The Life of Faith. 137 the =effigy of Obedience and Repentance, and yet excludeth the neceffary means (the revealed Light, and Love, and Power) by which bo,h Obedience and Repentance muff be had. It excludeth Chritl and his Spirit, and yet requireth that which nonebut Chriti and his Spirit can effe&. 4. It propofeth a way as the only Religion, which few ever went from the beginning (as to the exclufions.) As if that were Gods only way to Heaven, which fence any vifble focieties ofmen, can be proved to have pra&ifcd tothis day. Which ofall rhefe Religions have the moti wife, and holy, and heavenly, and mortified, and righteous, and Faber per- fons to profefs it: and the greaten numbers offuch ? If you will judge of the medicine by the effc&s, and take him for the bell Phyfician, who doth the greaten cures upon the fouls, you will loon conclude that Chritl is the way, the truth, and the life , and no man cometb to the Father but by him, John 14. 6. Dire&. 3. Think how impcfble it is that any, but Godfhould Iv the Author of the Chriffian Religion. r. Nogoodman could be guilty of fo horrid a crime as to forge a volume of delufions, and put Gods Name to it to cheat the world fo b1afphemoully and hypocritically, and to draw them into a life of trouble to promote it. Much lefs could fo great a number ofgood men do this, as the fuccefs of filch a cheat (were it po(lible) would require. There is no man that can believe it to be adeceit, but mutt needs believe, as we do of Mahomet, that the Author was one of the wort} men that ever lived in the world. 2. No bad man could lay fo excellent a defign, and frame a Do&rine and Law fo holy, fo [elf denying, fo merciful, fo juif, fo primal, fo heavenly, and fo concordant in it kW; nor carry on fohigh and divinean undertaking for fo divine and excellent an end : No bad man could fo univerfally condemn all basbuf and prefcribe Poch powerful remedies againtt it, and fo effe&ually cure and conquer it in fo confiderable a part of the world. 3. If it be below any good man, to be guilty of fuch a T forgery
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