Opportunities of feeing, therefore their Sin and CHA P. Condemnation remaineth of loving Darkness ra- XIX. ther than Light. I may well then take to witness the Grace of the Pagan Deifts against the modern Deifts, as fo much worse than Heathens! 2 Efd. i. 37. And as the Obligations of a moral Agent rife in Number from the Knowledge and Publication of the Divine will, the Magnitude and Proportion of that manifold Obligation may be clearly collected from the Clearness of the Evidence, the Reasonableness, and Usefulness of the Revelation, which furrounds these, and is fhut out from the Eyes of the other: It will ever remain true, and irrefragable alfo, that where the Gospel is fo publifh'd, it is abfolutely neceffary to Salvation, and there is an indifpenfable Neceffity of receiving and believing it; whilft the Pagans, in their ignorant State, are excused of that Neceffity, till it is effectually offer'd to them: Mean time, they are not excluded from the common Benefits and extensive Salvation of it, to fome of the many Manfions of Happiness, prepar'd for those who diligently feek to please God: And that the Sufficiency of Reafon may be a very good Plea for their Guidance, whilft it can be none at all to a modern Deift, who wilfully turns away from a greater Light.

As many Heathens as practice Virtue, and defire the Aids of Heaven, with a View principally to another World, diligently feeking to please God in profpect of his being a Rewarder (and fuch he is only through the Mediator) have a right kind, though imperfect Faith, have fuch Objects, due Intention and Direction of their Virtue, as God requires, fuch as only constitutes Religion towards him; and confequently, are

CHAP. more than in a poffible Way of pleafing him; XIX. whilft the modern Deift wilfully fpurning his Rewards, and the Mediator appointed by him, and all thofe virtuous Intentions and Dependencies, is under an impoffible Way of pleafing God.

IV. I MIGHT obferve to them, that this Objection of theirs with refpect to Providence, does in Fact overtake them in regard to their Natural Religion. "If all Mankind are Crea"tures of the fame Creator, and Fellow-Crea<< tures with one another, muft not all their religious Duties, as they are Creatures of the "fame God, and Fellow-Creatures with one "another, be the fame *?" Yet their Natural Religion, either as to Uniformity, or Univerfality in the Pagan Religions, is obferved to be in Theory, and Practice, in vaft unequal Degrees; from fome Knowledge of God, to no Notion at all. But thefe Matters have been urged by others with great Advantage of Reafoning, therefore I pass them over.

I WOULD only put a civil Queftion to them; fince it is undeniable Matter of Fact, that bere a Bit of Reafon, and there a Bit of Reafon is difpens'd to these Pagans; is God, or Man in the Fault? Does God do this, or fuffer it to be done knowingly, or ignorantly? Let them answer which way they will, they are not only fast in the fame Trap they lay for others, but by the Tenor of their own Argument, they fink into Atheism. For, if the high-priz'd disputatious Bit of Reason that fall to their Share is fo miferably cultivated, as to reject future Rewards and

Chrißianity as old, &c. pag. 174 361.

Punishments

Punishment in the diftributive Senfe, that rejects CHA P. the moral Attributes of God; and that fets afide XIX. God, as a Governor; and that to all Intents and Purposes banishes his Existence. They may if they please, by their Management of their Bit of Reason, be at the Head of the Animal World, that is folely govern'd by fenfible Rewards and Punishments; but then, they must be contented to fubfide below Man, whofe Characteristick is, a Medium between Brute and Angel. The Angel has his Reward in being Religious, and continues to be fo upon the intrinfick Merit of Virtue, that he may not lofe the Reward; and therefore Man's Reafon and Distinction is, to aim at their Reward, to animate him to attain their Virtue in a State competent to himself hereafter. But as thefe high-spirited Perfons difdain thofe Prospects, they must neceffarily fall fhort of those Attainments, which make them Man, and make them Religious. And therefore how certain foever, how manifeftly certain foever other human Creatures appear to be deftitute of Religion, ftill they are upon a Par with thefe Belles Lettres: because, funk as they are, they are nevertheless, equally at the Head of the Animal World? What then do these refin'd Wits, thefe Railleurs, get by thefe low Arguments, but to be convinc'd that Religion, Chriftian Religion is both Wit, and Wifdom?

V. I WOULD particularly obferve to modern Deifts that their Scheme of Morality, or Natural Religion, is fundamentally wrong; it is a Body without a Head; they must begin their Syftem all over again. If they would entitle the Practifer to any Benefit, they muft lay the Foundation where his Hope lies, in a future State, in VOL. II. Faith

CHAP. Faith and Dependance upon a rewarding ProviXIX. dence of which Chriftianity is the clearest

Evolution, and Demonftration in the World. For as the End of Virtue is to please God, the Foundation of Virtue ftandeth fure, and is ftamp'd in eternal Characters and Relations ever fince the contrary of Virtue, Sin, enter'd our fublunary World, without Faith it is impossible to pleafe God; and what is that Faith that is the Regent of all Human Virtue? That God is, and is a Rewarder, &c. The Morality of the Heathens, who knew not the Motives these reject, is therefore preferable to their lefs moral Scheme. That Catholick Faith, that God is a Rewarder of those who diligently feek to please him, obvious to the reafoning Faculty, and univerfally diffused to the Expectation of Mankind, who would be Religious towards God (though derived from the original Promife) in effect fecures, and implicitly acknowledges the GOSPEL, or the true moral "Motives of the Chriftian Religion. For if God is a Rewarder, that fecures and fuppofes their Access to and Acceptance with him, and Admittance into Heaven, which are the three fanctifying Benefits of Jefus Christ our Saviour: And convinces the Judgment of the Reasonableness of depending upon God for their Happiness, in their beft Endeavours for fecuring his Favour, with refpect to the Distributions of a Life to come; at the fame time it has its religious Operations, in fubduing the Will and Affections, the moral, difobedient, and most ungovernable Part in Man. In this Faith Enoch, Noah, Job, &c. pleafed God, fteer'd their Courfe by this Pole Star, and paffed fafe through this troublesome World. In this Expectation, and Reasoning upon the Goodness of God, Socrates, and innumerable

3

merable others in all Ages of the World, to be CHAP. collected from the four Winds, under Heaven, XIX though explicitly ignorant of the true Mediator Jefus Chrift; yet trusting religiously in God, that the Judge of the whole Earth will at last do right to all his Creatures, when he takes an Account, and finally makes a Difcrimination of Virtue, and Vice, worthy of his holy Nature, and his wife Government; will nevertheless through him, who equally died for them, find Accep tance with God, to be entitled to his rewarding Favour.

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THAT this is the only true Way of knowing, teaching, or practifing Morality (or, in their own Stile, to know, profefs, believe, and practife it) is demonftrably evident from the Method of the Teacher of all Righteoufnefs, the best Preacher of Morality in the World, as they themselves acknowledge; who, when he first open'd to the World his moft fuper-excellent Morality, both with respect to the End, and to the Means of his Religion, crowns every one of his Eight Beatitudes, feverally, with a particular Reward. This is the Reason why the Gospel is fo conftantly represented under the Notion of a Kingdom; which fuppofes a Judge; which includes Rewards and Punishments eminently diftinguifh'd upon the obedient, and difobedient to the Laws of the Kingdom. And it seems pretty remarkable, that the Commendations, Threatnings, and Encouragements to the feven Churches of Afia, and fo to all fucceeding Churches, Rev. ii. and iii. turn upon those Ends of Religion, or Deviations from them (the Eight Beatitudes) and the Means of attaining them, viz. Faith in Chrift, under feveral Ideas