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Sincerity, and from a folid Fortitude and true Greatnefs of Soul, which are the Difpofitions which Religion prescribeth, and which it hath a manifeft Tendency to ftrengthen and improve?

We have now taken a distinct View of the Precepts of the Divine Law, as relating to the Duties required of us towards God, our Neighbours, and ourselves; in the Practice of which a truly religious and virtuous Life doth properly confist. And it appears, that in all these Respects the Law of God is conformable to right Reafon and to the Nature of Things, and that all it's Injunctions are really conducive to the true Perfection and Felicity of our Nature. Carnal Appetite may remonftrate against it, but it is what Reafon and Confcience, where it is not depraved by evil Habits and vicious Prejudices, upon the most impartial Confideration, cannot but approve. And furely what Reason approves muft, to a reafonable Being, be a Source of the trueft Satisfaction and Delight.

If the Contrary to thofe Duties which God requireth were bound upon us by a Law; or if there were no Law at all, but every Man was left to gratify his own Lufts and Paffions without Controul; how

wretched

wretched would the State of Mankind be! There would be no Order, and confequently no Safety, nothing but endless Confufion and Mifery. Instead therefore of Complaining against God for the Prefcriptions of his Law, we ought to adore his Goodness in Giving us fuch a Law. He is not a fevere and rigid Task-master, who delighteth in Imposing hard and unreasonable Burdens upon his Creatures 3 nor doth he in his Dealings with us act in a Way of mere abfolute Authority, but according to the fteady Rules of the most perfect Wifdom, Righteousness, and Equity. As his infinite Goodness inclines him to delight in the Peace, the Order, and the Happiness of his reasonable Creatures fo the facred Requirements of his Law are plainly calculated to promote that defirable End. Superftition indeed has frequently put Men upon doing Things which are very grievous and fhocking to Nature: The idolatrous Priefts of Baal cut and flashed themselves, and many fuch cruel Rites were made Ufe of among the Gentile Nations; and, almost in every Part of the World, human Sacrifices have been, at one Time or other, offered to their Deities. The Accounts which are given us by credible Authors of the rigid Penances that the

Heathen

Heathen Devotees in the Eaft-Indies undergo, are aftonishing. Some of them, for a long Time together, powder their Hair with Ashes, and lay.themselves naked on the Ground without Bed or Covering: Some voluntarily distort and dislocate their Bones, or bind themselves by ftrict Vows to remain continually in one Posture: Others load themselves with heavy Chains which they drag after them, as long as they live; or lie down in the Way by which the Chariots that carry their Idols are to pafs in their facred Proceffions, that they may run over them, and crush and mangle their Bodies. And, even among profeffed Chriftians themselves, Superftition has often laid heavy Yokes upon the Disciples, of which it were eafy to produce many Inftances. But these are the Inventions of Men, which God hath no where commanded in his Word and Law: All that is there injoined comes in Effect to this, that we fhould fhun whatsoever is unbecoming us as reasonable Creatures, moral Agents; and fhould endeavour to begin to be holy and happy here, that we may be fitted for a State of complete eternal Felicity and Glory hereafter. What a kind Mafter, what a gracious Sovereign, do we ferve, whofe very Service is the trueft

Freedom,

Freedom, whofe Work carries Delight in it's Nature and Exercife, and whom to obey is to be happy?

And now the natural Conclufion from all that hath been offered concerning the Divine Commandments is this, that we should apply ourselves with Zeal and Diligence to yield an uniform Obedience to them, through the whole Course of our Lives; and that we fhould do it with Chearfulness and Delight. The very Excellency of the Commands themselves fhould be a powerful Motive and Inducement to engage us to the Observance of them. As far as we are confcious of doing this, we have the approving Teftimony of our own Minds, as having acted a right and worthy Part, agreeable to the best Principles of our Frame, and becoming the Dignity of the rational Nature. And this is a Source of inward Satisfaction and Joy, which the World cannot give ́nor take away. To which it To which it may be added, that it hath a Tendency to procure the Efteem and Good-will of our Fellowcreatures, and that Good Name which, the the wife Man tells us, is rather to be chofen than great Riches. Prov. xxii. 1. A Course of uniform unaffected Piety and Virtue has fuch genuine Charms, fuch a Beauty as

well

well as Dignity in it, that there are few but are willing to have it thought that they efteem and approve it. Hence Virtue and Praife are joined together Phil. iv. 8. But that which ought to have the greatest Weight with us, and which renders the Practice of the Duties required of us properly an Act of Religion, is, that we are obliged to it by the exprefs Authority of God himself, our great Creator, and our fupreme and rightful Lord; and not only by his Authority, but by his Goodnefs, as he is our most gracious and bountiful Benefactor. We are bound to it, as Men, by the Law of our Creation; and we are under peculiar additional Engagements to it, as we are Chriftians. very End of Christ's Coming into the World, and of what he did and fuffered for us, was that we might ferve God in Holiness and Righteoufnefs before him, all the Days of our Lives. Luke i. 74, 75. All the Riches of the Divine Grace, all the Wonders of redeeming Love, which are fet before us in the Gofpel, are defigned to engage us to Obedience, and draw us to it as with the Bands of Love. For this Purpofe alfo we have the excellent Example of our Lord Jefus Chrift proposed to us as our Pattern, who yielded a moft

The

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