is not fo defperate; because common evils and dangers have ufually a common remedy, or way to escape them; and therefore, as, in the prefent cafe, all men lie expofed to danger; fo, furely, the author of nature, the kind parent of mankind, has provided a common fanctuary for them all to fly to. Religion, and fuch divine revelation as is now under confideration, are of common and equal concern to all our fpecies; and therefore, common justice and equity require that these should be level to the capacities of all. In the natural world, God hath not left himfelf without witnefs of his providential care and concern for the prefent well being of his intelligent creatures, in that he does good, by giving us rain from heaven and fruitful feafons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And as it is in the natural, fo alfo is it in the moral world, God hath not left himself without witnefs of his providential care and regard for the future well being of his intelligent creatures, in that he hath planted, in man, a capacity of discernment, which is common to all, though, perhaps, more acute in fome than in others; by which principle of common sense, as it is called, man is qualified to difcern that

rectitude of action which is proper and just from man to himself, from man to man, and from man man to God: A conformity to which rectitude of action may very properly be called common honefty, as hereby a man acts honestly and fairly by himself, his neighbour, and his maker. And as the end and defign of all divine revelation, at least that which is of common concern, muft needs be to engage and prevail upon men to act this honeft part, to act honeftly, fairly and uprightly with and by themselves, their neighbours and their maker; fo this is the natural standard, the common test that all revelations which affume a divine character, and all pretenfions and pretenders of that kind ought to be tried by. And as common sense and common honesty are common to all, to fhepherds and ploughmen, to tinkers and coblers, and are always at hand; fo the moft illiterate perfon need not be at a lofs to know how to try and prove every pretence and every pretender to divine revelation; because a perfect conformity to common fenfe and common honefty is effential to all revelations that are divine, And, though a conformity to common fenfe and common honefty in a revelation,

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tion, does not certainly prove it to be divine; yet it's contrariety to thefe does most evidently and certainly prove the contrary, that is, it proves that fuch a revelation is not divine ; because whatever is not perfectly conformable to these cannot poffibly be of God; and therefore, though fuch trial does not abfolutely fecure a man from error, yet it secures him from all fuch errors as may be injurious and hurtful to him. And, as common fenfe, which is the produce of nature, and is common to all (and not learning which is merely artificial, and is attained but by a few) is that power which all men are to exercise in trying and judging, as aforefaid and as common honefty, or that rectitude of action which is proper and just from man to himself, from man to man, and from man to God (and which is perceived by common fenfe independent of learning) is that rule by which all pretences and pretenders to religion and divine revelation are to be tried, in order to judge whether they are well grounded or not; I fay, as this is the cafe of religion and revelation in general, fo the cafe is the fame with refpect to the Chriftian religion, and the Chriftian revelation in particular; this is the way, and this

;

is the rule, by which a man's judgment and conduct are to be guided with regard to them. So that, whatever is called the Chriftian religion, or the Chriftian revelation, so far as it is confonant to common fense and to that rectitude of action which I here call common honefty (of which last common sense and not learning is the proper judge) fo far it is or may be of God; but if it be repugnant to, or above common fense, or if it be repugnant to common honefty, then it cannot be divine; at least, so far as fuch repugnancy takes place. When the Christian revelation was first promulged, it was not offered to men of letters, to men that had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; but to the poor illiterate Jews, who had only common fenfe (which is the offfpring of nature) for their guide; whofe common capacities it must have been level to, and what they were capable judges of, else it befpeaks ill judgment in the preacher : Go, and tell John (faid Chrift) that the poor have the gofpel preached unto them; which looks as if the poor, the illiterate, were the people it was at least equally intended for, as being equally capaK 3

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ble of it, and most likely to receive it. And if the Chriftian revelation, at it's first promulgation, was level to the common capacities of men, as it must needs have been, elfe would not have been offered first and principally to men who had no other guide; then, furely, it must and would have continued to be fo through all pofterity, had it not fallen into the hands of artful men, who made it advantagious to themselves, by rendering it mysterious and unintelligible to others; and therefore, whatever is above the common capacities of men, as well as what is repugnant to it and to common honesty, can be no part of what was originally the Chriftian revelation. Seeing then that we, the unlearned, are liable to be misled, not only with regard to religion and divine revelation in general, but also with refpect to the Chriftian religion and the Christian revelation in particular,as the great variety and contrariety of men's fentiments and practices, with regard to them, do plainly fhew; it muft therefore certainly be our duty to be upon our guard, and carefully infpect every thing that may be recommended to us, or attempted to be put upon us, under thofe cha

racters;