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yet received it; and be restored in purity, and perfection, to fuch as have unhappily rejected it: and finally, let us beware left in any of us be found an evil Heart of Unbelief; let us take care that we be not of thofe, who, either in Principle, or Practice, draw back unto Perdition; but of them that believe, to the faving of the Soul.

The

. II.

The Scheme of Providence,

With regard to

The Time and Manner of the feveral Difpenfations of Revealed Religion.

Crefcat igitur oportet, et multum vehementerque proficiat, tam fingulorum quam omnium, tam unius hominis quam totius Ecclefie, atatum ac feculorum gradibus, intelligentia, fcientia, fapientia. Vinc. Lir. Common.1.28. If Wisdom and Understanding be to be found with the Ancient, and in Length of Days, that time is the Oldeft from which Men appeal to the Infancy of the World; and this advances more the Veneration that is always due to the grey Hairs of the Aged, who must be prefumed to know more than the Young; who likewife fhall have much to answer, if when they come to be Old, they do not know more, and judge better than they could who were old before them. And this is the best way to preferve the Reverence that is due to Age, by hoping and believing that the next Age may know more and be better than that in which we live; and not to rob that of the Respect that will still be due to Antiquity, by unreasonably imputing it to the Time which we have outlived.

Lord Clarendon. Eff. p. 220.

GAL. IV. 4.

But when the Fulness of the Time was come,
God fent forth his Son.

THE

HE Coming of Christ in the Flesh is a Dispenfation fo full of Wisdom and Goodness, that in whatever view we confider this, it will appear most worthy its Divine Author. The precife Time in which he was manifefted, though it has been made the fubject of more Cavils, ancient and modern, than any other Circumftance attending it, yet I doubt not but, upon a fair examination, may be difcovered to bear the fame Characters.

On this head the following Questions are ufually afked. If the common Father of Mankind be infinite in Goodness, and the Chriftian Scheme be the only acceptable way of worshipping him, and abfolutely neceffary to our Salvation; Why was it not communicated to the World much fooner? Why was this greatest of all Bleffings kept back to the laft; to the End of the World, as it is called?* Nay, if God always acts for 'the good of his Creatures, what reason can be affigned why he should not from the beginning have discovered fuch things as make for their good; but defer the doing of it till the time of Tiberius?'+-All the late Adverfaries to Chriftianity lay the greatest weight on this Objection; +

• Heb. 9.26.

+ Chriftianity as old, &c. p. 196. 4to.

C. Blount, [or the Author of a Letter to him figned A. W. lately published under the name of Dryden in the fum

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and accordingly several Arguments have been offered to remove it; I fhall felect fome few of them, which seem the moft conclufive, and add fuch farther Obfervations as may help to fet the whole in a proper Light.

When the Fulness of the Time was come.-The Apoftle in this Chapter is comparing the Ages of the world, to the Life of Man, and its feveral Stages; as Infancy, Childhood, Youth, Maturity. If we reflect on this Comparison we fhall find it very juft in general, and that the World itself, or the collective Body of Mankind, as well as each particular Member; has from very low beginnings proceeded by a regular gradation in all kinds of Knowledge; has been making flow advances towards Perfection, in its feveral Periods; and received continual improvements from its infancy to this very Day. And though in both cafes this progrefs be fometimes interrupted, and the course of this World and its Inhabitants appear, like that of the Heavenly Bodies, to fuffer fome Retrogradations; yet we have reason to believe that thefe are fuch, for the most part,

mary Account] was fo very confident of its being unanswerable, that he was willing to reft the whole Caufe of Infidelity upon it. Mifcellaneous works, p. 210, &c. The Author of Chrift. as old, dwelt very largely on it in many parts of his Book; and not to mention Chubb and others, the Author of Deifm fairly stated still repeats the fame thing over and over again, from p. 87 to 95, as if no answer had been ever made to it.

Or the proper Seafon, v. Tit. 1.3.

For a general explanation of this, fee Edwards's Survey of all the Difpenfations of Religion, &c. V. 1. p. 396. and V.2.p.615.-21, &c. or Mr. Worthington's Effay on Man's Redemption, c. 8. &c.

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