our Beings, and the wife Governour of the World, defigned that most part of our Knowledge fhould come in this way, and that we should be governed and determined by this kind of Evidence and Teftimony, in many Cafes of great Importance. The Neceffity we are under to do this, arifeth from the very Frame of our Nature, and the Conftitution of Things, and the Circumstances in which we are placed in the World, and confequently from the Will and Appointment of God himself. Why then should it be thought abfurd to fuppofe that he should order it fo, that our Knowledge of fome important Matters of Religion fhould also come in this way? Can any Reafon be affigned, why when this is allowed to be proper and fufficient with regard to all other Facts, it fhould not be admitted with regard to Facts in which Religion is nearly concerned? And yet our Author declaims pathetically upon it, Pag. 50, 51. and afks, Are we to imagine, that God would ever leave a Matter of fuch Confequence upon fuch a Foundation? If God has been ever pleased to give a Revelation to Mankind at all, all but the Perfons that lived in the very Age and Place in which that Revelation was first made, must receive the Doctrines and Laws of it, and the Knowledge of the Facts by which it was. attested in that way; and if that Revelation be transmitted to us in a way, which we ourselves. fhould count unquestionable in any other Cafe, and we have as much affurance of the Facts, as we could justly expect concerning any Facts done at that distance, he may reasonably require our Affent; and our refufing in fuch a cafe to yield an Af fent, fent, could not be properly faid to be owing to a appear If the Laws and Doctrines of the Christian Revelation are tranfmitted to us with as much Evidence as we could reasonably expect, fuppofing a Revelation really to have been given fome Ages ago; and if we have all that Evidence concerning the extraordinary Facts whereby it was originally attefted, which could well be expected fuppofing thofe Facts really to have been done; he that receives that Revelation, its Doctrines and Laws, and the Accounts of the Facts upon that Evidence, i. e. upon as high Evidence as the Nature of the thing will bear, may approve himself to God and his own Confcience, as having acted a right part, and fuch, as we may fuppofe, a wife and righteous God will gracioufly accept from reasonable Beings. And on the other hand, it may be justly questioned, whether they that refufe to accept a Revelation as coming from God, though attended with all the Evidence that any paft Revelation could be juftly expected P. 45 ་ expected to have, can approve themselves to the great Governour of the World and Lord of Confcience, as having acted an honeft and reasonable part. For it is in effect, as if a Man fhould declare, let a Revelation have been given in former Ages never fo well attested and confirmed, and tho' that Revelation is tranfmitted with all the Evidence, and in as fure a way as a Revelation given in past Ages could be tranfmitted, yet I will not receive it, because it was given in former Ages; that is, because I myself did not live at the time when it was firft given. And it would be as reasonable to plead before a human Tribunal, I will not be governed by any Laws given in former Ages before I was born, nor acknowJedge their Authority, tho' I have all the Proofs of their Authority that I can have concerning Laws enacted in former Ages. If any Man should pretend to act thus in the Cafe of human Laws, let him profess never fo much Impartiality, and that he acts to the best of his Judgment, or declaim never fo rhetorically on the Infufficiency of moral Evidence; I am apt to think, it would hardly hinder his being punished for violating those Laws, except the Court should be fo kind as to take his making such a Plea for a Proof of his being not right in his Senfes. This Writer, under pretence of doing honour to Religion and Faith, all along fuppofes, that nothing lefs will do, than fuch an abfolute Certainty as excludes all Poffibility of Miftake. That it is not fufficient to fay, there is great Appearance of Probability; there must be an abfolute Certainty, without the leaft Poffibility of our being disappointed in our Security *: Or, as he elfewhere expreffes it, that it must be fufficiently calculated to extort an Affent from every one that hears it †. As if no Evidence would be fufficient in Religion, but one that is plainly irrefiftible, and forces itself upon us whether we will or no. He frequently talks, as if every thing that had not fuch an abfolute Certainty as to exclude all Poffibility of the contrary, were for that reafon doubtful, no more than a precarious Conjecture, incapable to produce a fatisfying Conviction; when any Man that has ever reflected on the Nature of Evidence at all, must be fenfible, that things may be fo certain as to leave no room for reasonable Doubt, that yet are not fo absolutely certain as to be without the leaft Poffibility of Error. It will be eafily allowed, that the greater Certainty any Man attains to in Religion, it is the better, and more likely both to yield him thorough Satisfaction of Mind, and to have a happy Influence upon his Conduct. But it is far from being true, that there can be no right or faving Faith, without the highest poffible Degree of Certainty and Affurance. That Faith is fufficient, though mixed with fome Doubting, where a Man is fatisfied that he has more convincing Reasons to believe the Scripture, than any thing that can be brought to the contrary, and when, in confequence of this, he is prevailed with to submit to its Authority and Laws, and to comply with the Terms of the Gofpel-Covenant. If it were only very probable, that the Christian Religion is of God, it would ་ would be both our Duty and our Wisdom to embrace and receive it, and to govern our Conduct by its excellent Precepts. No Man could run a hazard in such a cafe, by receiving the Gospel, or at leaft a hazard equal to what he would run on the other fide. Suppofing, by obeying the Laws of the Gofpel, he should deny himself fome Liberties, and controul his Paffions in the manner that Religion prescribes, which doth not require us to extirpate the Paffions, but to govern them, and keep them within proper Bounds; this is no more than what some of the greatest Philofophers and wifeft Men in all Ages have advised to, as the best way for a Man's own Satisfaction and Tranquillity, and for preferving Body and Mind in a right Temper. Or, if he should be called to fuffer Martyrdom, it is a Conduct that Reafon prefcribes, to fuffer any temporal Loffes and Inconveniences, and Death itself, even for the Probability of obtaining eternal Happiness. In other Cafes, Men think it reasonable to hazard fome prefent Lofs, and to undergo fome prefent Hardships and Inconveniences on the probable Profpect of fome confiderable Advantage to be procured by it. But where the Advantage propofed, is so infinitely great as the Rewards of Religion, it ought proportionably to have a more powerful Influence. And I think it cannot reasonably be denied, that the Man that had as great a Certainty of the Truths of Religion, and the important things it fets before us, as we have of many things that come to us by hiftorical and moral Evidence, would be utterly inexcufable, if he did not govern himself by its Directions, whatsoever present M Incon |