Confidence towards God, explained. 3 53 the more clofely we examine it and the lefs S E R confufed and diflurbed our thoughts are ; XIV. whether it be fo or not, let every one judge "°--4 for himfelf; if, I fay, it be fo, we may then, I think, conclude it is the voice of na- ture necetl'arily refulting from our conflitu- tion, and the doEtrine of the apoflle in my text is the do ìrine of immutable reafon, fuppofing only the being of God and his moral character. There is nothing I believe goeth fo far to- wards erafing thofe fentiments out of the hu- man mind, at leal{ hindering their proper ef- fe&, as falfe notions of the Deity and of reli- gion. If men can once be perfuaded that God is not a perfeétly holy, righteous, and good being, or that he doth not exercife thefe per- feEtions in the government of his reafonable creatures ; but that he dealeth with them in a way of arbitrary dominion, in confequence of which the immediate necefl'ary condition of their acceptance with him is not an imitation of his moral attributes, and obeying his precepts of eternal righteoufnefs to which their confci- ences bear witnefs, but fomething elfe fubfli- tuted in the room of that, which it is pretend- ed he hath revealed, or which men have in- vented; fuch a perfuafion muff go a great length in unhinging the true foundations of hope to- V o L. III, A a wards
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