are efteemed to have Reafon enough to govern themfelves, are concluded under one Law; and only Children, Ideots, and Madmen are excepted Cafes. Though in truth the Degrees by which Men approach to Madness, or Folly, could they be limited, which they cannot, would deferve a diftinct Confideration. :

Now if you conceive the Judgment of God to be like the Judgment of Man, and that all shall be tried by one and the fame Rule; no Wonder you ask, how ignorant Men fhall come to the Knowledge of their Duty under the prefent Doubts and Difficulties which cloud Religion.

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But the Truth is this; God, who gave Men one Law, gave every Man that Share of Reafon which he enjoys: Fools are capable of receiving no Law; and no Man is further capable than in Proportion to the Degree of Reason which God has given him: And confequently, in Truth and Equity, the Law is no 'further a Law to him, than his Reafon is capable of receiving it. And fince Reason comes as much from God, as the Law itself; it is wrong to imagine that the true Senfe of the Law is the only and the fingle Rule by which God will judge: Since it

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is evident in Equity and Juftice, That the Sentence on every Man muft arife from the complex Confideration of the Law, that was before him, and the Degree of Reafon, which he had to apply it.

This great Difficulty therefore, I beseech you, truft with God; and doubt not but that the righteous Judge of the World will do righteously.

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DISCOURSE II.

EPHESIANS ii. 18.

For through him we both have an Access by one Spirit unto the Fa

ther.

T

HESE Words, rightly underftood, will give us a distinct Conception of the Nature of the Chriftian Religion, as it

ftands diftinguished from all others, whether Natural, or pretending to Revelation. All Religions pretend to give Access to God, by inftructing Men in what Manner to approach him by Prayer and Supplication: How to please him, and obtain his Favour and Protection, by fuch Works

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Works as each Religion: accounts to be holy and acceptable to God; And how to reconcile ourselves to him, after having offended him by our Tranfgreffions, through Sorrow and Repentance, or fuch other Means as have been devifed and inftituted as effectual to this End. But the Access to God, which the Gospel opens to us, is to be had only under the Guidance and Direction of God's Holy Spirit, and in the Name, and through the Mediation, of God's own Son. This Accefs is the only one which the Chriftian Religion knows any Thing of; for we cannot come to God, but by his Holy Spirit, and through his Son; And this is what no other Religion does or can pretend to.

The End of all Religion is manifeftly this, To please God by ferving him according to his Will, in order to obtain of him Happinefs in this World and in the next: For the Belief that God is the Governor of the World, and the Giver of every good Thing, is the Foundation of all the religious Worship and Honour which are paid to him, All Religions being thus far the fame, they differ when they come to prescribe the Method, and to appoint the proper Means

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