danger, privileges and hopes; than the unaffisted light of reafon presents us withal? Certainly he who would obftinately reject and refuse fo noble a fubfidiary to natural reason, in the prefent dark and perplexed ftate, would act a part the very reverse of wisdom; and by fhewing a contempt of farther light and direction, would prove himself to be no true philofopher, no lover of wisdom and truth.

BESIDES, many things render it highly probable that fuch a farther revelation of GOD'S will has been actually given to men: The neceffity and expediency of fuch a revelation arifing from the univerfal ignorance and depravity of mankind: The relations which GOD ftands in to man as their maker, their preferver, their father and their moral ruler: The effential goodness of the divine nature, which inclines us to fuppofe that he would not suffer a whole world of rational creatures to live in a fatal ignorance of himself, and the duties they owe to him, and to each other: The pretences made by fome of almoft all nations and ages to divine inspirations and revelations; and the credit given by man to all these pretences, how wild and improbable foever, which fhews the proneness of mankind to fuch a belief. The miracles pretended to have been wrought in confirmation of fuch revelations, and the laws and religions fettled in confequence of them; and the extensive and lafting credit which fome of these pretended revelations have had in the world, and the wonderful changes and reformations which have been wrought both upon nations and individuals, by virtue (as it is thought) of

thefe

these revelations. All these are ftrong prefumptions that fuch a farther revelation of the divine will is already given to men, and that the true one is now actually to be found among the number of those which make pretenfions to it; and that the divine goodness has not left the matter fo doubtful and precarious, but that it may be eafily found, and diftinguished from all. its counterfeits, by every honeft and impartial enquirer after truth.

AND as it is highly probable, from the nature of GOD, the neceffities of men, the almost universal opinion of the world, and the remarkable pretences which have been made, and accidents which have happened, that fuch a revelation of the divine will has been, in fact, given to mankind: I think it cannot be denied without great ignorance or ftrong prejudices, but that our fcriptures of the old and new teftament, make the faireft pretenfion to the characters of fuch a divine revelation.

I SHALL not, at present, enter upon the external characters or evidences of the bible, which tend to prove its divine original, but leave them to another occafion. I will only now point out fome internal characters of our holy fcriptures; fome evidences taken from the revelation itself, and its founder, which, I think, muft ftrongly dispose every honeft mind to acquiefce in the more pofitive and direct evidences of its divine authority and original.

UPON the fuppofition then that GOD fhould be pleafed to favour us with an external revelation, to enlighten our minds in the knowledge of all ncceffary religious truth, to direct us in

the

the practice of all neceffary duty, and to lead us to the enjoyment of a happiness suitable to our natures and capacities, what could we reasonably expect that the contents of fuch a revelation fhould be? Should we not expect it to contain plain and worthy notions of the nature and perfections of GOD; juft and fuitable representations of ourselves, wants, weakneffes and dependence ;-proper directions how to serve, please and worship the GOD who made us, and proper motives and encouragements to fupport and animate us in the way of our duty and obedience? In a word, fhould we not expect in fuch a revelation, a clear discovery of our state and circumftances, our relations and dependencies, together with the obligations and duties arifing from them, our hopes and fears, our privileges and dangers; especially of the great end and defign of our beings, the fupreme happiness of our natures, and the way to purfue and obtain it? Now, if our fcriptures do all this in a way which our natural reason must approve, and in a way the best calculated to answer all the fuppofeable designs of fuch a revelation; then our fcriptures feem fairly and rationally to perfuade us that they are no imposture, but that they are really and actually that very divine revelation which we believe they are, and we fo much need. But, that our bible contains juft fuch a fyftem of religion, must appear to any impartial person, who will but give himself the trouble attentively to read it.

OUR bible gives us the most worthy, rational and exalted notions of the natural and moral perfections of GOD;-notions, which the wifeft VOL. I.

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and beft of men in all ages, have entertained, and which appear to be only a confirmation and enlargement of the light of nature in this important article. Nor does it deliver thefe notions to us by a long train of dark and intricate reasonings, as the heathen philofophers did; but with an ease, majefty, and fimplicity proper to GOD himself, who can easily tell us what he is, and with an authority too, which fupercedes the neceffity of any human reafonings. It informs us that he is a felf-existent, eternal, immortal, unchangeable, and incomprehenfible fpirit: That he is the fountain of all life, being, motion and perfection; the creator of all things vifible and invifible; upholding, conferving, fuftaining, and governing all things by his infinite power, confummate wisdom, and univerfal providence. That he is omniscient and every where prefent; forefeeing and fore-knowing, in the most perfect and abfolute manner, all future events, however cafual, fortuitous, or contingent they may feem to created beings: That he is the father of fpirits, the fearcher of hearts, the moral governor of the rational world, the obferver, judge, rewarder and punisher of moral actions: That he is a being of spotless purity, ftrict and impartial juftice, inviolable truth and boundlefs goodnefs, of a moft gracious and benevolent difpofition towards all his creatures, not delighting in their mifery, but rather in their perfection and happiness: It represents him as feated on a throne of grace, of a moft merciful, placable and reconcileable nature, as far as that can be confiftent with his other perfections; as merciful and gracious, flow to an

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ger, abundant in goodness, pardoning iniquity, tranfgreffion and fin, and receiving rebels and enemies into his friendship and favour upon fuch terms as may not prove derogatory to his wisdom, holiness, juftice and truth: A difcovery this, how comfortable and neceffary to guilty creatures, and yet how little known by the light of reafon! In a word, our bible gives all glory, and afcribes all perfections and bleffednefs to GOD, to whom alone it is due, and marks out that infinite diftance which there is between him and every created nature, how high and exalted foever.

WITH regard to ourselves, it gives us our true picture, and delineates our real circumftances, punctually agreeing with our own experience. It fhews us the dignity of our rational nature, and at the fame time discovers to us the mifery and wretched nefs of our fallen, degenerate condition: It diffects, as it were, and anatomizes the human heart, and lays open all its hidden ulcers, and the moft fecret fprings of its corruption. It gives us an unflattering picture of our own ignorance, pride, vanity, felf-love, rebellion, poverty and dependance: It gives us the true origin of our prefent finful and miferable condition, which fo much puzzled the most able philofophers, and which is yet fo neceffary to be known by us, in order to our recovery, and at the fame time that it fhews us our mifery and danger, it points out a moft wife and gracious method of recovery, in which the moft guilty finner needs not defpair of obtaining pardon, reconciliation and eternal happincfs from GOD.

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