Words of eternal Life, without opening to us all neceffary Truths, how abftruse and mysterious foever fome of them may be.

With refpect to infinite Wisdom, there is no fuch Thing as Myftery in Nature: All Things are equally clear in the Understanding of the Deity; all Things lie naked before his Eye, having no Darkness, Obfcurity, or Difficulty in them.. A Mystery therefore is no real or pofitive Thing in Nature; nor is it any thing that is inherent or belonging to the Subjects of which it is predicated. When we say this Thing or that Thing is a Mystery, according to the Form of our Speech, we feem to affirm fomething of this or that Thing; but, in truth, the Propofition is not affirmative with respect to the Thing, but negative with respect to ourselves: For, when we say this Thing is a Mystery, of the Thing we fay nothing, but of ourselves we say, that we do not comprehend this Thing. With respect to our Understanding, there is no more Difference between Truth that is, and Truth that is not mysterious, than, with respect to our Strength, there is between a Weight which we can lift, and a Weight which we cannot lift: For, as Defect of Strength in us makes fome Weights to be unmoveable, fo

likewife

1

likewise Defect of Understanding makes some Truths to be mysterious.

The Complaint then against Mysteries in Religion amounts to no more than this ; That God has done fomething for us, or appointed fomething for us to do, in order to fave us, the Reafon of which we do not understand; and requires us to believe and to comply with thefe Things, and to truft him that we fhall receive the Benefit of them: For this is all the Faith, or pofitive Obedience, that is required of us; as will in its due Place appear.

But to return to the Queftion, Whether it can be ever neceffary for God to reveal Mysteries, or appoint pofitive Duties, in order to perfect the Salvation of Mankind; or, in other Words, to ufe fuch Means for the Salvation of the World, the Agreeablenefs of which to the End intended the Reason of Man cannot difcover? This is certain, That, whenever 'tis out of our Power by natural Means to fave ourselves, if we are to be faved at all, 'tis neceffary that fupernatural Means be made ufe of: And, how hard foever it may be to conceive this to be the Cafe of Mankind in general; yet of particular Men it will not, I prefume, be denied, but that they may fin fo far, and render them

felves fo obnoxious to the Justice of God, that it fhall not be in the Power of mere Reason and Nature to find an infallible Method of atoning the Juftice of God, and, confequently, redeeming the Sinner from Death: And in this Cafe there is a plain Neceffity that the Sinner must perish, or be redeemed by fuch Means as Reafon and Nature are Strangers to; fince, in the Means that Reafon and Nature can prefcribe, there is confeffedly no Help for him.

What may confeffedly happen to one Man, or to many, may poffibly happen to all: Suppofe then, (since there is no Abfurdity in the Suppofition) That all Men have fo far finned, as to have loft the Rights and Pleas of obedient Subjects: That an univerfal Corruption has spread through the whole Race, and rendered them incapable of performing the Duties of Reafon and Nature, or, if they could perform them, precluded the Merit and Title of all fuch Works to Reward; for the Works of Nature, tho' they may prevent a Forfeiture, yet they cannot reverfe a Forfeiture once incurred: In this Cafe what fhall be done? Is it unreasonable for God to redeem the World? God forbid! and yet by the Means of Reafon and Nature the World cannot be redeemed. Will you allow that

God

God may freely forgive the Sins of the World, and remit the Punishment, and bestow even on Sinners the Gift of eternal Life? How mysterious would even this. Grace be, and how far beyond the Power of Reason to comprehend? Could you, from any of the natural Notions of your Mind,. reconcile this Method of Redemption with the Wisdom, Juftice, and Holiness of God? Confider the effential Difference between Good and Evil, the natural Beauty of one, and the natural Deformity of the other compare them with the effential Holiness of the Deity; and then tell me the Ground upon which he reconciles himself to Sin, pities and forgives it, and decrees immortal Glory for the Sinner: Or, if this Way please you not, confider his Wifdom, by which he rules and governs the World, and try, by all the Notions you can frame of Wisdom, whether it be not neceffary for the good Government of the rational World, that Rewards and Punishments fhould be divided with an equal Hand to Virtue and Vice; and then tell me, where is the Wisdom of dropping all the Punishment due to Sin, and receiving Sinners not only to Pardon, but to Glory? There may be Wisdom and Holinefs in this, but not human Wisdom, nor Holiness

that

that human Reason can difcern; but infinite mysterious Wisdom and Holiness. If from the Notions of Wisdom and Holinefs you can have no Help in this Cafe, much lefs will the natural Notion of Juftice affift you: Is not Juftice converfant in Rewards and Punishments? Is it not the Effence of Justice to diftribute both where they are due? Is there not in Nature and Reason a Connection between Virtue and Reward, between Vice and Punishment? How then comes Nature to be reverfed, and the Laws of Reafon to be disturbed? and how, as if Juftice were more than poetically blind, come Sinners to be intitled to Life and Happiness? Even in this Cafe therefore, of God's finally forgiving the Sins of the World, which is the lowest that can be put, Religion would neceffarily be mysterious, and not to be apprehended by Reason or Nature, but to be received by Faith; and our only Refuge would be, not in the Reafon and Nature of the Thing, but in the unfathomable Goodness and incomprehenfible Mercy of God.

But, fhould it really be, as to human Reason it appears, inconfiftent with the Wisdom and Juftice of God, fo freely to pardon Sin, as not to leave the Marks of his Displeasure upon it, or to remit the Tranfgreffions