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been Falfe Prophecies and Miracles, they must be fupposed to have been either before, or at the fame time, or after thofe Prophecies and Miracles by which the True Religion was delivered; if before, or at the fame time, then the fame Divine Wisdom and Goodnefs which obliges God to reveal his Will to Mankind, muft oblige him to take care that the Impostures of thofe Falfe Prophecies and Miracles by fome means might have been discovered. But there is great reafon to believe that true Revelations fhould be first made to Men, before God would fuffer them to be tempted with falfe ones; and if the falfe were after the true Revelations, then the true Revelations themfeives are that by which we ought to judge of all others.

But to speak more particularly of Miracles, which are the prefent Subject. It is inconfiftent with the Infinite Truth, and Honour, and Goodnefs, and Mercy of God, to fuffer Man to be deluded by falfe Miracles, wrought under a pretence of his own Authority, without any poffibility of discovering the Impofture: And therefore if we should fuppofe there had pafs'd any time before the discovery of his Will to Mankind, he could not fuffer Men, but through their own fault, to be impofed upon by fuch Miracles; but either by the falfe and wicked Doctrines which they were brought to promote and establish, as Idolatry, Uncleannefs, Murthers, &c. or by fome other token of Imposture, they might have been undeceived; And both in the Old and New Teftament God has given us warning against falfe Miracles, Deut. xiii. 1. Mat. xxiv. 24. Gal. i. 8. 2 Theff. ii. 9. fo that we may be affured that we are to give no credit to any Miracle that can be wrought to confirm any other Doctrine than what we find in the Scriptures; and if we can but be certify'd that they were true Miracles which gave Testimony and Evidence to them, we need concern our felves about no other.

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And the Miracles by which the Scriptures are confirmed and authorized must be true; because there is no precedent Divine Revelation which they contradict, nor any immoral or falfe Doctrine which they deliver, nor any thing else contained in them whereby they can be proved to be falfe: And in this cafe, that which all the Wit and Understanding of Man cannot prove to be falfe, must be true, or else God would fuffer his own Name and Authority to be ufurped and abused, and Mankind to be impofed upon in a thing of infinite confequence, without any poffibility of discovering the Imposture, which it is contrary to the Divine Attributes for him to permit; but either by the Works themselves, or by the End and Design of them, or by fome means or other, the Honour, and Wisdom, and Mercy of God is concerned to detect all fuch Impostures. If Miracles be wrought to introduce the Worship of other Gods, besides him, whom Reason, as well as Scripture, affures us to be the only True God; if they be done to feduce Men to immoral Doctrines and Practices; if they be performed to contradict the Religion already confirmed by Miracles, in which nothing of this nature could poffibly be discovered; if never fo astonishing Miracles be wrought for fuch ill Designs as thefe, they are not to be regarded, but rejected with that Conftancy which becomes a Man who will act according to the Principles of Natural Reason and Religion. But when Miracles were performed, which, both for the End and Design of them, as well as for the manner and circumstances of their Performance, had all the credibility that any Miracle could have, if it were really wrought by God's immediate Power to confirm a Revelation; if these Miracles have been foretold by Prophecies, (as, on the other fide, the Prophecies were fulfilled by the Miracles,) if they were done publickly before all forts of Men, and that often, and by many Men fucceflively, for divers Ages together, and

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all agreed in the fame Doctrine and Design; if neither the Miracles themselves, nor the Doctrines which are attested by them, can be difcovered to have any deceit or defect in them, but be most excellent and divine, and moft worthy of God; in fuch a cafe we have all the Evidence for the Truth of the Miracles, and of the Religion which they were wrought to establish, that we can have for the Being of God himfelf. For if thefe Miracles and this Religion be not from God, we must fuppofe either that God cannot, or that he will not fo reveal himself by Miracle to the World, as to diftinguifh his own Revelation from Impostures: both which Suppofitions are contrary to the Divine Attributes; contrary to God's Omnipotence, because he can do all things, and therefore can exceed the Power of all Finite Beings; and contrary to his Honour, and Wisdom, and Goodness, becaufe thefe require both that he should reveal himself to the World, and that he should do it by Miracles, in fuch a manner as to make it evident which is his Revelation. But if he both can and will put fuch a Distinction between Falfe Miracles and True, as that Men fhall not, except it be by their own fault, be feduced by falfe Miracles, then that Religion which is confirmed by Miracles, concerning which nothing can be discovered to be either impious or falfe, must be the true Religion. For we have feen, that there must be fome Revealed Religion, and that this Religion must be revealed by Miracle; and we have the Goodness, and Truth, and Justice of God engaged, that we should not be impofed upon by false Miracles, without being able to difcern the Impofture: And therefore that Religion which both by its Miracles, and Doctrine, and Worship, appears to be Divine, and could not be proved to be falfe, if it were fo, mult certainly be true; because the Goodness and Honour of God is concerned, that Mankind, in a Matter of this confequence, fhould not be deceived, with

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out their own fault or neglect, by Impostures vented under his own Name and Authority. Upon which account, the Sin against the Holy Ghost, in afcribing the Miracles wrought by Christ, to Beelzebub, was fo heinous above all other Crimes, this being to reject the utmost Means that can be used for Man's Salvation, and in effect to deny the Attributes and very Be ing of God. The fum of this Argument is, That though Miracles are a most fit and proper Means to prove the Truth of Religion, yet they are not only to be confidered alone, but in conjunction with other Proofs; and that they must neceffarily be true Miracles, or Miracles wrought to establish the true Religion, when the Religion upon the account whereof they are wrought cannot be discovered to be falfe, either by any defect in the Miracles, or by any other Means, but has all the Marks and Characters of Truth. Because God would not fuffer the Evidence of Miracles, and all other Proofs, to concur to the confirmation of a falfe Religion, beyond all poffibility of dif covering it to be fo.

III. How Divine Revelations may be fuppofed to be preserved in the World. It is reafonable to fuppofe that Divine Revelations fhould be committed to Writing, that they might be preserved for the benefit of Mankind, and delivered down to Pofterity, and that a more thau ordinary Providence fhould be concerned in their preservation. For whatever has been faid by fome, of the Advantage of Oral Tradition, for the conveyance of Doctrines, beyond that of Writing, is fo notoriously fanciful and strained, that it deserves no ferious Answer. For till Men fhall think it safest to make Wills, and bequeath and purchase Estates by Word of Mouth, rather than by Instruments in Writing, it is in vain to deny that this is the beft and fe cureft way of conveyance that can be taken: fo the common Sense of Mankind declares, and fo the Experience of the World finds it to be in things which

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Men take all poffible care about; and it is too manifeft, and much to be lamented, that Men are more follicitous about things Temporal, than about Eternal; which affords too evident a confutation of all the pretences of the Infallibility of Oral Tradition, upon this ground, That the Subject Matter of it are things upon which the Eternal Happiness or Mifery of Mankind depends. Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come, for ever and ever, Ifa. xxx. 8.

IV. It is requifite that a Divine Revelation should be of great Antiquity : Because, upon the fame grounds that we cannot think that God would not at all. Reveal himself to Mankind, we cannot fuppofe that he would fuffer the World to continue long under a ftate of Corruption and Ignorance, without taking fome care to remedy it, by putting Men into a capacity of knowing and practifing the Duties of Vertue and Religion.

V. Another Requifite of a Divine Revelation, is, that it should be fully promulged and published to the World, for the general Good and Benefit of Mankind, that it may attain the Ends for which a Revelation must be defigned.

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