Punishment for Grace to save him from But the case is not thus with us For the Scripture saith he has concluded all under sin Gal. 3.22 i.e. He has already given Judgment upon us and therefore his Justifying us cannot be by declaring us Righteous according to the Law of Integrity but by acquitting us of the sin he has concluded us under And what other Judgment is it that the Apostle has a respect to in this Expression but that which he gave upon Adam when for his Disobedience he condemn'd him to die God 't is true does in a secret and invisible way govern and judge the World in all Ages of it He hurls contempt upon Princes he humbles the proud and makes a Land barren for the wickedness of those that dwell therein And when he does any thing of this nature he concludes that sinfull People under their own Sins whom he punishes for their Wickedness But yet these and such-like Calamities though they are the Judgments of God and argue him to have pass'd a doom upon such a People Yet it is secret and does not determine of Men's state and condition any further than as to the Temporal comforts of this life But the sin that the Scripture tells us we are concluded under does respect all Men and the Judgment it speaks of had finally determin'd of our state had not Mercy interposed And of this nature was the Sentence that God pass'd upon Adam For his Judging him was of the same nature as the great Judgment at the End of the World will be It was open and by way of Process and Accusation Adam was cited charged admitted to plead for himself and at last convicted and condemned And this Sentence did determine of the final condition of Mankind appointing him and his Posterity irrevocably to Death So that he had died immediately and this Wrath of God would have lain upon us for ever had not the Divine Mercy contrived a means to justifie and save us And since it is by vertue of that Sentence we all die we are concluded under the guilt of Adam's sin i.e. We know our Doom and what we are to expect upon the account of that corrupt and mortal Nature that we receive from him If then Justification be from some punishment that we are already condemned to suffer it must be from this of Dying because no other Sentence is as yet pass'd upon us And unless we be discharged from this it is in vain that we have a new Law given unto us For we are not capable of Immortality till we are pardon'd the fault for which we are condemned and no Man can qualifie himself for a Blessing that he is not capable of This is the account of Justification that St. Paul gives us when he opposes it to Condemnation and makes it to consist in the Abolishing of Death Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through Death he might destroy him that had the power of Death that is the Devil and deliver them that through fear of Death were all their life-time suject unto bondage Heb. 2.14 15. i.e. The reason of Christ's Incarnation and Death was that he might bear our Punishment and set our Minds at rest which upon the account of that Sentence that doom'd us to die are full of Anxiety and Trouble at the thoughts of losing a Life that we are so fond of He under-went all that we account an Evil in Death His Body was turn'd to a Carcase and his Soul went to Hell or the place whither Death transports our Souls that state where the Devil designed when he robb'd us of our Immortality to erect a Tyranny over the Souls of Men where having vanquish'd that wicked Spirit he return'd triumphant with the spoils of our Enemy to his Body again And therefore as St. Paul saith there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 In which words he has not a respect to the last Judgment in which all Flesh shall be Eternally sentenced either to an Immortal Life or an Eternal Death as if no Christian need to fear being condemn'd at that day For there are no doubt many vicious and leud Chrisitians that will be judg'd unworthy of the Name they bear and of the Hopes that belong to it But his meaning is that they are absolved and acquitted from the Sentence of Death that Adam and his Posterity long since received that their Souls being rescued out of his hands who has the Power of Death shall at the Resurrection return in a Triumphant manner to their Bodies again which is the great Privilege we have by Jesus Christ For these words are an Inference from what he discoursed in the foregoing Chapter where he consider'd and complain'd of the Misery of Man's Natural state as we are obnoxious both to Sin and Death Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Rom. 7.24 And sets before us the Goodness of our Christian state which assures us of pure and glorious Bodies Bodies perfectly deliver'd from Mortality and those corrupt Affections and Appetites which Adam's Sin has let loose upon us I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord v. 25. So that they who are in this state and take care to approve the things that are Excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ are in as good a condition as if Sin and Death had never enter'd into the World For there is no Condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus i.e. By Christ we are deliver'd from the Body of this Death or this Mortal sinfull Body And shall for ever enjoy the benefit of this Deliverance if we walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And in this respect Jesus Christ is styled the second Adam in opposition to the first from whom Sin Mortality and Death are derived to us That as by the Apostasie of the first we are condemned to die by the Obedience of the second we are discharged from so dreadfull a Punishment and restored to the Hopes of living again And this he discourses more fully in the fifth Chapter where having observed the Calamity of that Mortal condition we are doom'd to by reason of Adam's Transgression he magnifies the Grace of God in this respect That through the Redemption we have by Jesus Christ we are deliver'd from this Effect of Adam's Offence As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to condemnation i.e. As all Men were condemned to die for Adam's sin even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all Men to justification of life v. 18. i.e. All Men were discharged from the severity of this Sentence and allowed the liberty of providing for a Life that is Eternal as if they had never sinn'd nor ever been condemn'd to die It is true the Apostle discourses as if it was
the last we must undergo a publick Trial when the Justice of our Mediatour will declare those to be Just and Righteous who live according to this Rule So that the Justification that is by Faith does properly relate to the Sentence of our Mediatour whereby at the Day of Judgment he will declare the sincere Observers of his Will to be Righteous And therefore the Apostle saith We are justified freely by his Grace i.e. Have our Lives which we had forfeited in Adam restored us in Christ that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that believes i.e. That his justifying the sincere Christian at the last might be an Act of his Justice Or that when we come to be Judged at the last day Justice may declare the Righteousness of the sincere Christian So that the Justification that is by Faith denotes a freedom from the Danger of that second Death that the Gospel threatens those that disobey it with It is a second discharge from another kind of Punishment than that we are condemn'd to as the Sons of Adam and does suppose us to be in a Justified state from the Judgment that by one Man's offence is come upon all Men Or rather it is God's owning our Righteousness to be according to the Gospel Rule that Righteousness I mean which has the promise of Eternal life Obj. If it be said that according to this account no Man is justified by Faith at all in this life but that all the privilege we can be said to have by believing is that we shall be justified at the Day of Judgment whereas the Scripture speaks of it as a privilege that belongs to our Faith in this life Ans I answer That it no otherwise belongs to it than as it gives a Right to and assures us of it when our Gracious Mediatour shall come to Judge us Faith I mean the believing the Gospel to be the Rule of our Righteousness and living according to it is the fulfilling of that Law of Grace that our Saviour has instituted and accordingly this Law does justifie those that thus fulfill it in this life i.e. It denounces no Judgment against them But who have this Faith that the Law of Christ approves of and promises Eternal life to and who want it will be the work of the future Judgment to discover So long as we live by the Rules of the Gospel this Law of Christian Righteousness does assure us that the Reward it promises does belong to us i.e. that we have a Right to it But whether we shall receive it does not depend upon the present Sentence it gives of our case but upon that which will be pass'd when the time of our Trial is over For the Faith which is said to justifie us may be renounced and the Gospel disobey'd and in this case we cannot be said to be in a Justified state by vertue of the Faith we once had or the Obedience we once paid to the Gospel It justifies the goodness of our Lives for the time past if they have been according to this word of Faith but whether it will justifie us to Eternal life is not to be said till we have finish'd our Course and stood our Trial. So that this is not the Justification which we have by vertue of Christ's Mediation For that is a State we are already put into and is a Blessing that belongs to us in this life whereas this is a State we shall be put into when we are judged again 4. Then Justification is a state of Trial how we will use so great Mercy as God vouchsafes us therein For had there not been a Reversal of the Sentence that doom'd us to die we must have died without Mercy and without Hopes of ever living again Then all our Prayers and Tears and Repentance would have been of no advantage to us for the bettering our Condition and preserving us from Death But Justice would require that we should suffer the Punishment we were condemn'd to Judgment being given upon us there remained nothing but a fearfull looking for of the Execution of it which all the most earnest Sollicitations and Entreaties we could make would not have saved us from For to be in a Condemn'd state is to be Dead in Law And he that is in such a condition has lost his opportunity of preserving himself by obeying the Law that has already condemned him Such was our case when God had given Sentence upon us for then it was too late to think of preventing our dying Eternally and falling under God's Wrath when we were already under it But by acquitting us from this Sentence he had set Life and Immortality before us again and puts us to a new Trial whether we will grow wise by so great a danger as we have escaped and take warning by the Judgment that came upon us in Adam to save our selves for the future from the Wrath to come It is a very great mistake if we believe our being in a Justified state does certainly assure to us an Immortal life and is a Reason why we may be confident that we shall not be condemned in the Judgment to come There would be no reason of another day of Judgment if Justification did import thus much Neither is St. Paul to be understood in this sense when he saith Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth Rom. 8.33 34. For his design was to encourage the Christians of his time to a stedfastness in the Faith notwithstanding the Rage and Violence of their Persecutours For though they were condemned and put to Death for the sake of Christ yet the Sentence of their Enemies signified nothing to and could do them no great hurt because it took away a life that God would restore them with advantage It is God that justifies and since he has so far remitted his own Sentence that you shall rise again who is he that condemneth or presumes to take away your life He delivers you over to a Death that will not hold you long because God has justified you Justification then assures us that we shall rise again though Divine Justice has condemn'd us to die But it does not assure us that we shall certainly live for ever when we are risen because that depends upon the Improvement we make of the Mercy God has shown us For unless we be so qualified as the Gospel requires we should we must be condemned and die another Death The state that Adam was created in was a state of Trial. For though he was Innocent and consequently free from all the vexation and perplexity that Guilt occasions yet he was neither so perfect nor so happy as God designed he should make himself The Innocence in which he was created does not imply that he was made as perfect and as excellent a Creature as if was possible for him to be I mean that his Soul was so stored
not Adam's sin alone but our own too are the Reason why we die and consequently that our Justification is not from Adam's Offence only but from those many that we are guilty of By one Man sin enter'd into the World and Death by sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned v. 12. i.e. All Men die as well as Adam because all have sinned as well as he For untill the Law sin was in the World And again Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression v. 13 14. i.e. All that lived between Adam and Moses died though they did not Transgress a positive Law as Adam did but only sinn'd against the Law of Nature But if we look a little narrowly into the Apostle's discourse the contrary will be evident For when he instanceth in a time when there was no Law that condemn'd Men to die for their own Offences his design is to prove that the Sin and Judgment that pass'd upon Adam does reach to all Men For what account else shall we give saith he of the Death of those that died before the Law of Moses was given They sinn'd 't is true but that could not be the Reason why they died because they were not under any Law that threatned them with Death if they sinned and therefore since they died it could be by vertue of no other Law but that by which Adam was Judg'd and Condemn'd He does say indeed that Death pass'd upon all Men for that all have sinned Yet Sin is not imputed where there is no Law which was the case of all that lived between Adam and Moses The summ then of the Apostle's discourse is this That Adam's Sin and the Judgment that was pass'd upon him is the Reason why all Men die but we are not to think that Men die only for Adam's Sin in such a sense as if themselves were not Sinners For though all have sinned yet all die because of Adam's Sin Obj. But if this be the meaning of the Apostle how comes it to pass that he tells us afterwards that the free gift is of many offences unto Justification Ans To which I reply That though by the undertaking of our gracious Mediatour we are justified from our own particular Offences i.e. Are put into such a state that we have no reason to fear being condemned when we come to answer for our own Actions if with sincerity we conform our Lives according to the Rules of the Gospel though we be guilty of many Errours and Mistakes Yet it is plain from what he discoursed before that it is Adam's Offence alone is the reason why we die because it is for Adam's Offence alone that we are born Mortal and are under a Sentence of Condemnation But by being justified from Adam's Sin and Condemnation we by sincerely submitting to the Law of Grace are acquitted of all those particular Sins that in our Natural state we are guilty of Because Adam's Sin being the Root and Original cause of our own particular Offences by being discharged from the Punishment that Adam's Sin brought upon Mankind we upon our embracing the Law of Grace are accepted by God to a liberty of working out our own Salvation notwithstanding our own Sins The many Offences that the Apostle here speaks of are those that in their Natural state Men are guilty of For of these alone he spoke in the foregoing Verses when for the proving it was for Adam's Transgression that we all die he instanced in those that lived between Adam and Moses who were not under the Government of any other Law but that of Nature and therefore did not die for their own particular Offences And of these he tells us the free gift is to Justification as well as of Adam's Sin because by being discharged from the Punishment of Adam's Transgression we shall not be condemned for those that no positive Law does threaten with Death But as for those Sins that in our Christian i.e. our Justified state we are guilty of we must be justified or condemned for them by the Sentence of our Mediatour according to the very Voice of the Law that he has given us to live by 2. Then Justification puts us into a possibility of living again after Death for ever For since it is the taking off from us the Curse that is come upon our Nature for the publick Transgression of our first Parents it takes away that which is the Cause why we die and which if it was not taken away would for ever hold us in a state of Death The Reason why we die is because God has doom'd us to it and that which is the Reason why we die would be a Reason too why we should never live again if God in Mercy had not pitied our Condition and absolved us from the Guilt for which we are condemned to die For as it is upon the account of God's Wrath that we die if we had for ever lain under that Wrath we must for ever have continued in a state of Death i.e. according to the Sentence God had pass'd upon us we had forfeited the Immortality of that Life that consists in the vital Union of the Soul and Body So that the import of the Sentence of Death we fell under was nothing less than an Eternal separation of the Soul and Body A Doom that adjudged the Body to Dust for ever and the Soul to live without its Body under the Dominion of that Evil Spirit that seduced us and the dreadfull Marks of the Divine displeasure for ever And as this is the meaning of that Judgment to Condemnation that is come upon all Men so the meaning of that free gift that is come upon all Men to Justification of Life is the hopes of rising again to that Immortality we lost For by Justifying us God acquits us from the Punishment he had condemn'd us to and by withdrawing that Wrath from us which sentenced us to an Eternal Dissolution of the Soul and Body he puts us into a hopefull condition of living again for ever As when he condemn'd us his Justice laid us under an obligation of satisfying his Wrath by a perpetual separation of our Souls from our Bodies So when he justifies us his Mercy re-instates us in his Favour and by discharging us from the Curse we are fallen under gives us an Assurance that Death shall not be Eternal but that there will come a time when our Bodies shall come out of their Graves and our Souls and Bodies shall happily by united again So that 3. Justification is an Act of mere Mercy and Goodness It is mere Grace and Favour that spares the Life of a Criminal when he is condemn'd to die For in such a case he can have no hopes of living unless he who has the Power of Life and Death does by reversing the Sentence save him from the Punishment Whereas a Law that allows
again So that Christ's rising for our Justification does imply these things 1. That God discharged him from the Punishment that he bore for our Offences 2. That he has received Power to justifie us 1. His rising for our Justification means his being discharged from the Punishment he suffer'd for our Offences If we consider his Resurrection with a respect to himself and his Sufferings as personal none can deny but God did in a very glorious manner bear witness to his Innocency thereby and acquit him of those Crimes wherewith his Accusers charged him and that unjust Sentence that his Enemies gave upon him When he was taken by wicked hands and haled before a Judge when he was accused condemned and executed upon a Cross between two Thieves he appear'd as a vile Criminal in the Eye of the World according to what the Prophet Isaiah spoke of him long before We esteem'd him stricken and smitten of God and afflicted i.e. That a just Providence had deliver'd him up to suffer a deserved Punishment But when he rose to Life again he was justified in the sight of Angels and Men to be that Holy and Innocent Person that had done nothing worthy of Death This his Enemies were so sensible of that when his Apostles publish'd to the World how that he was risen again they exclaim'd against them and by Threats and severe Usages endeavour'd to silence them because they brought his Blood upon them This was a visible Justification of his Innocence For no other way was more effectual to take away his Reproach and to procure him Honour among Men than by giving him the Life that was taken from him This indeed was his own Personal Justification But it teaches us That it is not agreeable to the Nature of Justice that Death should hold those that are Innocent And although we cannot plead our Innocence to excuse our selves from Dying yet when the Offences for which we die are pardoned Justice can no longer consider us as under an Offence For since Death is a Punishment for our Offences the same Mercy that pardons the Offence does likewise remit the Punishment i.e. it gives us a Right to our Lives And it is but just that we should have our Lives restored i.e. that we should rise again when Justice can no longer treat us as Offenders by keeping us under the Power of Death And in this sense God by justifying his Son has likewise justified us For though he was Innocent yet for the accomplishing the Redemption of Mankind he was content to charge himself with the Sins of the whole World And as it was by Sin that Death enter'd into the World he who would bear our Transgressions was according to the just Judgment of God that doom'd sinfull Man to die appointed to bear our Punishment likewise So that his Resurrection is not only an Argument that God looked upon him as a Righteous Person that had been unjustly condemned to die but as a Person that having sufficiently satisfied for the Offences for which he died Justice had no right to keep under the Power of Death As it was an Attestation of his Innocence and the spightfull Accusations that his Enemies loaded him with it was an Act of Justice i.e. it was Justice that acquitted him from the unjust Sentence of Pontius Pilate But as it was a freeing him from the Punishment of the Offences for which he was deliver'd it was a mercifull Discharge from an Obligation to Punishment So that since he was deliver'd for our Offences and died because a Sentence of Death was pass'd against Offenders his Rising again is a visible Declaration of that Mercy that pardons Offences For he who dies upon the account of Sin must rise from under a Sentence of Condemnation when he returns to Life again And thus it was that Christ rose He rose from under a Curse and was deliver'd from Death not as a Calamity but as a Punishment And since his Resurrection was of this nature let us consider in what respect it is for our Justification Now as to this matter we may observe these things 1. That by rising from the Dead he has given us an instance that it is possible that a Creature that is condemn'd to die because of an Offence may rise again 2. That that Justice which has condemn'd us to die is fully satisfied and therefore we shall rise again 3. That his Resurrection was not a Personal Privilege but the Triumph of our Representative and Mediatour over Death and consequently a publick Discharge of Mankind from the Sentence of Condemnation 1. That by rising from the Dead he has given us an instance that it is possible that a Creature that is condemn'd to die because of an Offence may rise again One of the greatest Difficulties that lies against this Doctrine is this That we are condemn'd to die by the just Judgment of God and undergo it as a Punishment of our Sin For is it possible that a Punishment when it is inflicted a Sentence after it is executed should be reversed A condemn'd Person before the Sentence is executed upon him may be reprieved and pardon'd And if we were not deliver'd over to Death at all i.e. if we did not see Men die it might easily be believed that we could live an Immortal life But when we are condemn'd and die because we are condemn'd it appears too late to hope for a Pardon after the Punishment is inflicted But this will be no such difficulty if we consider that the Divine Mercy provided that the Death we are adjudged to should not be Eternal by promising before Sentence was given upon us That the seed of the Woman should bruise the Serpent's head So that although Justice did require that we should lose our Lives for ever as Malefactours do and does 't is true inflict such a Death upon us as for ever separates us from this present World what Difficulty can there be in a Resurrection which restores us no more than what Divine Mercy reserved for us when his Justice condemn'd us and is the fulfilling of that Original Promise made to Adam Had we been condemn'd never to live again neither in this life nor in another Mercy could not have saved us when once the Sentence had been executed up us because a Pardon would then have come too late to save us But when it is only a Death that deprives us of the Hopes of living again in this life that we are condemned to our being condemned to such a Death cannot render it impossible that we should live again in another This is the difference between the Death that we are all condemned to already and that which wicked Men will be condemned to in the Day of Judgment This deprives us only of the Hopes of living again in this life but not in another and therefore a Resurrection from the Death we are now condemned to is not impossible upon the account of the Sentence we are fall'n under
is risen for our Justification is made Head over all things to his Church i.e. Has a Soveraign Authority given him to dispense the Grace and Mercy that he has purchased with his Blood He has Erected a Kingdom distinct from that which as the Creatures of God we are Members of and in that place too where the wicked Spirit designed to Erect an Everlasting Empire over the Souls of Men. For as he tells us Rev. 1.18 He has the Keys of Death and Hell A Kingdom of Grace which permits us to work out our own Salvation in this life and assure us of an Everlasting deliverance from the hands of our Enemies in the other World and thereby eases our Minds of those Apprehensions which our being under the Dominion of his Father's Justice fills our Minds with For his Rule and Authority is that of a Gracious Lord who has power to forgive Sins and to bestow Life upon those who have deserved to die and who must infallibly have perish'd for ever if we had continued under the strict Government of Justice So that our Condition is of the same nature with that of a condemn'd person who has his Life restored him by Favour and Grace and has the liberty of making his Fortune under the protection of that Authority that he had offended The Kingdom we belong to is not that of Justice that condemns the least Transgression but the Mercy of a Redeemer who calls us to Repentance and assures us he will protect us from the severity of Wrath if we submit to his Authority And then 2. How much reason have we to rejoyce in the Religion that Christ has instituted For it is not only his Institution who rose for our Justification but brings us the Glad-tidings of that Mercy and Grace which alone can compose the Minds of persons that are condemn'd to die It is enough to satisfie us that it must be very favourable to us that it is the Institution of a Saviour For we may be sure that nothing severe can come from him who came into the World to work deliverance for us Who can believe that he who had no other Aim but the propitiating Divine Justice and the interceding for Mercy toward a sinfull condemn'd Race would lay us under any hard Circumstances or publish to the World any other thing than the Mercy he came to procure for us Since his design was Gracious his Religion must be so too for as the design of Natural Religion is to set before us the Nature and to give us the Character of God the Author of it so the design of Christianity is to give us the Character of our Redeemer And therefore it can contain nothing less than the mighty Arguments of Love wherewith he courts our Obedience and the highest Instances of that Mercy that was the End of his assuming our Nature and dying for us It is a Religion indeed that has highly improved our Duty and rescued Holiness from that Corruption wherewith the depraved Minds of sinfull Men had soil'd it But that which does in a peculiar manner recommend it to us is the Tidings it gives us of Gods being reconciled unto us and the Hopes of an Immortal life it presents us with by being deliver'd from that Judgment to Condemnation that Divine Justice has pass'd upon us Had its design been only to rectifie our mistakes concerning our Duty and to give us a fair view of the true Lustre of Holiness it would not have contain'd Mercy enough to save us because the only Mercy that can save a condemn'd Malefactour is that which pardons his fault It is indeed a great Instance of the Excellency of this Religion that it gives us the best and most noble Character of the Divine Nature and furnishes us with the best Rules of Life But the great Grace of it consists in the Hopes it gives us of a Resurrection by acquainting us how our Redeemer was deliver'd for our Offences and raised again for our Justification And if then we believe that we are under an Obligation to any Religion methinks the Christian Religion should meet with an easie Entertainment among Men. For it is the only Religion in the World that can speak satisfaction to the Minds of condemned Wretches as we are Because it does not only ground our Hopes of Mercy upon the Gracious Nature of God but the compassionate Undertaking of a mercifull Mediatour It does not only acquaint us in the general that God is Mercifull but sets before us the Nature of that Mercy that we are to trust in The only Aim of Natural Religion is to acquaint us with our Duty and the Desert of our Actions But what can this signifie to a Creature that is already condemn'd because he is in an Offence to know the Duty he has transgress'd when withall he knows he must die because he has done so And to have the Excellency of that Law revealed unto him by which he might have improved himself to an Immortal condition when he knows he has disabled himself and lost his opportunity for such an improvement Such a Knowledge can only serve to heighten his Affliction and the more lively the Representation of his Duty is the more stinging must his Torment be Before we can be benefited by the plainest Representation of our Duty and the best Rules of Life the Wrath of God that we are fall'n under must be averted and no other Religion but that which assures us it is so can be of any Advantage to us For a Religion that assures us we are in a Justified state as the Christian Religion does gives us encouragement to perfect Holiness by assuring us our Labour shall not be in vain because we are in a state of Improvement It is too late to call upon us to work out our Salvation if we lie under a Sentence of Condemnation for not doing it We must first be saved from this Wrath before we can be in a possibility of securing to our selves an Immortal life And that is the only Religion that suits our present state that importunes us to a Holy life by acquainting us with such Mercy as we stand in need of And there is no Man surely can quarrel with or be an Enemy to such a Religion but who is an Enemy to his own Soul and carries a Mind in him that is disposed for no Religion at all 3. This may persuade us of the Reasonableness of the great Duty of believing which the Gospel so frequently and so earnestly inculcates upon us The believing I mean not only those Principles of Natural Religion the Being of a God and Providence the Immortality of the Soul and a future state of Retributions but those Doctrines of Revealed Religion which acquaint us with the Methods of Divine Wisdom and Goodness for the delivering us from Death As to the Principles of Natural Religion there is none that owns any thing of Religion but does own likewise that the believing them