AND WE OUGHT CAREFULLY TO AVOID,

as incredible and useless.

DISBELIEF; or a Rejection of all Revelation There are those who believe that there is a God, who made the World, and in a Providence, and a future State of Retribution; but maintain a total Disbelief of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as a divine Messenger, and, indeed, of the whole Gospel Dispensations. Many persons fall into this way of Thinking, not so much because the Evidence for Revelation is deficient, as because they do not duly and honestly attend to the Evidence when it is fairly laid before them. As was observed before, such Persons maintain the Sufficiency of natural Religion, for all the Purposes of obtaining and securing future Happiness; when it is plain, that all the most perfect Innocence can claim at the Hands of our Judge, is Freedom from Pain, during Existence; but what is that, when compared with that eternal and exalted Happiness, which is promised to the true Believer, in the Gospel?

What Hope, then, can the Deist entertain, of the Divine Favour, that he can rely on? (for certainly he cannot make the plea of Innocence.) It can only be upon the Benevolence of the Deity. But as the Justice, Veracity and Benevolence of God, must always be in the most perfect Harmony with each other, and as the Deist grants that under the Divine Government,

This Revelation, then, being known and acknowledged, obliges us to Obedience as effectually, as if all the Doctrines and Duties of the Gospel had been discoverable by the Light of Nature. For the Manner in which the Divine Will is made known to us, makes no Alteration in the Case.

The principal Design of the Christian Religion appears to have been, to restore Mankind from the State of moral Corruption and Wickedness, into which they had sunk, to Righteousness and Virtue. Hence we see the Importance and Excellency, and indeed the Necessity of Faith, that great first Article of our holy Religion. For, unless we have a full and firm Belief in God, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the great Truths which they have revealed to us in the Gospel; and especially, that we shall be raised from the Dead to an immortal Life, and that we shall, every one of us, receive a Reward according to our just Deserts; I ask, what great Inducements have we to live Lives of Virtue? The End of Faith, then, is the highest that can be imagined, even to produce in us that Conformity to the Divine Will, which is the highest Perfection of our Nature.

LOVE, GRATITUDE, to our Lord Jesus Christ, are primary Duties, incumbent on all who believe the Gospel Revelation. For his Character is in the highest Degree benevolent; and Benevolence is the

proper

Government, Virtue will be rewarded, and Vice punished, his Hope must be "baseless, as the fabric of a vision." No one, who believes the Gospel, can easily believe that natural Religion is sufficient to lead Men to eternal Happiness; for can it be supposed, that infinite Wisdom would institute a new Religion (Christianity) in Aid of, or supplementary to, Natural Religion, if the latter were adequate to all the Purposes of Religion?

INGRATITUDE, DISREGARD, AND INATTENTION to our Saviour, are highly criminal in every one, who is acquainted with the History of his Life, Death and Sufferings. How can any one expect to reap the Benefits of his Mediation, who makes no Return of Gratitude and Love, for such unexampled, gratuitous, and ill-deserved Favour? But alas! such is the Perverseness, Thoughtlessness and Depravity of the human Character, that Multitudes never reflect upon the Hand, from which they receive their greatest Blessings. "But now in the End of the World Christ appeared to put away Sin, by the Sacrifice of himself." "How, and in what particular Way, it had this Efficacy, there are not wanting Persons who have endeavoured to explain; but I do not find that the Scriptures have explained it. And if the Scripture has, as it surely has, left this matter of the Satisfaction of Christ mysterious,

left

proper Object of Love, however exemplified, and wherever found And when that Benevolence leads

the Person possessed of it, to undergo Humiliations, cruel Sufferings, and painful Death, as our Saviour did, how much is that Virtue enhanced in our View ! But when we are assured that all this Suffering was gratuitously undergone, on our Account; and more especially, when we were Sinners and Enemies to God by wicked Works; our Gratitude, unless we are lost to every worthy Sentiment, must be raised to the highest imaginable Pitch.

OBEDIENCE to all the Precepts and Exhortations, our Saviour has given us in the Gospel. As he is our Lord and King, and is appointed by God to be the Head over all Things to his Church, we are bound to obey him, not only from Gratitude and Love, but also as his loyal Subjects.

Besides the moral Precepts of the Gospel, there are two positive Precepts, which He, as our Lord, hath enjoined upon all his Disciples, viz. Baptism, by which we take upon us the Christian Profession, and engage ourselves to conform to its Dictates; and the Lord's Supper, which we partake of, from Time to Time, as his Disciples, in token of, or as a Memorial of his Body broken, and his Blood shed for us.

HOPE, TRUST, RELIANCE, CONFIDENCE. All who believe in Jesus Christ, and obey his Gospel, have the highest Reason to hope, trust and confide

left somewhat in it unrevealed, all Conjectures about it must be, if not entirely absurd, yet at least uncertain.""*

DISOBEDIENCE to his Injunctions. As our Lord has left us a most perfect Code of Precepts in the Gospel, an Obedience to which would be productive of our greatest possible Happiness in this Life, and form us to that Temper, which would qualify us for, and ensure us our everlasting Welfare; how inexcusable, how criminal must we be, to suffer any Temptation or Allurements of this Life, or the irregular Indulgence of any Appetites, or Passions, to lead us astray from that Path of Virtue, which our Saviour has so clearly marked out for us! And every one who believes the Christian Religion, is in Duty bound to make a public Profession of his Faith, by submitting to the initiating Rite of Baptism, declaring to the World, that he is a Christian; as also to celebrate the Ordinance of the Supper, that our Lord instituted, and enjoined to be partaken of, by all his Disciples, in Memory of him, and all that he has done, and taught, and suffered for us. "Do this, saith our Saviour, in Remembrance of me."

WITHOUT HOPE OR CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST, as our Saviour, Mediator, or Redeemer. Either disclaiming

* Butler's Analogy, Part 2, Chap 5.