upon some eternal reason, for or against them, its judgment is false and erroneous. So that the objective goodness or evil that is in the actions themselves is the measure of our natural reason, but our natural reason judging truly concerning them is the measure of our choice or refusal of them; for be our action never so good or evil in itself, unless we have some eternal reason for or against it, we cannot judge it so; and unless we judge it so, we cannot reasonably choose or refuse it; but as soon as ever we have judged and pronounced it good or evil upon an eternal reason, we stand obliged by that judgment to do or forbear it. So that right reason, pronouncing such actions good, and such evil, is the law of nature; and those eternal reasons upon which it so pronounces them are the creed of nature; both which together make natural religion. And by this religion was the world governed, at least the greatest part of it, for some thousands of years; till by long and sad experience it was found too weak to correct the errors of men's minds, and restrain the wild extravagancies of their wills and affections; and then God, out of his great pity to lost and degenerate mankind, vouchsafed to us the glorious light of revealed religion, which, in the largest acceptation of it, includes all natural religion, as well the credenda as agenda, the doctrines as the duties of it; both which are contained in that revelation of his will which God hath made to the world, to which it hath superadded sundry doctrines and duties of supernatural religion.

But strictly speaking, revealed religion, as it is distinguished from natural, consists of such doctrines and duties as are knowable and discoverable only by

revelation; as are not to be deduced and inferred by reasoning and discourse from any necessary or natural principles, but wholly depend upon the counsel and good-will of God. And where things depend entirely upon God's will, and their being or not being lies wholly in his free disposal, it is impossible that our natural reason should ever arrive at the knowledge of them without some revelation of his will concerning them. For in such matters as these, where the will of God is absolutely free, reason without revelation hath neither necessary nor probable causes and principles to argue from, and therefore can make neither certain conclusions nor so much as probable guesses concerning them, but must necessarily remain altogether in the dark, till such time as God hath revealed to it which way his will is determined; and of such matters as these consists all revealed religion strictly so called. For though God hath made sundry revelations of his will, yet the subject-matter of them was for the main always the same, viz. the doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ, and the duties that are subsequent thereunto, which from that promise which God made to Adam upon his fall, The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head, to the last promulgation of the gospel, hath been the great theme of all divine revelation. For what else was that revelation which God made to Abraham, In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, but only the dawning of the gospel? which is nothing but glad tidings of the Mediator. What was the law of Moses, but only the same gospel shining through a cloud of types and symbolical representations? and what are all the succeeding prophecies of the Old Testament, but

only the same gospel still shining clearer and clearer, till at last it broke forth in its meridian brightness? And were this a proper place, I think I could easily demonstrate, that from Adam to Moses, from Moses to the prophets, from the prophets to Jesus Christ, the main scope and design of all divine revelation hath been the gradual discovery of this great mystery of the mediation. So that revealed religion was for the matter of it always the same, though it was not always revealed with the same perspicuity, but cleared up, by degrees, from an obscure twilight to a perfect day. Wherefore Christianity, which in strictness is nothing but the doctrine of the mediation, together with its appendant duties, ought not to be looked on as a new religion of 1700 years' date; for in reality it is as ancient as the fall, and was then preached to Adam in that dark and mysterious promise; after which it was a little more clearly repeated, though very obscurely still, in God's covenant with Abraham; and again, after that, it was much more amply revealed in the types and figures of the law of Moses, which yet, like painted glass in a window, did under their pompous show still darken and obscure the holy mysteries within them, which were nothing but the doctrines and laws of the Christian religion. So that Judaism was only Christianity veiled, and Christianity is only Judaism revealed.

Thus the religion of the Mediator, you see, was the principal subject of all divine revelation; and this, without revelation, natural reason could never have discovered, because the whole of it depended upon the free-will of God. For whether he would admit of any mediator or no; whether he would

admit his own Son to be our mediator or no; whether he would deposit such inestimable blessings for us or no, in the hands of our mediator, was entirely left to his free determination; and there was no necessary cause either within or without him, no, nor any probable one neither, that human reason could ever have discovered, that could incline or determine him one way or the other. So that till such time that he revealed his will to us, we were left utterly in the dark as to this matter, and had no manner of principles to argue from, or so much as to guess by. This therefore is strictly the revealed religion, as it stands in opposition to the natural. But since together with revealed religion God hath put forth a second edition of natural, which was almost lost and grown out of print, through the wretched negligence and stupidity of mankind, and since he hath not only revealed them together, but also incorporated them into one; religion, as it is now framed and constituted by this happy conjunction of natural with revealed, may be thus defined; It is the obligation of rational creatures, to render such acts of worship to God through Jesus Christ as he himself hath instituted, and as are in their own natures suitable to his excellencies and their dependence upon him. Where by acts of worship I do not mean such only as are immediately directed to and terminated upon God, as all those are which are contained in the first table of the Decalogue; but all those acts in general which God hath commanded, which being performed upon a religious account, that is, out of homage and obedience to God's will and authority, are as truly and properly acts of worship to him, as prayer, or praise, or adjuration.

And now having given this short account of the nature of religion, it will from hence be easy to collect what principles are necessary to the founding and securing its obligations: for,

First, God being the great object of all religion, it must be absolutely necessary, in order to our being truly religious, that we believe that God is.

Secondly, Religion being an obligation of us to God; that this obligation may take effect upon us, it is necessary we should believe that he concerns himself about us, and consequently that he governs the world by his providence.

Thirdly, Religion obliging us to render all due acts of worship to him, to enforce this obligation upon us, it is necessary we should believe, that he will certainly reward us if we render those acts to him, and as certainly punish us if we do not.

Fourthly, These acts of worship, which religion obliges us to, being such as are suitable to the excellency of God's nature, to enable us to fulfil this obligation, it is necessary we should have right apprehensions of the nature of God.

Fifthly, Religion obliging us to render all these acts of worship to God in and through Jesus Christ, to our performing this, it is necessary we should believe in his mediation.

These are the great principles in which all the obligations of religion are founded; and therefore, in order to the thorough fixing those obligations upon men's minds, it will be necessary, before we proceed to the particular duties which religion obliges us to, to discourse of these principles distinctly.