Now, to discourse aright in Matters of Religion, as my present Purpose is, I muft begin (where all our greateft Undertakings ought to do) with looking clofely to the End: And what the End of all Religion is, every Soul (who profeffes any) will readi ly agree with me, is to be happy when we dye; or in the familiar Language of a Chriftian, to fave our immortal Souls for ever.

The fhort Contents of my friendly Letter to you then, I purpose fhall be these.

I. To reprefent to you, in the plainest Manner that I can, this great and awful Concern of us all, the faving of our Souls.

II. To lay before you, the fure Proofs and undeniable Authority we have to convince us all, of the Certainty of an endless Life after Death, and of the vast Concerns that every one of us have therein. And

III. To fhew you what favourable Conditions God requires on our Sides, under the Gofpel-Covenant of Grace, for the faving of our Souls for ever. And

Laftly, To propofe fome few Rules, highly advisable to be used by you, in order to compafs that great End of dying comfortably, and being fafe and happy unto all Eternity.

I. To begin with the first of these then. How great and awful a Concern is it to us all, to fave our Souls for ever? And I make

no doubt, but you'll readily anfwer this plain, though great Queftion, from the greatest to the leaft of you, that you stedfaftly believe and know this, to be the higheft Concern you have, or can have, in the World. Yet, fince a great Apostle could fay (in Refpect to all the Doctrines of the Christian Faith) that he would not be negli- 2 Pet. i. gent to put his People in Remembrance of them, 12. though they knew them before. I hope it will not be thought needlefs in me, to inlarge a little 'upon fo confiderable a Subject.

The faving of our Souls, is a Thought, I know, that ever and anon will arife in the bufieft Worldling's Mind (let him do what he can;) but how much is imply'd in it, or what Means are to be used, for working out our Salvation, is too flightly confidered, I'm afraid, by Men of greater Parts and Leifure, to be thoroughly understood, or practically known. My Design at prefent therefore is, to look as far into the true Nature and Means of our Salvation, as the Light of Reason and Revelation together shall direct me (both for your Sakes and my own) and in as few and plain Words as I can, to lay the whole Account before you.

.: To fave

any thing in general which God has given us, is, in the first and plainest Sense of it, to put it to fuch Ufes, and improve it to fuch Advantages, as were intended by him that made us, or in the A 3 Nature

Nature of the Thing, it is capable of; for whatsoever Creature of God is debafed, corrupted, or degenerates from its own Kind, is plainly fo far in its Way to Ruin or Deftruction. Now the Souls of Men, we know, are created in the Image of God Gen. i. 27. (his own Word affures fo) that is, they are

reasonable and immortal Spirits to be fure, which can diftinguish common Good from Evil, and fhall never dye; for nothing lefs than that can resemble him. Nor has the fall of Adam fo deftroy'd this original Stamp of practical Reafon upon them, but that Solomon could call the Spirit of Man, the Lamp or Candle of the Lord till, even before the Light of the Gofpel did appear; which St. Paul explains in clearer Words Rom. ii. to us, when he tells us, that the Gentiles 14, 15. having not the Law, are a Law unto themfelves, fhewing the Work of the Law written in their Heart, their Confcience alfo bearing wit nefs, and their Thoughts the mean while accufing, or elfe excufing one another: And thofe Gentiles were as much the Offspring of fallen Adam (to be fure) as we. Give me leave therefore to afk this plain Question of you all; Whether you don't think this Light of natural Confcience fhines as clear in your Chriftian Hearts at this Day, as the Apostle here tells us it did in all the Heathen World of old? Do you ever do any Thing in the common and familiar Actions of Life, and not know in your Hearts,

whether

whether it be right or wrong, juft or un juft, innocent or evil, harmless or injurious to yourselves or others? 'Tis a fhrewd Sign and little lefs than a Demonftration to me, that fomething is within you, which fhews you all these Things; fince nothing is more common than judging others, and calling this or t'other Perfon, a good, or bad Man, by what you fee them do; which is an unhappy Ufe of God's Goodness to us in beftowing the divine Gift of Reafon upon our Souls, but is an open Confeffion, at the fame Time, that we fenfibly feel within ourselves, and (even in our own Opinion of it) do think that he has done fo; elfe we fhould have little Grounds, or rather none at all, to take up fuch Opinions and speak fo freely as we do, of any other Men and no lefs Evidence of the fame Thing, are the ordinary Reproaches of our own Hearts, the Sting of Confcience, and that palpable Self-Condemnation, which ever and anon we feel within ourselves, as often as we fin wilfully, or do any manifeftly unreasonable Action whatsoever. As, on the contrary, the comfortable Satisfaction, Content and Approbation of our Hearts, when we do a fair, juft and honest Thing, proves as plainly again, that fuch a Monitor of our Duty, and fuch a Touchftone to try Good and Evil by, is form'd and fix'd by our Maker's Hand, in the very Subftance of our reasonable Souls. A 4

I may

A

I may be thought to fay too much upon fo plain a Point as this, but the great Sub, ject of our Salvation which I am now upon, obliges me to put you thus particularly in Mind, of the true Ufe and Nature of your Souls; and for no lefs Reason than this, because the laft Sentence upon every Creature at the Day of Judgment, will have a peculiar Regard to the refpective. Nature, as well as other Gifts, which God has given to them here; and more efpecially the reasonable Nature of Man will have fo mighty an Influence in determining their eternal Happinefs or Mifery at that Day, that all the Heathen World (which if we may judge of Numbers by Length of Time and Extent of Countries, very much exceeds all the reft) will have their final Doom for ever according to the Ufe or Abuse of their natural Reafon alone; for fo the infpir'd Apoftle exprefly tells us, Rom. ii. that as many as have finn'd without the Law, fball alfo perifh without Law. And let not Jews or Chriftians therefore, under any Difpenfation of Grace whatfoever, vainly think they fhall not be called to a ftrict Account, one Day, for every Sin they commit against that natural Light which God has given them (befides the other Benefits of a higher Nature) in common with the others, fince fo great a Part of Mankind fhall be condemn'd for that alone, and Pfal. li. 4. God will be justified (as holy David's Words

are)