and Punishments, proper to
influence his _Hopes_ and his _Fears_.

But as God, on the contrary, is a Being of all possible and infinite
Perfections; an exact Knowledge of what we call _Right_ and _Wrong_,
_Just_ and _Unjust_, ever hath, and always will exit in the _Divine
Mind_, and be to him a perfect, constant, and invariable Rule of
Action, in relation to his Creatures. He that is _infinite_ in
Knowledge, cannot but know, at all Times, and under the most (to us)
difficult and perplex'd Circumstances of Things, what in its _own
Nature_ is _best_, and _fittest_ to be done; and, being void of all
Bias, Prejudice, and Passion, cannot but approve of what is _right_
and _best;_ and being likewise _Almighty_, no Power can possibly
interrupt, or prevent what he determined to accomplish: So that it
is _morally impossible_, that God should do an evil Thing, These
Truths are so deducible from each other, and in themselves so
evident, to all unbiassed and inquisitive Minds, that one would
wonder to find Men, of Learning and Integrity, give into the
contrary Sentiments; which, in Effect they do, who hold Doctrines
_naturally subversive_ of these fundamental Truths, as all certainly
do, who depart from the moral Good and Fitness of Things, and
resolve all into _mere sovereign Pleasure_ alone, _independent_ of
Wisdom and Goodness; which must ever be at hand to _cooperate_ with,
and govern the Exertion of, their favourite Attribute, _sovereign
Power_ itself; or, if they do not expressly affirm this, they do by
another Method the very same thing; and that is, by denying, in
Effect, the _intrinsick Difference_ of Good and Evil, which,
according to them, has no Foundation in the _Nature_ and Relations
of Things, but takes its Rise, only, from the mere Will and
Appointment of the _Deity_. But if all Things are in themselves
equally Good, where is the Use to _appoint_, or the Sense of talking
about it? Wisdom and Goodness must, according to this Notion, be
idle and unmeaning Sounds, without Sense or Service. But alas! the
natural Consequence of maintaining Tenets, so repugnant to common
Sense, is seldom less than running into and embracing other
Absurdities, in themselves equally great with what they are brought
to defend, And here, as some of these Gentlemen are exalted, and I
hope deservedly, to the Dignity of Teachers in the _Christian
Church_, they will, I hope, permit me to ask them a Question or two,
which I should, on almost an