A reply to In this apology for the fufficiency of reamer in de fon in religion, you have confounded chriftiathriftian nity with the inventions of the doctors. The religion. religion of Jefus is not a compound of myf fence of tery, abfurdity, and perfecution. It is not what the divines have made it in their fyftems. It is not Trinity in Unity; a creed turned into a riddle; nor does it teach the doctrine of a flaughtered God, as a victim of infinite merit, to appease an inexorable Deity. This is a doctrine erroneous and despicable. But the religion of Jefus is that natural truth, which is older than the creation. It is a republication of the pure law of nature, which flows from the reafon and fitness of things, and was promulgated by Jefus, the bleffed fervant of God, at a time when the condition of mankind was miserable; when they were funk in immorality and wickedness; and had deviated from the paths of virtue, in which the happinefs lay, and by walking in which alone they could attain to it. It was for this reafon God was pleased, thro his innate goodness, to fend them an extraordinary perfon to reclaim them, and so set them right in the way of living; that his defign in creating them, which was to communicate happiness, might be accomplished. This perfon was the moft glorious of all creatures, and honoured with the title of the only begotten Son of God, that is, his well beloved Son, on account of his miraculous conception, his refurrection from the dead, and his being the promised Meffiah, the great Prophet and Savior of the world. We are all the fons of God, and begotten, which is a figurative expreffion in the Bible, to express God's acting as a kind father,—to denote the divine paternity, in his producing fuch beings as we are into a new and happy state of existence, and in his preferving and delivering us from evil, by an active omniscience equal to the intricate ways of men, and to the perilous condition of individuals. Thus Mofes tells the Ifraelites, of the rock which begat thee thou art unmindful· And the prophet fays to the Jews—And say, to the flock, thou haft begotten me; upbraiding them for their idolatry, at the fame time that they enjoyed every divine bleffing under the theocracy. A great number of texts might be brought together to this purpose, to fhew the true meaning of the phrase begotten: And as our Lord was more excellent than all other beings, as he loved righteousness and hated iniquity more than any one else, and for this reafon was anointed with the oyl of gladness, and exalted above his fellows, therefore he is styled the only begotten Son of God. There is no difficulty at all then in forming an idea of the Deity's begetting, or having a be begotten Son, fince no more is meant by it than his fending the most perfect creature he could produce, called by the name of Jefus, to fave the human race from their fins, by giving them a fine fyftem of morality, a complete draught of natural religion, and intreating them to live according to it. With this furely we ought not to find fault, but rather with the higheft gratitude return our most hearty thanks to our creator, for his beneficence, in fending us a perfon of fo fpotlefs a character, who committed no fin, intended no fraud, required no divine homage, nor in the leaft affected to be like God; tho by his power, goodnefs, and extenfive benevolence, he very much refembled him-in fending fuch a perfon to revele doctrines worthy of God, and of men to believe and practise, having a direct tendency to establish virtue, order, and hpppinefs in the world; and for enabling him to recommend thefe doctrines to the confideration of mankind, by many ftrange and wonderful works performed, in order to excite the attention, and prove to them his divine authority. How much this was wanting in the world -What need there was of fuch a meffenger and meffage, to bring mankind to worship the Lord their God, and ferve him alone; to love him with all their hearts, fouls, strength ftrength and mind; and to imitate his moral and amiable perfections; --- to bring men to be of a meek and humble, peaceable and charitable fpirit; to forgive and love their enemies, and to do unto others what they would have them do unto them ;---not to be rath in judging, uncharitable in cenfuring, nor revengeful in refentments; but to be of a kind and forgiving difpofition towards all men, as they would expect and defire, that God would forgive themselves in judgment, and admit them to the manfions of the bleffed in a future ftate; how much such reveled doctrines were wanted, with evidences of power and wisdom more than human to fupport them, we are told by as great a reafoner as ever lived. 1-1 "The knowledge of one God, maker of "all things, and a clear knowledge of their "duty was wanting to mankind. This part " of knowledge, tho cultivated with care, by fome of the heathen philofophers; yet ce got little footing among the people." All men, indeed, under pain, of difpleafing the Gods, were to frequent the temples. Every one went to their facrifices and fervices. But the priests made it not their business to teach them virtue. If they were diligent in their obfervations and ceremonies; punctual in their feafts and folemnities, and the tricks of religion, the holy tribe affured them, the Gods Gods were pleased, and they looked no farther. Few went to the schools of the philofophers, to be inftructed in their duties, and to know what was good and evil in their actions. The priests fold the better pennyworths, and therefore had all their custom. Luftrations and proceffions were much easier than a clean confcience and a steddy course of virtue; and an expiatory facrifice, that atoned for the want of it, was much more convenient than a strict and holy life. And if they had gone to hear the philofophers, they would have found their feveral systems short of the perfection of a true and complete morality Scattered fayings, conformable indeed to right reason, and excellent in themselves, but what, as incoherent apothegms, could never make a perfect morality. Tho there was a law of nature, known to these wife men, yet no body undertook to give it all intire, as a law there was no finished Code written, that mankind might have recourse to, as their unerring rule. Natural religion, in its full extent, was no where taken care of by the force of natural reafon. The philofophers were but private men. They could do little more than bear their teftimony, and have the fatisfaction to deliver their fouls, when the world was armed against truth. To remove the loads of rubbish, which by degrees had been thrown |