born and baptized, that which the supreme authority has enjoined and my parents educated me in, that which every one I meet with highly approves of, and which I myself have, by a long-continued profession, made almost natural to me; I am resolved to be more jealous and suspicious of this religion than of the rest, and be sure not to entertain it any longer, without being convinced, by solid and substantial arguments, of the truth and certainty of it.

That, therefore, I may make diligent and impartial enquiry into all religions, and so be sure to find out the best, I shall for a time look upon myself as one not at all interested in any particular religion whatsoever, much less in the Christian religion; but only as one who desires in general to serve and obey him that made me in a right manner, and thereby to be made partaker of that happiness my nature is capable of. In order to this, it will be necessary to propose to myself some certain marks or characters, whereby I may be able to judge and make choice of the religion I intend to embrace: and they are in general these two, first, that that is the best religion wherein God is worshipped and served most like himself, that is, most suitably and conformably to his nature and will; and, secondly, since all men naturally desire and aspire after happiness, and our greatest happiness consists in the fruition of God, that is certainly the best religion which gives me the best and most comfortable assurances of being happy with God to all eternity.

To embrace a religion without these marks would be worse than to have no religion at all; for better it is to perform no worship to God, than such as is displeasing to him; to do him no service, than such as will be ineffectual to make me happy, and not only frustrate my expectations of bliss, but make me for ever miserable.

The religion then that I am to look after must be such a one, wherein I may be sure to please God and to be made happy with him; and, by consequence, such a one wherein all the cause of his displeasure and my misery may be removed and this cause is sin; for sin being infinitely opposite to him, as he is a Being of infinite purity and holiness, must certainly set me at the greatest distance from him and render me most odious in his sight; and whatsoever does so must make me as miserable as

misery can make me. For, as our holiness consisteth in likeness, so doth our happiness in nearness to God; and if it be our happiness to be near unto him, it must certainly be our misery to be at a distance from him. In enjoying him we enjoy all things, he being and having all things in himself; and so in not enjoying him, we are not only deprived of all that we can enjoy, but made liable to the punishments that are the consequences of it.

That there is no such thing in nature as virtue and vice, as good and evil, as grace and sin, is what I can by no means persuade myself to; for my conscience tells me that there is; and not only mine, but every one that ever yet lived upon the face of the earth; all people, of whatsoever nation or language, still acknowledging sin to be sin, and that displeasing the Deity which they worship is indeed an evil that ought to be carefully avoided. And therefore the very heathens did not only upbraid others with it, but likewise often checked themselves for it: and all men naturally desire to seem, though not to be, holy. But let others say what they will, I for my own part cannot but see sin in myself by the very light of nature; for my reason tells me that if God be God, he must be just and perfect; and if I be not so too, I am not like him, and therefore must needs displease him; it being impossible any thing should please him, but what is like unto him. And this difformity to the will and nature of God is that which we call sin, or which the word sin, in its proper notion, brings into my mind.

Being thus conscious to myself that I have sinned against my Maker, I may reasonably conclude, that as he is omniscient, and, by consequence, a witness of these my offences, so must he likewise be just in the punishment of them; for it cannot stand with his justice to put up with such offences, without laying suitable punishments upon the offender. And these punishments must be infinite and eternal; for wherein doth the nature of divine justice consist, but in giving to sin its just punishments, as well as to virtue its due rewards? Now that the punishment of sin in this world is not so much as it deserves, nor, by consequence, as much as in justice ought to be laid upon it, to me is clear, in that every sin

being committed against an infinite God, deserves infinite punishment; whereas all the punishments we suffer in this world cannot be any more than finite, the world itself being no more than fiuite that we suffer them in..

Upon these grounds, therefore, it is, that I am fully satisfied in my conscience that I am a sinner; that it cannot stand with the justice nor the existence of God that made me, to pardon my sins, without satisfaction made to his divine justice for them; and yet, that unless they be pardoned, it is impossible for me to be happy here or hereafter. And therefore must I look after some religion, wherein I may be sure my sins may be thus pardoned, and my soul made happy; wherein I may please God, and God may bless me. Which that I may be the better able to discover, I shall take a brief survey of all the religions I ever heard of or believe to be in the world.

Now, though there be as many kinds of religions as nations, yea, almost as particular persons in the world, yet may they all be reduced to these four: the Pagan, Mahometan, Jewish, and Christian religion.

As to the first, it is indeed of a very large extent, and comprehends under it all such as neither acknowledge Mahomet to be a prophet, nor expect a promised Messiah, nor believe in a crucified Jesus: and since it is the majority of numbers that usually carries the vogue, let me see whether the Pagan religion, being farther extended and more generally professed than any or indeed all the rest, be not the true religion, wherein God is most rightly worshipped, and I may be the most certainly saved.

F

And here, when I take a view of this religion as it is dispersed through several parts of Asia, Africa, and America, I find them very devout in worshipping their deities, such as they are, aud they have great numbers of them. Some worship the sun, others the moon and stars, others the earth and other elements, serpents, trees, and the like. And others again pay homage and adoration to images and statues, in the fashion of men and women, hogs, horses, and other shapes; and some to the devil himself, as in Pegu.

But now, to go no farther, this seems to me, at first sight, to be a very strange and absurd sort of religion; or rather it is quite the reverse of religion; for the true notion we have of religion is the worshipping the true God in a true manner; and this is the worshipping false gods in a false manner: for I cannot entertain any other notion of God, than as one supreme almighty Being, who made and governs all things, and who, as he is a Spirit, ought to be worshipped in a spiritual manner. And, therefore, as the very supposing more Deities than one implies a contradiction, so the paying divine homage in a gross carnal manner to material and corporeal beings, which are either the work of men's hands or at best but creatures like ourselves, which can neither hear nor understand what we say to them, much less give us what we desire of them, is not religion, but idolatry and superstition, or rather madness and delusion. So that this religion, I see, if I should embrace it, would be so far from making me happy, that the more zealous I should be for it, the more miserable I should be by it; for he that made these things cannot but be very angry at me, if I should give that worship to them which is only due to himself; and so the way whereby I expect my sins should be pardoned, they would be more increased; it being a sin against the very light of nature to prefer any thing before God, or to worship any thing in his stead. Therefore leaving these to their superstitious idolatries and diabolical delusions, I must go and seek for the true religion somewhere else.

The next religion that hath the most suffrages and votes on its side is the Mahometan religion, so called from one Mahomet, an Arabian, who about a thousand years ago, by the assistance of one Sergius, a Nestorian monk, compiled a book in the Arabian tongue, which he called Alcoran, which he made the rule of his followers' faith and manners, pretending that it was sent from heaven to him by the hand of the angel Gabriel.

This book I have perused, and must confess find many things in it agreeable to right reason; as, that there is but one God, gracious and merciful, the Lord of the whole universe; that this God we are to resign ourselves Div.

No. I.

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wholly to; that all that obey him shall be certainly rewarded, and all that disobey him as certainly punished; and the like. But yet I dare not venture my soul upon it, nor become one of the professors of it; because, as there are many things consonant, so are there many things dissonant, to the natural light that is implanted in me; as, that God should swear by figs and olives, by mount Sinai, as this book makes him to do, in the chapter of the Figs; that Solomon should have an army composed of men, and devils, and birds; and that he should discourse with a bird, which acquainted him with the affairs of the queen of Sheba, and the like.

As to the argument, whereby he would persuade us that this book was sent from God, namely, that there are no contradictions in it, I take it to be very false and frivolous; for, besides that there are many books compiled by men which have no contradictions in them, it is certain there are a great many plain contradictions in this book, which overthrow his supposition. Thus, in the chapter of the Table, he saith, that "all that believe in God, and the resurrection of the dead, and have done good works, shall be saved;" but, in the chapter of Gratification, he saith, "all that do not believe in the Alcoran shall be destroyed;" and so in the chapter of Hod. In like manner, he tells us again, in the chapter of the Table, that the books of the Old and New Testament were sent from God, and at the same time supposes that the Alcoran was sent from him too; which to me seems impossible; for my reason tells me, that God, who is truth and wisdom itself, cannot be guilty of falsehood or contradiction. And if these books contradict one another, as it is evident they do in many instances, it is plain God could not be the author of both; and, by consequence, if the Scripture be true, the Alcoran must of necessity be false. To instance but in one particular; the Alcoran says, in the chapter of Women, "God bath no Son;" the Scripture, that God said of Jesus, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; and it expressly calls that Jesus the Son of God; and so in many other things. Now it is impossible that both these should be true, or, by consequence, that that should be true which says both are so.