and reason, and fet themselves refolutely to defpife both God and man. Where there is great strength of body, joined with a rude and brutish courage, this method may do for a while, but time will always fhew the folly of it.

Others, who are not capable of fuch outrageous impiety, and yet can as little bear the reproaches of confcience and reafon, are often tempted to give themselves up to excess of vice and intemperance; they find ease in lofing their understanding, and their pains abate as they grow incapable of reflection. How miferable are the terrors of guilt, which can make men willing to forget themselves, that they may forget their fears!

But these are very unnatural methods, and which but few, in comparison, are capable of ufing; and yet the cafe before us is a general cafe, concerning all men, as they are finners, and have more or less offended against the light and reafon of their own minds. Let us confider then, what more general and rational methods have been approved for the cure of this evil: thefe are to be found in the feveral forms of religion, which do or have prevailed in the world; all of them pretending to reconcile finners to God, fome by one kind of expiation, some by another. It would be endless to set before you the particular methods ufed under the feveral forms of religion: it is a question of much more importance to inquire, whether reafon and natural religion can poffibly furnish a remedy for this evil or no.

All methods applicable to this purpose may be reduced to two general heads; to external rites and ceremonies, and to internal acts of the mind.

As to external rites and ceremonies, they are to be found in great abundance: we meet with facrifices, oblations, washings, and cleanfings, in almoft all parts of the world, both among Jews and Heathens. How these several rites came to be applied to the purposes of religion, is a matter not eafily to be accounted for: it will be allowed, I fuppofe, that nothing ought to be esteemed a part of the religion of reason, for which no reason can be asfigned and yet, who can fay upon what principle he proceeded, who first killed a lamb, or a kid, and offered it to God as an expiation for guilt, or as a proper means of obtaining his bleffing and protection? What connection is there between the fin of a man, and the facrifice of an ox? If I deferve to be punished for iniquity, can I deferve to be pardoned for fhedding the blood of fome poor fenfelefs animals? Or what is God, that he should accept fuch gifts? what are divine juftice and mercy, that they fhould be moved by fuch oblations? If these questions cannot be anfwered, the confequence must be, that these external performances are no part of natural religion.

The facrifices and oblations under the law of Mofes were of divine inftitution; and whatever virtue they had in them, they had it in confequence of the institution, and the promise annexed to it; which is a point in which mere natural religion can have no concern: and the author to the Hebrews has affured us, that even these facrifices did not make him that did the fervice perfect, as pertaining to. the confcience. The use he affigns to them is, that they fanctified to the purifying of the flesh, that is, they

gave a legal or external purity; fo that he who had duly, in these methods, done away his uncleanness, or atoned for his errors, was a legal member of the external church and commonwealth of Ifrael. But what is this to the taking away of guilt, and to reftoring us to the favour of God?

It has been pleaded in behalf of facrifices, and the like performances, that they are very expreffive figns of a finner's religion: he who brings a bullock to the altar, as an offering for fin, confeffes his iniquity; when he flays him, he acknowledges before God what he himself ought to fuffer; and deprecates the punishment which he owns to be juftly due to himself. Allow all this, and it must appear to you, that these external performances are in themselves of no value, but have all their value from that true religion, and those acts of it, of which they are fignificative. I will not trouble you with inquiring upon what motives, or principles of reason, natural religion dreffes herself out in figns and fymbols: the inquiry is not pertinent to the prefent purpose: for be this as it will, the value of the figns depends upon the true value of the things fignified, which are internal acts: and the queftion before us must be determined by confidering, Whether the internal acts of religion, natural and proper to the state of a finner, can expiate guilt, and restore to the favour of God?

The religion of a finner is an application for pardon; and unless it can prescribe a proper method for obtaining it, it is useless and infignificant. The two attributes of God, with which this religion is chiefly concerned, are his juftice and mercy :

but if we argue, that infinite juftice muft neceffarily punish all iniquity, that infinite mercy muft extend to all offences, we get into a maze, in which we may wander for ever, without finding any way to get out. I will fuppofe therefore (and it is the very truth) that justice and mercy both meet in the rules of reason and equity; and that the judgments of God are righteous judgments, free from all fuch blemishes as human judgments are liable to from a weak inclination to mercy, or a rigorous affectation of juftice.

In a point of mere natural religion, I will not expect the doctrines of revelation to be admitted as principles; I will not infift therefore that all men are finners: and I think it will not be denied that great numbers are; fo many, that natural religion can be of little ufe, if it has no remedy for this cafe.

Now all that natural religion has to offer to God in behalf of a finner, is the forrow of his heart for what is past, and the purpose of his mind to offend

no more.

Let us confider this cafe: Sorrow for fin, in fuch as apprehend they shall certainly and miserably fuffer for it, is a very natural paffion but there is no virtue in it: it is not fo much as the effect of choice; for a man muft neceffarily grieve, when he is fure he has made himself miferable. It never was made part of a virtuous man's character, that he lived in fear of the gallows or the whipping-poft; and did you know any good man poffeffed with fuch fears, instead of commending his temper, you muft needs laugh at his folly. This obfervation

muft cut off all that repentance which arifes merely from apprehenfions of evil; and much I fear, that it will, in great measure, disable natural religion from finding a remedy against guilt. The generality of mankind are far from being philofophers, or able to look back upon their iniquities with fo much calmness and judgment, as are neceffary to create a juft abhorrence of vice, and to produce a real change in the affections of the heart, and reftore the pure love of God and of virtue, where vice and luft had been long predominant. Let us allow to fuch a change as this all that can be asked in its behalf: What then? Will you conclude, that the world has no reafon to look beyond natural religion for a remedy against fin? Will you call that a proper religion for the world, which is fitted only to the purposes of perhaps twenty in a country, and perhaps not to half the number? God has dealt with mankind in fuch methods, as are fuited to that degree of reason which he has generally beftowed, and to which men generally may arrive, under the cares and burdens and neceffary employments of life: and there is nothing more abfurd, than to think all men capable of fuch reasonings as fome few of diftinguished abilities have arrived at: efpecially in the case of religion, which is, and ought to be, every man's concern, to fuppofe that the speculations of a few contemplative men can be reduced to common ufe and practice, is downright enthusiasm. All wife governors have fortified their laws with penalties, intending that the fear of punishment should keep the fubject from offending; but without ever imagining themselves obliged to