And the Times of this Ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent.

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HESE words contain a Declaration of God's most gracious purpose to reform Mankind by the coming of Christ, and at the fame time intimate the preference due to His above any former Institution.

In the foregoing Verfes the Apoftle had been inftructing the Athenians in the Nature of the true God, and his univerfal Providence. He fhews them that there is one common Father and Governor of the world, who has made this Earth a fit habitation for the fons of men, and diftributed them all over the face of it; who has diftinguished the Seafons, and divided the Nations, and fix'd the bounds and periods of each, in fo very regular and wife a manner, as might lead all diligent obfervers of them to a knowledge of their Author; and put them upon feeking out fome method of expreffing their Devotion to him. Though here in fact, (as the Apoftle intimates, . 27.) they. were all but like men wandering in the dark, their notions of the Deity very imperfect and obfcure; their worship highly abfurd and irrational. This their Ignorance God was pleased for fome time to wink at, (umegide) to overlook, difregard, or as it is in a parallel place, * He fuffered them to walk in their own ways, to wander on in the feveral mazes into which they had brought themfelves; the various fects of Superftition and Idolatry under which they had fallen: but now he

Acts 14. 16.

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commandeth all men every where to repent; or rather publishes, (wagayλλ) proclaims the Tidings of Salvation to all men upon the eafy tems of Repentance; he offers a new Covenant to Mankind in general, from the benefits whereof none are abfolutely excluded who fincerely defire them.Tidings, which ought to be received by all, as they were by the first Chriflians, with Joy and Thankfulness. But how ftrangely has the face of things been altered, or rather the nature of them inverted fince! When through the degeneracy of mankind the benefits of this Divine Inflitution become reftrained to a few People, and even these are taught to defpife it, for that very reafon which ufes to make a benefit the more valuable, namely because it is reftrained to themselves.

If, fay the prefent Unbelievers, God has made of one blood all Nations of men, and is no refpector of Perfons; and if he defigns this Revelation for all men, as he muft, if it be of fo great ufe and advantage to them;-Why then is it not actually communicated to all? Why did he fo long, why does he ftill, 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 fhould be a particular motive of Gratitude for having received it, is turned into the strongest reafon 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 Chriftianity can be no particular Objection to its Divine Authority, fince the Religion of Nature is on the fame foot with it in this refpect.

II. I propofe to fhew the Wisdom and Goodnefs of the Divine Conduct in the Difpenfation of them both: And

III. The great Benefit of complying with the Terms of the Gofpel, 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 refpect.

As the all-wife Creator of the Univerfe has been pleased to frame different Orders of intellectual Beings, fo he has made a confiderable difference among thofe of the fame order. In Mankind the cafe is very evident. We cannot but obferve a vaft difparity between both the Abilities and Advantages of fome men, and thofe of others; their Tempers of body and Powers of mind, and Circumftances 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 fo very unequally diftributed; 'tis plain that our Religious Notions, or our Law of Nature, must be very different and unequal alfo. 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 of things; directly contrary to the present order of the whole Creation: 'Tis making the fame Rule fuit Beings in all Circumftances; which is equally abfurd as to prescribe the fame food and phylic to all Conftitutions. To ftile this Religion of Nature abfolutely 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 as much as is fufficient to excufe him from punishment; which is very true, but nothing to

• Chubb in his late Difcourfe on Miracles, p. 48, &c. endeavours to invalidate this obfervation, by afferting, that the two Cafes are not parallel, because the one could not have been better conftituted; 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

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. As therefore all the Gifts of Nature are diftributed in this partial and unequal manner, How unreasonable is it to object against reveal'd Religion, for its being conveyed in the very fame manner! One who believed any thing of a God and his Providence, would naturally fuppofe 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 much may be fufficient to fhew that natural and reveal'd 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 far more able writers.*

no more force than that from Inequality is in the common Courfe of Nature; and the two Cafes will ftill be exactly parallel. Nor can I find the leaft proof of the contrary in Lord Bolingbroke's late Declamation (Works, vol. 4. p. 293, &c.) except what arifes from the arbitrary fuppofition of fome few Divines, and is fufficiently obviated below, p. &c.

See Bp. Conybeare's, Dr. Fofter's, or S. Browne's Defence of Revelation, or Dr. Denne's Serm. on the Propagation of the Gospel; or more at large in Bp. Butler's Analogy of Religion, &c. pag. 181. 215, &c. 8vo.