perfons; if he defigns this revelation for all men, as he must, if it be of fo great use and advantage to them; - Why then is it not actually communicated to all?—Why did he so long,- Why does he still-wink at the ignorance of fo many nations, and leave them without any means of coming to the knowledge of his truth? Can a God of infinite power and wisdom be difappointed in his aim? Or will the common father of mankind confine his greatest mercies to fo few of his children? And thus every argument of the fuperior excellency of our religion is made an objection to its divine authority; and what should be a particular motive of gratitude for having received it, is turned into the strongest reason for rejecting it.

In my following difcourfe I fhall confider that part of this objection, which relates to the Manner of the Chriftian difpenfation; the other, which more immediately affects the Time of its delivery, being referved to a more full examination afterwards.

In answer therefore to this part of the foregoing difficulty, I shall endeavour to prove in the first place,

I. That a partial communication of Christianity can be no particular objection to its divine authority, fince the religion of nature is on the fame foot with it in this respect.

II. I propose to fhew the wisdom and goodness of the divine conduct in the difpenfation of them both.

And,

III. The great benefit of complying with the terms of the gospel, and the inexcufableness of rejecting it.

I. I am to fhew that a partial communication of Christianity can be no particular objection to its divine authority, fince the religion of nature is on the fame foot with it in this respect.

As the all-wife Creator of the univerfe has been pleased to frame different orders of intellectual beings, so he has made a confiderable difference among those of the fame order. In mankind the cafe is very evident. We cannot but observe a vast disparity between both the abilities and advantages of fome men, and those of others; their tempers of body, and powers of mind, and circumstances in the world; their education, opportunities, and ways of life; the station they are in, or the government they live under.

Now these are so many talents, which together make up our portion of reason, and feverally contribute to the forming our understanding, and improving our nature. As these then are so very unequally diftributed; 'tis plain that our religious notions, or our law of nature, must be very different and unequal also. The bounds of duty will be as various as the degrees of knowledge in every man, and likewife be enlarged in proportion to the gradual improvements in the fame man.

To speak therefore of one fixt, immutable, and univerfal law of nature, is framing an imaginary scheme without the leaft foundation in the real

nature

nature of things; directly contrary to the present order of the whole creation: 'tis making the fame rule fuit beings in all circumstances; which is equally abfurd, as to prescribe the fame food and phyfic to all constitutions.

To ftile this religion of nature absolutely perfect, or its light fufficient; can only mean, that every one may be as perfect here as God intended him to be, and able to do all that his maker will require of him; or fo much as is fufficient to excufe him from punishment: which is very true, but nothing to the purpose: for this kind of perfection is far from implying an univerfal, unchangeable equality in the law of nature, or excluding greater light; fince it may be very confiftent with that diversity of talents abovementioned, and those different degrees of happiness and perfection, which are founded in, and naturally confequent upon it.

pro

As therefore all the gifts of nature are distributed in this partial and unequal manner, how unreasonable is it to object against revealed religion, for its being conveyed in the very fame manner! One who believes any thing of a God and his vidence, will naturally suppose, that if any revelation were to be made, it would be made according to the fame method which is obferved in the government of the natural and moral world; at least, he that allows this method to be confiftent with the belief of a deity in the one, cannot furely on that account reject the other.*

Thus

Chubb in his difcourfe on Miracles, p. 48, &c. endeavours to invalidate this obfervation, by afferting, that the two cafes are not

A 4

parallel,

Thus much may be fufficient to fhew, that natural and revealed religion are upon the fame foot in point of univerfality; and that the objection holds equally against both of them. And I have been the more brief on this head, as it has been fully difcuffed of late by abler writers.*

II. Let us proceed therefore in the fecond place, to point out the wifdom and goodness of the divine conduct in both these dispensations.

ift. Of Natural Religion; which, as we have feen, is proportionable to the different abilities and attainments of mankind; as these are alfo to their different stations and conditions; both which we shall find exquisitely suited to the wellbeing of the world.

For in the first place, fociety is requifite in order to fupply the conveniences, the comforts, and the neceffaries of life, as well as to fecure the quiet ufe, and fafe poffeffion of them. To preferve fociety, among such frail fallible creatures,

there

parallel, because the one could not have been better constituted; which he thinks cannot be made appear concerning the other. But if it be fhewn that the like, or greater inconveniences would flow from any other affignable way of conveying revelation (which will be attempted in the following part of this difcourfe;) then we have as much reason to affert, that it could not upon the whole have been conveyed in a better way; and confequently the objection drawn from its want of Univerfality, will be of no more force than that from Inequality is in the common courfe of nature; and the two cafes will still be exactly parallel. Nor can I find the leaft proof of the contrary in Ld. Bolingbroke's declamation, (Works, Vol.iv. p. 293, &c.) except what arifes from the arbitrary fuppofition of fome few divines, and is fufficiently obviated near the end of Part II.

See Conybeare's, Fofter's, or S. Browne's Defence of Revelation; or Denne's Sermon on the Propagation of the Gofpel; or more at large in Butler's Analogy, &c. p. 181, 215, &c. 8vo. or Sykes on Miracles, P. 204, &c.

there is need of government, which implies different stations and conditions; as these again call for different abilities and qualifications. All, 'tis plain, cannot be governours, nor enjoy the benefits which attend some posts of wealth and power: the many have nothing left them but to obey, to execute the will of their fuperiors, and undergo the drudgeries of life.*

The fame holds in the body politic, as in the natural; there must be many inferior and more feeble members, which yet are necessary; neither can the head fay to the feet, I have no need of you.

But now, if all these different members of the world had naturally the self-fame sense and relish of things; if each man had originally and unchangeably the highest degree of understanding and acuteness; the greatest strength of reason, and fineness of imagination, that is to be met with in any of the fpecies; how very unequal and incongruous must this unavoidable diversity of orders prove! How hard would be the cafe of them, whose lot is to fill the worst and lowest offices, and yet who find themselves as well qualified for, and as highly deferving too of the best, (fince on this fuppofition, which leaves it fo very little in any one's power to benefit either himself or others, there could fcarce be any real defert at all) as those that hold them; and who likewife

can

Illi ergo omnes conditi funt ut hæc opera præftent, quibus in civitate opus eft; conditus eft autem vir fcientia præditus fui gratia: [i. e. ob finem quem adeptus eft, fc. fcientiam.] atque ita fimul colitur terra, et reperitur fapientia. Quam fcite ergo dixit ille, quifquis fuit, Nifi effent ftulti, defolaretur terra! Maimon. Porta Mof. p. 41. Vid. Ecclxxxviii. 32, 34. & Holberg N. Klim. p.133.