SERM.

IV.

"I forefee, that in fo corrupt and degene
"rate an Age thou wilt chufe a Woman,
"who will prove unfaithful to her Conju-
"gal Vow." And as for Abfurdities of
the latter Kind, let it be confidered; that
however untoward an Afpect these Modes
of Converse and Vehicles of Senfe
may now
have; if they were accommodated to the
Tafle of the Eaftern Nations, they were
worthy of thofe who were fingular in No-
thing but Goodness, and wished they were
not fingular even in that; complying with
their Countrymen in every Thing, their
Sins only excepted, and refifting unto Death,
rather than comply in those. Several
Customs, which now univerfally prevail,
would feem quite as abfurd, were we in
another Point of View. But as in a Veffel,
where all things move alike, nothing feems
to move at all: So where every one com-
plies with fomething irreconcileable to the
ftrict Rigour of Reason, it seems as if none
'did fo. In a Word, the Arguments for
the Inspiration of the Prophets are founded
on good Senfe, which is the fame Yesterday,
To-day, and for ever: But the Objections
against them, are only Objections against
the Age in which they wrote, and to which
they adapted their Difcourfes; mere Preju-
dices of our Time and Country.

Thofe Truths do not affect us moft, which obviously and immediately appear to

be

IV.

be fuch. We are then most pleased when SER M. we are agreeably undeceived in finding, fomething, which bore a Resemblance of Error, turn out, upon a ftricter Scrutiny, a manifeft Truth. And how many furprizing Truths have been discovered, which once looked like Impoffibilities? Some formerly conceived it abfolutely impoffible, that Noah's Ark fhould contain all the Creatures neceffary to replenish the Earth. But now the Capacity of it to this Purpose hath been even demonstrated, and Infidelity is for ever filenced on that Head. And when fo many Stumbling-blocks have been removed by the Sagacity of former Times, this would incline one to think that thofe Intricacies, which remain, may, in Procefs of Time, receive a fatisfactory Solution. The more wonderful and aftonishing any Thing in the Bible is; the more likely one would think it is, that it fhould be true: because it more evidently bears the Signature and Imprefs of Him who only is wonderful, and only doeth wondrous and aftonishing Things, and doeth nothing but what is fo. Why should we expect, when every Atom in the Creation is big with Wonders, confounding our reafoning Powers and inexplicable to Man, that Revelation fhould be entirely free from every Thing of that Nature? But whatever ftrange Things fome may fuppofe the Chriftian Religion to contain; it would be G 2 much

IV.

SER M. much stranger than all of them put together, that, though Man was defigned by God to be a religious as well as focial Creature, no true Religion was any where profeffed from the beginning of the World to the prefent Times: which yet must be the Cafe, if Chriftianity be not true. For Christianity hath, at least, every Signature of Truth ftamped upon it, with which any other Religion, fuppofed to be true, be it the Patriarchal or Jewish, comes recommended to us. So that if we difcard Chriftianity, we must take away along with it every other Religion that can make any rational Pretenfions to Divinity. As for natural Religion, it never, was profeffed or established any where, pure and unmixed; nor is it calcu lated for Men in active Life, to whom the Restraints of Religion are moft neceffary. Such Men might fay, "We cannot fatisfy "ourselves with abftract Notions of God's

Mercy in general, which leave us unde"termined how far it may extend, as "directed by infinite Wisdom: We want to "have Mercy particularized, or reduced to

66

our particular Cafe. If indeed a Perfon "rofe from the Dead and afcended into "Heaven, we could eafily, on his authentic "Declaration, believe that he came down "from Heaven to fave Sinners. This "would be Mercy, not in Idea only; it "would be Mercy realized in Matter of "Fact

IV.

"Fact. It would not be an airy, fleeting, SER M. "unfubftantial Notion of which our groffer "Understandings could lay no Hold; it "would be Mercy fubftantiated and em"bodied; defcending from above, that it might conduct us thither."

It is allowed in Philosophy, that a Course of repeated Experiments is of more Weight to confirm any Theory, than all the abstracted Reasonings that can be invented, independently on them: Juft fo in Divinity: those Hopes that are grounded on a Course of miraculous Facts (a kind of Experiments. performed by an Almighty Hand) are much better fupported than any built on mere Speculation. The Mind is got too high on the Wing, and can find Nothing to rest upon in those airy Regions, in which it is foaring. Suppofing, as fome have fupposed, the Pre-existence of our Souls; and that they fpeculated then, as we do now, from the Wisdom and Goodness of God; how natural would it be for them, before they were embodied, to draw a fine Picture of this World, to which the Original had no Likeness? How unlikely that they should expect to go through fuch a Scene of Ignorance, Mifery and moral Imperfection as there really is in it; where Happiness, like the Sun, is generally within our View but never within our Reach? Now fetting Revelation afide, why might not we as well

IV.

SERM. be deceived by mere Speculation with Regard to a future World, and our Allotment of Happiness there; as we should certainly have been in Regard to this, had our Souls reasoned in a State præ-existent to it? We muft, without the Help of Scripture, form a future World of our own Imagination, to which, as it is in itself, it may bear no more Correspondence, than the World of a foreign Philofopher did to that of Nature. Nor must we expect that God's Creation or Revelation fhould exactly coincide with the Creatures of our own Fancy.

The best Arguments to prove God the natural Governor of the Universe, are brought from the Universe itself: but the beft Arguments to prove him the moral Governor of it (without which it will be of little Avail to prove him the natural Governor) are perhaps deducible from Scripture; the only original Book that confiders the World as God's World; as under his extraordinary Providence. If we look backward to the Creation, we find a gradual Discovery of God's Will, and a whole Succeffion of Prophecies, fome darker, fome clearer, all pointing to, and centering in, the grand and ultimate Event of the Redemption, to which feveral intermediate ones refer. Add to this those of a diftinct Nature, concerning the Downfall of certain flourishing Kingdoms, States, and Cities,

all