Employment, generally speaking, the best and moft Sagacious Discoverers of Truth, and those that judge the most unbiass'dly and fairly, concerning sufficient or infufficient Evidence of all others. Such upright Judges then, never expect strictly Undeniable, or Mathematick Evidence, whichthey know is, in Human Affairs, abfolutely impoffible to be had: They don't require that the Witnesses they Examine, should be Infallible, or Impeccable, which they are sensible would be alike Wild and Ridiculous: Yet do they expect full, fufficient, or convincing Evidence; and fuch a is plainly Superior to what is alledged on the other Side: And they require that the Witnesses they believe, be, fo far as they are able to discover, of a good Character, Upright and Faithful. Nor do they think it too much Trouble to use their utmost Skill and Sagacity in discovering where the Truth lies; how far the Witneffes agree with or contradict each other; and which way the Several Circumstances may be best compar'd, So as to find out any Forgery, or detect any Knavery which may be suspected in any Branches of the Evidence before them. They do not themselves pretend to judge of the Reality or Obligation of any Ancient Laws, or Acts of Parliament, from their own meer Guesses or Inclinations, but from the Authentickness of the Records which containthem; and though they

they are not able always to fee the Reason, or Occafion, or Wisdom of such Laws, or Acts of Parliament; yet dothey, upon full External Evidence that they are Genuine, allow and execute the fame: As confidering themselves to be not Legislators, but Judges: And owning that Ancient Laws, and Ancient Facts, are to be known not by Guesses or Supposals, but by the Production of Ancient Records, and Original Evidence for their Reality. Nor in fuch their Procedure do they think themselves guilty in their Sentences, if at any Time afterwards they discover that they have been impos'd upon by falseWitnesses, or forged Records, fuppofing, Imean, that they are conscious that they did their utmost to difcover the Truth, and went exactly by the beft Evidence that lay before them, as knowing they have done their Duty, and must in fuch a Cafe be Blameless before God and Man,

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notwithstanding the Mistake in the Sentences

themselves.Now this is that Procedure which I would earnestly recommendto those that have a Mind to enquire to good Purpose into Reveal'd Religion. That after they have taken Care to purge themselves from all those Vices, which will make it their great Intereft that Religion should be false, after they have reSolv'd upon Honesty, Impartiality, and Modesty, which are Virtues by the Law of Nature; after they bave devoutly implor'd the Divine

Divine Assistance and Blessing on this their important Undertaking; which is a Duty likewise they are obliged to by the same Law of Nature, that after all this Preparation, I say, they will fet about the Enquiry it felf, ftthey will fet in the very same Manner that has been already describ'd, and that all our upright Fudges proceed by in the Discovery of Truth. Let them spare for no Pains, but confult all the Originals, whenever they can come at them: And let them use all that Diligence, Sagacity and Judgment, which they are Masters of, in order to see what real External Evidence there is for the Truth of the Facts • on which the Jewish and Christian Religions do depend. I here speak of the Truth of Facts, as the furest way to determine us in this Enquiry, because all the World, I think, owns that if those Facts be true, these Institutions of Religion must also be true, or be deriv'd from God; and that no particular Difficulties, as to the Reasons of several Laws, or the Conduct of Providence in several Cafes, which those Institutions no where pretend to give us a full Account of, can be Sufficient to fet aside the convincing Evidence which the Truth of Such Facts brings along with it. For Example: Those who are well Satisfy'd of the Truth of the Mofaick History of the Ten miraculous Plagues with which the God of Ifrael fmote the Egyptians; of

the

the drowning of the Egyptians in the RedSea; while the Ifraelites were miraculously conducted through the same ; and of the amazing manner wherein the Decalogue was given by God to that People at Mount Sinai; will for certain, believe that the Jewish Religion was in the main derived from God, though he Should find feveral occasional Passages in the Jewish Sacred Books, which he could not Account for, and several ritual Laws given that Nation, which he could not guess at the Reasons why they were given them. And the Cafe is the very same as to the Miraculous Resurrection, and Glorious Afcenfion of our Bleffed Saviour, Jesus Christ, with Regard to the New Testament. Onwhich Account I reckon that the Truth of such Facts is to be principally enquired into, when we have a mind to satisfy our felves in the Verity of the Jewish and Christian Religions. And if it be alledg'd that some of these Facts are too remote to afford us any certain Means of Discovery at this Distance of Time; I Anfwer, That then we are to select such of those Facts as we can examine, andto searchinto the Acknowledgment or Denial of those that are Ancienter, in the oldest Testimonies now Extant; into the Effects and Confequences, and ftanding Memorials of fuch Facts in After Ages, and how far they were real, and allow'd to be fo; and in Short, we are to deter

determine concerning them, by the best Evidence we can now have; and not let a bare Suspicion, or a Wish that Things had been otherwise, overbalance our real Evidence of Facts in any Case whatsoever. I do not mean that our Enquirer is to have no Regard to Internal Characters, or the Contents of the Jewish and Christian Revelations; or that he is not to examine into that alfo in the General, before he admits even the Proof from Miracles themselves; because what pretended Miracles foever are wrought for the Support of Idolatry, or Wickedness; for the Establishment of Notions contrary to the Divine Artributes, or of an Immortal, or • Prophane, or Cruel Religion, though they may prove such a Religiouto be Supernatural, yet will they only prove that it comes from wicked Damons, or Evil Spirits, and not from a God of Purity and Holiness, and fo will by no means prove it Divine, or worthy of our Reception. But then it is, for the main, so well known, that the Jewish and Christian Institutions do agree to the Divine Attributes, and do tend to Purity, Holiness, Fustice, and Charity; and are opposite to all Immorality, Prophaneness, and Idolatry, that I think there will not need much Examination in so clear a Cafe, and that, by Confequence, our main Enquiry is to be as to the Truth of the Facts theretorelating. And in this