SER. VII must have been a dull undistinguished Sameness in every Oeconomy of Providence, without any Regard to the different Difpofitions of Mankind, at different Periods of Time: Every Procedure of God must have been, from Eternity to Eternity, only a different Edition of the fame unvaried Defign without any new Additions.

I have already, in a former Difcourse, shewn the superior Advantages and intrinfic Excellency of revealed Religion and the Scriptures, I, as to the Manifestation of the divine Nature; and IIdly, as to the beautiful Plan of Morality contained in them, together with thofe Motives and Encouragements, by which they have sup ported and enforced that Plan.

It was not improper to remove the Objection, which I have been confidering; before I entered upon my IIId Head, to which I now proceed, viz. to confider the Force of the Argument, which may be drawn from the intrinfic Excellency of the Scriptures in Favour of their divine Infpiration.

To what was it owing, that the Jewish Writers should have fuch lovely and great Ideas of God, and fuch juft Notions of

the

the Worship due to him, far above any SER. VII. Thing which we meet with in the Writings of the greatest Lights of the Heathen World; every one of which either patronized Idolatry, or fell into Errors of worse Confequence? Can it be accounted for by the Force of natural or human Affiftances ? No, the eminent Philofophers of Athens and Rome equalled them, it is certain, in natural Abilities; and exceeded them confeffedly in the Superftructures of acquired Knowledge, and all the Advantages of a refined Education. It must be therefore owing to fome fupernatural or divine Helps; and none, but He, in whom are contained all the Treafures of Wisdom, could have enriched their Minds to fuch a Degree, and furnished such a vaft Expence of Thought. If Judaa was ennobled by these exalted Notions, of which other Nations, who were funk into the Dregs of Polytheism and Idolatry, were deftitute; if the kindly Dew of Heaven descended on this Fleece only, while all the Earth around betrayed a Want of refreshing Moisture; this was the Lord's doing, and ought to be marvellous in our Eyes.

SER. VII.

Had God revealed himself to the Greeks, or fome other Nation famed for their curious Researches into every Branch of Literature, and for the Depths of Wisdom and Policy; thofe Truths, which were fo many Emanations from the great Fountain of Light, would have been looked upon as the Refult of their Penetration, and their own Discoveries: But by communicating his Will to a People of no inventive and enterprizing Genius, of no enlarged Reach and Compass of Thought; fuch Sufpicions are avoided, and the Proofs of a Revelation more confpicuous and illuftrious. And this may be one Reason among others, why at a Time, when the reft of the World were bigotted to Superftition, Idolatry, and a falfe Religion, God fingled out this Nation, in that Point not fo corrupt as others, to be the Guardian and Depofitary of the true.

If nothing recommended the Scripture but this fingle Confideration, that all those collected Beams of fpiritual Light center in it alone, which were widely diffused amidst a Variety of Treatifes, and loft amidst a Crowd of palpable Abfurdities; even this would be no improbable Argument of

SER. VII.

it's Divinity: But this is not all: Let us,
in order to compile an adequate unerring
Standard of religious Truths, take in all the
Affistances we can get from all the Philofo-
phers in Greece, from Tully at Rome, nay
even from Confucius as far as China; and
yet, after all, the Scheme will be defective
in, what the Scriptures have recommended,
a pure rational Worship of God only in
Spirit and in Truth, a Fulness of Pardon
for every Sin upon Repentance, and the
Nobleness of the Rewards hereafter.
Love of God will not be required in fo
high a Degree, as it is in the Scriptures;
nor enforced by fo ftrong a Motive, as our
Saviour's dying for Mankind has done; nor
our Charity and Love to the Diftreffed re-
commended by fo powerful an Incentive, as
that our Redeemer has made them his Re-
prefentatives, and will place to his own
Account, whatever was done for his Sake
to them.

The

One may challenge any Man to produce before Christianity, among the Heathen World, fuch a complete Syftem of Morality, reaching all the Duties of Life, without any Defect; and full without overflowing, or any Redundancy, as the Scriptures contain

P 3

SER. VII.contain. Very remarkable are the Words of Mr. Locke *. "It is true, fays be, "there is a Law of Nature: But who is "there, that ever did or undertook to

give it us all entire as a Law; no more, СС nor no lefs than what was contained in "and had the Obligation of that Law? "Who ever made out all the Parts of it, cc put them together, and fhewed the World "their Obligation? Where was there any "fuch Code, that Mankind might have "Recourse to as their unerring Rule, be"fore our Saviour's Time? Such a Law "of Morality Jefus Chrift hath given us "in the new Teftament, And such a

one out of the New Teftament, I think "the World never had, nor can any one "fay is elsewhere to be found." And again, "If you fent Men to the Sayings of "the Wife, and the Declarations of the

Philofophers, you fent them into a wild "Wood of Uncertainty, to an endless Maze, from which they fhould never get out; if to the Religions of the World yet worfe: And if to their own Reafon you refer them to that, which had fome

Light and Certainty, but yet had hi

*See Locke's Reasonablenefs of Christianity.

"therto