true Goodness and Holiness, are not of God's teaching or introducing.

Nor is there, I believe, a more certain Way to keep ourselves ftedfaftly in the Purity of the Gofpel, than by keeping our Eye conftantly on this Rule. Could Enthufiafm, or deftructive Zeal, ever have grown out of the Gospel, had Men compared their Practices with the natural Sense they have of God? Would they not have feen, that to defend even Religion by Cruelty and Bloodshed must be hateful in the Sight of God? Could Religion ever have degenerated into fuch Folly and Superstition, as in fome Places it has done, had the true Notions of God been preserved, and all religious Actions examined by it?

On the other Hand, fome there are, who, taking Religion to be what it appears to be in the World, find fo much Folly, and Superstition, and Uncertainty in it, that they have chosen, as the fafer Way, to reject all Religion: But could Men have judged thus perverfely had they attended to the true Rule, and formed their Notions of Religion from the Nature and Wifdom of God, and not from the Follies and Extravagancies of Men? How does the Folly and Perverseness of

others

others affect your Duty to God? or, How came you abfolved from all Religion, because others have corrupted theirs? Suppose the People deceived, and the Priests either ignorant or fuperftitious; what then? Does the Error of one, or the Ignorance of the other, deftroy the Relation between you and God, and make it reafonable for you to throw off all Obedience? The Fear of God will teach you another Sort of Wisdom. This therefore you ought to cultivate and improve, and preferve free from Error or Corruption, as your fureft Guide in all Doubts, and as the true Principle of religious Wisdom.

But he, willing to justify himself, faid unto Jefus, And who is my Neighbour?

T

HE Precepts of the Law and of the Gospel being conceived in general Terms, and expreffed in the most easy and

familiar Manner, Men of fpeculative Minds, whose Business is rather Inquiry than Practice, have taken so much Pains to adjust the Limitations and Restrictions which they conceive to be applicable to the general Rule, that in many Cafes the Duty has been loft in the Explication; and the

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the Precept has been fo pared and cut to the Quick by Exceptions, that it is no longer of any Ufe or Service in common Life.

The Law of God commands us to love our Neighbours as ourselves; the Interpretation of which will better come from our Hearts than our Heads; for we cannot help feeling the Senfe of our Duty as long as we attend to the Motions of Nature within ourselves: Our own Wants and Infirmities will fhew us the Matter and the Extent of our Obedience; and Self-Love will direct us in the Practice and Execution: But when Men come to speculate upon the Point, and to define the exact Bounds of Love, and to determine nicely how far the Notion of Neighbourhood is to be extended, the Event too commonly is, that there is but very little Love left to be difpofed of among our Neighbours, and, that it may the better hold out, but very few Neighbours left to fhare in our Love. Call a covetous Man to the Exercise of this Duty in an Inftance of Charity; fhew him a Man oppreffed with Poverty and Hunger, cloathed in Rags, and deftitute of all the Comforts and Supports of Life, and bid him love this poor Wretch as himself: He will tell you, perhaps, the Law