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tion of the Gospel, it appears to be indeed, what it pretends to be, a Means for faving Sinners, you must neceffarily come to one or other of the following Refolutions: If you are conscious to yourself that you are a Sinner, you must gladly receive the Remedy provided for you, and which upon Examination you find to be Cafe; your proper for or, if you are fatisfied with yourself, and want no Help, you must reject it as unneceffary and improper in your Cafe, and truft entirely to your own Merit; and must appear before God, and demand Life and Immortality as due from his Justice and Equity, which you will not accept as a Gift from his Grace and Mercy.

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Let us then confider what is neceffary to be done for a Sinner, in order to restore him to eternal Life; and that will teach us the true Notion of that Religion mentioned in the Text, and which are the Words of eternal Life; and will enable us to judge what Weight there is in the Objection raised against such a Religion from the Additions which it makes to Natural Religion.

First then, 'Tis neceffary, in order to reftore a Sinner to eternal Life, That God be reconciled to him:

Secondly,

Secondly, That the Sinner be purged from the Impurity contracted by Sin:

Thirdly, That for the future he be enabled to obey the holy Laws of God, without which his Reconcilement to God would be fruitless and of no Effect.

I think there needs but little to be faid to prove the Neceffity of these Conditions: If the Sinner's Cafe be defperate, because God is provoked by his Iniquity, and justly angry at his Offences; there can be no Foundation for him to hope, till God be reconciled to him: If Sinners are impure and odious in the Sight of God, because of their Sins; their Impurity must be cleanfed, before he can again take Pleasure in them, and delight to do them Good: If the Tranfgreffion, of the Laws of Reafon and Nature, which are the Laws of God, was that which loft him the Favour of God; that he may not lofe it again, after being reconciled to him, 'tis neceffary that he fin no more, or, if he does, that a Remedy be provided to restore him.

Allowing then these Conditions to be neceffary to the Salvation of a Sinner, and likewife that Religion must contain the Words, or Means, of eternal Life; it neceffarily follows, That the Sinner's Religion must con

may

tain the Means by which he may be reconciled to God; the Means by which he be purified and cleanfed from Sin; and the Means by which he may be enabled for the future to obey the Will of God: For these are the neceffary Means by which a Sinner must be faved; and therefore they must neceffarily be contained in the Sinner's Religion. How imperfect a Notion then have we of fuch a Religion, when we confider it only as a Rule of Action! and how weakly must we argue against it, when our Arguments are pointed only against this Notion or Idea of it!

A Rule of Action must be plain and intelligible, or else it is no Rule; for we can neither obey nor difobey a Law that we cannot understand: And therefore from this Idea of Religion, That it is a Rule of Action, there lies a very plain Objection against admitting Myfteries in Religion: And let the Objection have its full Force, the Gofpel is fecure from the Blow; for the Rule of Life contained in the Gospel is the plaineft, as well as the pureft, that ever the World was acquainted with. In the Precepts of Chriftianity there is no Myftery, no Shadow of a Myftery, to be feen; they are all fimple, and to Men of the lowest Understandings

Understandings intelligible; the Duties which it requires us to perform to God, to Ourselves, and to our Neighbours, are fuch as, when offered to us, we cannot but in our Minds and Confciences approve: And therefore the Gospel, as far as it is a Rule of Life, is far from being myfterious, fince both the Sense and the Reafon of the Law are open and plain, and fuch as we cannot but see, and, when we fee, confent to.

But, fince this is not the only Notion or Idea of Religion, That it is a Rule of Life; let us confider whether, according to the other Ideas which belong to it, it be equally abfurd to suppose it in fome Points mysterious. Let us examine it then under this Notion, as containing the Means by which God is reconciled to Sinners.

And first, 'tis obvious to obferve, that here is not the fame Reafon against Mysteries as in the other Cafe: For, though we cannot practife a Law without understanding it, yet God may be reconciled to us, and we have the Affurance of it, without our being able to comprehend and account for every thing that was done in order to it. A Malefactor: may receive a Pardon, and enjoy the Benefit of it, without knowing what it was that induced his Prince to grant it; and would,

without

without doubt, be thought mad to stand out against the Mercy, merely because he could not dive into the secret Reasons of it. Could not a Sinner receive the Benefit of God's Mercy without understanding all the Methods of it, it would then be neceffary indeed, that even this Part of Religion should be free from Mysteries, and made plain to every Man's Understanding: But, fince a Sinner may be faved by a Mercy which he cannot comprehend, where is the Absurdity of offering Sinners Mercy, and requiring them to rely on it, or, in other Words, to believe in it, though it be never fo incomprehenfible or myfterious? Were it unreafonable or impoffible to believe Things to be, without knowing how they came to be, Faith could never be reasonable in Religion, or in any thing else: But, fince the Knowledge of the Effence of Things; and of the Existence of Things, are two distinct Kinds of Knowledge, and independent of one another; our Ignorance of the Effence of Things, and of the Relation they have to each other, can never be a good Argument against the Belief of their Existence: And yet this Objection contains all the Argument that Unbelievers bring against the Mysteries of Christianity. Why do they, for Inftance,

refuse

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