Shall it be said here; but for once let us suppose it, that! God may give self-denying and hard commands without any reason to expect a reward; do not these commands carry sufficient reason to oblige a creature to obey? And what if I should answer, no, they do not; You will tell me this is very absurd, that the will of God, which carries the highest obligation, should not sufficiently bind a creature. I answer, first, it is not the highest obligation where all hope of reward is cut off, for the natural duty of self-felicitation being added to it by the view of a reward, would raise it higher. But, secondly, what if it be an absurd thing, that the will of God commanding does not sufficiciently oblige? If you will force upon me absurd and inconsistent suppositions, why should you expect any thing but absurd consequences? I confess there have been some mystic divines, and some enthusiasts, among the papists, who have screwed up their notions of virtue to such sublimities, that we are bound to practise all the will of God steadily, under the longest and sharpest trials and most self-denying instances, without any regard to rewards or punishments; or even if there were no such things. There have been also some deists who have reproached christianity as a mere selfish and mercenary thing, because of the rewards and punishments it proposes; and have maintained that true virtue should be practised by the sole motive of its own rational excellency and loveliness, that is the fitness of things*.

I deny not the truth of this obligation arising from the mere manifestation of God's will, confirming the reason and fitness of things, even without the hope of reward; but, in my opinion, this obligation alone would not be supreme and effectual: And indeed this seems not to be the religion of men on earth, but of some superior beings, if such there be, who can practise it. Abraham,

It is not unworthy of our remark here, that the opposite extremes of error in departing far from the truth, meet again in one and the same gross mistake, viz. that true virtue or piety must have no regard to rewards or punishments." Deism and enthusiasm agree in this point of falsehood, to oppose true christiauity, and scripture. This error is of the same stamp with the mad paradox of the stoics, that " a wise man is happy in Phalaris's bull," that is, that virtue, in the midst of the extremest tortures and agonies, is still a sufficient reward for itself. Alas! for these unhappy men, these ancient philosophers! they knew not the, rewards of virtue and piety, some of which even reason might suggest or expect, if they had knowu the true God; nor were they acquainted with those superior recompences of faith and holiness which christianity reveals and promises.

Nor can I forbear to make this inference here, viz. thofe writers who raise their rules and their test of true piety so high, as to require that we must be content to be damned that God may be glorified in our punishment; they require what God and his word have never required: Nor doth scripture ever demand us to say, we would live in the same perfection of zeal for God, the same mortification of appetite, and persevere in the same strict self-denial and patience, both in duties and in sufferings, if there were no present or future recompences, no heaven and no hell. This is not the sense nor the language of the prophets, or apostles, or of Jésus Christ our Lord, when they would teach us the religion of mankind.

and Moses, and Paul, and even Christ himself on earth, had respect to the heavenly country, the recompence of reward, the prize of the high calling, the crown of righteousness, and the joy that was set before them: See the epistles to the Corinthians, to the Philippians, Timothy, and the Hebrews. The language of scripture runs always in this strain; and it seems to be the sense of the bulk of mankind, as well as of Epicurus the philosopher; if we have hope in this life only, and there be no rewards after death, let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die; that is, we have not sufficient obligations to the practice of virtue.

II. Though there were no positive and additional blessedness to be expected as the reward of virtue, to engage the principle of self-love or self-felicitation on its side; yet this is eternally certain, that God, who is the just judge of the whole earth, will not deal with the righteous and the wicked entirely alike: If the righteous be not positively rewarded for their virtue, it is at least certain, the wicked shall be punished for their vices; else virtue and vice would be treated alike, and both would have the same success and event. Now whatsoever advantage virtue has above vice in the remunerative sentence of God, that very advantage, whether it be of impunity and ease, or of positive reward, is sufficient to engage the principle of self-love or self-felicitation on the side of virtue. Thus, whether virtue is positively rewarded or no, yet the virtuous shall be dealt with in a much kinder way than the vicious by God, the governor and judge of the world; and thus the obligation arising from the will of God, as a commander of virtue, will always be joined with such a su perior motive from the recompence of God as a governor, that the strongest and supreme obligation of man will still lie on the side of virtue; and this arises only from the supposition of the existence of a God, who, as he commands virtue, will in some way or other recompense the practice of it.

I conclude this point of debate therefore thus:Without the supposition of the being of a God, I think there is no possible security to innocence, and there will be no sufficient obligation to social virtue and justice among men: But self-love, self-preservation, and self-felicitation will be the supreme law of nature and reason to regulate the actions of every rational and sensible being. And if this supreme law meet with any opposition from the abstracted and speculative notions of the fitness and unfitness of things, and the eternal differences of virtue and vice; yet it will surmount and overturn them all; and each man's own reason will support this supreme dictate of nature, this supreme fitness of things, viz. self-preservation or self-felicitation; though it. bring with it an universal confusion, mischief and violence in social life. Therefore a kingdom, or a republic of atheists, can never subsist upon any solid principles of nature or reason.

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SECT. VII.-The Necessity of Divine Revelation, both to clear up the Rules of Virtue, and to strengthen the Obligations.

If atheism, with all its pretences to reason, cannot secure our obligations to virtue, but wants the supposition of a God to determine and establish them, it is as manifest, that deism stands in as much need of divine revelation to clear up the rules of virtue with more evidence and certainty than human reason has done, as well as to acquaint the bulk of mankind with them, and to make our obligations to practise them more effectual. It is granted, the most general rules of duty, the chief outlines and boundaries of vice and virtue, may be discovered by the reasoning powers of man, if rightly employed; but these discoveries are so few, and some of them are so feebly impressed upon the minds of the multitude, that, in many cases, they leave but a general glimmering light, and give but a doubtful direction: So that man, by nature, in his present corrupted state, is born in the midst of so much darkness, that he hardly knows how to find the rules of his duty in a thousand instances, without some further revelation or assistance.

This has been made abundantly evident by several writers in the defence of christianity. They have shewn how many nations of men as well as schools of philosophers, have grossly mistaken these great outlines and boundaries of vice and virtue. Some have thought fornication lawful, and have practised it even in their worship. Others have encouraged theft, and the community of wives, and exposing or murdering their children. Most princes and generals have esteemed the plunder, robbery and murder of neighbour-rations a piece of heroism and glory. Others again have supposed revenge to be a very honourable practice, and have despised the christian virtues of meekness and forgiveness. In the midst of such shameful mistakes of great men and philosophers, and whole nations, can we say, the boundaries of virtue and vice are so plain, that all persons may as easily discern and distinguish them as they may distinguish light. from darkness? Or, that the bulk and lower multitude of mankind, who seldom set themselves to study, that plowmen and labourers, can learn their duty sufficiently by the mere light of their own reasonings upon the fitness of things? Again; though some of the great outlines of virtue, and the general rules of it, are obvious to all men, and more might be found out by labour and reasoning; yet, in a thousaud particular practices of life, in common occurrences, every man does not know how to apply these general rules to his present circumstances, and he will be often, if not almost always, at a loss in finding his duty in particular occurrences of life.

But God, by the revelation of his will in scripture, has given so bright a discovery of these general boundaries between vice VOL. III.

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and virtue, and made plain a multitude of these particular duties. both by many express commands, and prohibitions, and various parallel examples, both of vice and virtue, that even the common people may learn what they are to believe, and what they are to practise, or avoid, by a far more easy and ready way of instruction. Milk-maids and plowmen, and the meanest offices or capacities in the world may learn their duty here. All the rules of virtue given us by the heathen philosophers, from their supposed fitness of things, fall vastly short of what Moses and the prophets, Christ and his apostles, have done in clearing up the common rules of virtue to mankind, by divine revelation. This is all I shall say concerning the necessity of revelation, to make the rules of virtue plain and evident to the bulk of mankind.

As to the obligations to practise virtue, even upon the supposition of the being of a God, still there is something wanting to render them effectual. This sufficiently appears in the wicked lives of many of the heathen philosophers, who held the truth in unrighteousness, and sinned against conscience abundantly; and they made it appear how feebly their moral obligations impressed their minds; for when they knew God, they glorified him not as God; but practised all the idolatries of the common people, and gave themselves up to all immorality, as St. Paul informs us; Rom. i. 21-32.

But the great and awful things that are revealed to us in scripture, enforce these obligations of virtue with many additions of strength and efficacy. It is the word of God which sets before us the terrors of the law of God, and his indignation against sinners; it is this gives assurance of pardon of sin upon repentance, and a trust in his mercy through Jesus the Saviour; which tends much to melt our hearts down to repentance, and love, and new obedience. It is this word which tells us, that God takes exact cognizance of all our actions; and that there shall be a great day of judgment, when we shall be called to an account for our behaviour, and rewarded or punished according to our works. It is the word of God which sets before us the certain joys or glories of heaven, and the certain torments and sorrows of hell, where happiness and misery are distributed in perfection, according to vice and virtue. These are the things which awaken all the reasoning and active powers of man; these influence his hopes and fears much more powerfully than the mere light of nature could ever do, and the doctrines of virtue arising from the mere fitness of things. These discoveries of scripture have actually produced more piety and virtue in a town or city of christians than heathenism, or the mere light of reason could ever do in whole nations.

Besides all this, the gospel acquaints us with those divine assistances of the holy Spirit, which persons who pray earnestly

to God for them may expect and receive; whereby vice shall be subdued in their natures, and their irregular appetites and passions shall be mortified; whereby moral and divine things shall be set before them in so powerful a light, as to persuade their wills to become religious and holy. Thus between these clear instructions, these powerful, religious motives, and these divine assistances which the gospel proposes, virtue gains a vast advantage by christianity.

To conclude; though there are eternal fitnesses in things, and reason may find out the general rules of virtue, and the chief boundaries between good and evil; yet a sufficient obligation to practise them cannot be established without the supposition of a God: And even after this supposition we must confess, that the knowledge of these rules amongst the bulk of mankind, will be very dark and dubious in a thousand instances, and obligations to practise virtue will be feeble, and have little effect without the divine revelation of the law and the gospel. Blessed be God for ever for his holy book of scripture! O when shall it be read in every language, and be made known to the ends of the earth!