Institution of Religion which requires no other Duties than what are perfectly agreeable to the eternal and unchangeable Law of God and manifestly perfective of the Moral Virtue and the Happiness of Men has already the Mark of God upon it and cannot possibly but come from him The Nature and Life of God are unchangeable and the Constitution of his Laws is also unchangeable Whoever therefore Preaches and Institutes such a Religion as leads men to nothing else but to the Obedience of the Laws and to the Imitation of the Nature and Life of God may without any other Testimonials be admitted as a Preacher of Divine Truth and that Religion which stands on such a Foundation is of it self sufficiently recommended to the Belief and to the Practice of all Wise Men. Now that the Christian Religion is such an Institution is so plain and evident that its greatest Adversaries have hardly been able to deny it The Duties of Love Fear and Adoration which it obliges us to render unto God are so manifestly incumbent upon us on consideration of the excellent Attributes of the Divine Nature and our relation to him as our Creator and Preserver that no man who considers can break loose from the Obligations which our Religion lays upon him to practise these Duties without denying the very Being of God and acting contrary to the reason and all the Natural Notions of his own Mind The Duties of Justice Righteousness and Truth which the Christian Religion commands us to exercise towards Men are so apparently reasonable and so directly conducive to the Happiness of Mankind that even those Men who have broken through all the Bonds of Religion and the Obligations of Virtue have yet thought it necessary to the preservation of Society and the well-being of Mankind that the observation of these Duties should be inforced by the Penalties of Humane Laws The Duties of Sobriety Temperance and Contentment which our Religion injoyns us to practise in our selves are so undeniably agreeable to the inward Constitution of Humane Nature and so perfective of it that the principal design of all true Philosophy was to recommend and set off these Duties to the best advantage though as the Philosophers themselves confessed it never was able to work men up to that pitch of cheerful and generous Obedience to the Rules of these Duties which the Christian Religion in its primitive and purest State was acknowledged to have done and which if it were now believed and practised as it then was it must still do Lastly Even those positive and external Observances such as the Sacraments c. which are Instituted in the Christian Religion as means and assistances to keep men stedfast in the practice of those great and moral Duties which are the weightier matters of the Law are so free from all appearance of Superstition and Vanity and so wisely fitted to the end for which they were designed that many of the Adversaries of our Religion have yet been forced to admire the Wisdom and the Excellency of their Institution 14. Again The Principal Motives of the Christian Religion I mean the Discovery of a Future State and the Rewards and Punishments therein to be dispenced are things so suitable to the excellent Wisdom of God and so agreeable to the unprejudiced Reason to the Natural Apprehensions and Expectations of Men that were their truth and reality confirmed by no other Argument or external proof yet were they sufficient to influence the practice and regulate the Actions of wise and considerate men That the Soul of Man is immortal and shall survive after the dissolution of this corruptible Body is a truth which has always been thought demonstrable from Principles of Reason and from the consideration of the nature of the thing That Man is a Creature capable of doing good or evil and consequently of giving account of his Actions and being judged for them is also evident That therefore in a future State there shall be a time of Retribution wherein every Man shall receive of God according to what he has done in this Life whether it be good or evil has been collected by the wiser and more considerate part of Men among the Heathens themselves The Resurrection of the Body has indeed been looked upon by most of the Philosophers as a thing utterly absurd and impossible But there is nothing impossible in the nature of the thing And the Jews who had no express Revelation of that matter did yet believe it upon a constant Tradition as appears from all their Writings and particularly from the Translation of the last verse of the Book of Job which according to the Seventy runs thus So Job died being old and full of days but 't is written that he shall rise again with those whom the Lord raises up 15. Further the peculiar Circumstances with which the Duties and the Motives of the Christian Religion are inlarged and inforced are such as are most exactly agreeable to the Light of Nature and most wisely perfective of it For what can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than to have those Duties which Nature hints at only in general explained fully and largely and urged in particular and inculcated upon the meanest Capacities and exemplified in the Lives of Holy Persons proposed as Patterns for Men's imitation What can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than to have those great Motives of Religion the Rewards and Punishments of a future State which Nature only obscurely points at described to us most plainly affectionately and lively What can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than to have the means of attoning for sin which Nature discovers only the want of plainly declared and exhibited to us What can be more perfective of the Light of Nature than such a Discovery of the heinousness of Sin and the necessity of Holiness as the Death of Christ and the Purity of the Gospel does make unto us In fine what can more effectually perfect the Religion of Nature than the gatbering the Worshippers of God into one Body the uniting them by certain positive Rites in one common Communion for mutual assistance and improvement and the establishing a certain Order of Men whose Business may be to promote the Interest of Religion by instructing the Ignorant and by admonishing the Wicked 16. Lastly Besides all these Proofs of the Truth of the Christian Revelation drawn from the Consideration of the Nature of the Thing God has moreover confirmed it by the most undeniable external evidence that ever was given to any Matter of Fact in the World The Great Motives of the Christian Religion are things not only most probable and most credible in themselves but God has moreover confirmed the certainty of them by most clear Testimony which is a proof suited to all Capacities and has most strongly urged upon Men the Rewards and Punishments of a future State by the Preaching and Exhortations of one who by
be so 4. Again That the exercise of those great Moral Virtues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance is a thing indispensably necessary to prepare Men for that Happiness which is the Reward of Religion is evident from the Consideration of the Nature of that Happiness The Happiness which Religion promises to holy and good Men is this That they shall be received into the blessed Society of Angels and of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and that with them they shall be admitted into the immediate presence of God to enjoy that Satisfaction which must necessarily arise from the Contemplation of his Perfections and from the 〈…〉 of his Favour And if this be the Case then nothing is more evident than that the exercise of Virtue is indispensably necessary to prepare Men for the enjoyment of this Happiness For what agreement can there be between a sensual spightful or malicious Soul and the pure Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect We see even in this Life how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked and as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World Those Souls which have been wholly immersed in Sense and given up to the Pleasures of this present World can never be fit Company for those spiritual and refined Minds whose Desires and Enjoyments are as far exalted above every thing that is gross and sensual as Heaven is above Earth And those malicious Spirits whose delight upon Earth was in nothing but Hatred Envy and Revenge can never converse in Heaven with those Divine Souls who feed and live upon no other Pleasures but those of Goodness Holiness and Love In like manner what can be more impossible than for an earthly and wicked Soul to be made happy by the Vision and Fruition of God To see God is to behold and contemplate those glorious Perfections of infinite Goodness Purity and Truth and to enjoy God is so to love and adore those amiable Perfections as to be transformed into the likeness and resemblance of them And is it possible for a wicked Soul to be made partaker of this Happiness Tell a covetous Worldling of a Treasure laid up in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal Tell him of a never-fading Inheritance in the World to come or of a City not made with Hands whose Builder and Maker is God Tell an ambitious aspiring Mind of the Glory that shall be revealed hereafter or a voluptuous Person of spiritual and refined Pleasures which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive them and will they have any relish of these things Will they not be much more inquisitive after the Glories of Earth and the Gratifications of Sense So that unless we suppose God should work a Miracle for these Men and when he removes them into another World should transform them also into new Creatures 't is no more possible for them to enjoy the Happiness of Heaven than for Body to enjoy the Pleasures of Spirit or for Darkness to have communion and agreement with Light I do not say That if God should transplant these Men into Heaven he could not make them happy there but while they are so exceedingly indisposed for it nothing is more certain than that he never will The exercise therefore of Virtue is the indispensable Condition of Happiness And in proportion as we draw nearer to the Perfection of Virtue so do we to the Fountain and Perfection of Happiness The greater degrees of Virtue any Being is indued with so much the higher Rank does it obtain in the Order of Creatures The highest Angels so much as they obey the Will of God more intirely and imitate the Divine Life more perfectly than Men do so much are they exalted above Men and have a nearer approach to the immediate presence and enjoyment of God And by how much one Man in this Life obtains a greater degree of Holiness than another so much a more excellent degree of Happi-ness is he prepared to receive in the World to come 5. And That God agreeably to this natural Order of things does truly and sincerely desire to make Men happy by the exercise of Virtue is evident both from our natural Notions of God and from the Revealed Declaration of his Will God who is a Being infinitely happy in the injoyment of himself and who created all things for no other reason but to communicate to them his Perfections and his Happiness cannot possibly but make every Man as happy as the condition of his Nature and the improvements of his Virtue make him capable to be And that he will do so he hath moreover assured us by most express and repeated declarations He declares that his Delight is in them that fear him and that he Rejoyces over them for good He invites men with all the tender promises of a compassionate Father to Repentance and Reformation and swears by himself that he hath no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked but earnestly desires that they should return and live And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that God has secretly made any determination which may be contrary to what he has so openly and expresly revealed What sort of Men he has decreed to be happy or miserable he has clearly and fully declared to us in his Word And other Decrees than this if he has at all made any t is neither necessary nor possible for us to know Sufficient it is for us that as sure as God and his Scriptures are true so sure are we that he that believes and obeys the Gospel shall be happy and that God neither has nor can Decree any thing whereby a truly Religious Man may be excluded from Happiness or a Sincere Man from the possibility of becoming truly religious 6. Since therefore God truly and sincerely desires to make men Happy by the exercise of Virtue and since that Virtue which is the Condition of this Happiness is no other than the Practice of those great Moral Duties of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the Eternal and Unchangeable Law of God as has already been shewn it follows necessarily that the great and ultimate design of all true Religion can be no other than to recommend these Virtues and to enforce their practice Other things may be Helps and Assistances of Religion many External Observances may for wise Reasons be positively commanded and may be of exceeding great use as means to promote Devotion and Piety but the Life and Substance of all true Religion the End and Scope in which all things else must terminate cannot possibly be any other than the Practice of these great and Eternal Duties 7. In Natural Religion this is very evident For the Foundation of its Obligations being nothing else but a due consideration of the Nature of
than to run the hazard of being mistaken in judging too loosly of them THE CONTENTS Essay the First Of Baptism CHap. I. Of Baptism in general CHap. II. What was required of Persons to be baptized in the Primitive Church in order to fit them for Baptism CHap. III. In what manner Persons converted to Christianity were Baptized to what Privileges they were admitted and to what Duties they were engaged by their Baptism CHap. IV. What was required of Persons after Baptism CHap. V. Of the Baptism of Infants CHap. VI. Of the Duty of God-Fathers and God-Mothers Essay the Second Of Confirmation CHap. I. Of the Nature Design and Use of Confirmation CHap. II. What is to be done before Confirmation Of Faith Of the Necessity of Religion Of the Necessity of Revelation Of the Evidence of the Christian Religion and of Consideration CHap. III. Of right Notions concerning Religion in General CHap. IV. A Digression concern the Doctrine of Faith and Works delivered by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans and in that to the Galatians CHap. V. Of the Duties of Religion in Particular CHap. VI. What is to be done at Confirmation Of solemnly renewing the Baptismal Vow CHap. VII Of the Certainty of God's Grace and the Assistance of his Holy Spirit CHap. VIII What is to be done after Confirmamation Of Perseverance and of the danger of Apostacy CHap. IX Of Innocence and an early Piety CHap. X. Of making Religion the Principal Business of our Lives CHap. XI Of the Contempt of the World CHap. XII Of our Obligation to be particularly careful to avoid those Sins to which we are most in danger to be tempted CHap. XIII Of Growth in Grace and of Perfection Essay the Third Of Repentance CHap. I. Of Repentance in General CHap. II. That God allows Repentance even to the greatest of Sinners CHap. III. That true Repentance must be Early CHap. IV. That true Repentance must be Great And of Penance CHap. V. That true Repentance must be Constant and Persevering in its Effects And of the One Repentance of the Ancients ERRATA PAge 3. line 2. r. converted p. 4. l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 27. r. pervigiliis p. 44. l. 7. r. wilful p. 48. l. 17. r. the Ministers p. 72. l. 5. r. a matter p. 151. l. 6. r. magnificas p. 162. l. 29. r. Integrity p. 176. l. 8. r. subtracted p. 199. l. 22. r. Intemperance p. 201. l. 16. r. things p. 216. l. 32. r. poenitentiam l. 35. filium p. 230. l. 29. r. medician l. 31. r. fletibus p. 238. l. 26. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Essay the First Of Baptism CHAP. I. Of Baptism in general 1. BAptsm is the Rite whereby those who believe in Christ are solemnly admitted to be Members of the Christian Church What the first original of Baptizing with Water was how the Jews used to Baptize their Proselytes and the Heathens those who were to be initiated to any sacred Function I shall not now enquire Sufficient it is to our present purpose that our Saviour has instituted this Sacrament as a Rite whereby Converts at their Admission into his Church do solemnly oblige themselves to live suitably to the Profession they then enter into and whereby they are intitled to all the Benefits and Privileges belonging to the Society into which they are admitted 2. This Baptism is either 1. Of Persons of riper years or 2. Of Infants At the first Preaching of the Gospel the main body of Christians consisted of those who had by the Apostles Preaching been converted from the Jewish or from the Gentile Religion to the Christian and these were consequently baptized into the Name of Christ after they were come to riper years Afterwards when the Christian Religion had spread it self over whole Countries and Nations the Church consisted chiefly of such as were born of Christian Parents and educated from the beginning in the Christian Religion and these were generally even in the Primitive Times admitted into the Church by Baptism in their Infancy 3. In the Baptism of Persons of riper years we must observe 1. What was required of them before-hand in order to prepare them for Baptism 2. In what manner they were baptized to what Privileges they were admitted and to what Duties they were engaged by their Baptism And 3. What was required of them after their Baptism CHAP. II. What was required of persons to be baptized in the Primitive Church in order to fit them for Baptism 1. THE first thing to be considered in the Baptism of Persons coverted to Christianity is what was required of them before-hand in order to fit them for this most solemn Admission into the Church of Christ. Now that which was indispensibly necessary to prepare them for this solemnity and to qualifie them to be partakers of this Holy Sacrament was Faith and Repentance i. e. a declaration of their firm belief of the great Doctrines of the Christian Religion and of their resolution to live suitably to that belief 2. In the Apostles times when the Miracles wrought by those first Preachers of Christianity were so convincing and the extraordinary Grace of God poured down upon Men so effectual as to convert them to the Faith of Christ as it were in an instant a single declaration of their Faith and Repentance seems to have been accounted sufficient to prepare them to receive Baptism immediately For thus we find St. Philip baptizing the Eunuch immediately upon his professing his belief that Jesus Christ was the Son of God Act. 8. 38. and St. Paul baptizing the Jaylour immediately upon his being converted by the Miracle of the Prison doors opening with an Earthquake Act. 16. 33. 3. But afterwards when these mighty operations of the Spirit grew less common and men began to be convinced more gradually by the ordinary means of the Preaching of the Word it was not thought sufficient in most Churches for men upon their Conversion to Profess their Faith and their Repentance but they were obliged to give some evidence of the sincerity of both before they could be admitted into the Church by Baptism If they had formerly been great sinners they were to evidence their Repentance by Prayers and Watchings and Fastings and Confessing their Sins They were to demonstrate by the real change of their whole course of life that they had actually renounced all the rites and practices of their former Profession and would for the future conform their lives to the Rules of the Christian Institution They were to endeavour to purge their Conscience from every evil work that their Baptism might be not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God 4. They who were willing thus to make proof of their Repentance and of their sincere desire to be admitted into the Church of God were Catechised in all those necessary Articles of the Christian Faith which they were to make
been thro' carelesness the causes of their Destruction How shall we be astonisht and cut to the heart to hear them curse us and say Had those who should have instructed us been as careful to teach us our Duty as we were capable and willing to have learnt it we had never come into this miserable condition And how will it double the Torments even of Hell it self to have the punishment not only of our own Sins but also of all the sins of those who have been undone by our neglect inflicted upon us 5. 'T is not therefore a slight and trivial matter to be Sureties for Children in Baptism 't is not enough barely to make Profession of our Faith in their Name at the Font but we are bound afterward to perform conscientiously what we there solemnly promised for them before God and his Church as a Duty wherein their Souls and our own and the welfare of the Church of Christ are highly concerned Tertullian thought it a great objection against the use of Infant-Baptism that the Sureties were there obliged to promise what they were not sure they should live to perform and what if they did live they could not be sure they should be able to perswade the baptized Person to take upon himself He never once thought that so great a Trust might be wilfully betrayed or so solemn a promise carelesly neglected which would have been a much stronger Objection What would he have said if he had lived in these times wherein nothing is more common than for Men to take upon themselves this great Charge without ever designing to think more of it 6. Let those Men consider this who make no scruple to promise in the presence of God and his Church what they never design to think upon after Let those consider this who make no scruple to Answer readily for a Child whom by reason of its great distance they have no probability of ever seeing more Let those consider this who when they have been Sureties for a Child deliver it immediately to its Parents as if they were by that Mockery released from their Promise and God deluded as easily as Men Lastly Let those consider this who think themselves obliged to restifie their Love to a Child whom they have been Sureties for by some little and trifling Marks of Kindness while they are at the same time most inhumanely and unchristianly cruel to it by neglecting that one great Kindness which they have promised and vowed to do for it 7. I doubt not but the notorious neglect of this important Duty is one great cause of the shameless Wickedness of our present Age. For while Parents and Sureties are careless to instruct Children in the Nature and Obligation of their Baptismal Vow vicious Inclinations prevail upon them and insensibly grow into Vicious Habits before they come to a perfect Knowledge of the Necessity and Excellency of Religion of the Extent and Obligation of their Duty and of the Greatness and Certainty of the Happiness annexed to it Whereas were Sureties according to their solemn Promise made to God and his Church conscientiously careful to see that those for whom they have Undertaken be timely and diligently instructed Religion would have the first Possession of innocent and unprejudiced Minds Children would for the most part though differently according to their different Tempers be early wrought upon to admire the Beauty and the Pleasure of Virtue to thirst after the Love of God and the Happiness of Heaven and would be brought to Confirmation with a deep Sense and Conviction of their Duty with an earnest desire of professing the reality of their Faith and renewing their Promises of Obedience and with a full resolution of living suitably to that Profession and those renewed Promises the remaining part of their Lives THE END Essay the Second Of Confirmation CHAP. I. Of the Nature Design and Use of Confirmation THAT there is a certain Period of time at which every Man that is truly Religious began to be so and from which the beginning of his Religious Life might truly be dated is evident But of what use the Knowing and Fixing this Period in a Man 's own Mind may be is generally very little considered For whilst some have groundlesly asserted that there is a certain Time of every good Man's Conversion after which it is impossible for him to fall away into a state of Wickedness and whilst others have weakly imagined that there is a certain Time of Conversion after which though a Man does fall into great Wickednesses yet he cannot fall finally from a State of Grace most others have thought that there is little or no use of inquiring at all into the exact time when the Religious Life begins or if there were that it is hardly possible for a Man to Fix and Determine it since Men generally become Religious not by a sudden Conversion but by a gradual Progress But though it be indeed true that Men generally become Religious not at once but by degrees yet may a Man nevertheless certainly Fix to himself the Period from whence to date the beginning of his Religious Life For if his Progress has been only from a more imperfect State of Virtue which consists in a constant sincere endeavour to obey all the Commandments of God but accompanied with many Frailties Inadvertencies and Surprizes to a more perfect and uniform practice of Holiness he has been all along in the Course of a Religious Life But if his Progress has been from a Course of known and wilful sin to a Victory or Conquest over his Lusts and Temptations he must reckon his Religious Life from no longer a time notwithstanding any pious Intervals and Struglings which he may have had with his Habitual Temptations than from that Period since which he has never fallen into any known and gross sin And the Uses of a Man's fixing within himself such a Period would be that more assured and settled Peace of Conscience which would arise from the distinct and clear View of a well examined course of past Holiness that effectual bar against falling into the Act of any known sin which would be put by a Man's considering that by such an Act he must lose all the comfort of his past Virtue and be forced to begin his Religious Life again from a new Period And above all that mighty dread of going on in a circle of Sinning and Repenting Repenting and Sinning into which Men would be rowzed by being brought to understand clearly that such a course is no part of a Religious Life at all 2. Now this Period from which I suppose a Christian to begin his Religious Life must be either Baptism Confirmation or Repentance In those who are converted from the Profession of any other Religion to that of Christianity the Period from whence their Religious Life ought to begin is Baptism And the Principal cause of that strict Piety for which the Primitive Christians are so
equally obliged to be Religious At least thus much is certain that the Rewards and Punishments of another World the great Motives of Religion cannot be so powerfully inforced to the influencing the Lives and Practice of all sorts of Men by one who shall undertake to demonstrate the reality of them by force of Reason and Arguments as by one who showing sufficient Credentials of his having been himself there shall assure them of the truth and certainty of these things 10. Though therefore nothing be more evident to Reason than the Necessity of Religion in general and the Certainty of the Reward of Virtue yet because 't is too nice and laborious a work in the matter of such vast Importance for Men of all Capacities to discover by the Light of Nature all the particular Branches of their Duty and because in the discovery of such matters as are the great Motives of Religion Men are apt to be more easily wrought upon and more strongly affected by Testimony than by Arguments and because some things necessary in our present corrupt State such as for instance the means by which a sinner may appease God after he has offended him cannot certainly be discovered by the Light of Nature and Reason at all therefore there is evidently a necessity of some particular Revelation which may supply these defects And this the Heathens themselves were so sensible of that there never was any Principal Law-giver among them who did not pretend to receive his Laws or at least his Instructions for making those Laws by some Divine Revelation and Plato in that most remarkable Passage before-cited acknowledges so plainly the want of such a Revelation as even to question whether it would not be better that Men should forbear sacrificing wholly till such times as God should discover to them in what manner he would have it done 'T is therefore agreeable to the Natural Expectations of Men that God should make some particular Revelation of his Will which may supply the Defects of the Light of Nature And that it is not unworthy of the Wisdom of God to make such a Revelation is also evident For can any Man say that it is an unwise thing for the Creator of the World to reveal to his Creatures more fully the way to Happiness and the means of becoming like himself Can any Man say that it is an unwise thing for God to declare what Satisfaction he will accept for sin and upon what conditions he will receive returning Sinners Can any Man say that it is a thing unworthy of the Wisdom of God to make particular Discoveries of his Will to his Creatures and to set before them in a clearer light the rewards and punishments of a future State This is so manifest that nothing needs further be said about it 11. Now that the Christian Religion is such a particular Revelation actually made by God That the peculiar Duties which it injoyns are indeed the express Commands of God and the peculiar Motives by which it inforces those Duties things true and in reality established by God Of this we have all the proof that the nature of the thing will bear and that is agreeable either to the Wisdom of God to give or the Reason of Men to expect To represent the Motives which are to inforce the practice of any thing more evidently and strongly than is consistent with the nature of the thing designed to be inforced is inconsistent with the Wisdom of an All-wise God and to expect other proof of any thing than what the nature of the thing to be proved is capable of is unreasonable in the Judgment of understanding Men. The design then of Religion being to make Men Happy by making them Religious that is to make Happiness not the Fate of Mens Nature but the Reward of their Virtue 't is plain the Motives of Religion ought of necessity to be such as might abundantly encourage all wise Men to cleave inseparably to their Duty as to their Life and yet leave room for Men desperately wicked and incorrigible to avoid being forced into the Injoyment of that Happiness which they are not willing to purchase at the rate of being Religious The Reward of everlasting Life promised to Obedience and the Punishment of Eternal Misery threatned to Disobedience are Motives in themselves infinitely and irresistably strong For were the Happiness of Heaven and the Torments of Hell openly exposed to view and proposed as the immediate and unavoidable Consequence of a Mans chusing or refusing his Duty 't would be as impossible for a Man in actual view of these two different states not to choose his Duty and refuse the contrary as for a heavy Body not to fall downward to the Ground Though therefore the infinitely gracious and merciful God has indeed proposed to us these great and most powerful Motives that Men by choosing their Duty might choose their Life and become Happy in consequence of their becoming Religious yet hath he so proposed them invisible at present and at a distance that good Men might have some exercise of their Virtue by choosing their Duty in order to their Happiness and that Men obstinately impenitent might not partake of the Happiness without choosing the Duty to which that Happiness is annexed Again the Nature of a revealed Institution of Religion being such that excepting the agreeableness of its Doctrines to the eternal Rule of Reason the chief evidence of its being from God must of necessity depend upon the credible Testimonies of Matter of Fact 't is manifest that that evidence of which such Matters of Fact are capable ought to be accounted sufficient in the present case and to require greater proof than the nature of the thing will bear is absurd and unreasonable 12. That the Christian Religion therefore is indeed a Revelation sufficiently demonstrated to be from God may be satisfactorily evidenced to a Man 's own Mind by These Considerations That the Duties which it injoyns are all such as are most agreeable to our Natural Notions of God and most conducive to the happiness and well-being of Men That the Motives by which it enforces those Duties are such as are most suitable to the excellent Wisdom of God and most answerable to the natural expectations of Men That the peculiar Circumstances with which it injoyns these Duties and urges these Motives are such as are most exactly consonant to the Light of Nature and most wisely perfective of it and That all these things are proved moreover to be taught and confirmed of God by the most credible and convincing Testimony that ever was given to any matter of fact in the World 13. In the first place the Duties which the Christian Religion injoyns are all such as are most agreeable to our natural notions of God and most conducive to the happiness and well-being of Men. This is a proof which were alone sufficient to convince a wise man of a Religion 's being from God For that
come to whom the Promise was made v. 19. And v. 23. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Wherefore the Law was our School-master to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by Faith But after that Faith is come we are no longer under a School-master 11. The Third Argument which the Apostle makes use of to prove that those who were converted to the Christian Religion were not bound any longer to observe the Jewish is this The Religion of Abraham was such a Religion as was acceptable to God and available to Justification But now the Religion of Abraham was the same with the Christian Religion consisting only of Faith and Obedience without the works of the Jewish Law For the Scripture saith expresly that the Gospel was Preached before unto Abraham and that his Faith was reckoned unto him for Righteousness when he was not in Circumcision but in Uncircumcision It follows therefore that the Faith and Obedience of the Christian Religion shall be imputed unto us for Righteousness without the works of the Jewish Law This Argument the Apostle largely and strongly insists upon in the whole 4th Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and in the 3d to the Galatians as you may there read at large 12. The fourth and last Argument by which the Apostle proves that the Christian Religion is sufficient to Salvation without retaining the Jewish is this The Posterity of Abraham were the Elect and the peculiar People of God But by the Posterity of Abraham is not meant strictly those who descend from Abraham according to the flesh but the Children of the Promise that is as many as are of the Faith of Abraham shall be counted for the Seed The true Religion therefore and Service of God is not confined to the Jewish Nation who are the Posterity of Abraham according to the flesh but the Gentiles also which believe have attained to Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of Faith that is those of all Nations as well Gentiles as Jews who embrace the Christian Religion which is the same with the Religion of Abraham shall be justified with faithful Abraham And this Argument the Apostle insists upon in the 9th 10th and 11th Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans and in the 4th to the Galatians 13. This is the Sum of the Arguments which the Apostle makes use of in these two Epistles to prove against the Judaizing Christians that there was no necessity of retaining the Jewish Religion together with the Christian. And from the largeness clearness and strength of these Arguments 't is evident that the determination of this Question is indeed the principal scope and design of the Apostle in these Epistles For nothing can be more absurd than to suppose that the Apostle should most strongly and largely demonstrate a thing which was not really the design of his discourse or that on the other hand he should make a thing the professed Subject of his discourse and yet prove it by such intricate and obscure Arguments as the wisest and cunningest of Men should never be able to reconcile either with the rest of the Scripture or with themselves 14. We must not therefore so understand any passages in these Epistles as if the Apostle designed to magnifie one Christian Virtue in opposition to all or any of the rest but only that he would set forth the Perfection of the Virtues of the Christian Religion without the Ceremonies of the Jewish Thus when he tells us that we are justified by Faith without Works we must not interpret it of the Faith of the Christian Religion in opposition to the Works of the Christian Religion but of the Faith of the Christian Religion in opposition to the Works of the Jewish For so the Apostle himself most expresly explains it Gal. 5. 6 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love that is it matters not whether a Man observes the Works of the Jewish Religion or no if he maintains but the Faith and the Obedience of the Christian. But as to the Works of the Christian Religion the same Apostle every where urgeth their necessity and particularly the five last Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans are a most earnest exhortation to be fruitful therein 15. From which it follows most evidently that there is no contradiction between St. Paul and St. James when the one says that a Man is justified by Faith without Works and the other saith that Faith without Works cannot justifie For the one speaking professedly of the Works of the Jewish Religion and the other of the Works of the Christian 't is plain that the Faith of the Christian Religion may avail to justifie a Man without the Works of the Jewish Religion which is the Assertion of St. Paul tho' it cannot do so without the Works of the Christian Religion which is the Assertion of St. James The Faith of Abraham saith St. Paul was accounted to him for Righteousness that is his Faith was accepted without Circumcision and without observing the external Rites of the Law But it was by Works saith St. James that Abraham our Father was justified that is it was by real Obedience to the moral and eternal Law of God such as is now required by the Christian Religion that his Faith was made available to Justification So that there is no other difference between these two great Apostles than as if a Man should say That believing the Christian Religion is sufficient to Salvation without obeying the Jewish Religion but that it cannot be so without obeying the Christian. 16. From all which 't is plain that the Doctrine of St. Paul concerning Faith and Works delivered in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians is so far from contradicting what I have laid down in the foregoing Chapter concerning the True Notion of Religion in general namely that the Essence and End of all true Religion is Obedience to the Moral and Eternal Law of God that on the contrary nothing does more clearly and more strongly confirm it CHAP. V. Of the Duties of Religion in particular 1. THirdly Endeavour to gain a clear and distinct Knowledge of the particular Duties of Religion 'T is not sufficient to understand in general wherein True Religion consists and to have right Notions concerning its Obligations in general but we must also consider the Particulars of our Duty and view them distinctly under some proper Heads Many there are who have right and true Notions concerning the Nature of Religion in general who understand well enough and are convinced that the only thing that can be accepted in the sight of God is Holiness of Life and Universal Obedience to all his Commands who yet contenting themselves with this slight general and superficial Knowledge and never giving themselves time to meditate seriously on the several particular Branches of their