putting the Question, That we see many Men who are buried in Wickednefs, whofe Life is but one continued Scene of guilty Enjoyments, who facrifice their Honour, their Faith, and their Religion, to Luft, Covetousnefs, or Intemperance; who yet profess to believe all the Doctrines of the Gofpel, and do really believe them, for ought that any Man knows to the contrary. But, when I reflect upon the express Declarations of the Gofpel, That every one who believeth fhall be faved, That all the Workers of Iniquity shall be deftroyed; if these Characters can fubfift together, if the fame Person at the same Time may be both a Believer and a Worker of Iniquity, there is a greater Contradiction in the Gospel than any that has yet been pretended by its keenest Enemies.

How must we then account for this Difficulty? The true Answer, I think, is, That the Difficulty arifes from confounding and blending together Ideas which are perfectly distinct, from not separating between Faith confidered as a Principle of Knowledge, and as a Principle of Religion. In common Life we know many Things upon the Evidence of Faith: Such are the Things which we receive upon the Authority of hiftorical Evi dence, or upon the Report and Testimony of VOL. I. Сс credible

credible Witneffes: And fuch Influence has this Principle of Knowledge in the World, that there is hardly any thing of Confequence that is not determined by it. There is not a Trial that affects either our Lives or our Fortunes, the Iffue of which does not depend upon this Principle of Knowledge, the Judge and the Jury not being fuppofed to have the Evidence of their own Senfes of the Facts which come under their Determination. I mention this to put it out of dispute that Faith is one of the Sources or Principles of our Knowledge. Now mere fpeculative Knowledge has nothing in it of moral Good or Evil: A Man is not better or worse for what he knows, till he comes to act, or to be influenced to Action by his Knowledge. Bare Knowledge therefore is nothing a-kin to Religion; for Religion is not one of those very indifferent Things, which has neither Good nor Evil in it. The fpeculative Knowledge therefore of Truths depending upon divine Testimony is mere Knowledge, and not Religion: For there is no Difference in the fimple Act of the Mind, whether the Affent be grounded upon divine Testimony, or human Testimony; unless you every thing must be Religion, that depends upon our Belief of the Being of God: Which

think that

is

is not true; because there may be this Belief, where there can be no Religion; for St. James has told us, that the Devils believe and tremble. Now the wicked Man's Faith can be nothing more but this speculative Knowledge or Belief of divine Truths: For 'tis evident it has no Effect, no Influence; and is therefore fo far from being the faving Faith of the Gospel, that 'tis not in any Degree religious. Our Lord in the Gospel has given us a short Description of Religion, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul, and thy Neighbour as thyself. Now, in order to love God, we must know Him, and his Attributes; in order to love our Neighbour, we must know our Neighbour, and his Condition: And there is just as much Religion in knowing God without loving and obeying him, as there is in knowing our Neighbour without loving or regarding him. The Man who believes God, and pretends to a right Faith in divine Matters, and lives in the Neglect of God, in Contempt of his Commands, and fins in defiance of Knowledge, has just as much Faith, as the Priest and the Levite had Charity, who faw their Neighbour stripped and wounded, and lying half-dead in the Road, and looked on him, and passed by on the other Side. The Knowledge

Cc 2

Knowledge of God is but like other natural Knowledge, as long as it has its Residence in the Head only: To become a Principle of Religion, it must descend into the Heart, and teach us to love the Lord with all our Minds, with all our Souls, and with all our Strength: And if this be true of the Knowledge of God, which is the first and greatest of all divine Truths, it must be true in all other Inftances whatever. The Faith then of the Gofpel, and which the wicked Man is an utter Stranger to, is that Faith which makes us cleave ftedfaftly to the Lord with full Purpofe of Heart. And this will farther appear under the fecond Head, which was to fhew,

Secondly, That Faith cannot be a Principle of Religion, till it has its Effect and Operation in the Heart. If we confider Religion under the Notion of Action, this Propofition has, I think, nothing strange or furprizing in it: For 'tis not only true of Faith, but of every Principle of Knowledge and Action: 'Tis altogether as true of Sense, as 'tis of Faith. As Faith makes us cleave to God, fo Senfe makes us cleave to the World: But, till Senfe has Poffeffion of the Heart, it has no Power or Efficacy, and is of no Ufe and Service to the World. We learn

from

from Senfe the Existence and Reality of Things temporal: But this Affent of the Mind to the Evidence of Senfe never made any Man wicked or worldly-minded: For, if it did, no Man would ever be righteous; for the best Man that ever was in the World had his Knowledge of external Things from the Evidence of Senfe. But, when Sense ftirs the Defires and Affections of the Heart, then it becomes a Principle of Action, and a fierce Combatant for the World against the Powers of Faith. If we remember what was faid of the wicked Man with regard to his Faith and Perfuafion about divine Truths, we shall find how exactly the righteous Man is in the fame Cafe in respect to sensible Things: As the wicked Man has the Knowledge of Faith, but nothing religious, fo has the righteous Man all the Knowledge of Senfe, but nothing fenfual: The Difference therefore between a fenfual Man and a righteous Man does not confift in this, that one knows most of fenfible Things, and the other most of divine Things, for this in both Cafes may be, and often is false; but it lies in this, that one pursues the Objects of Sense, the other the Objects of Faith.

To trace this Parallel between Sense and Faith a little farther may give us perhaps