CHAP. Sorts in each Kind, uncertain of the Validity of X. any; and exhorted others to depend upon the fame

Devotion to Heaven, without any Mention of Repentance towards God. Both of which had been most abfurd both in Theory and Practice, had it ever enter'd into their Thoughts, that Repentance and Amendment were fufficient, of themselves, to atone the Deity. Some few Philofophers, it must be own'd, had better Notions of worshipping God, in Hopes of Acceptance, from a pure Mind; and the Refolution of imitating the Moral, i. e. the truly Godlike Portraits of him, whom they adored,

BUT that Remiffion of Sins and fome Benefit of the new Covenant, founded in the Mediator promised to the first Progenitor of Mankind, may be extended throughout all Ages, to as many in every Heathen Nation as diligently feek to please God, in the Difadvantages they lie under, is a Notion of Reconciliation and Pardon moft becoming the Goodness of God: because, though they themselves are ignorant of that Promife, the Mediator of the Covenant is prefent to negotiate the Effect of it to their Benefit; in Compaffion to the Sincerity of their best Endeavours; and of their Withes after more Knowledge, under their deplored Want of the fame.

THEREFORE it would have become our Author, in his Obfervations on thefe Words of Dr. Clark, That as no Man ever deny'd, but that the Benefit of Chrifl's Death extended backward, to thofe who lived before his Appearance in the World; Jo no one can prove, but the fame Benefit may extend itfelf forward to thofe, who never heard of his Appearance; though they lived after it. If both these,

though

X.

though knowing nothing of Chrift, or his CHAP. "Death, reap the Benefit of his Death; what "more can the most perfect Believer expect? So "that even upon this Suppofition, the Doctor "must have own'd, that all Men living up to "that Light God has given them, are upon a "Level, in relation to their future Happiness, pag. 378. to have drawn the true Inference, which is the proper Application to the Deifts: Seeing they are neither perfect Believers; nor can they pretend never to have heard of the Appearance of Chrift; what Benefit, what future Happiness are they like to have of his Death? The Doom of their wilful Unbelief is too melancholy -an Answer to fuch a Query.

FOR the Point of all the Arguments of all refolute Deifts turns upon themselves, and wounds their own Souls and deftroys their boasted Hopes of Reconciliation, from their misapply'd Notions of the Goodness of God in Favour of the Repentance and Amendment they depend upon in a Chriftian Country: Here lies the unhappy, unperceiv'd Fallacy, and the very Mifery of their Miftakes. They have read the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Teftament; there they found with Pleasure, the Manifeftations made of God, as full of Pity, Mercy, Compaffion, Forbearance, Pardon and Forgiveness of Sinners, flow to Anger, and not willing that any fhould perish, &c. or as our Author has it, whofe Nature and Property is ever to forgive: Thefe ftrong Lights and charming Lines of the Love and Goodness of God to Sinners, they ungratefully borrow from Revelation, and with a plagiary Pencil work into their natural Picture of the Goodness of God, which they pretend to draw from the Light of

Nature

X.

CHAP. Nature only; and fo fet up natural Religion grounded thereupon, in Oppofition to, and utter Destruction of revealed Religion. And all the Time, have fo little Senfe of natural Justice, as to make no Reftitution to the latter, for all the Beauties and Excellencies they have ftolen from it; but go on to accufe what they are principally beholden to, and fet their Maker at nought, exclufive whereof their Notions, of Repentance had been unpublish'd. But Ingratitude against God, in order to deny him in his Difpenfations, and affront him in his wife Methods of thewing Mercy unto Men, will never profper.

LET them know, that all thofe Manifeftations which they unworthily encroach upon, are no lefs, nor no other than the Displays of God and his Goodness in actual Covenant with Mankind, through a Mediator; that all that Mercy and Pity, Pardon and Forgiveness to Sinners is promised, is ftipulated, is covenanted upon certain Conditions, in and through him; and that Repentance and Amendment is but one of the Conditions.

OUR Author falfly afferts, that what is past can't be help'd; though it is true, in a natural phyfical Senfe, what is done can't be undone; yet, in a moral Senfe, as to the Effect and Confequence of the Action, if the Guilt and Punishment of it is released, through the Mediator, the Action itfelf is undone.

BUT if they will arrogate to themselves Remiffion of Sins upon Repentance and Amendment, in Contempt of the Mediator who procured it, it is but righteous in the Saviour of

Men

X:

Men to laugh alfo at their contemptuous Devices, HAP.
and leave them to the ruinous Effects of being
their own Saviours. They may as well fet upto
forgive their own Sins, and lay God quite afide,
as not permit Him, who is certainly a little
wifer than themfelves, who is the offended Party
moreover, and fhould know beft, and have the
moft Right to declare upon what Terms he will
be reconciled, to chufe the Method and the
Manner Offenders are to comply with, as ever
they expect his Favour.

To be without Chrift is the fame Thing as to be Strangers from the Covenants of Promife; and to be Strangers to that, the fame as to be without Hope; and to be without that, the fame Thing as to be without God in the World, Eph. xi. 12. the Original is "A080, let them english it.

BUT these Men are old Acquaintance with the Covenants of Promife, yet forfake their own Mercy, contemptuously undervalue the Promife, and the Adoption. Does not every Civilian know, and how could our Author be ignorant, that a Title is conveyed by Adoption, and Rights and Privileges acquired by that Favour, to which there could be no Pretence form'd without it, by thofe more especially, who difdain the Adoption and the eafy Conditions thereof? And is not an adoptive Father, upon Account of those Advantages of well-being, to be preferr❜d to a natural Father? Which fhews that we are more be holden to God in Chrift redeeming us, than to God in Chrift creating us: And in perpetual Memory of the fame, all taking their Name from the Family they are adopted into, are called Chriftians, and obferve the Lord's-Day, instead of the

Sabbath.

CHA. Sabbath. By virtue of this Adoption and Cove-
X. nant, God is faid to be FAITHFUL and

JUST to forgive us our Sins. But what Claim,
what Right can they have to the Forgiveness of
Sins, when it is impoffible to have any manner of
Affurance of it, without Covenant, or Adoption,
or Promife, or Revelation? The natural Notions
of the Juftice of God are as ftrong a Demonftration
that He will not forgive Sin without Punishment,
as the natural Notions of his Goodness can be a
Demonftration that He will. So that natural
Fear, being equal to natural Hope, all Affurance
must be fufpended for ever, which is the fame
thing as to fufpend Repentance and Obedience
for ever.
But that neither of them fhould be
defperate, God has reveal'd the utmost Affurance
of the other that is poffible to be given, and has
bound himself in Covenant, by Promife, by Oath,
to give and grant it as a Right to thofe Penitents,
who approach him in and through the Mediator.

If then they defire any certain Hope, or pretend to any Right, they must embrace the Covenant, and repair to the Promife, and to the Record or Revelation thereof, the Gofpel; which will still be no Benefit to them, but by their believing in Christ, as well as in God; and by fo doing, will bring them in all Benefits and Bleffings their finful Nature can defire, or is capable of. Is not promifed Mercy more friendly, and to be depended upon, than no Promife, and nothing but Prefumption to go upon?

THEREFORE Chriftianity excels natural Religion, as to Pardon of Sin, as much as certain affured Knowledge exceeds Hope, which is the moft the Heathen World could collect with all