remembred, that among those who have not received the True Religion, yet many Points are taught and believed which had their Original from Revelation, as is evident not only of the Mahometans, but of feveral Heathen Nations; which Points are so many Steps and Preparatives towards the reception of the whole Truth, if they be not wanting to themselves in pursuing them in their immediate tendency and confequences.

I fhall not fay, that the Merits of Christ, and the Salvation of the Gospel, do extend to those who die under invincible ignorance of it, having in the integrity of their Hearts, lived according to the best of their knowledge; I believe rather, that God fuffers no Man fo qualified and disposed, to remain in invincible ignorance. But it is fufficient to vindicate God's Juftice and Goodness, that all Nations have had fuch Opportunities of coming to the Knowledge of the Truth; and great Allowances may be made at the Last Day, for the Ignorance and unhappy Circumftances of particular Men. It was well faid, That when God hath not thought fit to tell us how he will be pleased to deal with fuch Perfons, it is not fit for us to tell Him how he ought to deal with them. But if it be difficult for us now, to think how it will please God to deal with the Heathen; it would be a thousand times more difficult to conceive how the Gracious and Merciful God could Govern and Judge the World, if all Mankind were in the ftate of Heathens, without any Divine Revelation.

What will become of the Heathen, as to their Eternal state, is not the Subject of this Difcourfe, nor doth it concern us to know; fome of then will have more to plead for themselves, in point of ignorance, than others can have; and they are in the hands of the Merciful Creator and Saviour of Mankind, and there we must leave them. But it must be acknowledged, that it is much more agreeable to the Good

nefs

nefs and Mercy of God, to reveal his Will, and to give fo many Opportunities to the World to be inftructed in it, though never fo many fhould neglec the Means of Salvation; than it is to fuppofe him to take no care to reduce Mankind to the sense and practice of Vertue and Religion, but to let them continue in all manner of Idolatry and Wickedness, without giving them any warning against it. I have not Spoken in fecret, in a dark place of the earth. Look unto me, and be ye faved all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none elfe. Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in fecret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I, Ifa. xlv. 19, 22. and xlviii. 16.

Having proved, that the Scriptures want nothing requifite to a Divine Revelation, in regard either of their Antiquity or Promulgation; I proceed to fhew, That they have fufficient Evidence, both by Prophecies and Miracles, in proof of their Authority.

This Evidence depends upon Matter of Fact, which concerns either the Prophecies and Miracles themselves, in their several circumstances, as we find them stand recorded; or the Lives and Perfonal Qualifications of those by whom they were performed, or by whom they are related in the Scriptures. For if we can be affured both that they are truly related, and that, if they were done as they are related, they could proceed from none but a Divine Power; we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Scriptures that can be had for a Revelation.

С НА Р.

TH

b

CHA P. III.

Of Mofes and Aaròn.

a

Hat Mofes was a very Great and Wife Man, and a most antient Lawgiver, is related by several of the most eminent Heathen Writers; and I think it has never been denied by any Man. But it is no less evident, that he was likewise a very Good and Pious Man. The first Forty Years of his Life, which were spent in honour, he paffes over in filence, mentioning nothing of his own Education, nor of his Learning, in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians, tho' this be related by St. Stephen, who alfo fays, that he was exceeding fair, and mighty in words and in deeds, (A&s vii. 20, 22.) or renowned both for the Arts of Peace and the Glory of Arms: His Beauty and his Wifdom are likewife taken notice of by Trogus Pompeius, as well as by Jofephus, who also writes, That Mofes obtained a memorable Conqueft over the Ethiopians, who had over-run Egypt. And Artapanus mentions him as General of the Egyptian Forces against the Æthiopians, in a War which lafted Ten Years. However, we may be certain, that his Life in Pharaoh's Court was not fuch, as that he had performed nothing confiderable, or which might deserve to be taken notice of: yet the first thing which Mofes mentions of himself, is his killing the Egyptian, Exod. ii. 12. an Action, which fome have thought blameable, with little Reason indeed; but he took no care to prevent the Cenfure, tho' St. Stephen vindicates him, by obferving that he acted by a Divine Commiffion. For Forty Years more, he fays little of him

с

Apud Eufeb. Præp. Evang. 1. 9. c. 27.

felf, but that he dwelt in the Land of Midian, and there married Jethro's Daughter, by whom he had Two Sons. And when God had appeared to him in the Bush, it is faid, that afterwards, the Lord met him, and fought to kill him, (Exod. iv. 24.) for having neglected to circumcife one of his Sons. Mofes has left fuch an Account of himself, as might feem Detraction, if another had given it; fo much is concealed, and fo little told, but what was either really to to be blamed, or might be liable to mifconfiruction. He frequently declares his own Failings and Infirmities, Exod. iii. 11. and iv. 1, 10, 13. Num. xi. 10. xx. 12. and xxvii. 14. and never fpeaks any thing tending to his own Praise, but upon a juft and neceffary occafion, when it might become a prudent and modeft Man, efpecially one Divinely Infpired: For all the Praise of fuch an one doth not terminate in himself, but is attributed to God, whose Inftrument and Servant he is; and in fuch cafes where God's Honour is concerned, it was a Duty to fet forth the Favour and Goodness of God towards him, though fome Honour did redound to himself thereby. The greatest Masters of Decency have not thought it always improper for Men to commend them felves ? either because they supposed some occafions might require it, or because it was a more usual thing in ancient Times, when Mens Lives and Manners were more natural and fincere; and they oftener spoke as they thought both of themselves and others; yet we no where find Men fpeaking fo freely in difparagement of themselves, as in the Holy Scriptures: Which fhews, that Mofes, and the rest of the Infpired Writers, little regarded their own Praise or Difpraise, but wrote what God was pleafed to appoint; it being a thing indifferent to them, fo God might be honoured, whether they loft or gained in their own Reputation by it. But what we read of Mofes, Num. xii. 3. that he was very meek above all the men which

Were

were upon the face of the earth, which is the only commendable Character that Mofes gives of himself, may be tranflated, that he was the most afflicted Man, (according to the Marginal Reading;) and if he mentions his own Meeknefs, he mentions alfo his great Anger, or heat of Anger, Exod. xi. 8. and his being very wroth, Num. xvi. 15. But if Mofes had not had more respect to Truth, than to his own Reputation, he would never have left it upon Record, That he fo often declined the Meffage and Employment which God appointed him to undertake, Exod. iii. 11, 13. and iv. 1, 10, 13, 14. and that God was angry with him upon other occafions, and for that reafon would not permit him to enter into the promised Land: He would certainly have afcribed Balaam's Prophecy and Jethro's Advice, to himself; at least he would never have recorded, That by Jethro's Counfel, he took up a new and better Method for the adminiftration of Justice: If he had been led by Ambition and Vain-glory, he would have endeavoured, by these things, to adorn his own Character; and would never have lessen'd it, by telling his own Infirmities at the fame time, when, to the diminution of himself, he publishes the Excellencies of others. The Wonders of the Magicians of Ægypt are not concealed by him and being to give an account of his own Genealogy from Levi, he firft fets down the Families of Reuben and Simeon, the two elder Brothers, left he might seem to arrogate too much to himself, and his own Tribe. Some have observed, that Mofes relates his own Birth to have been by a Marriage contrary to the Laws afterwards by himself established: which indeed is doubtful, by reafon of the latitude of fignification in the word Sifter in the Hebrew Language, which is here taken by the Septuagint for his Coufin German, (Exod. vi. 20.) yet it is certain, he was not careful to avoid the being thought to have been born from such a Marriage, as he would have been, if his

K

Laws