putation of a damning principle off yourselves upon us; whereas it is your present business to clear yourselves. It is impossible, however, to rid your religion of this difficulty: either men can be saved without the Christian religion, in which case there is no occasion for it, or the greater part of mankind must be damned for want of knowledge, which neither was, nor so much as could be, proposed to them.

Temp. Do you really think it impossible, upon the Christian scheme, to lay aside that difficulty?

Dech. Absolutely impossible. The Christian religion. says, there is no salvation but through faith in the name of Jesus. This damns all who never heard of that name, unless you will say, that people may believe in a name they never heard of.

Temp. As we see but a small part of the schemes of Providence, so much only as is necessary to our wants, and cannot dive into the secrets of God, farther than he hath been pleased to reveal them to us, he may have ways and means, impossible to be conceived by us, to clear up this formidable dilemma. Ignorant, however, as I am, of what God can do, I think I can point to two possibilities by which this difficulty may be got over.

Dech. As they must be great curiosities, I shall be glad to hear them from so able a divine.

Temp. If the souls of those who died, or shall die, under the darkness of paganism, should be permitted to transmigrate into bodies born under the light of the gospel, your whole impossibility would vanish in an instant.

shortest way of solving And so you call in Py

Dech. You have the finest and difficulties that ever was heard of. thagoras to assist Jesus, and in a way too which the religion of the latter can hardly admit of.

Temp. The Christian religion hath nowhere, that I know of, condemned the transmigration of a soul from one human body to another.

Dech. No, nor from the body of a man to that of a beast.

Temp. My other solution for your difficulty seems a little more agreeable to revelation.

Dech. Let us have it, if it be but half as ingenious as the former.

Temp. The most ancient fathers, who best knew the principles of our religion, so understood, I am told, the passage in the first Epistle of St. Peter concerning Christ's going by his spirit to preach to the spirits in prison, who were some time disobedient in the days of Noah,' together with some other places of Scripture, as to be of opinion, that Christ, between his death and resurrection, went into the place of departed souls, and there preached the gospel to those souls who had left the world before he came into it; and by that means gave them an opportunity of faith and salvation through his meritorious death. Many of the modern divines, and our church in Edward the Sixth's time, as I found yesterday in Pearson on the Creed, expounded these texts in the same manner, and were of the same opinion with the fathers in this matter: and though the church of England, in Queen Elizabeth's time, did not in its articles require subscription to this doctrine at the hands of its clergy, yet it left them to their own opinions therein, and was far from condemning it, either as erroneous or heretical. Now, sir, if this doctrine be agreeable to truth and Scripture, as it possibly may, for ought you or I know, it will entirely defeat your grand impossibility.

Dech. Very ingenious, indeed! And pray, sir, what provision do you make for the souls of Pagans who departed this life since Christ was among the dead? They seem to have come too late.

Temp. What provision was made for the ages succeeding Christ in this world? Was there not a succession of ministers and preachers instituted to perpetuate revelation? And is it impossible that something like this could have been done among the dead?

Dech. Phoo Are we to be pestered with parsons and sermons in the other world too? No, no, Templeton, there are no tithes in the other world, and consequently no parsons. Pray, Mr. Shepherd, what do you say to the hypothesis of the learned Dr. Templeton? I fancy you will not much approve of it, because it looks so like new light.

Shep. I say this, that it totally overturns your impossibility, because it is itself possible, and may serve to shew us, that we are not rashly to limit the power of God, or to say what he will, or will not do. His secrets are unsearch

able. It is enough for us, that he provides for our salvation. Let us leave the rest of his creatures to himself, and not reject his tenders of mercy to us, merely because he hath not thought fit to tell us what he intends to do with others. He hath given you an ample fortune; you will not, I believe, throw it up, purely because he hath not explained his reasons to you for leaving so many of your fellow-creatures in want and distress. He hath given you very good abilities of mind, and great opportunities of acquiring knowledge, by which you have been enabled to discover the law and religion of nature; you will not, I hope, turn apostate to your own principles, because there are many thousands whose natural reason is so weak as to render them utterly incapable of that discovery, and of defending themselves against the craft and incroachments of our priests. The mysteries of Providence in respect to other things, as well as to the dispensations of religion, are as much above our comprehension as those of the divine nature. All things in the moral and political world, as well as in the natural, become inconceivable and unaccountable to us, when we attempt to pry farther than our talents are able to carry us; which is just so far only as our wants require. This deference is paid to the mysteries of government, that the peasant thinks himself unable to comprehend the schemes of his king; and, if he believes him to be a wise and able ruler, he will dutifully acquiesce in his administration, even when it seems to run against his notions of prudence. Yet the peasant knows his prince to be but a man. You, Mr. Dechaine, are still more ignorant in respect to the interests of the universe and the policy of the King of kings. You cannot tell, why the wise and good man, who labours to instruct and reform the world, is persecuted and put to death for so doing, and all his useful knowledge and virtues buried with him in the grave. You cannot tell why the deceitful, the cruel, the abandoned monster is permitted to prosper, to corrupt the world with his bad principles and vices, to disturb the peace of his country with his ambition, to oppress thousands of better men than himself, to wage ruinous wars, and spread death and desolation round him wheresoever he goes. You cannot see so far into the schemes of Providence, nor are you so well acquainted with the government of the world, as to

account for the revolutions of kingdoms, the rise and decay of empires, arts, commerce, and religions, on which the affairs of mankind so necessarily depend. necessarily depend. It will be no disparagement to your reason to say, these things are too high for it, too deep for the measure of your understanding to fathom, and too extensive in their connexion with the general schemes of him, who plans and projects for a boundless empire, to be comprehended by so narrow a capacity as yours. But, after all, your difficulty, concerning the impossibility of saving the heathen upon Christian principles, hardly deserves the name of a difficulty; for those sentences of Scripture that seem to condemn them, admit of a more rational interpretation, when applied to those who heard the gospel, and rejected it; which interpretation is more suitable than yours to the charitable and comprehensive spirit of the gospel, and more consistent with other passages of Scripture, that intimate mercy to them, as we had occasion to observe towards the end of our third conference.

Temp. HAVING dwelt sufficiently on this point, I think it is high time to call a new one. Mr. Dechaine, I believe, is not yet exhausted of objections.

Dech. I have all I ever had. I could propose about five hundred more; but as it will be soon necessary to break up for this day, I shall offer one, which is alone sufficient to answer the end of all the rest; and, therefore, I shall conclude with it. People may argue for and profess a thing they are very far from believing. They may have an interest in speaking what they do not think; and provided those they speak to be ignorant and simple enough, they may talk them into an opinion, which they themselves know to be false. But we have a much surer way of knowing the principles of men, than by their words; that is, by their actions. I have dealt largely with people of all ranks and conditions, who call themselves Christians; and that in a country the most illuminated of any in the Christian world: and I never yet found more than two or three among them who acted as if they were sure their conduct must lead them into either of those distant places, which Christians call heaven and hell. I found in some men an appearance of such a faith, and in others I could just discern an almost imperceptible degree

of it; but both this degree, and that appearance, vanished into mere vapour the moment they came to the test of a considerable profit, or a great pleasure, to be obtained or enjoyed at the expense of their religious professions. I have found, also, that the more knowing the people were, whom I had an opportunity of looking into by the open window of their actions, the less Christianity I always perceived within. The wisest statesmen, the ablest lawyers, the deepest divines, were the farthest removed from a weak faith, and the most disengaged from the trammels of the gospel. Now, sir, to confess the the truth, I thought it evident that the Christian religion wanted proof and foundation, since it was able to convince nobody and I likewise saw it would be a ridiculous singularity in me, to tie up my own hands with a parcel of chimerical hopes and fears, when those of all the world about me were either entirely loose, or only manacled with straws and spiders' threads.

Shep. I know not how it is in the grand world; but sure I am, that in this low and plain world I live in, there are some real Christians.

Dech. Look ye, Mr. Shepherd, ignorant people know nothing of your religion; its mysteries are too high, and its authorities too learned, for their examination; consequently they cannot be Christians: and, as these know nothing of the matter, so their betters believe as little.

Shep. You may possibly have judged a little hardly, or rashly, of the great ones; and I am sure you do of the small. I have conversed with some judicious men, who have spent as many of their days at the upper end of the world, as you have done, and been deeply engaged in a great variety of affairs, as well as you; and although they lament the great corruption, both in principles and manners, which hath seized the court and city, yet they bring down a favourable report of some whom they had tried, and found true Christians, both in head and heart. I, who have often changed my situation, and been tossed about through various parts of England, have, it is true, been much shocked with the great decay of piety and virtue I observed in most places; but then I have been comforted, on the other hand, with the clear sense, and strong faith, and exemplary lives, of great numbers, in all stations and conditions, whom I have been