confirm each other, and in this manner prove, with more or less certainty, the point under consideration. And I chuse to do it also, first, Because it seems to be of the greatest importance, and not duly attended to by every one, that the proof of revelation is, not some direct and express things only, but a great variety of circumstantial things also; and that though each of these direct and circumstantial things is indeed to be considered separately, yet they are afterwards to be joined together; for that the proper force of the evidence consists in the result of those several things, considered in their respects to each other, and united into one view; and, in the next place, Because it seems to me, that the matters of fact here set down, which are acknowledged by unbelievers, must be acknowledged by them also to contain together a degree of evidence of great weight, if they could be brought to lay these several things before themselves distinctly, and then with attention consider them together; instead of that cursory thought of them, to which we are familiarized. For being familiarized to the cursory thought of things, as really hinders the weight of them from being seen, as from having its due influence upon practice. The thing asserted, and the truth of which is to be inquired into, is this: that over and above our reason and affections, which God has given us for the information of our judgment and the conduct of our lives, he has also, by external revelation, given us an account of himself and his moral government over the world, implying a future state of rewards and punishments; i. e. hath revealed the system of natural religion for natural religion may be externally* revealed by God, as the ignorant may be taught it by mankind, their fellow-creatures-that God, I say, has given us the evidence of revelation, as well as the evidence of reason, to ascertain this moral system; toge * Page 141, &c. ther with an account of a particular dispensation of Providence, which reason could no way have discovered, and a particular institution of religion founded on it, for the recovery of, mankind out of their present wretched condition, and raising them to the perfection and final happiness of their nature, This revelation, whether real or supposed, may be considered as wholly historical. For prophecy is nothing but the history of events before they come to pass doctrines also are matters of fact: and precepts come under the sa same notion. And the general design of Scripture, which contains in it this revelation, thus considered as historical, may be said to be, to give us an account of the world, in this one single view, as God's world; by which it appears essentially distinguished from all other books, so far as I have found, except such as are copied from it. It begins with an account of God's creation of the world, in order to ascertain and distinguish from all others, who is the object of our worship, by what he has done; in order to ascertain who he is, concerning whose providence, com mands, promises, and threatenings, this saered book all along treats; the Maker and Proprietor of the world, he whose creatures we are, the God of nature: in order likewise to distinguish him from the idols of the nations, which are either imaginary beings, i. e. no beings at all; or else part of that creation, the historical relation of which is here given. And St John, not improbably with an eye to this Mosaic account of the creation, begins his gospel with, an account of our Saviour's pre-existence, and that "all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made;"* agreeably to the doctrine of St Paul, that "God created all things by Jesus Christ."+ This being premised, the Scripture, taken together, seems to profess to contain a kind of an abridgment of the history of the world, in the view just now men tioned; that is, a general account of the condition of religion and its professors, during the continuance of that apostasy from God, and state of wickedness, which it every where supposes the world to lie in. And this account of the state of religion carries with it some brief account of the political state of things, as religion is affected by it. Revelation, indeed, considers the common affairs of this world, and what is going on in it, as a mere scene of distraction, and cannot be supposed to concern itself with foretelling, at what time, Rome or Babylon or Greece, or any particular place, should be the most conspicuous seat of that tyranny and dissoluteness, which all places equally aspire to be; cannot, I say, be supposed to give any account of this wild scene for its own sake. But it seems to contain some very general account of the chief governments of the world, as the general state of religion has been, is, or shall be, affected by them, from the first transgression, and during the whole interval of the world's continuing in its present state, to a certain future period, spoken of both in the Old and New Testament, very distinctly, and in great variety of expression: "The times of the restitution of all things:""* when "the mystery of God shall be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets :"+ when "the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people," as it is represented to be during this apostasy, but "judgment shall be given to the saints," and "they shall reign;"" and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High." T Upon this general view of the Scripture, I would remark, how great a length of time the whole relation takes up, near six thousand years of which are past: *Acts iii. 21. § Dan. vii. 22. + Rev. x. 7. + Dan. ii. ¶ Dan. vi and how great a variety of things it treats of; the natural and moral system or history of the world, including the time when it was formed, all contained in the very first book, and evidently written in a rude and unlearned age; and in subsequent books, the various common and prophetic history, and the particular dispensation of Christianity. Now all this together gives the largest scope for criticism; and for confutation of what is capable of being confuted, either from reason, or from common history, or from any inconsistence in its several parts. And it is a thing which deserves, I think, to be mentioned, that whereas some imagine, the supposed doubtfulness of the evidence for revelation implies a positive argument that it is not true; it appears, on the contrary, to imply a positive argument that it is true. For, could say common relation, of such antiquity, extent, and variety, (for in these things the stress of what I am now observing. lies) be proposed to the examination of the world; that it could not, in an age of knowledge and liberty, be confuted, or shewn to have nothing in it, to the satisfaction of reasonable men; this would be thought a strong presumptive proof of its truth. And indeed it must be a proof of it, just in proportion to the probability, that if it were false, it might be shewn to be so; and this, I think, is scarce pretended to be shewn, but upon prin ciples and in ways of arguing which have been clearly obviated. Nor does it at all appear, that any set of men who believe natural religion, are of the opinion, that Christianity has been thus confuted. But to proceed: Together with the moral system of the world, the Old Testament contains a chronological account of the beginning of it, and from thence, an unbroken genealogy of mankind for many ages before common history begins; and carried on as much farther, as, to make up a continued thread of history, of the length of be * Chap. 23, &c, tween three and four thousand years. It contains an account of God's making a covenant with a particular nation, that they should be his people, and he would be their God, in a peculiar sense ; of his often interposing miraculously -in their affairs; giving them the promise, and, long after, the possession, of a particular country ; assuring them of the greatest national prosperity in it, if they would worship him, in opposition to the idols which the rest of the world worshipped, and obey his commands, and threatening them with unexampled punishments, if they disobeyed him, and fell into the general idolatry; insomuch, that this one nation should continue to be the observation and the wonder of all the world. It declares particularly, that "God would scatter them among all people, from one end of the earth unto the other;" but that "when they should return unto the Lord their God, he would have compassion upon them, and gather them, from all the nations whither he had scattered them;" that "Israel should be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting salvation, and not be ashamed or confounded, world with out end.? And las some of these promises are condi tional, others are as absolute as any thing can be expressed, that the time should come, when “ the people should be all righteous, and inherit the land for ever:" that "though God would make a full end of all nations whither he had scattered them, yet would he not make a full end of them" that "he would bring again the captivity of his people Israel, and plant them upon their land, and they should be no more pulled up out of their land:" that "the seed of Israel should not cease from being a nation for ever."* It foretels, that God would raise them up a particular person, in whom all his promises should finally be fulfilled; the Messiah, who should be, in an high and eminent sense, their anointed Prince and Saviour. This was foretold in such 66 *Deut, xxviii. 64. Ch. xxx. 2, 3. Isa. xlv. 17. Ch. lx. 21. Jer. xxx. II. Ch. xlvi. 28. Amos ix. 15. Jer. xxxi. 36. |