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fight, to admire and adore his Greatnefs and Goodnefs in all his works, efpecially in the great work of the Redemption of Mankind, by his Son Chrift Jefus.

2. To enable Man to attain everlasting happiness, the perpetual vifion of the glorious God, and to fit and prepare him to be a partaker of the inheritance of the Saints, in Light and Glory.

3. To compofe and fettle mankind in fuch a decent and becoming rectitude, order, and deportment in this world, as may be fuitable to the exiftence of a reafonable nature, and the good of mankind; which confifts principally in a double relation: 1. To a man's felf, Jobriety. 2. To others, which confifts in those two great habits or difpofitions beneficent to mankind, viz. righteoufnefs, or juftice and charity, or love and beneficence.

These three great ends are fuccinctly delivered, For the grace of God, that bringeth falvation, hath appeared unto all men, teaching us, that denying ' ungodlinefs and worldly lufts, we fhould live foberly, righteously, and godly in this prefent world '.' Here we have these three ends of Chriftian Religion: 1. Godlinefs, or our duty to God. 2. Salvation, or our own everlasting happiness. 3. Sobriety, righteousness, which alfo includeth charity, a part of Evangelical Righteoufnefs.

And because Chriftian Religion was intended and inftituted for the good of mankind, whether poor or rich, learned or unlearned, fimple or prudent, wife or weak; it was fitted with fuch plain, eafy, and evident directions, both for things to be known, and things to be d ne, in order to the attainment of the end for which it was defigned, that might be understood by any capacity, that had the ordinary and common use of reafon or human understanding, and by the common affiftance of the Divine Grace might be practifed by them.

Titus ii. 11, 12.

The

The credenda, or things to be known or believed, as fimply neceffary to thofe ends, are but few and intelligible, briefly delivered in that fuminary of Chriftian Religion, ufually called the Apostle's Creed.

The agenda, or things to be done or forborn, are those few and excellent precepts delivered by Christ and his apostles, in that little book of the New Teftament; and yet even the tenth part of that little book will contain all the precepts of Christian duty and obedience contained in that book. And in brief, the Baptismal Covenant, as it is contained in the Liturgy, and expla nation thereof in the Church Catechifm ufed among us, together with the precepts of the Decalogue, contain in effect a fummary or brief epitome of our Christian duty.

And certainly it was neceffary and becoming the wisdom of the most Wife God, that that Religion and doctrine, which equally concerned men of all kinds and capacities, fhould be accordingly accommodated, as might be useful for all. If the doctrine or precepts of Chriftian Religion fhould have been delivered in over fublime or feraphical expreffions, in high rhetorical raptures, in intricate and fubtile phrafes or ftyle; or if it should have been furcharged with multitude of particulars, it would have been like a fealed book to the far greatest part of mankind, who yet were equally concerned in the bufinefs and end of Religion, with the greatest philofophers and clerks 1 in the world.

Upon what hath been faid, we may therefore conclude,

1. That there is not, nor indeed may not, be any great difficulty in the attaining of a true faving knowledge of Chriftian Religion.

2. That the duties of Chriftian Religion are not of fo vaft an extent, but the knowledge of them may be also attained by an ordinary capacity willing to learn.

3. That confidering that God Almighty is never wanting with his grace to affift thofe that fincerely endeavour and defire to obey him and ferve him, it is

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not fo difficult a bufinefs to perform an Evangelical obedience to the precepts of the Gofpel; I fay an Evangelical Obedience, though not a perfect obedience; an obedience that is fincere, though many times weak; and failings, which nevertheless are forgiven, and their fincere though imperfect obedience accepted by Almighty God, through the merits and interceffion of Christ, and our own humiliation and fincere repentance for our failings.

And, 4. That when all is done, in this belief and this obedience confifts our Chriftian Religion. This is the one thing neceffary,' the magnum oportet, which is of highest concernment and greatest importance to mankind.

But now if we do but look about us in the world, and obferve and confider the matters wherein men for the most part do place Religion, we fhall find quite another kind of rate and nature of Religion than what Christ instituted or intended, and yet all veiled and fhrouded under the name of Chriflia nReligion; and greater weight and ftrefs laid upon them than upon the true, real, grand imports of Christian Religion.

I. I fhall begin with the fubtilties of great scholars, schoolmen, and fcholaftic divines. Thefe have turned Christian Religion into a moft curious and difficult fpeculation, and that which was defigned by Chrift Jefus as a plain direction to every capacity, to be a guide to a righteous, holy, and fober life here, and to attain everlafting life hereafter, they have [made] a mere excrcife of wit, and a piece of greater fubtilty than the abstruseft philofophy or metaphyfics. And this they have done principally thefe ways:

1. By difputes about queftions, that, as they are not in themselves neceffary to be known, fo they are in their own nature impoffible for human understandings to determine: as, for inftance, many, if not all, the points controverted between the Arminians and Calvinifts, as touching the manner of the decrees of God, what kind of influence he hath upon the wills of men.

The

The manner of the Divine Knowledge of things future, contingent, or poffible; the refiftibility or irrefiftibility of Divine Grace; the nature of eternity, and infinitude, and indivifibility; the manner of the existence of the three perfons in the unity of effence; the nature of angels and fpirits; the manner and degrees, and method of their knowledge of things; their feveral ranks and orders; and infinite more fpeculations and difputes of things that do not in their own nature fall under the difcovery of a human understanding, by the ordinary courfe of ratiocination, and are impoffible to be known further than they are diftinctly revealed by Almighty God, and, as it were, induftriously kept fecret by Almighty God, becaufe they are not of ufe to mankind to be known. It is far more poffible for a child of three years old to have a true conception of the most abftrufe points in philofophy, or in the myftical reafons of ftate or politic government of a kingdom, than for the wifeft man that ever was, without revelation from God, to have any tolerable conception or notion of things of this nature, with any tolerable certainty or evidence.

2. Again, there are other points difputed which are of a lower allay, and yet not to be diftinctly known without more clear revelation than we yet have of it, nor yet of any neceffity for us diftinctly to know: As, for inftance, concerning the Nature and Manner of Tranfmiffion of Original Sin: How far the fins of im. mediate or remote parents affect their pofterity with guilt or punishment: The origination of the Human Soul; How far the efficacy of the facrifice of Christ was intentionally for all men: Concerning the means of Communication thereof to Infants, Ideots, and the invincible ignorant: What is the real confe. quence of Baptifm of Infants, or its omiffion: How far the Will of Man is operative to his converfion, or perfeverance: Wherein the formal nature of Juftification confifts: How far forth Faith fingly is fufficient for it without fanctification and habitual holiness at laft,

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laft; and how far forth the fincere Love of God, by a perfon invincibly ignorant of many or most points of Chriftian Religion, is fufficient thereunto: Concerning the Estate of the feparate Soul before the last Judgment, and how far it enjoys the beatifical vition before the Refurrection.

Lifputes touching thefe and the like difficult quef tions, have blown up mens' fancies with fpeculations inftead of filling their hearts with the true and genuine effects of Chriftian Religion.

It is true, that phyficians and naturalifts do and may make inquiries into the method and progrefs of generation, and digeftion, and fanguification, and the motions of the chile, the blood, the humours: for, 1. They have means of access to the discovery thereof, by diffection and obfervation. And, 2. It is of fome use to them in their science, and the exercise thereof. But when all is done, a man of a found conftitution digests his meat, and his blood circulates, and his feveral veffels and entrails perform their offices, though he know not diftinctly the methods of their motions and operations. But these fpeculations above-mentioned, in points of Divinity, as they are not poffible to be diftinctly determined with any certainty, fo they are of little ufe to be known.

If the heart be feafoned with the true knowledge of the things that are revealed, and with the life of the Chriftian Religion, and the love of God, it will be effectual enough to order his life, and bring him to everlafting happinefs, though he be not, like an exquifite anatomift, acquainted with a diftinct comprehenfion or knowledge of the feveral difficult inquiries of this nature. Believe what is required by the Word of God to be believed, and do your duty as by that Word is directed; fo that the life of religion, and the love of God be once fet on foot in the foul, and there nourished, and commit yourself to the faithfulness and goodness of God, and this will be effectual to the

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