SECTION III: 20I etid abandoned his salvation ; Acts xiii. 46. Their forms of worship, though they were once appointed by God himself, yet their term and season is expired, and they are now divinely abolished. Besides they practise to this day what their fathers were guilty of in the days of Christ, viz. They .snake void the com,naúd,nents of God, by the multitude of their own traditions ; Mat. xv. 3. and superstitions rites which they have invented.- God has directly cast them off, and rejected them, because they rejected his Son Jesus ; they were once his beloved people, but now are not his people, nor beloved, for they persisted in their hatred of the beloved Son of God, and most of them have con- ceived the utmost aversion to the name of Jesus. 'riseMahometans own the trueGod', and practise many du- ties of morality : But how ridiculous and irrational is a great part of their religion or worship ? What a silly book is the " Al- coran,". which is their bible ? God requires a reasonable service; Rom. xii. 1. But how many absurd fooleries are mingled with their articles of faith and practice ? Where shall we find any national religion besides the christian, that bath the countenance and support of reason ; With what wild and impudent fables do the writings of Mahomet, and the tales of his followers, furnish and fill the minds of the Turks and Persians, in Europe and Asia, and the Moors and barbarians, in Africa ? And what num- berless tenets and rites are found in their religion, which have no manner of evidence or defence, from the light of nature or com- mon reason.: After all, if there are any persons found among all these nations, that have been, or shall be accepted of God, it is not their various ceremonies, or superstitious fopperies, that are the objects of his delight. These are rather, so many errors and faults in their religion, and stand in need of forgiveness. The only just ground of hope, that any of them can have of divine acceptance, arises not from their own ceremonies, but from their observance of some precepts of the light of nature, some broken traditions of divine revelation, some fragments of the gospel, and pardoning grace, delivered down from Noah, Abra-. ham or Moses, or derived from their acquaintance with the re- vealed religion of the Jews or Christians, as I shall shew under the next question. II. IfGod had a mind to accept the various religions, which men have invented, and would delight himself in their divers fantastic forms.of worship, why did he ever reveal to men any peculiar religion at all ? Why did he appoint sacrifices to Adam? Why further discoveries to Noah ? Why circumcision to Abra.. ham ? Why a variety of rites to the Jews under Moses? And why did he manifest himself in the last place, by Jesus Christ his Sou, and appoint a religion that surpasses them all, to be preached to all nations ? I take these several revelations now for granted, since it would be too long toprove themhere. T2
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