СНАР- CHRIST is faid by his Spirit to have preached to the Difobedient in the Days of Noah, who had imprifon'd and inclos'd themselves in Wickednefs, from all Reach and Effect of Preaching; and concerning him the Prophets fearched and enquired diligently, what things the Spirit of Chrift which was in them did fignify. And the Strivings of the Spirit in all Men is the Striving of the Spirit of Chrift unreveal'd to them, but yet fubfifting in virtue of the Promife. Repentance from dead Works, and Faith towards God, the fame Apostle, Heb. vi. 1, 2. fupposes to be the Foundation of all Religion; which is unfolded in the Summary he gives in to the Elders of Ephefus, of his Preaching the Religion of Chrift, Repentance towards God, and Faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift, Ats xx. 20. Repentance towards God because, that refpects the Religion of the End, which was grofly and univer fally deviated from, and wanted to be amended; then follows the only true Means and Direction for accomplishing that noble End to the best of human Power, divinely comforted and fupported Faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift. FOR, that God is no Refpecter of Perfons, or, in other Words, a Rewarder of his true confcientious Worshippers, is the Expectation and Voice of Nature, and wrote as it were upon the Heart of every Man, who duly exerts his Reafon and does his beft to ferve and please him; and shall meet Encouragement and receive the . Benefits of the Mediator, tho' unknown to them; is it not well known to us that he is an Advocate not only for OUR Sins, but for the Sins of the WHOLE World? HAS СНА Р. HAS not God given the Light of Reafon, XIX. and in a manner enlighten'd every Man that cometh into the World, religiously using that Faculty, with Faith in himself, that he is, and is a Rewarder, &c. ? SENECA Ep. 95. comes very nigh this, if we might interpret Bonitas of Rewarding Goodnefs, Primus eft Deorum cultus, Deos credere, deinde reddere illis Majeftatem fuam, reddere Bonitatem, fine qua nulla eft Majeftas. "A Man "enlighten'd with Philofophy, fays Socrates, ought to die with Courage and a firm Hope, that in the other World he fhall enjoy a Fe"licity beyond any thing in this." "The Soul repairs to a Being like itself, a Being that is "Divine, Immortal, and full of Wisdom, in "which it enjoys an unexpreffible Felicity, as being forced from its Errors, its Ignorance, "its Fears, its Amours that tyranniz'd over it, "and all other Evils retaining to human Nature. "That Souls purg'd with Philofophy are re"ceiv'd into yet more admirable and delicious "Manfions, which I cannot easily describe; and "concludes, What I told you, is fufficient to "fhew, that we ought to labour all our life "time to purchase Virtue and Wifdom, fince we "bave fo great a Hope and so great a Reward.” * And with refpect to Promife, there is a very remarkable Paffage in the fame Dialogue; "If "both Ways [of learning Truth from others, "or finding it ourfelves,] fail us, amidst all hu"man Reasons, we must pitch upon the strongest * Plato's Phedon, or Immortality of the Soul. Of the Pagan Notion of Rewards and Punishments, Vid. Alnet. Quæft. Lib. II. c. 24. " and XIX. CHAP." and moft forcible, and truft to that as to a "Ship, while we pass thro' this ftormy Sea, and "endeavour to avoid its Tempests and Shelves; "till we find out one more fure and firm, fuch "as a Promife or Revelation, upon which we may happily accomplish the Voyage of this Life, "as in a Veffel that fears no Danger." THERE is the Truth of the Godhead to be learnt from his Works; there is the Relation they ftand in, and the Obligation of Duty to be gather'd and bofom'd up from the Refpects and Circumstances, expectant of a future Account, they are placed in to God, their Neighbour, and themselves; there is the long-fuffering continual Goodness of Divine Providence in the Distribution of fruitful Seafons, filling their Heart with Food and Gladnefs,- a Gladness, from which they might plainly reafon out an encouraging Profpect of fecuring his Favour for the better Things of a Life hereafter, in fome after Provifion for the better and more durable Part of Man. WHAT tho' the Reafon of the Men of their Country and Nations round about was dif ufed, or abused by hereditary national Idolatry, Superftition, and grofs Immoralities, ftill there was perfonal Confideration and Fidelity of Reason left (and be that is faithful in a little, is faithful alfo in much) to have made it equal to M. Antonius, Socrates, and Epictetus, one in the highest, the other in the middle Station of Life, the third a poor Slave. Tho' they knew not the particular Way and Method of reconciling the Being once in the Senate of Athens, according to Xenophon. pardoning pardoning Mercy with the punishing Juftice of CHAP. God, they might be fo fure in general from the XIX. Goodness of God, that there was fome Medium for that; fo as to keep any Innovator from the firft beginning, and thro' all Series of Time, from the Prefumption of inventing, appointing and multiplying Mediators, the irrational Source of all Superftition and Idolatry. If God is a Rewarder, (the greater always including the less,) that implies and infers, that he is a Pardoner, that he is difpofed to be an Encourager, that there is an Affifter; that there is moft likely a gratuitous Interceffor and well appointed Mediator; and, according to the Expectation and Philofophick Prayer of Socrates, that he will in due time become an Inftructor. Now this may lead to Repentance towards God, because it is, in effect, Faith in our Lord Jefus Chrift, with a becoming Submiffion, and in at rational Kind of Expectation; which is in part acknowledging Chrift, and fo far Justin Martyr acknowledges Socrates a Chriftian. And there is intimation of many fuch, of whom it is faid, they have seen no Prophets, yet they shall call their Sins to remembrance, and acknowledge them, 2 Efd. i. 36. I BUT the modern Deift infolently and most ungratefully fpurns at the Faith of our Lord Jefus Chrift, knowing what it is, and what are its peculiar Contents; he repents him of that Faith, which effectually prepares and paves the Way to Repentance towards God for their guilty Mifconduct in the Religion of Nature; and therefore bis Repentance is to be repented of, or elfe he must never pretend to any Acceptance, to any Repentance, CHAP. Repentance, or to any Prayer, of his own headXIX. ftrong devising, or his own wilful Method, and Manner unfubmiffive. THEY might clearly argue, that the invifi ble Godbead, an all-prefent, and all-feeing Spirit, could never be like the Reprefentations that the Devices of Men, foolish in Wisdom, and vain in their Imaginations, could impart to Silver or Gold, or other Materials; that it must be very abfurd and prepofterous to confine and confound fuch a Being with fuch Stuff, or the Cogitations of him with fuch Nonfenfe, which ferved only to vilify him with Contradictions instead of glorifying him as God. Bind the Sacrifice with Cords, but let it be offer'd only to the God of Heaven, without mixing any Idolatrous Manner, or Idol-Mediator with it, as Job, that ancient Arabian, was free from; and as their History relates, was practifed in China for many Ages, before Idolatry enter'd. And it is probable from Plutarch, That upper Egypt was for a long time free from the vile Idolatry they were afterwards fo infamous for; they profeffed to worhip nothing but their God Cneph, whom they affirmed to be without Beginning and without End; and tho' they reprefented this Deity by a Figure of a Serpent with the Head of a Hawk, in the middle of a Circle, yet they affirm'd this God was the Creator of all Things, incorrupti ble and eternal. "So far, fays Sir Ifaac Newton, as we can "know by Natural Philofophy what is the "firft Caufe, what Power he has over us, and De Ifid. & Ofir. P. 359. "what |