that time, we have fo little knowledge of the language in which it was writ, have fo imperfect an account of the hiftory of thofe ages, know nothing of their customs, forms of fpeech, and the feveral periods they might have, by which they reckon their time, that it is rather a wonder we fhould under. stand so much of it, than that many paffages in it fhould be fo dark to us. The chief ufe of it, as to us Chriftians, is, that, from writings which the Jews acknowledged to be divinely inspired, it is manifeft the Meffiah was promifed before the deftruction of their temple; which being done long ago, and thefe prophecies agreeing to our Saviour, and to no other, here is a great confirmation given to the Gospel. But, though many things in these books could not be understood by us who live above 3000 years after the chief of them were written, it is no fuch extraordinary matter.

For that of the deftruction of the Canaanites by the Ifraelites, it is to be confidered, that, if God had fent a plague among them all, that could not have been found fault with. If then God had a right to take away their lives without injuftice or cruelty, he had a right to appoint others to do it, as well as to execute it by a more immediate way; and the taking away people by the fword is a much gentler way of dying than to be fmitten with a plague or a famine. And, for the children that

were

were innocent of their fathers faults, God could in another state make that up to them. So all the difficulty is, why were the Ifraelites commanded to execute a thing of fuch barbarity? But this will not seem so hard, if we confider that this was to be no precedent for future times; fince they did not do it but upon special warrant and commiffion from heaven, evidenced to all the world by fuch mighty miracles as did plainly fhew that they were particularly defigned by God to be the executioners of his juftice; and God, by employing them in fo fevere a fervice, intended to poffefs them with great horror of idolatry, which was punifhed in fo ex

treme a manner.

and

For the rites of their religion, we can ill judge of them, except we perfectly underftood the idolatries round about them, to which we find they were much inclined: fo they were to be bent by other rites to an extreme averfion from them yet, by the pomp of many of their ceremonies and facrifices, great indulgences were given to a people naturally fond of a visible splendor in religious worfhip. In all which, if we cannot defcend to fuch fatisfatory answers, in every particular, as a curious man would defire, it is no wonder. The long interval of time, and other accidents, out thofe things which were neceffary to clearer light into the meaning of them.

have worn

give us a
And for

the

the ftory of the creation, how far fome things in it may be parabolical, and how far hiftorical, has been difputed: there is nothing in it that may not be hiftorically true: for, if it be acknowledged that fpirits can form voices in the air, (for which we have as good authority as for any thing in hiftory,) then it is no wonder that Eve, being fo lately created, might be deceived, and think a ferpent fpake to her, when the evil spirit framed the voice.

But, in all these things, I told him he was in the wrong way, when he examined the bufinefs of religion by fome dark parts of feripture; therefore I defired him to confider the whole contexture of the Chriftian religion, the rules it gives, and the methods it prescribes. Nothing can conduce more to the peace, order, and happinefs of the world, than to be governed by its rules. Nothing is more for the intereft of every man in particular: the rules of fobriety, temperance, and moderation, were the best prefervers of life, and, which was perhaps more, of health; humility, contempt of the vanities of the world, and the being well employed, raife a man's mind to a freedom from the follies and temptations that haunted the greateft part. Nothing was fo generous and great as to fupply the neceffities of the poor and to forgive injuries; nothing raised and maintained a man's reputation fo much as to be exactly just and merciful, kind, charitable, and com

paffionate;

paffionate; nothing opened the powers of a man's foul fo much as a calm temper, a ferene mind, free of paffion and diforder; nothing made focieties, families, and neighbourhoods, fo happy, as when these rules, which the Gofpel prescribes, took place, of doing as we would have others do to us, and loving our neighbours as ourselves.

The Chriftian worship was alfo plain and fimple, fuitable to fo pure a doctrine. The ceremonies of it were few and fignificant, as the admiffion to it by a washing with water, and the memorial of our Saviour's death in bread and wine. The motives in it to perfuade to this purity were ftrong: that God feesus, and will judge us for all our actions: that we shall be for ever happy or miserable as we pass our lives here the example of our Saviour's life, and the great expreffions of his love in dying for us, are mighty engagements to obey and imitate him. The plain way of expreffion, ufed by our Saviour and hist apostles, fhews there was no artifice, where there was fo much fimplicity ufed: there were no fecrets kept only among the priests, but every thing was open to all Chriftians: the rewards of holiness are not entirely put over to another ftate, but good men are fpecially bleft with peace in their confciences, great joy in the confidence they have of the love of God, and of feeing him for ever, and often a fignal courfe of bleffings follows them in their whole lives; but if at

other

other times calamities fell on them, thefe were fo much mitigated by the patience they were taught, and the inward affiftances with which they were furnished, that even those croffes were converted to bleffings.

I defired he would lay all these things together, and fee what he could except to them, to make him think this was a contrivance. Intereft appears in all human contrivances; our Saviour plainly had none; he avoided applaufe, withdrew himself from the offers of a crown; he submitted to poverty and reproach, and much contradiction in his life, and to a most ignominious and painful death. His apoftles had none either, they did not pretend either to power or wealth; but delivered a doctrine that must needs condemn them, if they ever made fuch use of it; they declared their commiffion fully without referves till other times; they recorded their own weakness; fome of them wrought with their own hands; and, when they received the charities of their converts, it was not so much to fupply their own neceffities as to diftribute to others; they knew they were to fuffer much for giving their teftimonies to what they had feen and heard; in which fo many, in a thing fo vifible as Chrift's refurrection and ascension, and the effufion of the Holy Ghoft which he had promifed, could not be deceived; and they gave fuch public confirmations of it, by the wonders they

themselves