his command who issues it, is able to recommend itself; and nothing
required but what every wise man would choose of his accord: and cannot,
without being his, own enemy, wish to be exempted from?' And this
character of Christianity he makes to be essential to its being from
God, and therefore must make it the same with natural religion, which
has this character impressed on it.

"'There was none of the doctrines of our Saviour (says the late
Archbishop of York) ** calculated for the gratification of men's
idle curiosities, the busying and amusing them with airy and useless
speculations; much less were they intended for an exercise of our
credulity, or a trial how far we could bring our reason to submit to our
faith; but as on the one hand they were plain and simple, and such as
by their agreeable-ness to the rational faculties of mankind, did highly
recommend themselves to our belief; so on the other hand they had an
immediate relation to practice, and were the general principles and
foundation, on which all human and divine virtues were naturally to be
superstructed.'

* Boyle's Lect., p. 26,

** Sermon before the Queen on Christmas Day, 1724.

"Does not every one see, that if the religion of nature had been put
instead of Christianity, these descriptions would have exactly agreed
with it? The judicious Dr. Scot affirms, 'God never imposes laws on us
_pro imperio_, as arbitrary tests and trials of our obedience. The great
design of them (says he,) is to do us good, and direct our actions to
our own interest. This, if we firmly believe, will infinitely encourage
our obedience; for when I am sure God commands me nothing but what my
own health, ease, and happiness requires; and that every law of his is
both a necessary and sovereign prescription against the diseases of
my nature, and he could not prescribe less than he has, without being
defective in his care of my recovery and happiness; with what prudence
and modesty can I grudge to obey him?'

"Nay, the most considerate men, even among the Papists, do not scruple
to maintain there's nothing in religion but what is moral. The divines
of Port Royal for instance, say, 'All the precepts, and all the
mysteries that are expressed in so many different ways in the holy
volumes, do all centre in this one commandment of loving God with all
our heart, and in loving our neighbors as ourselves: for the Scripture
(it is St. Austin who says it) forbids but one only t