being a sin against the very light of nature, to prefer any thing before God, or to worship any thing in his stead; therefore, leaving these to their superstitious idolatries, and diabolical delusions, I must go and seek for the true religion somewhere else.

The next religion, that hath the most suffrages and votes on its side, is the Mahometan religion, so called from one Mahomet an Arabian, who, about a thousand years ago, by the assistance of one Sergius, a Nestorian monk, compiled a book in the Arabian tongue, which he called Alcoran, which he made the rule of his followers' faith and manners, pretending that it was sent from heaven to him, by the hand of the angel Gabriel.

This book I have perused, and must confess, find many things in it agreeable to right reason: as that there is but one God, gracious and merciful, the Lord of the whole universe; that this God we are to resign ourselves wholly to; that all that obey him shall be certainly rewarded, and all that disobey him, as certainly punished; and the like. But yet, I dare not venture my soul upon it, nor become one of the professors of it; because, as there are many things consonant, so there are many things dissonant to the natural light that is implanted in me; as, that God should swear by figs and olives, by Mount Sinai, as this book makes him to do, in the chapter of the figs: that Solomon should have an army composed of men, and devils, and birds; and that he should discourse with a bird, which acquainted him with the affairs of the queen of Sheba, and the like.

As to the argument whereby he would persuade

us, that this book was sent from God, viz. that there are no contradictions in it, I take to be very false and frivolous. For besides that there are many books compiled by men, which have no contradictions in them, it is certain, there are a great many plain contradictions in this book, which overthrow his suppositions. Thus, in the chapter of the table, he saith, that "all that believe in God, and the resurrection of the dead, and have done good works, shall be saved:" but, in the chapter of gratification, he saith, "all that do not believe in the Alcoran shall be destroyed:" and so in the chapter of Hod. In like manner, he tells us again, in the chapter of the table, that the books of the Old and New Testaments were sent from God, and at the same time, supposes that the Alcoran was sent from him too; which to me, seems impossible. For, my reason tells me that God, who is truth and wisdom itself, cannot be guilty of falsehood and contradiction. And if these books contradict one another, as it is evident they do in many instances, it is plain God could not be the author of both; and by consequence, if the Scripture be true the Alcoran must of necessity be false. To instance but in one particular, the Alcoran says, in the chapter of women, "God hath no son:" in the Scripture, God said of Jesus, 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" and it expressly calls that Jesus, the Son of God;" and so in many other things. Now it is impossible, that both these should be true, or, by consequence, that that should be true which says both are so.

Matt. iii. 17.

2 Heb. iv. 14.

But if this were granted, there is still another objection against this religion; and that is, that the rewards therein promised will not avail to make me happy, though I should be partaker of them. For all the promises made to us in this paradise, are but mere sensible pleasures; as that we shall have all manner of herbs, and fruits, and drinks, and women with exceeding great and black eyes, as in the chapter of the merciful and judgment, and elsewhere; and such pleasures as these, though they may indeed affect my body, yet they cannot be the happiness of my soul. Indeed, I know not how this book should promise any higher happiness than that of the body, because it shows no means of attaining to it; it shows no way, how my sins may be pardoned, and so my soul made happy. It saith, I confess, that God is gracious and merciful, and therefore will pardon sin; so he is also just and righteous, and therefore must punish it. And how these two can stand together, is not manifested in the Alcoran; and therefore I dare not trust my soul with it.

Thus, upon diligent search, have I found the two religions, that are most generally professed, to have little or nothing of religion in them. I shall therefore, in the next place, take a view of that religion which hath the fewest followers, and that is the Jewish. A religion, not established by any human laws, nor, indeed, generally professed in any nation, but only by a company of despicable people, scattered up and down the world, which as the prophet expresses it, are become a proverb of reproach, and a by-word among all nations whither they are driven.' The principles of this religion

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are contained in a book written in the Hebrew tongue, which they call the Torah, or law, composed of several precepts, promises, and threatenings; together with histories of things past, and prophecies of things to come: this book, they say, was written by men inspired by God himself; and therefore they avouch it not to be of human invention, but merely of divine institution.

This book also I have diligently read and examined into, and must ingenuously confess, that at the very first glance methought I read divinity in it, and could not but conclude, from the majesty of its style, the purity of its precepts, the harmony of its parts, the certainty of its promises, and the excellency of its rewards, that it could be derived from no other author but God himself. It is here only that I find my Maker worshipped under the proper notion of a Deity, as he is Jehovah, and that is the right manner, for we are here commanded to love and serve him with all our hearts, with all our souls, our might and mind," which is, indeed, the perfection of all true worship whatsoever. And as God is here worshipped aright, so is the happiness which is here entailed upon this true worship, the highest that it is possible a creature should be made capable of, being nothing less than the enjoyment of him we worship, so as to have him 'to be a God to us, and ourselves to be a people to him.' 2

But that which I look upon, still, as the surest character of the true religion, is, its holding forth the way, how I being a sinner, can be invested with this happiness, or how God can show his justice, in

Deut. iv. 5; x. 12.

2 Jer. xxxi. 33.

punishing sin itself, and yet be so merciful, as to pardon and remit it to me, and so receive me to his favour; which the religions I viewed before did not so much as pretend to, nor offer at all. And this is what this book of the law does likewise discover to me, by showing that God Almighty would not visit our sins upon ourselves but upon another person; that he would appoint and ordain one to be our sponsor or Mediator, who by his infinite merit, should bear and atone for our iniquities, and to show his love and mercy, in justifying and acquitting us from our sins, at the same time that he manifests his justice, in inflicting the punishment of them upon this person in our stead. A method so deep and mysterious, that if God himself had not revealed it, I am confident no mortal man could ever have discovered or thought of it.

Neither are there any doubts and scruples concerning this great mystery, but what this book does clearly answer and resolve; as will appear more plainly from a distinct consideration of the several objections that are urged against it.

As, 1. That it does not seem agreeable either to reason or Scripture that one man should bear the sins of another; because every man has enough to do to bear his own burden; and since sin is committed against an infinite God, and therefore deserves infinite punishment, how can any finite creature bear this infinite punishment? especially, it being due to so many thousands of people as there are in the world!

But this book sufficiently unties this knot for me, by showing me, that it is not a mere man, but God himself, that would bear these my sins; even he whose name is, 'Jehovah Tsidkenu,' 'The Lord our