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ciency of the Evidence, for Want of a SERM. V. Ufe of their Faculties, might finally and obftinately reject the Meffage, without endangering their eternal Welfare. Such a Conduct would be highly criminal and affrontive to God, and therefore punishable, in Proportion as it was affrontive and criminal.

Further; Christianity reprefents us as fallen Creatures, Creatures that have no Health in us. In this Situation the Scheme of eternal Salvation by Jesus Christ is offered to us as the only Remedy, the only Medicine for our Recovery. Confequently He who obftinately refuses to take the Remedy (which must be taken or accepted by Faith) is to be confidered as ftill in a State of Sickness unto Death, or, in other Words, the Wrath of God abideth on Him,

Again; would it be any Uncharitablenefs to tell a Man, except He led a good Life He could not be faved? No certainly: It would be a Breach of Charity not to tell Him fo. The Difbelief however of certain important Articles difqualifieth us for the Performance of certain Obfervances, which are effential Ingredients of a good Chriftian Life, Some of the Duties of Christian Piety cannot be performed, as to the Subftance and Matter, nor any of them, as to the Manner and Form, which will render

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SERM. V. render them acceptable to God, without the Knowledge and Belief of the Mysteries of our Religion. We cannot, for Inftance, pay Acts of direct Worship to our Saviour without Idolatry, unless we believe Him to be effentially God: And if our Prayers are only acceptable to the Father through the Merits of our Redeemer and Mediator; we cannot pray to the Father, in the Manner we ought, and in fuch as will be accepted by Him, unless we truft in his Son as our Divine Mediator and Redeemer. We do not then lay great Strefs on mere fpeculative Points: We earnestly contend for those Matters of Faith (fuch as the Divinity, Redemption, and Mediation of the fecond Perfon) without which Chriftian Piety must fall to the Ground. This fingle Confideration, not to mention feveral others, proves them to be of the very Effence of Chriftianity. Chriftianity is Natural Religion confiderably enlarged by a new Set of Difcoveries; Discoveries of new Relations; from which new Duties muft of Course proceed, and which call for fuitable Returns. of Gratitude and Homage. Not to mention that thefe Articles, in their genuine Tendency, give us more lovely Ideas of our Creator, who gave His only begotten Son for us, and increase our Charity to our Fellow-Creatures, for the meaneft of which Chrift vouchfafed to die. In short, the

V.

Love of our Saviour, which muft be SERM. founded on a right Belief in Him, who is fo great and good in Himself, and has done fo great and good Things for us, is Morality Morality in a much higher Senfe, than the Love of our Fellow-Creatures, who have done nothing, in Comparison with what He has done and fuffered, for us.

But does not not infifting upon these Articles, far from promoting mutual Love, irritate Men's Spirits, and beget endless Animofities? The Query is, whether the Articles are worth contending for, not whether they may, or may not, occafionally produce Animofities. We should rather

chufe, I fuppofe, to have fome fixed Principles, by which we may abide, though Men will disagree with us uncharitably about them; than to have no fixed Principles, to fluctuate in endlefs Uncertainty, and then to disagree oftener, and more uncharitably about Things of much less Confequence. For in Proportion as a Warmth for fpiritual Concerns was deadened, a Warmth for temporal Matters would be heightened. "I do not doubt," fays a celebrated Writer in one of his Letters, "but that Commentators (did the "fame Interefts go along with them) "would carry the World to as violent "Extremities, Animofities, and even Per"fecutions

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SERM. V. fecutions about Variety of Opinions in Criticism, as ever they did in Religion; "and that, in Defect of Scripture to ❝quarrel upon, we fhould have French, "Italian, and Dutch Commentators ready "to burn one another about Homer, Virgil, "Terence and Horace." These uncharitable Feuds arife from Spleen, and the Tribe of black Paffions, which, if Religion were out of the Way, would difcharge themselves with greater Fury, as wanting that falutary Restraint, upon other Objects.

If we would have any Religion at all, Natural or Revealed, that Religion must imply and require the Belief of those Principles which are conftituent of it. And therefore, though Allowance is made in Scripture for Variety of Opinions in Matters of less Consequence, yet there ought to be an Uniformity in Effentials. If it be objected, that we cannot think alike even upon Effentials: I answer, that the Objection proves too much, it ftrikes at Natural as well as Revealed Religion. For even there, feveral must have much more confufed and indiftinct Notices of God's Attributes, His general and particular Providence, than others of much larger Reach of Thought, and fuperior Difcernment, who yet may agree fo far in the Main, as to influence their Practice thereby. Nay, learned Men may widely differ about the

Explication

Explication of an Article either of Natural ṢERM. V. or Revealed Religion, who yet hold the Article itself: juft as feveral have very different Sentiments concerning the Manner of God's univerfal Prefence and Duration, who are notwithstanding uniform in the Belief, that He is univerfally Present and Eternal. May not any Man of common Senfe understand, that our Saviour made all Things; and that He that made all Things must be all-knowing, and therefore God? For He that made the Eye, fshall He not See? and He that made the Ear, fball He not hear? or He that teacheth Man Know¬ ledge, fhall not He know? Might He not foon be convinced, that, when our Saviour is filed the First and the Laft, the Beginning and the End; by the Beginning is meant the Efficient Caufe, from which all Things proceed; and by the End, the Final Caufe, to which all Things are referred? He may think alike with others of brighter Abilities, as to the Subftance of this or any other Fundamental Article, as far as it is neceffary to regulate His Religious Conduct; though He may not be able to form as clear, correct and enlarged Conceptions, or think with the fame Juftnefs, Compafs and Extent. Something, however, might be done even towards this, provided Men would exert the Faculties, which God has given them, with the fame Application

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