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That the Gentiles ought not to pervert and ftifle those Natural Notions which God had implanted in their Minds, but from the Law of Nature to proceed to find out the Written Law; and for this Reason, the Bounds of the Habitation of other Nations were determined and appointed by God, according to the number of the children of Ifrael, that they might feek the Lord, and might be able to find and difcover the True Religion and Way of Worship among that People to whom he had revealed himself, Deut. xxxii. 8. Act. xvii. 26, 27. They might have been lefs vicious than they were, without the Knowledge of a Revelation; and therein they were inexcufable, that tho' they could not free themselves from the Power of Sin, yet they might not have given themselves fo wholly up to it, as to become excluded from the Grace and Salvation to be obtained by the Revealed Will of God. And when God has revealed himfelf, all who will not use the Means, and by a due Improvement of their Reason endeavour from Natural Religion to arrive at Revealed, become inexcufable for their Negligence and Contempt of God, and the Abuse of thofe Talents and Endowments which God has bestowed upon them. when God has once given Men warning, and directed them in the way of Salvation, and they will not regard it; they must be wilfully ignorant if they will not onfider, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day; and it is an argument of his Patience and Long-fuffering, that he doth not bring speedy Vengeance upon a difobedient and rebellious World: The Lord is not flack concerning his promife (as fome men count flackness) but is longSuffering to us-ward, not willing that any fhould perish, but that all fhould come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. Now this is very well confiftent and exceedingly agreeable with all the Divine Perfections, that he fhould give Men warning of the Evil and Danger of Sin, and afterwards leave them

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them to their own choice, whether they will be Righteous and Happy, or Wicked and Miserable; and then that he should not take the firft opportunity to punish them, nor lay hold of any advantage against them, but give them time for fecond Thoughts, and space for Confideration and Repentance: but if they abuse so much Patience and Loving-kindness, that he fhould at last come upon them, when they least think of him, with a mighty and terrible Judgment, and with a fudden and unexpected Fury. But to ftand by and look on unconcern'd, and then to take Men upon fuch a furprise, without giving them any notice of it before-hand, is a thing impoffible to be accounted for, and can never be reconciled with the Divine Attributes. St. Athanafius infists at large upon this Argument, and carries it fo far as to prove the Neceflity of the Incarnation of the Son of God from it: He urges, That it would have been unworthy of the Goodness of God to fuffer all Mankind to be destroyed by the Fraud and Malice of the Devil, or by their own Fault and Negligence; and that it had been more confiftent with his Wisdom and Goodness, never to have created Men, than to have fuffered them thus to perish: "An Earth❝ly King (fays he) when he has planted a Colony, "will not carelefly fuffer his Subjects to become Slaves "to a Stranger, or to revolt from him; but he will,

by his Proclamations, admonish them of their Duty, "and often-times will fend Meffages to them by his "Friends; and if there be a neceffity for it, will go "to them himself, to awe them by his Prefence, and "recal them to their Obedience. And (as he there "adds) fhall not God much rather be fo mindful of "his Creatures, as to use fome Means to reclaim them "from their evil Ways, and regain them to his Ser"vice; especially when they must be utterly undone "for ever, unless he take care of them.

S. Athan. de Incarnatione Verbi Dei.

! St. Cyril

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St. Cyril of Alexandria fpeaks to the fame purpofe.It was neceffary, (fays he) it was neceffary,

that the good God should fave thofe, who were loft, "and defeat the Malice of the Devil. And afterwards, "What then should the Creator of the Uni"verfe do? Should he leave all Men under the Power "of impure Dæmons? and fuffer the Devil's Malice "to disappoint his own Designs? Should he not "ftretch forth his faving Hand to those who werę "down? Should he not reclaim thofe who were en"fnared in the groffeft Wickednefs? Should he not "enlighten the Minds of those who were in Dark

nefs? Should he not call back those who were "gone aftray? How then could he be Good, if "when without the leaft trouble, he could effectually "do all this, he had yet had no regard for us? Why "did he at first bring Men into Being and Life, if he "would extend no Mercy towards them in this mife"rable State?

It is plain then, that tho' we had never heard of fuch a thing as a Miracle, or a Prophecy, or of Revealed Religion; yet from the confideration of the State of the World, and the great Ignorance and Corruption of Human Nature, it would be reasonable to expect that God fhould fome way make known his Will to Mankind; and we cannot reconcile it to his Attributes, nor conceive how it fhould be confiftent with them, for him to be an unconcerned Spectator of fo much Folly and Wickedness, without taking any care to remedy it. God cannot be obliged to force Men to obey his Commandments, and comply with his Will, but rather to leave it at their own choice, whe ther they will be Happy or Miferable but it was necessary to propofe the Terms of Salvation to them,

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Contra Julian. 1. 8. c. p. 278, 279. Edit. Lipf. Incandem etiam fententiam Theodotus Ancyræ Epifc. Homil. in Conc. Ephef. habit. C. T. 3. col. 1026.

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to offer them their free Choice, to fet before them Life and Death, Bleffings and Curfings, and fo to leave the Obftinate without all Excufe.

And this is all which I am here concerned to prove, That it is reasonable to fuppofe that God would reveal himself to Mankind, and that it is not conceivable how it should be confiftent with the Divine Attributes for him not to do it. To own the Being of a God, and yet to deny a Providence, is fo great an abfurdity, that none of the Philofophers, but Epicurus, were guilty of it; and this was look'd upon, in him, as amounting to the denial of the Divine Existence. And to grant both the Being and the Providence of God, and yet to confine the Divine Care and Providence to the Bodies only, and Outward Condition of Men, and to imagine that the Spiritual and Immortal Part of Man is difregarded or neglected by him, is no lefs an abfurdity than wholly to deny his Providence or his Existence; because this is to deny the most confiderable and ineftimable part of Providence, which concerns our Souls, and our Eternal State; and therefore it is, by confequence, to deny the Attributes of God, and to reprefent him not as he is in himself, but Unwife, Unmerciful, and Unholy. To fay that there is no fuch thing as a Divine Revelation, is no better, in effect, than Atheifin: For whoever can be of this opinion, must believe only the Being of fuch Gods as Epicurus owned, that never concerned themselves with Human Affairs; which was only, in other words, to fay that they were no Gods at all.

It has therefore been the conftant Belief and Opinion of all Nations, that their Gods did in fome way or other reveal themselves to Men; and tho' fo great a part of the World have worshipped Falfe Gods, and have been mistaken as to the particular Revelations which they received for Divine, yet it muft proceed either from Antient Tradition, or from the Reafonableness of the thing it self, or from both, that all

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the World should expect that the Divine Being should by fome means communicate himself to Men, and de clare his Will to them.

CHA P. II.

The Way and Manner by which Divine Revelations may be fuppofed to be Delivered and Preferved in the World.

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Ankind had fo corrupted themselves, that the Will and Laws of God could not be effectually made known to them, but by fome extraordinary way of Revelation. God had manifested himself in the Creation of the World, and by the Prefervation of all things from the Beginning, according to their feveral Natures: For the invifible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly feen, being underftood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and God-head, Rom. i. 20. But Men had corrupted themselves even in the plainest and most fundamental Points of all Religion, and acted againft all the Dictates of Natural Reason, in worshipping the vileft Parts of the Creation, rather than God himself, and in contempt and defiance of Him, had fet up even four-footed beasts and creeping things instead of Gods. How then could the Power and Authority of God be afferted, but by fome extraordinary way of Revelation; fince the ordinary and conftant Methods of God's revealing and manifefting himself by his Providence, in the Prefervation and Government of the World, had been fo far perverted and abused, as that Men were feduced to the Worship of any thing, or of every thing, rather than of God? Mankind had neither the Will nor Ability to reform themselves, and had by their own fault brought themselves under an utter incapacity of being reformed

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