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ther, if this hiftory fhould open to us a new relation, viz. that which we bear to the comets, this, compared with other parts of the Scriptures, may give us hereafter fuch intimations concerning the kind, degree, and duration of future punishment, as will make the moft obdurate tremble, and work in them that fear which is the beginning of wifdom, and of the perfect love which cafteth out fear. At the fame time we may obferve, that the covenant which God made, not only with Noah and his pofterity, but with all living creatures after the flood, has a direct and immediate tendency to beget love.

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The confufion of languages, the confequent difperfion of mankind, and the shortening of the lives of the poftdiluvians, all con curred to check the exorbitant growth and infection of wickednefs. And we may judge how neceffary thefe checks were, cæteris manentibus, from the great idolatry and corruption which appeared in the world within less than a thousand years after the flood. patriarchal revelations mentioned and intimated by Mofes, had the fame good effects, and were the foundations of thofe Pagan religions, and in great measure of that moral fenfe, which, corrupt and imperfect as they were, could not but be far preferable to an entire want of thefe. If it be objected, that, according to this, greater checks, and more divine communications, were wanted ;) anfwer, that a greater difperfion, or fhortening of human life, might have prevented the defined increafe of mankind, or the growth of knowledge, civil and religious, &c. and that more or more evident divine interpofitions might have restrained the voluntary powers too much, or have precluded that faith which is necef fary to our ultimate perfection. These are conjectures indeed; but they are upon the level with the objection, which is conjectural

alfo.

The next remarkable particular that occurs, is the calling of Abraham, the father of the faithful. Now in this part of the Scripture hiftory, as it is explained by the New Teftament, we have the ftrongest evidence of God's great defign to purify and perfect mankind. He is called to forfake his relations, friends, and country, left he should be corrupted by idolatry; he receives the promile of the land of Canaan, without feeing any probable means of obtaining it, befides this promife, in order to wean him from the dependence on external means; he waits for a fon till all natural expectations ceafed, for the fame purpofe; by obtaining him, he Jearns to truft in God, notwithstanding apparent impoffibilities; and the command to facrifice" his fon, his only fon Ifaac, whom he loved," affords him a noble opportunity of exercising this trust, and of fhewing that his principle of obedience to God was already fuperior to the pureft of earthly affections. Laftly, when God pro mifes him, as a reward for all his faith and obedience, as the highest bleffing, that in him and his feed all the nations of the earth fhould be bleffed," we must conceive this to be a declaration, fit, that God himfelf is infinitely benevolent; and, fecondly,

that

that the happiness of Abraham, his feed, and of all mankind who were to be bleffed in his feed, muft arife from their,imitation of God in his benevolence. This whole univerfe is therefore a system of benevolence, or, as St. Paul expreffes it, a body, which, being "fitly "framed and compacted together, increaseth itself in love.'

As to the objection which is fometimes made to the facrifice of Ifaac, we may obferve, that Abraham had himself received fo many divine communications, and had been acquainted with so many made to his ancestors, that he had no doubt about the commands coming from God, and did not even afk himself the queftion. It is probable that in that early age there had as yet been few or no falfe pretences or illufions. Abraham could as little doubt of God's right to Ifaac's life, or of his care of him in another ftate. These things were parts of the patriarchal religion. And yet great faith was required in Abraham, before he could overcome his natural affection and tenderness for Ifaac out of a principle of obedience to God, and truft God for the accomplishment of his promife, though he commanded him to deftroy the only apparent means of accomplishing it. Unless Abraham had been highly advanced in faith and obedience, he could not have ftood fo fevere a trial; but this trial would greatly confirm thefe. And thus this hiftory is fo far from being liable to objection, that it is peculiarly conformable to thofe methods, which mere reafon and experience dictate as the proper ones, for advancing and perfecting true religion in the foul. When the typical nature of it is alfo confidered, one cannot furely doubt of its divine authority. And, in the previous fteps through which Abraham paffed in order to obtain this bleffing, we have an adumbration and example of that faith, patience, and gradual progrefs in the fpiritual life, which are neceffary to all thofe who hope to be bleffed with faithful Abra"ham.”

Let us next pafs on to Mofes, and the Ifraelites under his conduct. Here we enter upon the confideration of that people who are the type of mankind in general, and of each individual in par ticular; who were the keepers of the oracles of God, and who, under God, agreeable to his promife to Abraham, have been, and will hereafter be, a bleffing to all nations, and the means of reftoring man to his paradifiacal ftate. And firft they are oppreffed with a cruel flavery in Egypt, left, being delighted with its fertility, and the prefent pleasures of fenfe which it afforded, they fhould forget their true earthly country," the land of promife." They then fee the most amazing judgements inflicted upon their enemies the Egyptians by God, whilft they themselves were protected and delivered, that fo they might learn confidence in his power and favour, and be thus prepared for their inftitution in religion, and their trial and purification in the wildernefs. And here the awful delivery of the law, their being fed from day to day by miracles, their being kept from commerce with all other nations, and from all cares of this world in building, planting, &c. till their old habits, and Egyptian customs and idolatries, were quite effaced; and the practice

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practice of the new law established, their having the history of the world, and particularly of their ancestors, laid before them in one view, their tabernacles, their numerous rites and ceremonies, additional to those of the patriarchal religion, and oppofite to the growing idolatries of their neighbours the Egyptians and Canaanites, and which, befides their uses as types, were memorials of their relation to God, and of his conftant prefence and protection; and, laftly, the total extinction of that murmuring generation who longed for the flesh-pots of Egypt; cannot but appear to be intended for the purification of this chofen people, as being remarkably analogous to the methods of purification, which every good man experiences in himself, and fees in others, i. e. cannot but appear highly conducive to the great defign confidered under this propofition. At laft, the education and inftruction of this people being finifhed, they are admitted to inherit the earthly promife made to their forefathers, and take poffeffion of the land of Canaan under Joshua. And thus we come to a remarkable period in God's difpenfations to them.

Now therefore they are in fome measure left to themselves, for the fake of moral improvement, the divine interpofitions being far less frequent and folemn than at the, firft erection of the Theocracy under Mofes's adminiftration. However, there were many fupernatural interpofitions appointments, favours, corrections, &c. from Joshua to Malachi, on account of their yet infant ftate in respect of internal purity, whofe tendency to improve the body politic of the nation, and each individual, is fufficiently evident. After they were entirely left to themselves, their canon being completed, they were then only to hear and digeft what Mofes and the prophets had delivered unto them, and by this means to prepare themselves for the last and completeft difpenfation.

But, before we enter upon this, let us briefly confider the ftate of the Gentile world, in the interval between Abraham and Chrift, and what intimation_the Old Teftament gives us of their being also under the care of Providence, and in a ftate of moral difcipline. They had then, according to this, firft, the tradition of patriarchal revelations. Secondly, all the nations in the neighbourhood of Canaan had frequent opportunities and motives to inform themselves of the true religion. Thirdly, all thofe who conquered them at any time, could not but learn fomething both from their fubjection, and their deliverance afterwards. Fourthly, the captivities by Salmanefer and Nebuchadnezzar, carried the knowledge of the true God to many diftant nations. Laftly, the deftruction of the Jewish ftate during the contemporary empires of Syria and Egypt, the rife of the Samaritan religion, and the tranflation of the Old Teftament into Greek, conduced eminently to the fame purpose. And as it is neceffary in the prefent ftate of things, for the exercife of various affections, and our moral improvement, that there fhould be degrees and fubordinations in common things, fo it seems equally neceflary, that it fhould be fo in religious matters: and thus the Gen

tiles may
have had, in the interval between Abraham and Chrift, all
that fuited their other circumftances, all that they could have improved
by an internal voluntary purity, other things remaining the fame,
which is always fuppofed. And it is remarkable, in the view of this
propofition, that we learn fo much from the Scriptures concerning
the moral difcipline which God afforded to the Gentiles.

When we come to the New Teftament, the great defign of all God's difpenfations appears in a ftill more confpicuous manner. Here we fee how Chrift began to erect his fpiritual kingdom, and the apoftles extended it; we have the fublimeft doctrines, and pureft precepts, for effecting it in ourselves and others, and the ftrongeft affurances that it will be effected at laft, that this leaven will continue to operate till the whole lump be leavened. But, above all, it is remarkable, that the principal means for effecting this is by fubmiffion and fufferance, not refiftance and external violence. The preachers are to undergo fhame, perfecution, and death, as the Lord of Life and Glory did before them: this is that "foolishness of God" which is "wifer than men," and that "weakness of God" which is "ftronger "than men." Thefe means feem foolish and weak to the falfe wifdom of this world; but, if they be compared with the frame of our natures, and with the real conftitution of things, they will appear to be perfectly fuited to produce in all mankind that best of ends, the annihilation of felf, and worldly defires, and the pure and perfect love of God, and of all his creatures, in and through him.

Setting afide therefore the greatnefs of this end, and its fuitablenefs to the divine goodnefs; fetting afide alfo the miracles which have concurred in it; I fay, that the coincidence of the hiftories, precepts, promises, threatenings, and prophecies of the Scriptures in this one point, is an argument not only of their genuinenefs and truth, but of their divine authority. Had the writers been guided by their own fpirits, and not by the fupernatural influence of the fpirit of truth, they could neither have opened to us the various difpenfations of God tending to this one point, nor have pursued it themfelves with fuch entire steadiness and uniformity, through fo many different ages of the world.

The gradual opening of this defign is an argument to the fame purpofe. Man's wisdom, if it could have formed fuch a defign, would have rushed forward upon it prematurely. At the fame time we may obferve that this defign is implied in the Scriptures from the first, though not expreffed fo as to be then understood; which is another argument of their divine original.

COR. From the reafoning used under this propofition we may be led to believe, that all the great events which happen in the world, have the fame ufe as the difpenfations recorded in the Scriptures, viz. that of being a course of moral discipline for nations and individuals, and of preparing the world for future difpenfations. Thus the irruption of the barbarous nations into the Roman empire; the Mahometan impofture; the corruptions of the Chriftian religion; the ignorance and darkness which reigned for fome centuries during the

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grofleft of thefe corruptions; the Reformation, reftoration of letters, and the invention of printing, three great contemporary events which fucceeded the dark times; the rife of the enthufiaftical fects fince the Reformation; the vaft increafe and diffufion of learning in the prefent times; the growing extenfivenefs, of commerce between various nations; the great prevalence of infidelity amongst both Jews and Chriftians; the difperfion of Jews and Jefuits into all known parts of the world, &c. &c. are all events which, however mifchievous fome of them may feem to human wifdom, are, cæteris manentibus, the moft proper and effectual way of haftening the kingdom of Chrift, and the renovation of all things.

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DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS, MIRACLES, AND PROPHECIES, ARE AGREEABLE TO NATURAL RELIGION, AND EVEN SEEM NECESSARY IN THE INFANCY OF THE WORLD.

SINCE God is a being of infinite juftice, mercy, and bounty, according to natural religion, it is reafonable to expect, that if the deficiencies of natural reafon, or the inattention of mankind to the footsteps of his providence, were fuch at any time as that all the world were in danger of being loft in ignorance, irreligion, and idolatry, God fhould interpofe by extraordinary instruction, by alarming inftances of judgment and mercy, and by prophetical declarations of things to come, in order to teach men his power, his justice, and his goodnefs, by fenfible proofs and manifeftations. We muft not fay here, that God could not fuffer this; but inquire from hiftory, whether he has or no. Now, I fuppofe it will eafily be acknowledged, that this was the cafe in the Gentile world in ancient times, and that the Judaical and Chriftian inftitutions have greatly checked irreligion and idolatry, and advanced true natural religion; which is a remarkable coincidence in favour of these inftitutions, though all other evidences for them were fet afide. Neither must we fay here, that fince God permits grofs ignorance in fome nations, the Hottentots, for inftance, even to this day, he might have permitted it in all mankind. Allow that we know fo little of his unfearchable judgments, as not to be able to make any certain conclufions: yet furely it is much more agreeable to the forenamed attributes, and to the analogies of other things, that the bulk of mankind fhould have fuch knowledge of God as fuits their intellectual faculties and other circumftances, and carries them forwards in moral improvement, than that all fhould ftand ftill or go backwards, or make lefs improvement in religion than tallics with their improvements in other things; alfo that there fhould be a fubordination in religious advantages, rather than a perfect equality.

Natural religion alfo teaches us to confider God as our governor, judge, and father. Now all thefe fuperiors have two ways of adminiftration, inftruction, and providence, for the well-being of their inferiors, ordinary and extraordinary. It is therefore natural to expect an extraordinary interpofition by revelation, miracle, and pro

phecy,

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