Law are a Law unto themselves Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and amongst one another their thoughts accusing or excusing By which and other places in the following Chapter 't is plain that under the Law of Works is comprehended also the Law of Nature knowable by Reason as well as the Law given by Moses For says St. Paul Rom. III. 9. 23. we have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Which they could not do without a Law Nay whatever God requires any where to be done without making any allowance for Faith that is a part of the Law of Works So the forbidding Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge was part of the Law of Works Only we must take notice here That some of God's Positive Commands being for peculiar Ends and suited to particular Circumstances of Times Places and Persons have a limited and only temporary Obligation by vertue of God's positive Injunction such as was that part of Moses's Law which concerned the outward Worship or Political Constitution of the Jews and is called the Ceremonial and Judaical Law in contradistinction to the Moral part of it Which being conformable to the Eternal Law of Right is of Eternal Obligation and therefore remains in force still under the Gospel nor is abrogated by the Law of Faith as St. Paul found some ready to infer Rom. III. 31. Do we then make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Nor can it be otherwise For were there no Law of Works there could be no Law of Faith For there could be no need of Faith which should be counted to men for Righteousness if there were no Law to be the Rule and Measure of Righteousness which men failed in their Obedience to Where there is no Law there is no Sin all are Righteous equally with or without Faith The Rule therefore of Right is the same that ever it was the Obligation to observe it is also the same The difference between the Law of Works and the Law of Faith is only this that the Law of Works makes no allowance for failing on any occasion Those that obey are Righteous those that in any part disobey are unrighteous and must not expect Life the Reward of Righteousness But by the Law of Faith Faith is allowed to supply the defect of full Obedience and so the Believers are admitted to Life and Immortality as if they were Righteous Only here we must take notice that when St. Paul says that the Gospel establishes the Law he means the Moral part of the Law of Moses For that he could not mean the Ceremonial or Political part of it is evident by what I quoted out of him just now where he says The Gentiles that do by nature the things contained in the Law their Consciences bearing witness For the Gentiles neither did nor thought of the Judaical or Ceremonial Institutions of Moses 't was only the Moral part their Consciences were concerned in As for the rest St. Paul tells the Galatians Cap. IV. they are not under that part of the Law which v. 3. he calls Elements of the World and v. 9. weak and beggarly elements And our Saviour himself in his Gospel-Sermon on the Mount tells them Mat. V. 17. That whatever they might think he was not come to dissolve the Law but to make it more full and strict For that that is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is evident from the following part of that Chapter where he gives the Precepts in a stricter sense than they were received in before But they are all Precepts of the Moral Law which he reinforces What should become of the Ritual Law he tells the Woman of Samaria in these words Iohn IV. 21. 23. The hour cometh when you shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father But the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Thus then as to the Law in short The Civil and Ritual part of the Law delivered by Moses obliges not Christians though to the Jews it were a part of the Law of Works it being a part of the Law of Nature that man ought to obey every Positive Law of God whenever he shall please to make any such addition to the Law of his Nature But the Moral part of Moses's Law or the Moral Law which is every where the same the Eternal Rule of Right obliges Christians and all men every where and is to all men the standing Law of Works But Christian Believers have the Priviledge to be under the Law of Faith too which is that Law whereby God Justifies a man for Believing though by his Works he be not Just or Righteous i. e. though he came short of Perfect Obedience to the Law of Works God alone does or can Justifie or make Just those who by their Works are not so Which he doth by counting their Faith for Righteousness i. e. for a compleat performance of the Law Rom. IV. 3. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness v. 5. To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness v. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works i. e. without a full measure of Works which is exact Obedience v. 7. Saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered v. 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin This Faith for which God justified Abraham what was it It was the believing God when he engaged his Promise in the Covenant he made with him This will be plain to any one who considers these places together Gen. XV. 6. He believed in the Lord or believed the Lord. For that the Hebrew Phrase believing in signifies no more but believing is plain from St. Paul's citation of this place Rom. IV. 3. where he repeats it thus Abraham believed God which he thus explains v. 18-22 who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations According to that which was spoken so shall thy seed be And being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness By which it is clear that the Faith which God counted to Abraham for Righteousness was nothing but a firm belief of what God declared to him and a steadfast relying on him for the accomplishment of what he had promised Now this says
old are thinking Men told what they wonder how they could miss thinking of Which yet their own Contemplations did not and possibly never would have helped them to Experience shews that the knowledge of Morality by meer natural light how agreeable soever it be to it makes but a flow progress and little advance in the World And the reason of it is not hard to be found in Men's Necessities Passions Vices and mistaken Interests which turn their thoughts another way And the designing Leaders as well as following Herd find it not to their purpose to imploy much of their Meditations this way Or whatever else was the cause 't is plain in fact Humane reason unassisted failed Men in its great and proper business of Morality It never from unquestionable Principles by clear deductions made out an entire Body of the Law of Nature And he that shall collect all the Moral Rules of the Philosophers and compare them with those contained in the New Testament will find them to come short of the Morality delivered by our Saviour and taught by his Apostles A College made up for the most part of ignorant but inspired Fishermen Though yet if any one should think that out of the sayings of the Wise Heathens before our Saviour's time there might be a Collection made of all those Rules of Morality which are to be found in the Christian Religion Yet this would not at all hinder but that the World nevertheless stood as much in need of our Saviour and the Morality delivered by him Let it be granted though not true that all the Moral Precepts of the Gospel were known by some Body or other amongst Mankind before But where or how or of what use is not considered Suppose they may be picked up here and there Some from Solon and Bias in Greece Others from Tully in Italy And to compleat the Work let Confutius as far as China be consulted And Anacarsis the Scythian contribute his share What will all this do to give the World a compleat morality That may be to Mankind the unquestionable Rule of Life and Manners I will not here urge the impossibility of collecting from men so far distant from one another in time and place and languages I will suppose there was a Stobeus in those times who had gathered the Moral sayings from all the Sages of the World What would this amount to towards being a steady Rule A certain transcript of a Law that we are under Did the saying of Aristippus or Confutius give it an Authority Was Zeno a Lawgiver to Mankind If not what he or any other Philosopher delivered was but a saying of his Mankind might hearken to it or reject it as they pleased Or as it suited their interest passions principles or humours They were under no Obligation The Opinion of this or that Philosopher was of no Authority And if it were you must take all he said under the same Character All his dictates must go for Law certain and true Or none of them And then If you will take any of the Moral sayings of Epicurus many whereof Seneca quotes with esteem and approbation for Precepts of the Law of Nature You must take all the rest of his Doctrine for such too Or else his Authority ceases And so no more is to be received from him or any of the Sages of old for parts of the Law of Nature as carrying with it an obligation to be obeyed but what they prove to be so But such a Body of Ethicks proved to be the Law of Nature from principles of Reason and reaching all the Duties of Life I think no body will say the World had before our Saviour's time 'T is not enough that there were up and down scattered sayings of wise Men conformable to right Reason The Law of Nature was the Law of Convenience too And 't is no wonder that those Men of Parts and studious of Virtue Who had occasion to think on any particular part of it should by meditation light on the right even from the observable Convenience and beauty of it Without making out its obligation from the true Principles of the Law of Nature and foundations of Morality But these incoherent apohtegms of Philosophers and wise Men however excellent in themselves and well intended by them could never make a Morality whereof the World could be convinced And with certainty depend on Whatsoever should thus be universally useful as a standard to which Men should conform their Manners must have its Authority either from Reason or Revelation 'T is not every Writer of Morals or Compiler of it from others that can thereby be erected into a Law-giver to Mankind and a dictator of Rules which are therefore valid because they are to be found in his Books under the Authority of this or that Philosopher He that any one will pretend to set up in this kind and have his Rules pass for authentique directions must shew that either he builds his Doctrine upon Principles of Reason self-evident in themselves or that he deduces all the parts of it from thence by clear and evident demonstration Or must shew his Commission from Heaven That he comes with Authority from God to deliver his Will and Commands to the World In the former way no body that I know before our Saviour's time ever did or went about to give us a Morality 'T is true there is a Law of Nature But who is there that ever did or undertook to give it us all entire as a Law No more nor no less than what was contained in and had the obligation of that Law Who ever made out all the parts of it Put them together And shewed the World their obligation Where was there any such Code that Mankind might have recourse to as their unerring Rule before our Saviour's time If there was not 't is plain there was need of one to give us such a Morality Such a Law which might be the sure guide of those who had a desire to go right And if they had a mind need not mistake their Duty But might be certain when they had performed when failed in it Such a Law of Morality Jesus Christ hath given us in the New Testament But by the later of these ways by Revelation We have from him a full and sufficient Rule for our direction And conformable to that of Reason But the truth and obligation of its Precepts hath its force and is put past doubt to us by the evidence of his Mission He was sent by God His Miracles shew it And the Authority of God in his Precepts cannot be questioned Here Morality has a sure Standard that Revelation vouches and Reason cannot gainsay nor question but both together witness to come from God the great Law-maker And such an one as this out of the New Testament I think the World never had nor can any one say is any where else to be found Let me ask any one who is forward to
directed the Lawyer who asked Luke X. 25. What he should do to inherit eternal life Do this i. e. what is required by the Law and thou shalt live On the other side it seems the unalterable purpose of the Divine Justice that no unrighteous Person no one that is guilty of any breach of the Law should be in Paradise But that the wages of sin shold be to every man as it was to Adam an Exclusion of him out of that Happy state of Immortality and bring Death upon him And this is so conformable to the Eternal and established Law of Right and Wrong that it is spoke of too as if it could not be otherwise St. Iames says Chap. I. 15. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death as it were by a Natural and necessary production Sin entred into the World and death by sin says St. Paul Rom. V. 12. VI. 23. The wages of sin is Death Death is the Purchase of any of every sin Gal. III. 10. Cursed is every one who continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them And of this St. Iames gives a Reason Chap. II. 10 11. Whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all For he that said Do not commit Adultery said also do not Kill i. e. He that offends in any one Point sins against the Authority which established the Law Here then we have the standing and fixed measures of Life and Death Immortality and Bliss belong to the Righteous Those who have lived in an exact Conformity to the Law of God are out of the reach of Death But an Exclusion from Paradise and loss of Immortality is the Portion of Sinners of all those who have any way broke that Law and failed of a Compleat Obedience to it by the guilt of any one Transgression And thus Mankind by the Law are put upon the issues of Life or Death As they are Righteous or Vnrighteous Iust or Vnjust i. e. Exact Performers or Transgressors of the Law But yet all having sinned Rom. III. 23. and come short of the glory God i. e. the Kingdom of God in Heaven which is often called his Glory both Iews and Gentiles v. 22. So that by the deeds of the Law no one could be justified v. 20. it follows that no one could then have Eternal Life and Bliss Perhaps it will be demanded Why did God give so hard a Law to Mankind that to the Apostles time no one of Adam's Issue had kept it As appears by Rom. III. and Gal. III. 21 22. Answ. It was such a Law as the Purity of God's Nature required and must be the Law of such a Creature as Man unless God would have made him a Rational Creature and not required him to have lived by the Law of Reason but would have countenanced in him Irregularity and Disobedience to that Light which he had and that Rule which was suitable to his Nature Which would have been to have authorized Disorder Confusion and Wickedness in his Creatures For that this Law was the Law of Reason or as it is called of Nature we shall see by and by And if Rational Creatures will not live up to the Rule of their Reason who shall excuse them If you will admit them to forsake Reason in one point why not in another Where will you stop To disobey God in any part of his Commands and 't is he that Commands what Reason does is direct Rebellion which if dispensed with in any Point Government and Order are at an end And there can be no bounds set to the Lawless Exorbitancy of unconfined men The Law therefore was as St. Paul tells us Rom. VII 12 holy just and good and such as it ought and could not otherwise be This then being the case that whoever is guilty of any sin should certainly die and cease to be the benefit of Life restored by Christ at the Resurrection would have been no great Advantage for as much as here again Death must have seized upon all mankind because all had sinned For the Wages of Sin is every where Death as well after as before the Resurrection if God had not found out a way to Justifie some i. e. so many as obeyed another Law which God gave which in the New Testament is called the Law of Faith Rom. III. 27. and is opposed to the Law of Works And therefore the Punishment of those who would not follow him was to lose their Souls i. e. their Lives Mark VIII 35-38 as is plain considering the occasion it was spoke on The better to understand the Law of Faith it will be convenient in the first place to consider the Law of Works The Law of Works then in short is that Law which requires perfect Obedience without any remission or abatement So that by that Law a man cannot be Just or justified without an exact performance of every tittle Such a perfect Obedience in the New Testament is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Righteousness The Language of this Law is Do this and live Transgress and die Lev. XVIII 5. Ye shall keep my statutes and my judgments which if a man do he shall live in them Ezek. XX. 11. I gave them my statutes and shewed them my judgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Moses says St. Paul Rom. X. 5. describeth the righteousness which is of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live in them Gal. III. 12. The Law is not of Faith but that man that doth them shall live in them On the other side Transgress and die no dispensation no atonement V. 10. Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them Where this Law of Works was to be found the New Testament tells us viz. in the Law delivered by Moses Iohn I. 17. The Law was given by Moses but Faith and Truth came by Iesus Christ. Cap. VII 19. Did not Moses give you the Law says our Saviour and yet none of you keep the Law And this is the Law which he speaks of where he asks the Lawyer Luke X. 26. What is written in the Law how readest thou v. 28. This do and thou shalt live This is that which St. Paul so often stiles the Law without any other distinction Rom. II. 13. Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law are justified 'T is needless to quote any more places his Epistles are all full of it especially this to the Romans But the Law given by Moses being not given to all Mankind How are all men sinners since without a Law there is no Transgression To this the Apostle v. 14. Answers For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do i. e. find it reasonable to do by nature the things contained in the Law these having not the
Deliverance of his Kingdom should enter themselves into it And by Baptism being made Denizons and solemnly incorporated into that Kingdom live as became Subjects obedient to the Laws of it For if they believed him to be the Messiah their King but would not obey his Laws and would not have him to Reign over them they were but greater Rebels and God would not Justifie them for a Faith that did but increase their Guilt and oppose Diametrically the Kingdom and Design of the Messiah Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works Titus II. 14. And therefore St. Paul tells the Galatians That that which availeth is Faith But Faith working by Love And that Faith without Works i.e. the Works of sincere Obedience to the Law and Will of Christ is not sufficient for our Justification St. Iames shews at large Chap. II. Neither indeed could it be otherwise For Life Eternal Life being the Reward of Justice or Righteousness only appointed by the Righteous God who is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity to those only who had no taint or infection of Sin upon them it is impossible that he should Justifie those who had no regard to Justice at all whatever they believed This would have been to encourage Iniquity contrary to the Purity of his Nature and to have condemned that Eternal Law of Right which is Holy Just and Good Of which no one Precept or Rule is abrogated or repealed nor indeed can be whilst God is an Holy Just and Righteous God and Man a Rational Creature The Duties of that Law arising from the Constitution of his very Nature are of Eternal Obligation Nor can it be taken away or dispensed with without changing the Nature of Things overturning the measures of Right and Wrong and thereby introducing and authorizing Irregularity Confusion and Disorder in the World Which was not the end for which Christ came into the World But on the contrary to reform the corrupt state of degenerate Man And out of those who would mend their Lives and bring forth Fruit meet for Repentance erect a new Kingdom This is the Law of that Kingdom as well as of all Mankind And that Law by which all Men shall be judged at the last day Only those who have believed Iesus to be the Messiah and have taken him to be their King with a sincere Endeavour after Righteousness in obeying his Law shall have their past sins not imputed to them And shall have that Faith taken instead of Obedience Where Frailty and Weakness made them transgress and sin prevailed after Conversion in those who hunger and thirst after Righteousness or perfect Obedience and do not allow themselves in Acts of Disobedience and Rebellion against the Laws of that Kingdom they are entred into He did not expect 't is true a Perfect Obedience void of all slips and falls He knew our Make and the weakness of our Constitutions too well and was sent with a Supply for that Defect Besides perfect Obedience was the Righteousness of the Law of Works and then the Reward would be of Debt and not of Grace And to such there was no need of Faith to be imputed to them for Righteousness They stood upon their own legs were Just already and needed no allowance to be made them for believing Jesus to be the Messiah taking him for their King and becoming his Subjects But whether Christ does not require Obedience sincere Obedience is evident from the Laws he himself pronounces unless he can be supposed to give and inculcate Laws only to have them disobeyed and from the Sentence he will pass when he comes to Judge The Faith required was to believe Iesus to be the Messiah the Anointed who had been promised by God to the World Amongst the Iews to whom the Promises and Prophesies of the Messiah were more immediately delivered Anointing was used to three sorts of Persons at their Inauguration Whereby they were set apart to three great Offices viz. Of Priests Prophets and Kings Though these three Offices be in Holy Writ attributed to our Saviour yet I do not remember that he any where assumes to himself the Title of a Priest or mentions any thing relating to his Priesthood Nor does he speak of his being a Prophet but very sparingly and once or twice as it were by the by But the Gospel or the Good News of the Kingdom of the Messiah is what he Preaches every where and makes it his great business to publish to the World This he did not only as most agreeable to the Expectation of the Iews who looked for their Messiah chiefly as coming in Power to be their King and Deliverer But as it best answered the chief end of his Coming which was to be a King and as such to be received by those who would be his Subjects in the Kingdom which he came to erect And though he took not directly on himself the Title of King till he was in Custody and in the hands of Pilate yet 't is plain King and King of Israel were the Familiar and received Titles of the Messiah See Iohn I. 50. Luke XIX 38. Compared with Mat. XXI 9. And Mark XI 9. Iohn XII 13. Mat. XXI 5. Luke XXIII 2. Compared with Mat. XXVII 11. And Iohn XVIII 33-37 Mark XV. 12. Compared with Mat. XXVII 22. Mat. XXVII 42. What those were to do who believed him to be the Messiah and received him for their King that they might be admitted to be partakers with him of this Kingdom in Glory we shall best know by the Laws he gives them and requires them to obey And by the Sentence which he himself will give when sitting on his Throne they shall all appear at his Tribunal to receive every one his Doom from the mouth of this Righteous Judge of all Men. What he proposed to his Followers to be believed we have already seen by examining his and his Apostles Preaching step by step all through the History of the four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles The same Method will best and plainest shew us whether he required of those who believed him to be the Messiah any thing besides that Faith and what it was For he being a King we shall see by his Commands what he expects from his Subjects For if he did not expect Obedience to them his Commands would be but meer Mockery And if there were no Punishment for the Transgressors of them his Laws would not be the Laws of a King that had Authority to Command and Power to Chastise the disobedient But empty Talk without Force and without Influence We shall therefore from his Injunctions if any such there be see what he has made Necessary to be performed by all those who shall be received into Eternal Life in his Kingdom prepared in the Heavens And in this we cannot be deceived What we have from his own Mouth
think that the Doctrine of Morality was full and clear in the World at our Saviour's Birth Whether would he have directed Brutus and Cassius both Men of Parts and Virtue the one whereof believed and the other disbelieved a future Being to be satisfied in the Rules and Obligations of all the parts of their Duties If they should have asked him where they might find the Law they were to live by and by which they should be charged or acquitted as guilty or innocent If to the sayings of the Wise and the Declarations of Philosophers He sends them into a wild Wood of uncertainty to an endless maze from which they should never get out If to the Religions of the World yet worse And if to their own Reason he refers them to that which had some light and certainty but yet had hitherto failed all Mankind in a perfect Rule And we see resolved not the doubts that had risen amongst the Studious and Thinking Philosophers Nor had yet been able to convince the Civilized parts of the World that they had not given nor could without a Crime take away the Lives of their Children by Exposing them If any one shall think to excuse humane Nature by laying blame on Men's negligence that they did not carry Morality to an higher pitch and make it out entire in every part with that clearness of demonstration which some think it capable of He helps not the matter Be the cause what it will our Saviour found Mankind under a Corruption of Manners and Principles which Ages after Ages had prevailed and must be confessed was not in a way or tendency to be mended The Rules of Morality were in different Countries and Sects different And natural Reason no where had nor was like to Cure the Defects and Errors in them Those just measures of Right and Wrong which necessity had any where introduced the Civil Laws prescribed or Philosophy recommended Stood not on their true Foundations They were looked on as bonds of Society and Conveniencies of common Life and laudable Practises But where was it that their Obligation was throughly known and allowed and they received as Precepts of a Law Of the highest Law the Law of Nature That could not be without a clear knowledge and acknowledgment of the Law-maker and the great Rewards and Punishments for those that would or would not obey him But the Religion of the Heathens as was before observed little concerned it self in their Morals The Priests that delivered the Oracles of Heaven and pretended to speak from the Gods Spoke little of Virtue and a good Life And on the other side the Philosophers who spoke from Reason made not much mention of the Deity in their Ethicks They depended on Reason and her Oracles which contain nothing but Truth But yet some parts of that Truth lye too deep for our Natural Powers easily to reach and make plain and visible to mankind without some Light from above to direct them When Truths are once known to us though by Tradition we are apt to be favourable to our own Parts And ascribe to our own Understandings the Discovery of what in truth we borrowed from others Or at least finding we can prove what at first we learnt from others we are forward to conclude it an obvious Truth which if we had sought we could not have missed Nothing seems hard to our Understandings that is once known And because what we see we see with our own Eyes we are apt to over-look or forget the help we had from others who first shewed and pointed it out to us as if we were not at all beholden to them for that Knowledge Which Being of Truths we now are satisfied of we conclude our own Faculties would have lead us into without any assistance And that we know them as they did by the strength and perspicuity of our own minds only they had the luck to be before us Thus the whole stock of Human Knowledge is claimed by every one as his private Possession as soon as he profiting by others Discoveries has got it into his own mind And so it is But not properly by his own single Industry nor of his own Acquisition He studies 't is true and takes pains to make a progress in what others have delivered But their pains were of another sort who first brought those Truths to light which he afterwards derives from them He that Travels the Roads now applauds his own strength and legs that have carried him so far in such a scantling of time And ascribes all to his own Vigor little considering how much he ows to their pains who cleared the Woods drained the Bogs built the Bridges and made the Ways passable without which he might have toiled much with little progress A great many things we have been bred up in the belief of from our Cradles and are Notions grown Familiar and as it were Natural to us under the Gospel we take for unquestionable obvious Truths and easily demonstrable without considering how long we might have been in doubt or ignorance of them had Revelation been silent And many are beholden to Revelation who do not acknowlede it 'T is no diminishing to Revelation that Reason gives its Suffrage too to the Truths Revelation has discovered But 't is our mistake to think that because Reason confirms them to us we had the first certain knowledge of them from thence and in that clear Evidence we now possess them The contrary is manifest in the defective Morality of the Gentils before our Saviour's time and the want of Reformation in the Principles and Measures of it as well as Practice Philosophy seemed to have spent its strength and done its utmost Or if it should have gone farther as we see it did not and from undenyable Principles given us Ethicks in a Science like Mathematicks in every part demonstrable this yet would not have been so effectual to man in this imperfect state nor proper for the Cure The bulk of mankind have not leisure nor capacity for Demonstration nor can carry a train of Proofs which in that way they must always depend upon for Conviction and cannot be required to assent till they see the Demonstration Wherever they stick the Teachers are always put upon Proof and must clear the Doubt by a Thread of coherent deductions from the first Principle how long or how intricate soever that be And you may as soon hope to have all the Day-Labourers and Tradesmen the Spinsters and Dairy Maids perfect Mathematicians as to have them perfect in Ethicks this way Hearing plain Commands is the sure and only course to bring them to Obedience and Practice The greatest part cannot know and therefore they must believe And I ask whether one coming from Heaven in the Power of God in full and clear Evidence and Demonstration of Miracles giving plain and direct Rules of Morality and Obedience be not likelier to enlighten the bulk of Mankind and set them right