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Want of UNIVERSALITY

IN

Natural and Revealed RELIGION,

No just Objection against either.

ACTS XVII. 30.

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

HESE words contain a declaration of God's

TH

most gracious purpose to reform mankind by the coming of CHRIST; and at the fame time intimate the preference due to this, above any former inftitution.

In the foregoing verses the Apostle 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 distributed them all over the face of it; who has diftinguished the feafons, and divided the nations, and fixed the bounds and periods of each,* in fo very regular and wise a manner, as might lead all diligent obfervers

See Bryant on Ancient Hiftory, p. 162, &c.

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 Apostle intimates, . 27.) they were all but like men groping in the dark; their notions of the Deity imperfect and obfcure; their worship abfurd and irrational.

This their ignorance God was pleased for fome time to wink at, (umegids) to overlook, difregard, or, as it is in a parallel place, * He fuffered them to walk in their own ways, to wander through the various fects of fuperftition and idolatry into which they had fallen: but now he commandeth all men every where to repent; or rather publishes, (wagayeλλ) proclaims the tidings of falvation to all men upon the easy terms of repentance, or returning to a right mind; 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 Christians, with joy and thankfulness.

But how strangely 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 inftitution 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 restrained to themselves!

If, fay the prefent unbelievers, God has made of one blood all nations of men, and is no respecter of

Acts xiv. 16.

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perfons; if he defigns this revelation for all men, as he must, if it be of so great use and advantage to them; - Why then is it not actually communicated to all?—Why did he so 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 disappointed 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 should 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 fhall endeavour to prove in the first place,

I. 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.

II. I propofe to fhew the wisdom and goodness of the divine conduct in the difpenfation of them both. And,

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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 respect.

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 vast disparity between both the abilities and advantages of fome men, and those of others; their tempers of body, and powers of mind, and circumstances 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 reafon, and feverally contribute to the forming our understanding, and improving our nature. As these then are so very unequally distributed; '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 least foundation in the real

nature

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