If thefe obfervations be juft, and I doubt not but that the recital of them will imprefs upon the minds of all perfons, who have a fufficient knowledge of human nature and of the world, a conviction of their truth, divine revelation must have been a matter of great importance, if it had been nothing more than the interpofition of a competent authority, in favour of thofe rules of conduct which right reafon might have investigated, but which reafon, in a variety of circumftances, might also have evaded; and it ought ever to be confidered, that, in proportion to the real value, ufefulness, and confequently defirableness of pofitive or revealed religion, is its antecedent credibility.

Upon the whole, fuch was the actual ftate of the heathen world, that it cannot furely be doubted, but that divine revelation was highly expedient, and even neceffary, for the restoration of virtue and happiness.

Without pretty juft notions of God, and his moral government; without a fatisfactory knowledge of our duty and future expectations,

expectations, we fhould have been little better than brute animals. At least, a man deftitute of this knowledge must be incapable of these exalted fentiments, and that dignity of conduct, which render him an unspeakably greater and happier being. And, fince we are naturally capable of these improvements, nothing but a fufficient degree of knowledge being requifite to the attainment of them; the nobleft end of human nature feems to be defeated in a ftate of grofs ignorance. It is like fixing a plant in a foil where it cannot find its proper nourishment, and for want of which it can never flourish, fo as to be what it was capable of being.

For, admitting that it may not be abfolutely impoffible for the divine being to fuffer an intire race of rational creatures, and the moft confpicuous inhabitants of fuch a world as this, to become wholly degenerate and depraved, fo as never to answer the important purposes for which they feem to have been made, there certainly can be no impropriety in his interpofing to check that depravity,

depravity, by communicating to them that knowledge, which alone is wanting to effect fo great and benevolent a purpofe.

Now let us form what idea we please of the natural powers of the human mind, it is hardly poñible not to. be fatisfied, from a juft view of the ftate of morals in the heathen world, that it was morally impoffible they fhould ever have recovered even that degree of useful religious knowledge, of which they feem to have been formerly poffeffed, and much less that they would ever have made any important additions to their original stock. In fuch a ftate of things, the expectation of fome divine interpolition muit, a priori, have been even reafonable, on account of its being fo exceedingly feafonable, and advantageous. We may almoft fay, that it became the great and good parent of the human race to afford his creatures and offfpring that affiftance, which, in their fituation, they fo much wanted, and which they were not capable of procuring for them felves.

СНАР

CHAPTER II.

OBSERVATIONS PREVIOUS TO THE EXAMINATION

OF THE PROPER EVIDENCES OF REVELATION,

SECTION I.

Of the nature and use of miracles,

SOM

OME may think it not fuitable to the fores wisdom of God, to leave his creatures in need of occafional affiftance. A being of infinite wisdom, they fay, would make his works fo perfect at firft, as never to want it. But the only reason why it is wife in men to aim at this is, because they cannot always be prefent with their works, or because it would be troublefome to attend to them. Alfo, their being prefent, or not prefent with their works, is of no confe

quence

quence to their operation. Whereas God is already every where prefent, and as he conftantly supports all the laws of nature, the changing the course of it implies no additional attention or trouble.

Befides, it is of the utmost importance to the great ends of the rational creation, that the Almighty maker should be confidered as prefent with his works. For any thing that we know, therefore, the best of all schemes may be that in which the divine agency and interpofition are never wholly fuperfeded; and though, as was fhewn before, it be wife, and even neceffary to establish general laws, yet occafional deviations from them may contribute more to promote the same great end than a perfect uniformity.

With respect to men, and perhaps all other moral agents, there feems to be an evident propriety in the divine being exciting their attention to his prefence and government by occafional departures from the laws of nature; for by this means we more