necessary to propose to myself some certain marks or characters, whereby I may be able to judge and make choice of the religion I intend to embrace: and they are, in general, these two, namely,

First, That is the best religion, wherein God is worshipped and served most like himself, that is, most suitably and conformably to his nature and will. And,

Secondly, Since all men naturally desire, and aspire after happiness, and our greatest happiness consists in the fruition of God, that is certainly the best religion, which gives me the best and most comfortable assurances of being happy with God to all eternity.

To embrace a religion without these marks, would be worse than to have no religion at all; for better it is to perform no worship to God, than such as is displeasing to him; to do him no service, than such as will be ineffectual to make me happy, and not only frustrate my expectations of bliss, but make me for ever miserable.

The religion, then, that I am to look after, must be such a one, wherein I may be sure to please God, and to be made happy with him; and, by consequence, such a one, wherein all the cause of his displeasure and my misery may be removed; and that is sin. For sin being infinitely opposite to him, as he is a Being of infinite purity and holiness, must certainly set me at the greatest distance from him, and render me most odious in his sight; and whosoever does so, must make me as miserable, as misery can make me. For as our holiness consisteth in likeness, so doth our happiness in nearness to God:

and if it be our happiness to be near unto him, it must certainly be our misery to be at a distance from him. In enjoying him we enjoy all things, he being and having all things in himself; and so in not enjoying him, we are not only deprived of all that we can enjoy, but made liable to the punishments that are the consequence of it.

That there is no such thing in nature, as virtue and vice, as good and evil, as grace and sin, is what I can by no means persuade myself to, for my conscience tells me, that there is: and not only mine, but every one that ever yet lived upon the face of the earth; all people of whatsoever nation or language, still acknowledging sin, to be sin, and that the displeasing the deity, which they worship, is indeed an evil that ought to be carefully avoided. And therefore, the very heathens did not only upbraid others with it, but likewise often checked themselves for it; and all men naturally desire to seem though not to be holy. But let others say what they will, I, for my own part, cannot but see sin in myself, by the very light of nature. For, my reason tells me, that if God be God, he must be just and perfect; and if I be not so too, I am not like him; and, therefore, must needs displease him; it being impossible any thing should please him but what is like unto him. And this deformity to the will and nature of God, is that which we call sin, or which the word sin in its proper notion, brings into my mind.

And being thus conscious to myself, that I have sinned against my Maker, I may reasonably conclude, that as he is omniscient, and, by consequence,

a witness of these my offences, so must he likewise be just in the punishment of them; for it cannot stand with his justice, to put up with such offences, without laying suitable punishments upon the offender. And these punishments must be infinite and eternal; for wherein doth the nature of divine justice consist, but in giving to sin its just punishments, as well as to virtue its due rewards? Now that the punishment of sin in this world, is not so much as it deserves, nor, by consequence, as much as, in justice, ought to be laid upon it, to me it is clear, in that every sin being committed against an infinite God, deserves infinite punishment; whereas all the punishments we suffer in this world cannot be any more than finite, the world itself being no more than finite, that we suffer them in.

Upon these grounds, therefore, it is, that I am fully satisfied in my conscience, that I am a sinner; that it cannot stand with the justice, nor the existence of God that made me, to pardon my sins, without satisfaction made to his divine justice for them; and yet, that unless they be pardoned, it is impossible for me to be happy here, or hereafter. And therefore must I look after some religion, wherein I may be sure my sins may be thus pardoned, and my soul made happy, wherein I may please God, and God may bless me. Which that I may be the better able to discover, I shall take a brief survey of all the religions I ever heard of, or believe to be in the world.

Now, though there be as many kinds of religions as nations; yea, almost as particular persons in the world; yet may they all be reduced to these four;

the Pagan, Mahometan, Jewish, and Christian religions.

As to the first, it is indeed of a very large extent, and comprehends under it all such as neither acknowledge Mahomet to be a prophet, nor expect a promised Messiah, nor believe in a crucified Jesus: and, since it is the majority of numbers, that usually carries the vogue, let me see whether the pagan religion, being farther extended, and more generally professed than any, or indeed all the rest, be not the true religion, wherein God is most rightly worshipped, and I may be the most certainly saved. And here, when I take a view of this religion, as it is dispersed through several parts of Asia, Africa, and America, I find them very devout in worshipping their deities, such as they are, and they have great numbers of them: some worship the sun, others the moon and stars, others the earth, and other elements, serpents, trees, and the like. And others again pay homage and adoration to images and statues, in the fashion of men and women, hogs, horses, and other shapes; and some to the devil himself, as in Pegu, &c.

But now, to go no farther, this seems to me, at first sight, to be a very strange and absurd sort of religion; or rather, it is quite the reverse of it. For the true notion we have of religion, is the worshipping the true God, in a true manner; and this is the worshipping false gods in a false manner. For, I cannot entertain any other notion of God, than as one supreme almighty Being, who made and governs all things, and who, as he is a Spirit, ought to be worshipped in a spiritual manner. And therefore,

as the very supposing more deities than one implies a contradiction; so the paying divine homage, in a gross, carnal manner, to material and corporeal beings, which are either the work of men's hands, or at best, but creatures like ourselves, which can neither hear nor understand what we say to them, much less give us what we desire of them, is not religion, but idolatry and superstition, or rather madness and delusion. So that this religion, I see, if I should embrace it, would be so far from making me happy, that the more zealous I should be for it, the more miserable I should be by it. For he that made these things cannot but be very angry at me, if I should give that worship to them, which is only due to himself; and so, the way whereby I expect my sins should be pardoned, they would be more increased; it 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