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SURE he does not mean his congenerate in that Senfe ex grano fit acervus, because that would bring up his Account of Means of Grace to be Mechanical, which he justly abhors in Religion: Befides in material Ends and Means, it is known to Dealers in Phyfick, that Antigenerate Means are fometimes more ferviceable for producing the defired End, as in the Maladies proceeding from the Extremes of Alcalies and Acids: Thefe, I apprehend, are not congenerate Means yet he is pleased to affirm in his pofitive Manner, as above cited, that the Means in Religion "have as clear and neceffary a Relation to the "End, as any natural Means have to their prois per natural End." But if all natural Means are not congenerate to their End, why must all religious Ones be fo to their End? To país by little Slips, I muft proceed to believe that if he intended by congenerate Means, fimilar to the End, fuch as Acts are to Habits, there can nei ther be Truth in the Suppofition, nor Propriety. in the Expreffion. Because Attention which he makes to be the Means," or the great Source "and Fountain, firft Spring and Origin of all

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moral Virtue and Religion and true Happinefs," is not a religious Act of the Mind as fuch, but its Difpofition or Capacity receptive of thofe Occafions, Opportunities, or Means in Life, which are by its Care and Application convertible to thofe Acts of moral Righteoufnefs, which inure into Habit, Temper, and Character; if the Mind beftows its Attention altogether, or unfeasonably, or more than is right upon fecular Things, it accordingly and proportionably contracts an Habit, or Character that way: But either way there must be Objects for the Atten

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tion to fix upon, as the Means of performing thofe Acts which Repetition confummates into Habits, whether in Religion, or in other Affairs. To put therefore the best Construction that can be put upon our acute Authors meaning in the Term congenerate as coupled with Means, I cone clude that it is equivalent to congruous, fit, proper, apt to produce the End they are defigned to effect.

INow proceed to prove against him that the three Pofitives of Chriftianity are all and fingularly invefted with thofe Characteristicks, poffefs'd of thefe good Qualites, and endear'd, if due Attention is given to their Reafon and moral Fitness, to the Intereft of Mankind, and the conftant Ufage of Christians.

1. As to the

Jefus Chrift, Hep of God thro' the Mediator

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fays, as above, "that all Religion lies in the right Knowledge of God, "and Ourselves," and elfewhere, That Self "acquaintance is the firft neceffary to Divine Sci

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ence or moral Philofophy." Now as the Revelation of the New Teftament is founded in the trueft Knowledge of God and Man, is there any Thing under the Copes of Heaven fo well adapted, or fo fully provided, as its great Discovery of Christ Jefus, the Sent of God, the Son of God, and of Man, the adequate complete Mediator between both, full of Grace and Truth, for displaying and confirming the Knowledge of God, the Holinefs and Righteoufnefs of his unfpotted Nature; and for opening the Caufe and difcovering the Source of the confcious guiltinefs and frailty of degenerated human Nature, what was its Lapfe and Fall, and what is its Cure and Remedy; one

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Knowledge calleth to the other Knowledge, but there is none fufficient to anfwer, or to offer at a Compromife, or any competent to make a perfect Reconciliation, but the fole all-perfect Mediator of our Profeffion. Our Author is fo enviLous and spitefully bent against this glorious Hope of the Chriftian Calling, that he would defeat it wholly by mifreprefenting it, affirming, That Chriftians don't worship the Father at all,

while all their real Veneration, Love, and "Obedience are paid to the Son* " But I have before fo copiously treated of the admirable Benefits, &c. of this Mediator, that I fhall be in danger of Repetition in proceeding further. I would only be permitted to observe, in brief, in oppofition to his truthless Affertion, that this pofitive, commanded, inftituted Part of Chriftianity, is a fingular good, congenerate Means, i.. moft excellently fuited and adapted to the moral Powers of Man for production of moral Righteoufness in Plenty, not only from folemn occafional Application, but in the daily Ufage of our Lives, in the Addrefs of our Chriftian Devotions.

FOR does not this daily keep open the delightful Avenue for our view of God and our Access to him without repulfe? As it wings our drooping Prayers, fo it fweetens and daily fecures Repentance for Sins of daily incurfion, 'till we get the perfect Mastery over them; for we have no Iicence to make ufe of his Name but upon our Repentance; and to that we are urged and almoft unavoidably led upon thinking of his Name, is e. as oft as we think of our Prayers. The fallible

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Understanding is daily kept in its proper Sphère, free from the Exceffes and Inquietudes, the Defpair or Prefumption that arifes from faulty Knowledge of God, or Ourselves. The ftubborn Will is daily curbed, difciplined in right Choice, advised by its best Friend, and animated in the purfuit of its Happiness, and of the Ways of pleafing God by daily ftriving to relinquith all love and liking to Sin, and daily advancing in Virtue and Holiness of living: For why fhould not every Chriftian be fo true to his Name and his Difcipleship, as to learn from him to die to and forfake his Sins daily, feeing Chrift purposely died on Earth that we might forfake them, and fiteth at the Right Hand of God to intercede for our Pardon, and crown us with Life and all Bleffednefs, when we apply in his Name for the fame? The various Affections, upon mention of Chrift and Hopes of Glory in him, are daily fummoned up to Heaven to Things above, to attend that Life which is hid with Chrift in God, and to lofen their Embraces, and Attachment to Things on Earth.

2. If we confider Baptifm, he himself owns Engagement in the Christian Covenant * and his own allow'd Senfe of the primitive Bap tifmal Creedt, both confpire to declare and argue it not to be a Mechanical Means of Faith and Religion, but rather a Rational Moral one; and fo ferves to confute himself, and fave me the Trouble, when he every where else, according to the Tenor of his Book, arraigns this and the other pofitive inftituted Parts of the Chriftian Religion, as no other than Mechanical

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Means of Grace, and no better than abfurd nonfenfical Things and, because Baptifm, and Bread and Wine, were in the World before, and sometimes ufed by the Jews upon particu lar Occafions, he amufes his Reader with a pleafant kind of Argument, that Chrift instituted neither of them, tho' he exprefly commanded, and peremptorily requires the Application of them to his Religion, conftitutive as they are, with peculiar Additions of the most folemn Parts of it; and is not that a fufficient, intelligible Senfe of being inftituted by him? What tho no Moral Character was annex'd by the Jews in the folemn (not daily, cursory) Úse of either of them, the denying of which without Proof, is a poor way of begging the Question? Does it follow in the Chriftian Application of each, when one Thing is made a Sign or Symbol of another, external Visibles of internal Spiritual better Things, that therefore there is no Moral Character required to be connected to, nor inward Spiritual Relation defign'd to be begun, or kept up in the Ufe thereof? More efpecially seeing moral religious Words, importing Engagements and Relation to the Father, as one God, to the Son as Mediator and Prophet, to the Holy Ghost, as Sanctifier, Aider, Supporter and Director are, by his Confeffion*, annex'd to Chriftian Baptifm, and if annex'd, must be to this Purpose, and carry that Importance; and he can as little deny, but that morally religious Words, Do this in Remembrance of me this is my Blood of the New Covenant which is fhed, &c. are exprefly incorporated into, and go along with the Lord's Supper.

*Page 395, 396.

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