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all the World, to the Gentile as well as the Few, muft refpect fome general Law, which related alike to all, and the Obligations to which were in fome Degree univerfally felt and acknowledged: and this can be no other than that which the Apostle to the Romans has defcribed in Chap. ii. 14, 15. When the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by Nature the Things contained in the Law, thefe baving not the Law, are a Law unto themfelves: which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts, their Confcience alfo bearing Witness, and their Thoughts the mean while accufing or else excufing one another. However the Light of Reafon and Nature was darkened and obfcured by the Ignorance and Superftition of the World, yet fome Remains of it were in all Places to be found; and the general Principles of Religion were fo rivetted in human Nature, that he could not but ftart at any Thing that directly contradicted them: thus, for Inftance, in the great Branch of natural Religion, which relates to the Worship and Service of God, though Mankind had univerfally erred and defiled themselves with many Pollutions and Abominations, yet Atheism was as detefted a

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Crime in the Heathen World, as it is in the Christian; and fome, we know, were thought worthy of Death, for being the Maintainers of fo unnatural an Opinion. A Sense of the moral Duties between Man and Man was better preferved; and there. are not many Vices condemned in the Gofpel, which were not infamous before in all the civilized Parts of the World. This

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neral Law, as the Apostle tells us, was the Ground-work of Confcience, the Teftimony of the Conscience plainly fhewing the Work of the Law to be written in the Heart; and this is a further Evidence, that this Law of Nature was the Foundation of that Repentance, which was to ufher in the Gofpel: for as the preaching of Repentance neceffarily refers himself to the Confciences of Men, to point out to them the Guilt of their Actions; fo muft his Doctrine neceffarily relate to that Law, which is the Principle or Origin of Confcience. Since then the Doctrine of Repentance, with which the Gofpel fet out in the World, had Reference to the Law of Reason and Nature, against which Men had every where offended; and fince, Repentance infers the Neceffity of a future Reformation, and a Return to that

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Duty and Obedience from which by Tranfgreffion we are fallen; the Confequence is manifeftly this, that the Gospel was a Republication of the Law of Nature, and its Precepts declarative of that original Religion, which was as old as the Creation.

That this muft certainly be the Cafe, will appear, by confidering the Nature of the Thing in itself. The Notions of Good and Evil are eternally and unalterably the fame; which Notions are the Rules and Measures of all moral Actions, and are confequently neceffary and constituent Parts of Religion and therefore if the 'Religion of Nature, in her primitive State, was pure and uncorrupt (which will not, I prefume, be denied), though there was fufficient Reason for a Republication of it, because of the great Ignorance and Superftition which had grown upon the World, yet there could be no Reason for any Alteration of it; for though the World was the worfe for abafing the Religion of Nature, and might want to be reformed by a divine Instructor, yet the Religion of Nature was not the worse for being abused, but ftill retained its firft Purity and Simplicity. The Duties of Religion, confidered as a Rule of Action, flow

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from the Relation we bear to God, and to one another; and Religion must ever be the fame, as long as thefe Relations continue unaltered. If our first Parent was the Creature of God, fo are we; and whatever Service and Duty he owed, in Virtue of this Dependance, the fame is due from us; nor can this Relation be ever made the Ground of different Duties in his Cafe, and in ours: if therefore Nature rightly inftructed him at first how to serve his Maker, our Obligations being the fame with his, our Rule must be the fame alfo. The Cafe is the fame with Refpect to the Duties owing from Man to Man; and it would be as reafonable to fuppofe, that the three Angles of a Triangle should be equal to two right ones in one Age, and unequal in another, as to suppose that the Duties of Religion should differ in one Age from what they were in another, the Habitudes and Relations from which they flow continuing always the fame.

That the Cafe is in Fact what I have represented it to be, might be shewn from the particular Laws of the Gofpel, and their Dependance, from the Maxims and Principles of natural Religion: but this would be

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rather the Work of a Volume than a Sermon; I will content myself therefore with one general Proof, which reaches to every Part of the Christian Doctrine, and yet will not lead me beyond the Bounds to which I am confined. Our Saviour in the 5th of St. Matthew tells us, that he came not to deftroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfil them. What his Meaning was, he fufficiently explained in the following Part of his Sermon on the Mount: in which, laying down firft the old Law, he shewed in every Inftance wherein the true Perfection of that Virtue confifted which the Law required. The Law forbad Murder and Adultery; our Lord declares, that not only the immoral Actions, known by those Names, were reftrained, but even the internal Corruptions of Heart from which they flowed; and extends the Prohibition. to Hatred and to Luft, one the Parent of Murder, the other of Adultery. Since then our Lord fo fully declares that his Purpose was to perfect and complete the Law and the Prophets, it remains to be confidered, what Notion he had of the Law and of the Prophets in the 22d of St. Matthew, the Question was put to him by a Lawyer ;

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