Let. 26. Lord BoLINGBROKE. 27

*¹acted in the conſtitution of their natures, and diſcernible by ¹*the uſe of the faculties he has given them*.“ He calls it“ the ¹z« revelation God has made of his will by his works. And „« what is the will of God, ſaith he, is a queſtion eaſily an- ¹ ſwered. To anfwer this we need go no higher than the „„moral obligations that ariſe in our own ſyſtem, and of which ¹*¹ we have very adequate ideas. The nature of the human 44 ſyſtem i is independent on man, and yet he is obliged to de- *¹F rive the rules of his conduct from it. By employing our reaſon to collect the will of God from the fund of our nature «„phyſical and moral, and by contemplating lieweurſy and ſeriouſly the laws that are Pis ainly a and neceſſaril ly deducible from them, we may acquire not 5 dy a particular knowlege 4* Of thoſe laws, but a gener 21 and, in ſome ſort, an habitual

„Knowlege of the manner in which God is pleaſed to exerciſe ²⁴ his ſupreme power in this ſyſtem, beyond which we have no 66 1

concern 0

This law he repreſents as abſolutely certain, and obvious to all mankind. Natural revelation, for ſo, ſaith he, I will 2* call it, produces knowlege, a feries of intuitive knowlege *« from the firſt principles to the laſt concluſions. The nomena of nature are the firſt principles: and reaſon, i. a real divine illumination, leads us from one neceſſary truth ¹*to another, through the whole courſe of theſe demon- «« ſtrations.— In all theie caſes we know, we do not believe P.“ He aſſerts, that“ we more gertainly know the will of God in **⁴this way than we can know it in any oöther 4.“ And that „*the tables of the natural law are hung up in the works of ꝗGod, and are obvious to the ſight of all men, ſo obvidus that no man who is able to read the plaineſt characters can „*miſtake themr.“ And accordingly he declares, that“ the will

„of God ſignified by the law otf nature, and revealed by his *ꝙ works, is a revelation that admits of no doubt, and ſhews 44

the road to happineſs to all mankind s.“ T ſhall only men- tion one paſſage more, among many that might be hdlneat to the ſame purpoſe. Having aſſerted, that“natural religjon ¹*Fis the original revelation which God has made of him lelt, * and of his will, to all mankind in the conſtitution of things, „and in the order of his providence; he obſerves, that human reafon is able to diſcover in the original revelation

Vol. v. p. 99. o Ibid. p. 1o0. de⸗ alſo Ibid. p. 154. 178. 196. 271.„ Vol. iv. p. 276. bid. p. 287. r Vol. v. p. 153. Ibid. p. 196. 4

2* every