Nations, and of performing with Alacrity all those Ceremonies defigned ftill further to secure their Distinction.

BUT left this People, conceiving too high an Opinion of the Excellency of their Constitution, should be defirous of adhering to it, and of fupporting it, even after the divine Protection was intended to be withdrawn from it, it was expedient they should know that God had prescribed a Period to its Duration, and only intended that its Obligation fhould be temporary. And what could fo effectually ferve this Purpose, as that the Declaration of this divine Appointment fhould come from the Mouth of the very Perfon, who was the Inftrument of God in giving their Laws? That thus the great Veneration, they would conceive for One whom God hadhonoured with this high Commiffion, might be kept within due Bounds even by its own Force, and that the fame Authority, which gave them Zeal to defend their Law, while it was intended to laft, might alfo incline them to give it up without Reluctance, to that more excellent and perfect Law, which was to fucceed it. Here then lay the Propriety of putting this Prophecy into the Mouth of Mofes, The Lord thy God will raise up unto Thee a Prophet from the midst of Thee, of thy Brethren, like unto me; unto him Ye shall hearken. Deut. 18, 15.

WE fee how justly the Degrees of Light were proportioned to the Exigences of the Times, in which they were delivered, and how well adapt

ed

ed to excite in the Minds of Men, fuch Impreffions, as might moft conduce to forward the benevolent Designs of Providence. This Specimen fufficiently fhews the Fitness of the Prophecies to the particular Periods, to which they are asfigned, and how juftly the Degrees of Revelation were measured out according to the Wants of those to whom they were vouchfafed. We might carry on this View of the Prophecies much farther, and fhew of most of the fucceeding ones, that they had a manifeft Tendency to support, or revive the Faith of those to whom they were given. a For they were generally bestowed, as these we have already confidered plainly were, at Times when the People, under Difficulties or Diftreffes, ftood most in Need of fuch Support; or when they wanted Encouragement for undertaking fome arduous Attempts. But this is not neceffary. For We cannot doubt but that Providence would carry the fame gracious Design throughout the whole Revelation, that appears in the Beginning of it.

SHOULD We now fuppofe the Order of the Prophecies to be changed or disturbed, the Appearance they would then make, under this different Distribution of them, would further illuftrate the great Wisdom of affigning them that Order they at present poffefs. Imagine then the Prophecies we have been confidering to be in any Manner tranfpofed, and you will see that it cannot be so contrived, but that great Inconve

a See Difcourfes &c. particularly Difc. 6. Page 148 &c.

niences

niences would refult from the Change. Suppose the Promise to Abraham removed back to Adam. It could not have added the least useful Light to that which the general Promise of a Redeemer conveyed. For what availed it Adam, to know the Name of One of the remote Ancestors of the Meffiah? and to say that Abraham should be his Father, what was it saying more to Adam, than that one of his Seed fhould be his Father? But it would have been worfe than barely fuperfluous here. For it would have laid the Deity, under a Neceffity of giving a public Atteftation, to the Perfon of this Abraham, either by a Set of Prophecies defcribing his Character, and the Time and Place of his Birth, or by working fome great Miracles for this Purpose, or by fome other public Demonstration, that He was the very Abraham from whom it was foretold, that the Meffiah fhould fpring. For without some such public Proof he might have been overlooked, or his Claim contefted; instead of adminiftring Evidence it would have supplied constant Matter of Exception and Difpute; For how could we have answered those who fhould have afferted that the Abraham, from whom the Meffiah was to spring, was of another Family, another Country, or Nation? Should we on the contrary bring it nearer to the Time of our Saviour, it would, at least for the intervening Time, lofe all its Influence for determining the Seed of Abraham, to keep up their Diftinction from the Reft of Mankind; and Abraham himfelf would

be

be deprived of fome Part of the great Motive, that inspired him with Resolution, in maintaining the Honour of God's Name, amidst an idolatrous People, and in encountering all the Difficulties which Providence thought fit to lay upon him.

SHOULD We again, reverfing the first Experiment, bring down the Promife made to Adam to fome later Age, how unhappy would be the Confequence! Befides the great Difficulties of making the Revelation public in the World now become populous, It would leave the wretched Part of Mankind, who were deftined to the dark Period which went before it, abandoned to Ignorance, or, what is ftill more deplorable, to all the Horrors of Defpair, and the certain Apprehenfions of the divine Difpleasure. Thus to change or difplace any of the Prophecies, like removing some of the great Bodies of the Univerfe, would lay in Ruins, or at least greatly disfigure, the whole System.

THE Prophecies were all infpired by the fame Holy Spirit. When therefore fo noble an End as the Support of Religion, which has always been the peculiar Care of Heaven, could be anfwered barely by giving a particular Arrangement to the Prophecies, to imagine that the Arrangement moft fuitable to that End was fallen upon by Chance, or to fuppofe that the Prophecies have been wildly scattered through different Ages, without any Regard to Order at all, is certainly finking the Oeconomy of the divine Spirit,

Spirit, to a Pitch even lower than that to which human Prudence uses to attain. For even a prudent Mortal does not neglect to give his Affairs the most commodious Difpofition, nor will he jumble them together in Perplexity and Confufion, where he is fenfible that Regularity would have conduced greatly to his Interest. The Prophecies being diftributed, as they are, through all the Ages which preceeded our Saviour's Coming, is of itself an Argument that Wisdom and Benevolence were concerned in appointing them their Stations, and that they were bestowed with a gracious Intention, as the Favours of Providence, on those who were thought worthy of them. Had they been all lavished upon any one Age, their Influence must have been loft to others. Had they all been given out with a profufe Hand to the firft, their Force would have gradually decayed; long and unregarded Expectation would have wearied out Faith, and they would at last have vanished like Dreams, and been loft in the fpreading Corruptions of Mankind. Or had they all been referved to the later Ages, who could without Commiferation have looked back on the total Darkness, in which all Antiquity must have been involved! But when We fee them diffeminated with an even Hand through all Ages, who does not adore the univerfal Goodness, and admire the wife Oeconomy of Providence, thus difpenfing his Mercies as the Neceffities of his Creatures called for them, awakening at every fit Period the languishing

Faith