things; and when we likewise view our felves as it were in a glafs, and fee how greatly we have departed from this rule, and when we are fuitably affected therewith; this naturally tends to humble us in our own fight, to engage us to be watchful of our behaviour for the time to come, and to endeavour to render our felves the proper objects of God's mercy. And as this is our cafe; fo our prefent circumftances require or make it reasonable that we should be frequent in fuch exercises.

If it fhould be faid, that prayer, in this view of the cafe, is a needless performance, because meditation and reflexion may anfwer the end without it. Answer, admitting that one branch of piety, by a conftant and proper application, may be fufficient to answer the forementioned purpofe; yet, I think, that will not be a fuf ficient ground for difcouraging or laying afide the use of the reft, when, perhaps, the use of all may fcarce be fufficient to call in, and retain, our attention, and engage our affections and imitation as aforefaid.

If it fhould be afked, that if true piety confifts in having a juft and worthy fenfe of God impreffed upon the mind, and the being fuitably affected therewith, and if St Paul's remark be juft, viz. that bodily exercife profiteth little, and if our Saviour's doctrine be true, viz. that God is a fpirit, and they that worship him (truly and acceptably) muft worship him in pirit and in truth, for the Father feeketh fuch to worship him, then, to what purpose can

bodily or external worship ferve? Answer, bodily worship is intended to be fubfervient to that worship which is fpiritual or in the mind. For, tho' eating a bit of bread, and drinking a sip of wine, cannot poffibly increase the divine knowledge of us, by informing God of fomething concerning us, which before he was ignorant of; nor can it increase God's kindness and good-will towards us, by difpofing him to do that for us, which before he was not inclined to do; yet those actions may lead us into, and ftir up in others, a juft and suitable fenfe of what they were intended to be the outward tokens and memorials of, and thereby give occafion to our felves and others to be fuitably affected therewith, and to act accordingly; and when this is the cafe, then those outward actions become fubfervient to true piety, and answer the end they are capable of serving, and which they are intended to ferve. And this, I think, is the design of all external worship, and all pofitive inftitutions, viz. to be fubfervient to inward piety, and thereby to produce in us fuitable affections and actions. For, to fuppofe in this cafe, that mere obedience to a pofitive law or rather institution, confidered fimply as fuch, will render us pleafing to God, is, I think, a moft grofs misreprefentation of the Deity; because it supposes God will proftitute his legiflative power to answer fo needlefs a purpose as to obtain mere obedience from his creatures thereby; fuch a conduct may indeed be fuitable to the wantonnefs, pride, and vanity of

fome

fome buman legislators; but it cannot comport with the justice, wifdom, and goodness of the great governor of the universe; and therefore, cannot be the truth of the cafe.

But farther, if outward or bodily worship is only a fign or token of that piety which takes place in the mind, and if those tokens are not, in many cafes, natural marks of refpect, but are arbitrarily constituted to be fuch by the fashion and cuftom of the world; then, why may not God interpofe and appoint those outward figns of inward piety if he pleases? Anfwer, God may do fo if he please, for any thing I know, or for any reason I can give to the contrary, if the circumftances of things render fuch an interpofition proper and useful to man. But if the circumftances of things do not require fuch an interpofition; then, as it would be useless, fo it is not likely to be the cafe, because it is not to be expected that God will thus interpofe to answer no good purpofe to mankind. By the circumftances of things I mean, when the fashion of the world has constituted such actions to be marks of inward piety as are in themselves natural marks of the contrary; that is, when thofe actions naturally tend to raife in the mind of the actor and the fpectators, not a juft and worthy fenfe of God, but a falfe and unworthy fenfe of him, and in that refpect are rather marks of impiety than piety: I fay, when this is the cafe; then, as there is a reafon refulting from the circumBances of things for fuch an interpofition, viz.

the

God may,

the reforming the forementioned abufe; fo if he please, kindly interpofe and appoint what actions fhall be the tokens of inward piety, to answer that purpose. But then, where thofe circumftances are wanting, it is not likely that he will do fo.

From what I have obferved, I think it appears, that Religion (when the term is used to exprefs devotion, worship, &c.) is founded in nature or reafon; and from thence likewise appears what it is that nature points out to men with respect to it. Here is likewise a plain rule by which a man may judge of himself whether he be truly religious, or not; or, in other words, whether he be truly pious, or not. If a man, upon all proper occafions, awakens in himself a juft and worthy fenfe of God, and if he is fuitably affected therewith, and if he, when the circumftances of things require it, expreffes that inward fenfe by fuch outward acts as are not improper in themfelves, and which the fashion and cuftom of the world or which God has conftituted to be the figns and tokens of it; then, he may very justly conclude of himself that he is a truly religious or pious man. But, if a man lives as it were without God in the world, that is, if God is not at all in his thoughts, or if he from neceffity is forced to think of God, (which will fometimes be the cafe, as when the circumftances of things will make the sense of a Deity prefent to a man's mind) or if he should voluntarily think of God, but is not suitably affected therewith,

then,

then, he cannot, with any propriety, confider himself as a religious or pious man, even tho' he fhould frequently use those actions that are made to be the outward figns and tokens of it; because he is wanting in that wherein true piety confifts. This is the state of the cafe independent of any revelation or promulged law; and when confidered in the abstract nature and reafon of things.

I now proceed to enquire fecondly, whether Religion (when the term is ufed to exprefs that which is the ground of our acceptance with God) is likewife founded in nature. And here the way feems plain and obvious. For, if there be a natural and an effential difference in things, and if one thing or action be really better or preferable to another in nature, and if there is a rule of action refulting from that difference which every moral agent ought in reafon to govern his actions by, and if Almighty God makes this rule the measure of his actions in his dealings with his creatures, in all inftances and cafes in which it can be a rule to him, which are moftly felf-evident truths; then from hence it will unavoidably follow, that whoever makes this rule the measure of his affections and actions, muft, by this, render himself approvable and acceptable to God, as he hereby renders himself the fuitable and proper object of God's approbation and affection. And whoever viciously and wickedly greatly departs from this rule, and perfifts in it, fuch an one must be unacceptable and disapprovable

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