of the things. When most of the World think there is another life, and there is so much for it as we here lay down, and a few Atheists say only [we do not believe it, or it is not likely, though it be not a thing that we are certain of] now Reason commandeth every man that loveth himself, to prefer it before all earthly things. Because we are fully certain beyond all doubt, that all earthly things are of short duration, and will quickly leave us: and when they are gone, they are to us as if they had never been: They are a shadow, a dream, a something which is next to nothing: To say, It will shortly have an end, doth blot out the praise, and embitter the pleasures of all below. What the better are all generations past, for all the wealth and fleshly pleasures which they ever received in the World? There is no wise man,¹ but would prefer the least probability of attaining full felicity, and escaping death and torments, before the certainty of possessing a pin or a penny for an hour. The disparity is much greater between things temporal and everlasting, than any such similitude can reach. All the Christians,