CHAP. For Piety and Virtue being a moral Obligation XVIII. upon the Will, as the indifpenfable Qualification

of Man's Happiness; the Truth and Application of the Means, without which that Obligation can't be duly put in Practice, is morally obligatory upon the Will alfo: If one is a Duty, fo is the other; if one is neceffary, fo is the other. Thus Truth in the Understanding diftinguishing true Good from falfe, in the only true Doctrine, and Instruction of Happiness, (the chief Enquiry after Truth) is chofen, and embraced in the Afpect of being its Good, with a careful Regard to thofe Refolutions it would bring in, whereon Happiness depends, i. e. for Reproof, for Correction in Righteousness.

IF Faith is a Conclufion of a Syllogifm for true Happiness, and that Conclufion, as fuch, depends in part upon the Understanding; then Faith confifts in the Fidelity of all the Powers conftitutive of the inward Man, Understanding, Will, and Affections, to Truth conftitutive of Man's Happiness, called in Luke viii. 15. the boneft and Good Heart (a Word that comprehends those three Faculties) honeft, as void of Prevarication, free from Excufes, Self-delufion; good, as Self-determin'd to Self-Salvation, his own greateft Good, and to the Love thereof; and if the Excellency of it fo much confifts in Fidelity, it muft certainly be a moral Virtue. In the Underftanding that Fidelity becomes the Guide of Life; in the Intentions Sincerity; in the Affections Purity in the Will a Choice and Determination cleaving to the Reward of Virtue. For as every Word and Deed derives its Character of Virtue before God, from the Bent and Preference of the Will; it is not the knowing, affenting, or approving

approving Duty in the Understanding that makes CHAP. Virtue, but by reducing it into Practice by the XVIII. effectual Determination of the Will. The Virtue then of these fort of Men, like the Gnofticks of old, feems to confift chiefly in knowing, defcanting, and talking of it, and talking every body elfe out of the true Way to that, and Happiness. They appear contented Candidates for Heaven in the Province of Knowledge and Notion, defirous of no other Proficiency in Virtue, than the scientifick Stage of it, according to the Heathen Lucilius.

Virtus eft hominis, SCIRE id, quod quæque

babeat res.

Virtus, SCIRE, bomini, rectum, utile, quid fit boneftum,

Que bona, quæ mala item, quid inutile, turpe, boneftum.

Virtus, quærenda finem rei SCIRE, modum

que

WHEN Faith is obedient to the End, as the Means and the moral Caufe of producing it, whoever would obey the Religion of the End to the best of his Power, muft conform to the Religion of the Means according as it falls into his Power, and arrives at his Knowledge: The moral Obligation to one is unquestionable, therefore the moral Obligation to the other should as little be brought in queftion, fince Chriftianity has been proved to be a Scheme of the belt Means to that End. Nor is it poffible, duly confidering the Nature of God, or Man, for any Man to affign a better, or any fo well adapted, in itself, to the compaffing of that End.

BUT what if Faith is the firft Principle, and Bafis of Natural Religion as well as reveal'd; and without it, there is a moral Impoffibility of pleafing God? That God is, and is a Rewarder of thofe that diligently seek to please him, is the Creed of Nature; and if a Believer in God does not exert his Faith to that moral Relation between God and Man, as a Rewarder of fincere Diligence in ferving him, he cannot poffibly, as it is very natural to imagine, be the Servant of God, or God be otherwife pleas'd with him.

THOUGH the Believer of God's Existence fhould be mistaken as to fome of his natural Perfections, yet keeping his Faith and Reafon up to the religious Afpect of being a Rewarder, that fecures all his moral Attributes; and actually exerts them, in fome indeterminate Manner, in his Government over Man. His Veracity in keeping Promife, whence the Notion of Rewarder implanted in Man's Reafon had its Confirmation from Heaven from the Beginning, before Adam was turn'd out of Paradife; his Mercy, Goodness, and Love: And his being a Punisher neceffarily included in the other, fecures and exerts his Holinefs, and Fuftice towards the Tranfgreffor. And that lays an implicit Foundation for the Love and Fear of God, and all moral Obedience. And therefore they who reject the explicit, have nothing but implicit Faith to rely upon, which they take fo much felf-condemning Pains to deride. But the Author I reply to (more especially one of them) take a more effectual Step, and do the Work at once; in order to fupplant Chritianity, they fubvert and tear Natural Religion up by the Roots; by rejecting God as a Rewarder,

warder, the general, common,. natural PrincipleCHAP. of all Virtue and Hope of Acceptance, they XVIII, effectually reject all his moral Attributes, and cancel all moral and religious Obligation to him.

Now, does not Christianity reveal and unfold that Faith, and render it explicit in all thofe Particulars; bow, and for what Reason, and upon whofe Account, he is a Rewarder, and Pardoner, and Accepter of our Worship, and Service; and how and in what prefcribed Method of the Divine Wisdom all those moral Attributes are to have their governing Influence, and take Effect upon us? And if the other implicit Faith, wrapt up in Generals, was morally Obligatory, furely this explicit Faith must be much more fo, as being fo much more fatisfactory, and particular. This gives an immediate adequate Explanation of the Bishop of Bangor (now Salisbury's Paffage of Sermon before the Society for propogating the Gofpel as cited by the Author of Christianity as old, &c. pag. 68. where the Gospel is filed a Republication of the Law of Nature. I perfuade myself his Lordship had thefe original Truths in his View when he exprefs'd himself in that Manner, of which the other has taken fuch Advantage; with this Key, the Affertion bears quite another Meaning, than as it is ufed and adopted by that Author and brought into Title; for indeed the Gofpel requiring Repentance in virtue of its Explanation of the firft Promife, in its Precepts must be declarative likewife of that original Religion, of the End, which was as old as the Creation, the Breach of which Law of Nature was to be repented of.

AT

СНАР.
XVIII.

AT the fame Time we know and believe how God is a Rewarder, we know how is a Punisher; and if this Faith employ'd to its proper Ends is abfolutely neceffary, where ever it is fufficiently reveal'd, to gain Acceptance with God and prevent the other Inconvenience; then it becomes Self-prefervation, the Tranfgreffion of which Law is certainly a very great Sin: And I hope Self-prefervation will be allow'd to be a moral and the first and greatest of the moral Virtues, tho' never once call'd fo. So likewife Faith accomplifhes its End of good Works, tho' not call'd a moral Virtue, is nevertheless, in the Nature of Things, the Head of all the moral Virtues in the Religion of pleafing God. Therefore that Foundation must be falfe, That the Christian Revelation is only a Means of Information, without any Obligation of Believing*.

THUS Faith is the Beginning of cleaving unto † God, and one of the weightier Things of the moral Law, which muft certainly be meant of Faith in God, and not towards Man, because the parallel Place varies it the Love of Godt. Befides, all Laws, Human and Divine, when they oblige to the End, oblige, at the fame Time, to the propereft Means, in the Subject's Power, for answering the End, and punish for the Neglect. And when the Legislator, at any time, enacts and requires any particular, more explicit and effectual Means for advancing and fecuring the Law of the End, the Subject is par

rious.

The Foundation of that Book, Chriftianity not Myfte+ Eccl. xxv. 12.

‡ Luke xi. 42.

Matth. xxii. 23.

ticularly