ings, for Illumination. His immensity confounds our narrow Intellects: his bounty agrees better with our Love. There is I know not what within us, that secretly pleads for a God, whom we cannot comprehend; and hence it is, that to succeed in the Conversion of men, we must settle a pleasing commerce with them, by means of which we may inipire them with the same movements: for in disputes of Religion, the mind in vain strains it self to make us see what we see not; but in a sweet and pious familiarity, it is easy for the Soul to infuse Sentiments.
To consider well the Christian Religion, wou'd make one think, that God had depriv'd it of the light of our Minds, that it might turn more upon the motions of our Hearts. To love God and our Neighbour includes all, says St. Paul. And what is this, but to require a disposition of Heart as well towards God as Man? It is properly to oblige us to do out of a principle of Love, what the Civil Government enjoins by rigorous Laws, and Morality prescribes by a severe order of Reason.
Charity makes us relieve and succour, while Justice forbids us to do wrong. The latter with difficulty hinders opposition; the other with pleasure, procures relief. Those who have the true sentiments that our Religion inspires, can't be unfaithful to a Friend, or ungrateful to a Benefactor. With these good sentiments, a Heart innocently loves those objects God has made amiable, and the most innocent part of our Loves is the most charming and tender.
Let gross and sensual persons complain of our Religion for the constraint it lays upon them; yet the nice and refined will commend it for sparing them disgusts and repentance. More skilful than voluptuous Philosophy in the science of Pleasures,
