SERM. the pleasure) of our bodies, would he have so little care XIII. over our better part, and leave our fouls fo flenderly furnifhed, letting them pine, as it were, for want of spiritual fuftenance? How can we think his good providence defecVid. Ezek. tive in fo main, fo principal a part thereof? Thus doth divine goodness (to my apprehenfion) very strongly confirm our fuppofition.

xvi.

2. And his wifdom enforces the fame: God made the world to exprefs his goodness and to display his glory; and his goodness who can be fenfible of, his glory who can perceive, who can promote, but man? but he who is endued with reason, enabling him to reflect upon the good he feels, to admire the excellency he discovers, to render grateful acknowledgments for the one, to utter acclamations of praise to the other? which purposes yet will be utterly (or at least in great measure) fruftrated, should God for ever fuffer men to continue in fuch ignorance, doubt, or mistake concerning himfelf; if men are not fully perfuaded that he made the world and governs it, how can they pay thofe due homages of dread to his glorious power, of admiration to his excellent wifdom, of love to his transcendent goodnefs? This grand theatre would, as it were, ftand useless, and all the wonders acted thereupon would appear in vain, fhould there be wanting a fpectator; fhould man be altogether blind or heedlefs; yea man's faculty itself, that his feeing faculty of mind, would fignify nothing, were there not a light rendering things vifible to him. Common fenfe hath dictated to men, that man is capable of fhewing respect, of performing duty and service, to God, that alfo God requires and ex pects them from him; the fame declares, that God beft knows what kinds of fervice, what expreffions of respect best please him. Reafon tells, that God would have man act in the best manner, according to the defign of his nature; that he would have the affairs of men proceed in fome good order; that he even defires earneftly the good of men, and delights in their happiness: and if so, it is reasonable to suppose, that being moft wife he should difpofe fit means for accomplishing thofe ends; for fe

curing himself, as it were, from difappointment; that SERM. therefore he should impart to men a competent knowledge_XIII. of himself, fhould declare his good-will and pleasure to them, fhould reveal both the best way of their ferving him, and the best means of their attaining happiness to themselves. So divine wisdom grounds an argument for our fuppofition.

3. God's juftice alfo feems not a little to favour it : every good governor thinks it just to take care that his fubjects fhould understand his pleasure, and be acquainted with his laws; he caufes them therefore to be folemnly promulgated, that all may take notice; if any of them by long difufe are become unknown, he revives the knowledge of them by new proclamations; to quicken obedience he propounds fit rewards, and deters from disobedience by menacing suitable punishments, knowing man's nature, resty and unapt to move without thefe fpurs: and is it likely the fovereign Governor and Judge of all the world should obferve lefs equity in his administrations? that he fhould neglect any means neceffary or apt to promote his fubjects' performance of their duty, to prevent the breaches of his laws? He that loves righteousness above all, he that fo earnestly defires to be duly obeyed, he that infinitely delights in his fubjects' good; can he fail fufficiently to declare his will, to encourage men to comply with it, to terrify them from tranfgreffing it? will he fuffer his laws to remain unknown, or uncertain; will he not confider the infirmities of his fubjects, will he leave any fair apology for disobedience? No, the fuperlative juftice of God seems to perfuade the contrary.

4. I might add, that generally it seems unbecoming the Majefty Divine, that he fhould endure the world, his kingdom, to continue under a perpetual ufurpation and tyranny; to fuffer that his imperial throne fhould be Aets x. 38 poffeffed, his authority abused, his name infulted over, by Eph. ii. 2. enemies and rebels against him, (by evil spirits, whether those of hell, or those on earth;) that a cruel fiend, that a curfed ghoft, that a brute beaft, that a chimera of man's fancy fhould be worshipped, while himself is forgotten and

SERM. neglected, is dishonoured and despised; that iniquity and XIII. wickedness (with all the filthy brood of ignorance and

27, 30.

iv. 16.

Deut viii.
Exod. xvi.

15, 16.

8.

error) fhould every where flourish and domineer, while righteousness and virtue lie proftrate, and are trampled upon this furely the King of Glory, the great Patron of Goodness, will not permit to be; fooner rather may we conceive, that, to remove these indecencies and these mifchiefs, he would prefently turn the world into a defert and folitude, or pour a deluge of water over the face of the earth, or with flames of vengeance confume it into ashes.

We cannot indeed judge or determine concerning the fpecial circumstances or limits of God's dealing toward man in this particular; concerning the time when, the manner how, the measure according to which, God will dispense those revelations of himself: thofe depend upon myfteries of counfel and wifdom furpaffing our compreActs xvii. henfion. That God fhould for a while connive at men's ignorance, and suffer them to grope after divine truth; to try them, as he did the Ifraelites in the wilderness, how they would behave themselves in that ftate; to prove how they would use their talent of natural light, to make them fenfible of their own infirmity, to shew them whence all their welfare must proceed, on whom all their happiness depends, to make them more able to value, more defirous to embrace, the redrefs vouchfafed them; as alfo, to demonstrate his own great clemency, longfuffering, and paVid. Gen. tience; that, I fay, for fuch purposes, and others unfearchable by our fhallow understanding, God fhould for fome time forbear with a full evidence to declare all his mind to men, is not so strange or unlikely; but that for ever, through all courfes of time, he should leave men in fo forlorn a condition, in fuch a depth of ignorance, fuch perplexity of doubt, such captivity under fin, such subjection to mifery, feems not probable, much less can it seem unprobable that he hath done it: it cannot, I fay, in any reason seem misbecoming the goodness, wisdom, or justice of God, clearly to discover to us, what he requires us to do, what good he intends for us, what way leads to our happiness, how we may avoid mifery. This confideration, if it do not

xv. xvi. &c.

prove peremptorily that God cannot but sometime make SERM. fuch a revelation, nor that he yet hath actually done it, XIII. (forafmuch as we cannot reach the utmoft poffibilities of things, nor are fit judges of what God must neceffarily do; although to my apprehenfion this fort of reafoning, with due caution used, fubfifting in general terms, and not over precisely applying it to particular cafes (implicated by circumftances and fpecialties not falling under our judgment) hath great force ;) yet it removes all obftruction to our belief, and difpofes us with more readiness to admit the reasons which follow: for it being not unprobable, yea, according to the reason of the thing, very probable, that he fhould do it, we have cause with attention and expectation of fuccefs on this hand to regard the arguments that pretend to prove he hath done it.

This is the first step of our discourse, at which we shall ftop for the prefent.

And in Jesus Christ, &c.

SERMON XIV.

OF THE IMPIETY AND IMPOSTURE OF
PAGANISM AND MAHOMETANISM.

EPH. i. 13.

In whom ye alfo (trufted), having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your falvation.

SERM THAT the Chriftian doctrine is what St. Paul here calls XIV. it, a word of truth, and did proceed from the God of truth, is the propofition we are endeavouring to verify and perfuade. To that purpose we did firft difcourfe, that it is very probable God should sometime clearly and fully reveal his mind to men, concerning matters relating to his own glory and service, their good and happiness.

II. I now proceed another ftep, and affert, that no other revelation of that kind and importance hath been made; that no other religion, which hath been or is now in being, can with good probability pretend to have thus proceeded from God; fo as by him to have been defigned for a general, a perpetual, a complete inftruction and obligation of mankind. There have appeared but three pretences thereto; that of ancient Paganism, that of Mahometanism, and that of Judaism, (for the more particular pretenfions of enthufiaftical impoftors have been fubordi