and unmixed blood of the Jews. Nay more, whether most of them be not sprung from profelytes of the Heathens, Mahometans, and apoftate Chriftians. Therefore they can never know whether any Meffiah, who fhall hereafter set up, be of the tribe of Judah, or family of David, according to the prophecies of the Messiah; for they have no certainty of either tribe or family now amongst them.

III. As to the Gentiles, and revealed religion,

1. What is faid of the Sybils, I would have fo underftood, as that I do not put the stress whether those books of the Sybils that we have now, have received no additions or interpolations from what they were in the fecond century, when quoted by the Fathers: but that, as they were then, and before Chrift came, they had moft flagrant teftimonies to our bleffed Saviour, which confounded the Gentiles; and that they were not, at that time, corrupted; as there is no proof that they have been fince.

2. Plato, in his Difcourfe concerning Prayer and the Worship of God, hereafter quoted, concludes, that men, by their natural reafon, cannot find out what fort of worthip will be acceptable to God; nor can be fure what they ought to pray for according to his will: and that it was safer to forbear facrifices and prayer, than to' venture upon it when we did not know but that we might provoke GOD thereby, instead of pleasing him. That therefore it was neceffary they should wait till God fhould fend fome perfon from heaven to inftruct them in this; and that they did expect fuch a perfon to be fent; and they greatly longed to see the time, and that man, who they believed fhould come. They faw his day, and rejoiced, as Abraham did *; but not fo clearly, not having fo full and express revelation,

John viii. 56.

of him as Abraham had. But from revelation they had it, (and not merely from the ftrength of their reafon) though, perhaps, they knew it not; for they declared that they had it by tradition from their fathers; and in all probability, it had defcended through all Adam's pofterity, from the firft promise of it, Gen. iii. 15, together with the institution of facrifices; which were ordained, not only as conftant remembrances of it, but as vifible types of the fulfilling of it; though the original, and full import of the one, as well as the other, had been loft amongst the Heathen. This is brought to fhew the expectation that the Gentiles had of a Meffiah

to come.

But here I would, from this reasoning of Plato's, infer the neceffity of revealed religion, against the Deists. Here they fee that the wifeft of the philofophers did own, that they were wholly at a lofs and uncertainty

without it.

And withal, it fhews that the wifeft of the Heathen did not believe the pretended revelations of their gods. And therefore there can lie no comparifon betwixt these and the faith which is moft furely believed by the Chriftians. Upon what grounds, is fhewn hereafter; and that they are infallible.

BRETHREN, my heart's defire and prayer to God for Ifrael

is, that they might be faved. The first part of this difcourfe was wrote against the Deifts, equal enemies to you and us, who deny all instituted and revealed religion; and I have justified the truth of yours, while I have afferted that of the Christian religion: they both stand upon one bottom. They only, of all the revelations that ever were pretended in the world, can fhew the four marks before-mentioned; which do infallibly demonstrate the truth of any matter of fact, where they all do meet; and the confequence is as plain, that if the revelation of Mofes be true, that of Christ must be true also. And you can never demonstrate the truth of the matters of fact of Mofes by any arguments or evidences, which will not as ftrongly evince the truth of the matters of fact of Chrift: and, on the other hand, you cannot overthrow the matters of fact of Chrift, but you muft, by the fame means, deftroy thofe of Mofes. So that I hope you are involved under the happy neceffity, either to renounce Mofes, or to embrace Chrift.

But if you will allow (as fome of you have done) that the mat ters of fact of our Lord Jefus, as recorded in the Gospels, are true; but will contend that this does not infer the truth of his doctrine; because, as may be alledged, thofe feeming miracles which he wrought were done by magic; then, I beseech you, how will you rescue the miracles of Mofes from the fame objec

tion? The comparison, in this cafe, must lie betwixt the miracles of Mofes and of Chrift; and I believe you will not deny but that those recorded in the Gospel are full as great as those in Exodus.

II. If the Deifts think to come in here betwixt us, and conclude both to be falfe miracles, at least that we cannot be fure they are true miracles, because, as they philofophife, we do not know the utmost extent of the power of nature, and confequently cannot know what exceeds it.

Anfu. I. This is an objection not against the miracles recorded of Mofes or of Chrift, but against all miracles; and put, ting it out of God's power to fhew any miracle, that ought to be believed of man: which is a contradiction to the principles of the Deifts themselves, who allow an eternal Being of infinite power; and yet, by this, would put it out of his power to make any external revelation to men.

2. But, in the next place, their philofophy is not good; for though we could not know the utmost stretch of what nature can do, yet it will not follow that we cannot know what is contrary to nature in thofe works of nature which we do know. For example; though I cannot tell all the whole nature of fire, and all its operations, yet this I certainly know, that it is of the nature of fire to burn; and therefore if proper fuel be administered unto it, it is contrary to the nature of fire not to confume it. Thus when Ananias, Azarias, and Mifael, were thrown into the burning fiery furnace, if that matter of fact be true in all its circumstances, as it is related in the third chapter of Daniel, we can be fure that there was a ftop there put to the natural power of fire, which is a miracle. We can be as fure of it, as of any thing we either fee or hear. So that the fame fcepticifm which thefe men advance against miracles, will, as much, take away certainty of our outward fenfes; which is the only poftulatum they would have taken as undoubted; and to which they reduce all the certainty of which mankind is capable; giving to themfelves, by their great fenfe, little pre-eminence above the condition of brutes; to which they would degrade all the reft of the world with themselves; and fome of them have fhewn their parts in witty fatires upon the fubject. But let us leave them with the company they have chofen, and return.

the

As fure as we can be that it is the nature of fire to burn, (though we may not know every thing else it can do) fo fure we

can be that it exceeds the power of nature to raise the dead, by the speaking of a word; to cure the lame, blind, &c. by the fame means, or the touch of one's finger, without any other application.

III. Now then, the miracles recorded of Chrift, being as great as those recorded of Mofes, and carrying along with them the fame evidences of their truth, deduced down from that time to this, what reafon can be given for the believing of the one, and yet rejecting of the other? There can be none, my friends, only there are fome prejudices under which you labour, that stop your way towards receiving of the truth, which you cannot deny, as conceiving it inconsistent with your interpretation of some texts in your law.

But ought we not rather to suspect your own interpretations (especially where the words will favourably bear another) than to reject fuch an evidence as must undermine your law itself, and deftroy its infallible certainty, by disowning the fame, in the only cafe that carries the fame demonstration along with it? God cannot contradict himself; and therefore would never have fet his own feal (which it is not poffible to counterfeit, as before is fhewn) to the truth of the Gospel, if it did, in the leaft iota, contradict or destroy the law: therefore, it behoves you well to confider, whether thofe things that you take for contradictions are fuch. In order to which,

1. Confider the difference betwixt deftroying and fulfilling. The fulfilling of a prophecy, is not its destruction, but completion. So of all types or fhadows, which point at things to come; when the fubftance is come, the fhadow ceases of course,

Now, if the Meffiah was prophefied of, and typified in the law, then his coming will indeed put an end to thefe; but not by way of destroying, which would be contradicting, but of fulfilling them, which is confirming, and attesting to the truth of them. And, I fuppofe you are not ignorant that our Meffiah did not pretend to destroy the law, but to fulfil it; and did most strongly affert and confirm it (a), to the leaft iota; and did fulfil it (b), in every circumstance, even to his fuffering without the gate (c), to answer the burning of the body of the expiatory facrifice, without the camp (d), &c. That, as himself said (e), "all things might be

(a) Matth. v. 17, 18, 19. (d) Lev. xvi. 27.

(b) Luke xvi. 17.

(e) Heb. xiii. 12°

(e) Luke xxiv. 44.