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Things, whereon Man's Duty is founded; but CHAP. supposes them to have been changed by Man, as the Foundation of its Expediency. Nor does the Christian Revelation fhew him a Tyrant in any of his Commands, being all directed to the fulfilling that Duty, which refults from the original Nature of Things, as Man is capable of performing. The very character and encomium of the Perfection of the Law of God governing a changeable, and changed Man, inftead of confifting in Immutability, is founded in its actual Change, correfponding to the Change in Man: becaufe in this refpect it may attain its End, and fo be perfect; but in the other, it could never after attain its End of perfect Obedience, and therefore must be imperfect, as a Law requiring it: And confequently must be fufceptible of fuch Alterations and Additions from the interpofing Favour of God, making fuch Provifions in his Revelation, as fhall enable Man to perform it, to his own Happiness, and the Glory of the Divine Acceptance. And, as it admits of Addition on the fide of Favour to Man's Condition, fo does it of Diminution on the fame Side, in not exacting the rigid Obedience that was due before,

IF therefore this Change is an undeniable Matter of Fact, the Religion of Nature delineated has obferved, with respect to any Truth, "Not

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to own Things to be what they are, is direct "Rebellion against him who is the Author of "Nature; and again, defignedly to treat Things, "as being what they are not, is the greatest "poffible Abfurdity:" What then becomes.of the Foundation of this boafted Performance? If its Admirers have thought it built upon a Rock, they may plainly perceive its Bottom is no better than flippery, deceivable Sand.

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FOR

CHAP.

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FOR other new Relations moreover will be found to have arifen after the Fall, which were unknown before, and yet evidently fpring out of the Nature of Things. God immediatly enter'd into Judgment for the audacious Tranfgreffion, and gave fome Token of his Difpleafure by a prefent Alteration of Man's Circumftances, for the worfe, in the natural World; that fince he would not govern his bodily Appetites, he might smart for it in his Body, during his life prefent; then arofe Toil and Labour, Difeafes, Pains, Decays, and all the Disorders and Difquietudes of Life; and out of that new* Relation arose the new Duty of Patience; and at laft Death produced another new Relation: For as none of us live to ourselves, fo none dies to himself. But Man was not left comfortless, God, mercifully fevere, by a new Profufion of Mercy, refpited final Judgment, and put him upon a new Probation, viz. that of fincere Obedience to the Law of Nature, in lieu of entire, which was become impracticable. The Lord being gracious, and knowing his Workmanship, neither left nor for fook them, but fpared them, Eccluf. xvii. So agreeable to Reafon is the now State of Probation, that the very Heathens were fenfible that this Life was only given us as fuch, and the World we live in as a Place of Trial, Plat. de Leg. Lib. X.

THEN, and there commenc'd the natural Religion of the MEANS, for carrying on the natural Religion of the End, Repentance, and Prayer. And to encourage both thefe Means, and make them the more effectual, a Promife was made, which begot a new Relation, Occafion, or Waiting of Patience, Rom. viii. 25. of one mighty to fave Sinners, and to destroy the Works of

the

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the Devil; who was in due time to become Man CHAP. from the Seed of the Woman only. This was the Mediator of the new and better Covenant; towards whom, after he had finished the Work of our Redemption, a new explicit Relation arose, and out of that, new Duties. A new Covenant fuppofes an old one broken; the Condition of which was, the Work of Perfeverance and Obedience without Failure, do this and live; a jaft Tribute from Faculties, which had no warp towards Evil, nor the leaft imbecility towards Good, there being a full Power and untainted Uprightness in every one of them. Therefore no Favour of Repentance allowed, because Man's Condition, compleatly provided for as it was, at first needed it not. Befides, the fupreme Authority of God, and the abfolutely dependant Condition of Man fo perfectly capable of Obedience, naturally enacted, and plainly required the Obedience of the firft Covenant to be conftant and entire, perpetual and univerfal. Had Reconciliation upon Repentance been exprefs'd or implied in the original Condition, it could have ferv'd to no other Purpose, but to have fruftrated the very Nature of a Covenant founded upon unfinning Obedience, fo becoming God to require, and Man to comply with, at the firft. Befides, no Law in the World, from the Beginning to the End thereof, ever provides, or fo much as infinuates a Remedy against the Penalties it denounces. Had Man continued therein, God had the difadvantage, in being a perpetual Debtor to Man, according to that Scripture, the Reward had not been of Grace but of Debt.

THE new Covenant of Obedience therefore, the Wisdom, Favour, and Grace of God interpofing

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CHAP. pofing as foon as ever there was occafion, and I. not before, was temper'd with Allowance, and Indulgence to Man's alter'd Condition, and the Performance of the Law of Nature reconciled to the Creature's Capacity of obeying; not what was ftrictly due, but fo much as Man, who had fool'd and enfeebled himself by finning, was able to do, was thenceforth to be accepted through the Mediator: Hearty Repentance, and Prayer (promoted and encouraged by Hope in the MEDIATOR, where promised; by Faith, where made known; and where not known, or the Promife quite forgot or corrupted through long Tract of Time, by Diligence in feeking to please God, and fincere Application to prefent Opportunities) where to piece up broken Obedience as oft as it was broken, till it became more and more entire in the Lives of God's Servants throughout the whole World. And God would from thenceforward govern by the Law of FAVOUR and GRACE on his own Part, and of the REMEDY of Recovery on Man's Side, as long as the World endured.

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"IF you would recommend Natural Religion (as is judiciously obferved by the prefent Bishop of Salisbury, Ufe and Intent of Prophecy, p. 52. Edit)"exclufively of all other Affiftance, "'tis not enough to fhew from Principles of Rea"fon, the Excellency and Reasonableness of moral "Virtue, or to prove from the Nature of God, "that he must delight in and reward Virtue; 66 you must go one Step further, and prove from "the Nature of Man too, that he is excellently

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qualified to obey this Law, and cannot well "fail of attaining all the Happiness under it that "ever Nature defigned for him. If you flop σε short at this Confideration, What do you gain? "What

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"What imports it that the Law is good, if the CHAP "Subjects are fo bad, that either they will not, " or cannot obey it? When you prove to the "Sinners the Excellency of natural Religion,

you only fhew them how juftly they may ex"pect to be punish'd for their Iniquity: A fad "Truth, which wants no Confirmation! All the "poffible Hope left in fuch a Cafe is, that God "may freely pardon and reftore them; but whe"ther he will or no, the Offenders can never "certainly learn from natural Religion."

FROM Our Author's Conceffion, as above, it follows, That there is no Imputation of Unfteddinefs or Change in God, for his Condefcenfion to his changed Creature; the Wisdom of Legiflators, and the Excellency of their Laws, being chiefly seen in adapting their Laws to the Circumstances of those who are fubject to them. That he forefaw what would happen, was no manner of Argument that he fhould not have fuffer'd it to come to pass, much lefs was it, any Caufe of its coming to pafs; for then he would have ceafed to have govern'd according to the Nature of the Creature he had made. Had an abfolute unfinning Obedience been afterwards exacted, there had been no Subjects of the human Race to have obey'd, they muft all have perished; but He, who is the Maker of all Men, is the Saviour alfo of all Men, in the eafy practicable Method of the new Covenant. The Law of the first Co

* Divine Foreknowledge has no more influence in effectuating, or making certain any future Event, than Human Foreknowledge; there being no moral Caufality in any Knowledge, but in the Will, which is the determining, acting Principle in every Agent. This obfervation feems to be the true Key for solving the as intricate as frivolous Disputes, about the Divine Prefcience, and future Contingents depending upon the Liberty of human Will.