ledge of God, of his law and his government, of his grace and their duty, which they might have arrived at by the right exercise of their conscience and reasoning powers. This seems to be the sense of those words of the apostle, Rom. ii. 12–15. as many as have sinned without law, that is without a written or revealed law, they shall perish without law; and as many as have sinned in, or under a written or revealed law, they shall be judged by that law; the Gentiles which have not any written law, are a law to themselves, which shews the work of the moral law written in their hearts; their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing or excusing them.

But how far divine compassion shall exercise itself further in unpromised ways towards any of those persons or nations, who by the negligence and iniquity of their parents, had lost all the revelations of grace, is to be left to the wise, the righteous and the merciful Judge of all men.

CHAP. XIV. Conclusion of this Essay.

I. A due survey of these dispensations of God to man in this light, perhaps may enable us to understand many parts of the bible much better, since it will happily account for many difficulties in the Old Testament and the New, which seem to me very hard to be solved in any other way, to the satisfaction of a diligent enquirer.

II. And as I have been led into this scheme and manner of conceiving the transactions of God with men, by a diligent perusal of the holy scriptures, rather than by any human creeds, confessions or systems, either ancient or modern, so I cannot but recommend the serious consideration of it to those who are resolved to follow the same method of study, and read the scriptures, to learn from thence the articles of our christian faith and practice. Let them like the noble Bereans, search the scriptures, and see whether this representation of divine things does not come very near to the truth, and make scripture more easy to be understood by shewing the connexion and consistence of every part of it with all the rest.

III. It is confessed after all, there may be several difficulties still attending this scheme of the dispensations of grace, and perhaps some mistakes in it; I am but a weak and fallible creature, and the ways of God are unsearchable to man, and his judgments past finding out; Rom. xi. 33. But let it be observed, that among a hundred men, every one can much sooner find faults in any system of divinity, or in the scheme of any science, than one of them will draw up a scheme or system which hath no difficulties.

IV. It has been often found, both in human and divine sciences, that when some particular parts of a scheme or system

appear a little disagreeable to our sentiments, as perhaps this may do, we are presently ready to correct them; but we find also in a little time those supposed corrections, or their necessary consequences will not comport with other most plain and evident truths, that relate to the same subjects, and we then are forced to retract our corrections. While men in this frail state are searching into the deep things of God, we must be content with some remaining darknesses; If there be any short summary of these transactions of God with men, which is more consistent with itself, which is nearer to scripture, and has fewer difficulties than this, I shall be glad to receive it and submit to it. O Lord! Send out thy light, and thy truth; let them lead us to thy holy hill, let them bring us to the tabernacles of thy grace, and to the mansions of thy glory; Ps. xliii. 3. Amen.

THE

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS

OF

HUMAN REASON ARGUED.

IN FOUR CONFERENCES.

PREFACE

TO "THE STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF HUMAN REASON."

IN free and familiar conferences it is never required that such a just accu

racy of sentiment or language should be observed, or that men should be confined to such exactness of method, as in a set or studied treatise on any appointed theme. Occasional incidents frequently arise, and turn the conversation aside into an unexpected channel: Or sometimes, perhaps, we recal the same subject, and the same sense may be repeated again. And in the warmth of discourse some freedoms of thought and expression may break out, which stand in need of the candour of those that bear them, and it is ever allowed in such cases. Let it be noted also, that when persons of different characters are introduced in a free discourse, the narrator is not bound to defend all that one or any of the parties present happen to utter: He will not pretend to support every thing that Pithander urges in vindication of the insufficiency of human reason in matters of religion; nor dares he venture to make all the concessions on the side of its sufficiency, nor advance all the suppositions that Sophronius the moderator hath done in this dispute. But, upon the whole, if there be any thing suggested in these conferences which may occasion Logisto and his companions, who are under temptations to infidelity, to bethink themselves a little; if it may awaken any of them so far as to raise some doubts about the sufficiency of their boasted reason, and lead them to see and confess the necessity of divine revelation, in order to reform the world, and to restore mankind to true religion and the favour of God, the writer hath attained his chief design, and shall rejoice in the

success.

There is no objection which the author has found in any public writing raised against this book, but such as are already expressly and in plain language both proposed by Logisto, and answered by Pithander or Sophronius. And he intreats such opponents to read the book over before they write against it, before they treat it with insult, and pronounce victory and triumph on their own side. The chief objection which the author has heard of, that hath been raised in conversation against these conferences, is, that the deist does not argue so strenuously as he might have done, nor pursue his cause with sufficient vigor and constancy; but that he seems to be too soon and too easily convinced by the reasoning of his antagonist or the moderator, in several of the subjects of controversy between them; whereas our modern infidels would have scorned to have dropt the argument, or yielded up the cause without more contest. To this the author asks leave to reply, that if he had cited the books whence he drew Logisto's argument, the objectors, perhaps, would think better of them; for they are not borrowed from the meanest writers. Nor has he ever represented Logisto falling under conviction, but where he thinks the arguments of Pithander or Sophronius carry sufficient weight and convincing power with them: He confesses, indeed, that if he had drawn the teazing saw of controversy further, and prolonged a wrangling dialogue beyond this point, perhaps it would set the writers on that side in a juster view, agreeable to their own practice; but still it would have been mere cavilling instead of disputing, it would have rendered the