CHAP. BUT this is arguing upon a moft abfurd, pre XVIII pofterous Suppofition, putting the Effect before the Caufe, and making it independent of it; gathering Fruit without a Tree; and recommending Virtue without any Principle of Virtue. For tho' it is never fo true, that the Excellency of Faith, and the Value of all reveal'd Knowledge is to be estimated from its Defign and Tendency to better Mens Repentance, Prayers, and Practices; and the Measure of Errors to be regarded from its Tendency to corrupt and spoil any of thefe (Immorality, tranfgreffing the Religion of the End, being certainly the greatest Herefy, and a Self-condemnation by Nature;) yet it does not follow, that the End can be accomplish'd without competent Means, or a moral Effect be produced without a moral Caufe. If the End is perverted and in danger of being loft thro' the Perverfion and Deadnefs of the natural Means; and those Means are quickned with new Life and Soul, new principled with Acceptance and Aid from Heaven, and invigorated with Efficacy, Strength, and Alacrity of moral Operations; and all these proceed from this Faith, it must be obligatory and neceffary, where it is prefented, and known to be given for that End, that moral Effect of good Works, because that End is obligatory and neceffary. MORE especially, fince God, who never does any thing in vain, has fo exprefly commanded this Faith in the Mediator, and indifpenfably connected it to that very End; we may be as morally certain of the Truth and Meaning of that Command, as of the Truth of the End. I acknowledge that when the End of the World comes, Faith vanishes; but as long as that is adjourn ed, I affirm, this muft fubfift in full Force and CHA P. Virtue. It is an unaccountable Perverfenefs, XVIII. and no lefs Inconfiftency to receive and own the, Revelation, where the Command is every where fo plain, and yet declare it not obligatory. I have before prov'd at large*, that it is not an arbitrary Command for commanding fake, but carries its Reafon with it; that Faith in Chrift as Son of God, and Son of Man, renders him the fittest and ableft MEDIATOR, every way, that can be conceiv'd by human Reafon; and how that Faith prefides over all the Means, and by a moral Operation adjusted to a moral Agent, carries with it the Power of the most Divine Perfuafion for regulating and improving the Natural Religion of the Means, Repentance, and Prayer, with proper Efficacy and Acceptance for perfecting the Religion of the End, to the faving of the Soul. NATURE may rebel against Principle, but where there is no Principle to controul the Rebellion, there can be nothing but Anarchy with all the Licentioufnefs of Mif-rule. A Man may fometimes be worse than his Belief and recover himself; but it is as impoffible for him ever to be better, as for the Stream to rise higher, or be better in Quality, than its Fountain-head. Health and Poifon may as well confift together, in the fame Conftitution, as the fafe Way to Salvation, and a wilful Corruption of the Faith of Chrift in a meditated Departure from its true Ufe and Application for working out our own Salvation. * Throughout the firft Volume. S 3 ACCORDING СНАР. ACCORDING to Natural Religion, the XVIII. Principle of Virtue is the feeking to please God by our Actions, in the Belief of his being a Rewarder of thofe that do fo. That as we receive our Being and Powers of Action from him, fo we are to receive our Happiness alfo from his rewarding Hands: Without this Faith it is impoffible to please him. Confequently, Virtue, or Works, are no longer Works, than as they are actuated by, and done in Virtue of that Faith; nor will Faith be any longer Faith, than as it produces, and is bent upon producing Works: and Works fo perform'd receive their Virtue and Power of pleafing from that Faith; whilft Faith itself is nothing at all without the other but with them, makes them what they ought, or pretend to be, an Act of Religion. This is the Tree that Virtue grows upon; nor can there be any Fruits of true Virtue, in any Place of the Earth, without this Tree. Now it has appear'd before that this Faith in God as a Rewarder, as general and implicit as it is, includes Faith in the Mediator, and fecures all the moral Attributes concern'd in that glorious Economy; and therefore may serve, when duly kept up to, and reafon'd upon, to please God, who is no Refpecter of Persons, in any part of the Earth. But as that Faith, thro' the Favour of God, in all Christian Nations, especially Proteftant, is become fo very explicit, and fo very particular in all the Offices of a Mediator, it obliges Men, as they explicitly believe in God, fo alfo to believe explicitly and particularly in the Mediator, in each of thofe his Offices, as before explain'd. And when God, who before commanded the Action, comes after wards, wards, to any People, and explicitly, and moft CHAP. exprefly and very preffingly commands the XVIII. MANNER of the Action, and in that manner displays a Cornucopia of the moft convincing Arguments of entire Reconciliation, in Method and Manner of pleafing him; if the Manner fo publish'd, and indifpenfably infifted upon, obliges, as well as the Action, (it being fo neceffary to comply with the establish'd Forms in Courts of Law and Equity, that all is rejected without it) they, who offer to rebel against the Manner of the Action, rebel against the Action itself, and make it of none effect to themselves. Their Virtues may truly be call'd fplendida peccata (tho' the fame Virtues in a Heathen Country are not fo) being wilfully deftitute of the known Principle of Virtue; where it is refractory to Chrift, it cannot be pleasing; where it is ignorant of him, it may be acceptable to God; and the Mediator, who died for all Men, may be their unknown Friend and Interceffor. BUT how should he regard those who have little or no Regard to his greatest Kindness, his Death, and Interceffion? If that Tree of Chriftian Virtue is corrupt, the Fruit must be the fame; and the only Way to mend the Fruit, is to mend the Tree in its Property of bearing what is acceptable to the Divine Majefty. The Tree is Truth, from Heaven, and the Fruit is Holiness in all its Branches. But if the Tree is fplit in halves (by denying the Divine Nature of the Mediator) and that half fubdivided by the Socinians, how fhould Christian Fruit be expected? And therefore the modo vitæ fanctimonia falva fit, is a fanctified Pretence, and mere Cant; a Ruination of Virtue, and of themselves too, if they perfift therein, S 4 CHAP. therein. Juft fuch another falfe Courtship, of its Beauty (in beautiful Language and mere- III. THERE are DOUBTERS of this Faith, Scepticks by Principle. I would obferve a few Things of the unreasonable, abfurd Conduct of Βάσιν γαρ οἶμαι καὶ ἑδραίωμα αρμοζόταν Θεῷ δόξαν τε καὶ πιςιν. † Τὸ κυριώτατον ς ευσεβείας. είναι πασῶν ἢ ἀρετῶν Orig. Dial. I. p. Ι. Εpict. c. 37. thefe |