3.) The dictates of our moral faculty are God’s laws, with sanctions. It not only raises a sense of _duty_, but a sense of _security_ in obeying, and danger in disobeying; and this is an explicit sanction. 4.) God’s government must conform to the nature he has given us; and we must infer that in the upshot happiness will follow virtue, and misery vice. 5.) Hence religious worship is a duty, if only as a means of keeping up the sense of this government. 6.) No objection from necessity can lie against this course of proof. --The conclusion is wholly and directly from facts; not from what might appear to us to be _fit_, but from what his actions tell us _he wills_. =2.= Natural religion has external evidence which necessity, if true, does not affect. 1.) Suppose a person convinced of the truths of natural religion, but ignorant of history, and of the present state of mankind, he would inquire: --How this religion came? --How far the belief of it extended? --If he found that some one had totally propounded it, as a deduction of reason, then, though its evidences from reason would not be impaired, its history would furnish no further proof. 2.) But such an one would find, on the contrary, --That essentially it had been professed in all countries. --And can be traced up through all ages. --And was not _reasoned out_, but revealed. 3.) These things are of great weight. --Showing natural religion to be conformed to the common sense of mankind. --And either that it was revealed, or forces itself upon the mind. --The rude state of the early ages leads to the belief of its being revealed, and such is the opinion of the learned. =3.= Early pretences to revelation indicate some original real one from which they were copied. --The history of revelation is as old as history itself. --Such a fact is a proof of religion, against which there is no presumption. --And indicates a revelation prior to the examination of the book said to contain it; and independent of all considerations of its being corrupted, or darkened by fables. =4.= It is thus apparent that the _external_ evidence of religion is considerable; and is not affected by the doctrine of necessity. REMARKS. 1. The danger of taking custom, &c. for our moral rule. 1.) We are all liable to prejudice. 2.) Reason may be impaired, perverted, or disregarded. 3.) The matter in hand is of infinite moment. 2. The foregoing observations amount to practical proof. _Objec._ Probabilities which cannot be confuted, may be overbalanced by greater probabilities: much more by demonstration. Now, as the doctrine of necessity must be true, it cannot be that God governs us as if we were free when he knows we are not.