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weight upon unbelievers, their union in these should have full as much; nay, should have more; because their diffenfions in fo many inftances fhew that they do not agree in any out of confederacy or good-will towards each other, but purely through the force of conviction, which is fo clear to them, that it pro duces the fame belief in all, though of the moft adverse parties in religion. Let the deift, therefore, do Christianity the justice either to embrace what all Chriftians profefs to believe, or to acknowledge that fuch a variety of opinions is no good argument for disbelieving all of them and every other part of religion; that Jefus is the Chrift, or Meffiah,. the Son of God, and that he came teaching the will of God from heaven; that he died for us, and that through him only forgiveness of fins is to be obtained; are points in 'which all Chriftians are agreed, as they are in many more articles of faith, though they differ about the manner of understanding them; and if men will be perfuaded to believe so far, it will be a great point gained; we may promife them that they will not be far from T

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believing all things neceflary to falvation; for thefe articles made up the creed of the first Christians; and when once men are convinced that the fcriptures are the word of God, as all Chriftians are, whatever more they find plainly revealed in fcripture, they will readily believe, and till they can upon enquiry find any doctrine revealed there, the belief of it cannot be to them neceffary to falvation.

The fum, therefore, or rather the inference from all that has been faid, is this; that the fashionable error of the prefent age, I mean deifm, or a difbelief of all revelation, is an ineffectual and unreafonable thing; for the deift can hereby get no indulgence to his vices, he is as much tied up to virtue, and to the fame fort of virtue as the Chriftian is, though he has not the fame forcible arguments and motives to incline him to the prac tice of it; and as to the Chriftian articles of

faith and its myfteries, let them clear their hands of as many as they can, fome they must still receive, for even morality has its creed, and nature its myfteries: nor does deifm

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want its different fects, who cannot agree (as how fhould they?) among one another; but the grace of God, that is, the gospel, is that alone which can fatisfy the expectations of a wife man, because it bringeth falvation unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and wordly lufts we should live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jefus Chrift.

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SERMON XIV.

ACTS xiii. 38, 39:

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of fins :

And by him all that believe are juftified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Mofes,??) a

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HAT Chriftianity is, and what advantages it brings to mankind, is an enquiry of very great and serious importance : for while fome men endeavour to weaken the evidences for the Chriftian religion, there are others, who, by confounding two very different things together, would perfuade us that Chriftianity is nothing more than the law of nature

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