be made ufe of to divulge them; and in order to it, their Sanctity fhall be proclaimed abroad, and their mad and incoherent Speeches be called Revelations, heavenly Dispensations, and incomprehenfible Myfteries. Such crazed and fanatical Men and Women have been the Founders of most of the Colleges, Monasteries, and Nunneries of the Romish Church, (to fay nothing of others) and their Follies and Madness been the Support of the Papal Dominion.

BUT this artificial Devotion, this mechanic Religion, has nothing to do with Christianity; which is natural Religion restored and improved, and confists in Virtue and Morality, and in being ufeful and beneficent to one another, as I fhall fhew in my next Paper,

THE Prophets have taught us the fame Lef fon: The Firft Chapter of Ifaiab fully fhews, that Religion does not confist in Sacrifices, in Burnt-offerings of Rams, and the Fat of fed Beafts, in the Blood of Bullocks, and of Lambs, and of He-Goats, in vain Oblations, Incenfe New-Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of Affemblies, in appointed Feafts, or many Prayers;; but in doing Good to Mankind. The Prophet fums up our Duty in these Words, Cease to do Evil, learn to do well, feek Judgment, relieve the Oppressed, judge the Fatherless, plead

plead for the Widow; for, as another Prophet fays, What doth the Lord require of thee, O Man, but to do justly, and to love Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah, chap. vi. v. 8.

T.

NUMBER LIV.

Wednesday, January 18. 1721.

In what only true Religion confists:

I

HAVE undertaken in this Paper to prove, what, methinks, should want no Proof; namely, that the All-powerful God is not a whimfical and humorous Being, that governs his Creatures by Caprice, and loads them with arbitrary and ufelefs Burdens, which can terve no good Purpose in Nature.

THE Almighty is infinitely happy in his own Perfections, and cannot receive Pleafure from fuch Things or Actions, as only the weakest Men are fond of, and the wifeft contemn. He is not capable, like Mortals, of being ruffled by Accidents, or furprised by Disappointments. Wisdom, Goodness, and Felicity, are effential to his Being; and confequently, he could have no View in creating Mankind, but their own Happiness; for we can neither add to his, nor take away from it.

IT is abfurd therefore to suppose, that there can be any Merit in bare Opinions, and abstruse Speculations; or in the Performance of indifferent and useless Actions; or, indeed, that any thing can be Part of true Religion, but what has a Tendency to make Men virtuous and happy. The Father of Mercies will never perplex our Minds, or burden our Bodies, with any thing that fignifies nothing.

MOSES indeed gave to the Jews a carnal Law, a Law of Bondage; a Yoke which neither they, nor their Pofterity, could bear; Sta tutes which were not good, and Judgments by which they could not live. But these were given them for the Hardness of their Hearts, and as Punishments for their manifold Sins and Iniquities. And befides, they were only to laft

for

シ

for a Time, and afterwards give way to a simple, pure, and perfect Law, to a spiritual, innocent, and undefiled Religion; free from their own fond Superftitions, and the ftale Idolatries of the Gentiles; not loaded either with Priests, Sacrifices, or Ceremonies; a Religion, which was to confift in Spirit and in Truth, and intended to make Men wifer and better.

IT feems plain to me, that there is but one Article of Faith in all this Religion, and that effential to the very Being of it; namely, that Jefus is the Meffiah: Without this preliminary Acknowledgment, his Miffion could not have been owned, nor his Precepts obeyed; which are nothing else but Exhortations to Love, and Directions for focial Happiness; and which he has enforced, by annexing eternal Rewards to the Obfervance of them. Hitherto Virtue had' expected its Reward in this Life; but our Saviour gave new Sanctions to it, by bringing Life and Immortality to Light.

THERE is no Propofition in all Scripture. more evidently revealed, or laid down in more pofitive and exprefs Terms, than that the Con feffion of this Truth was the Bafis and Support of Christianity, the great Thing requifite to be believed: Every thing else is practical Duty, and Belief is no farther concerned in it, than as it

produces Practice. For before we can think ourfelves obliged by a Precept, we must be fatisfied of its Reasonableness, or of the Legislator's Authority.

THE World has been fo long corrupted by Superftition, and deluded and abused by selfish and lying Priests, who taught Wickedness for Virtue, and Nonsense for Philosophy, and placed Devotion in foolish Ceremonies and Sacrifices, and in ridiculous Cringes, antic Vestments, and Grimaces, that nothing less than a Divine Legiflator, with the Power of Miracles, could restore Men to their Senfes, and to Natural Religion. The fole Article therefore that our Saviour made neceffary to be believed, was, That he came from God, and acted by the Authority of God. Then every one would fee the Impoffibility, that he could deceive or miflead Men; and confequently would take his Word for every thing elfe, in the Sense which he understood it.

AND this Proceeding was agreeable to eternal Reafon; namely, to make nothing neceffary in Belief, which was not neceffary to Practice: for, what Purpose could be ferved in obliging Men to believe, or rather to say that they believed, mysterious and unintelligible Propofitions? Such Articles are only the Watch-words of a

Party,