To this let me add, that if we confider, on the one hand, the great and deplorable wickedness of chriftians, under that vaft globe. of light, the gofpel; how many are thorow reprobates, and numbers upon numbers only. name the name of Chrift, and bawl out Lord, Lord, of a Sunday, without laboring to conquer every evil habit and affection, without offering fpiritual and acceptable facrifices to their creator, and without ufing their best talents and endeavours to fet up the kingdom of God over the fouls of men; which muft fubject them to uncommon pains and penaltys hereafter; and, on the other hand, that feveral nations of the heathens, are a harmless innocent people, of virtuous lives and honeft hearts; that little is expected from them in refpect of the account. christians must give in; and that many of them are excellent men, by a light that is dim in refpect of revealed religion; then it may be imagined, that at the feffions of righteousness, we fhall fee more chriftians lamenting they had a revelation to walk by, tho the greatest bleffing that heaven could. give them, than heathens mourning for their never having had a revealed law; as it will then be found, I fanfy, that the majority of them were as good as they could be in their fituation, and acted up to their small given ability; which is all that can be required of any

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any rational creatures, and enough to make them eternally happy. I cannot help thinking, as the chriftian world goes, and has gone for ages, that it will be a difmal day to the bulk of chriftians, when they come to be tryed by revelation. They flatter themselves with chimeras of infinite mercy, but will find that the feverity denounced by divine vera city against the neglectors of fo great falvation, will be as certain, as the prodigious joys promised to the pious and faithful.

The conclufion is then, that the want of univerfality in the christian religión is an idle objection against it. Those who have received revelation, ought to adore the goodness of God for the bleffing of the gofpel; which reprefents the Deity under the most shining and perfect characters of goodness and mercy, and lays us under obligations to adore him through a mediator, and to practife the morality he has fo planely and beautifully deli neated in the infpired writings; purity, humility, and the most generous virtues; love to all mankind; good-will even to our enemies.And thofe who have not had the benefit of revealed religion, can have no ground for complaining, fince they may learn by reafon, if they will take fome pains, what that duty is which God requires from them in their fituation, and execute that part of the scheme of univerfal providence for which

they

they were created; fince this will render them amiable, and approved of by God (tho inferior to upright chriftians, in the high dignity of the most exalted moral character) and make them be confidered as excellent and useful members of the univerfal community in the great rifing day; when, as before obferved, the obedience of Chrift will purchase a general refurrection, and open the everlasting doors of glory to the boneft heathen, and the more improved chriftian. This, I think, for myself is just. The good Gentiles, in general, may be a fecond order of the bleffed human fpirits, and fome extraordinary men among them, in particular a Job, a Socrates, a Zeno, a Cicero, à Marcus Antoninus, an Epictetus, and fuch like moral heroes, may even roll with the chriftian fons of light, and be near the throne (a) :—

Siderii propiùs qui Patris ora vident.

Mr. Hanmer to this fayed, he had nothing to object: He was reconciled to christianity, as it appeared to him in the light I had fet it: And as to the boafted objection, a want of univerfality, he was now fatisfyed it was an idle thing; as the obedience of Chrift ex

(a) Compare this reply with Mrs. Benlow's anfwer to Abdalla the Moor.

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tends

The objec

a Mediator, by a late

tends to all; and that God, with juftice, may create different orders of happy fpirits, and give to fome a gofpel, to bring them to the perfection of cherubims and feraphims, to others, human reason, to make them (if they pleased) as high and bleffed as he intended them to be in the act of their creation. This is fair. Objection vanishes. But, let me hear, (Mr. Hanmer continued) what your thoughts are of the conclufion of a late prece much admired by the oppofers of chriftianity I mean, A demonftration of the will of God by the light of nature; which appeared in 1743. The author concludes in the following manner

"The doctrine of a Mediator is not contion against e fonant to right: and unprejudiced reafon, is an abominable and impious invention, "and in a zealous veneration for the cha"racter of the Deity, he fhudders at the "prophaneness of the thing".:

writer.

Confider (fays this writer) the idea which we muft annex to a mediator is that of a being making interceffion to another being for a third being or number of beings. The idea which we must annex to the being to whom interceffion is made is that of a being who wants both intelligence and advice. If God is infinitely knowing, as he really is, what neceffity for a mediator to inform him of any thing? If he is infinitely wife, as he really

is, what neceffity for a mediator to admo-: nish him to act? Moreover, if he is infinitely good, as he really is, what neceffity for a mediator to intreat for mercy? And as to this mediator, did he create him to intercede to himself from a consciousness of his own defects? Or did the mediator spring into life and immortality by his own power, to intercede to God? Impious doctrine! (continues the author) and derogatory from every attribute of the Deity!

Answer to

To this I answered, that the author had. mistaken the cafe, and that his ideas of the the objec being making interceffion, and the being to tion. whom interceffion is made, were quite false; and of confequence, his conclufion not worth a rush.

With self-sufficiency, and an uncommon bitterness, he writes against the chriftian religion in his labored piece, and knows no more of christianity than a poft..>

The idea we are to annex to the great Be ing,to whom interceffion is made, is, that when the wife and merciful creator of mankind perceived they did not rightly use that reafon he had endowed them with, in order: to their making it the rule and guide of their actions ; to their tracing out the obligations. of religion, and living fuch a life of virtue: and piety as becomes the dignity of human nature; he then sent his Christ from heaven to our world, with the religion of the gofpel, and directed this divine meffenger, the

moft