likewife Defect of Understanding makes fome Truths to be mysterious.

The Complaint then against Mysteries in Religion amounts to no more than this; That God has done fomething for us, or appointed fomething for us to do, in order to fave us, the Reason of which we do not understand; and requires us to believe and to comply with these Things, and to trust him that we fhall receive the Benefit of them: For this is all the Faith, or pofitive Obedience, that is required of us; as will in its due Place appear.

But to return to the Question, Whether it can be ever neceffary for God to reveal Myfteries, or appoint pofitive Duties, in order to perfect the Salvation of Mankind; or, in other Words, to use fuch Means for the Salvation of the World, the Agreeableness of which to the End intended the Reafon of Man cannot difcover? This is certain, That, whenever 'tis out of our Power by natural Means to fave ourselves, if we are to be faved at all, 'tis neceffary that fupernatural Means be made ufe of: And, how hard foever it may be to conceive this to be the Cafe of Mankind in general; yet of particuMen it will not, I prefume, be denied, but that they may fin fo far, and render them

felves fo obnoxious to the Juftice of God, that it shall not be in the Power of mere Reason and Nature to find an infallible Method of atoning the Juftice of God, and, confequently, redeeming the Sinner from Death: And in this Cafe there is a plain Neceffity that the Sinner muft perish, or be redeemed by fuch Means as Reafon and Nature are Strangers to; fince, in the Means that Reason and Nature can prescribe, there is confeffedly no Help for him.

What may confeffedly happen to one Man, or to many, may poffibly happen to all: Suppofe then, (fince there is no Absurdity in the Suppofition) That all Men have fo far finned, as to have loft the Rights and Pleas of obedient Subjects: That an univerfal Corruption has spread through the whole Race, and rendered them incapable of performing the Duties of Reafon and Nature, or, if they could perform them, precluded the Merit and Title of all fuch Works to Reward; for the Works of Nature, tho' they may prevent a Forfeiture, yet they cannot reverse a Forfeiture once incurred: In this Cafe what fhall be done? Is it unreasonable for God to redeem the World? God forbid! and yet by the Means of Reafon and Nature the World cannot be redeemed. Will Will you allow that

God

God may freely forgive the Sins of the World, and remit the Punishment, and beftow even on Sinners the Gift of eternal Life? How mysterious would even this Grace be, and how far beyond the Power of Reason to comprehend? Could you, from any of the natural Notions of your Mind, reconcile this Method of Redemption with the Wisdom, Juftice, and Holiness of God? Confider the effential Difference between Good and Evil, the natural Beauty of one, and the natural Deformity of the other; compare them with the effential Holiness of the Deity; and then tell me the Ground upon which he reconciles himself to Sin, pities and forgives it, and decrees immortal Glory for the Sinner: Or, if this Way please you not, confider his Wisdom, by which he rules and governs the World, and try, by all the Notions you can frame of Wisdom, whether it be not neceffary for the good Government of the rational World, that Rewards and Punishments should de divided with an equal Hand to Virtue and Vice; and then tell me, where is the Wisdom of dropping all the Punishment due to Sin, and receiving Sinners not only to Pardon, but to Glory? There may be Wisdom and Holiness in this, but not human Wisdom, nor Holiness

that

that human Reafon can difcern; but infinite myfterious Wisdom and Holinefs. If from the Notions of Wisdom and Holiness you can have no Help in this Cafe, much less will the natural Notion of Juftce affist you: Is not Juftice converfant in Rewards and Punishments? Is it not the Effence of Justice to distribute both where they are due? Is there not in Nature and Reason a Connection between Virtue and Reward, between Vice and Punishment? How then comes Nature to be reverfed, and the Laws of Reafon to be disturbed? and how, as if Juftice were more than poetically blind, come Sinners to be intitled to Life and Happiness? Even in this Cafe therefore, of God's finally forgiving the Sins of the World, which is the lowelt that can be put, Religion would neceffarily be myfterious, and not to be apprehended by Reason or Nature, but to be received by Faith; and our only Refuge would be, not in the Reason and Nature of the Thing, but in the unfathomable Goodness and incomprehenfible Mercy of God.

But, fhould it really be, as to human Reason it appears, inconfiftent with the Wisdom and Juftice of God, fo freely to pardon Sin, as not to leave the Marks of his Difpleasure upon it, or to remit the Tranfgreffions

Tranfgreffions of Men, without vindicating in the Face of the whole Creation the Honour of his Laws and Government; in what a Maze muft Reason then be loft in fearching after the Means of Reconcilement and Redemption! How fhall Sin be punished, and yet the Sinner faved? How fhall the Honour of God's Government be vindicated in the Face of all the World, and yet in the Face of all the World the Rebels juftified and exalted? Thefe are Difficulties irreconcileable to human Reason and Nature; and yet they must be reconciled, or the World, once loft, muft lie for ever under Condemnation. The Religion that can adjust this Difficulty, and give us the Clue to lead us thro' these Mazes, in which human Reafon muft for ever wander, can only have the Words of eternal Life; which Words of eternal Life must neceffarily abound with inconceivable Mysteries, but with Mysteries of Grace and Mercy.

So far is it from being an Objection against the Gospel of Chrift, That it contains many wonderful Mysteries of the hidden Wisdom of God, that, as our Cafe ftands, without a Mystery 'tis impoffible for us to be faved: For, fince Reason and Nature cannot find the Means of rescuing Sinners from Punishment,

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