which beft fuited with the great intended alteration. The many petty ftates and tyrannies whofe paffions and bigotry might have run counter to the schemes of Providence, were all fwallowed up in one great power, the Romans, to which all appeals lay; the feat of which, Rome, lay at a great distance from Jerufalem, the fpring from whence the Gospel was to arife, and flow to all nations. And therefore, as no material obftruction to the Gospel could arife but from that one quarter, none could fuddenly arife from thence, but only in procefs of time, when the Gofpel was fufficiently fpread and established, as it did not in the least interfere with the Roman polity or government. The Gospel was first published in a time of general peace and tranquillity throughout the whole world, which gave the preachers of it an opportunity of paffing freely from one country to another, and the minds of men the advantage of attending calmly to it. Many favage Nations were civilized by the Romans, and acquainted with the arts and virtues of their conquerors. Thus the darkeft countries had their thoughts awakened, and were growing to a capacity of receiving at the ftated time, the knowledge of true religion. So that all things and circumftances confpired now with the views of Heaven, and made this apparently the fulness of tim, (Gal. iv. 4.) or the fitteft juncture for God to reveal himfelf to the Gentiles, and to put an end to idolatry throughout the earth. Now the minds of men were generally ripe for a purer and brighter difpenfation, and the circumftances of the world were fuch as favoured the fuccefs and progrefs of it.

In this very time the Meffiah came: nor, for ought I can fee, could he have come more opportunely at any other; because the world was at no other preceding time fo well prepared to receive his doctrines. As to remiffion of fin, and eternal falvation, it is all one whenever he came : because the facrifice which he offered for fin, had its effects with regard to the time paft, as well as to the time to come; to the penitent, that were dead, as well as to the living, or those that were yet to be born. (See Scripture Doctrine of Atonement, p. 80.) Immortality must belong as much to those who lived virtuoufly, according to their degree of light, before the Meffiah came, as to thofe who lived after his coming; and the bleffedness of the future ftate, though not alike revealed, yet was alike acceffible to the one as to the other.

Upon a review of the whole, it will appear, that the condition of mankind was bettered step by step, as the reafon and nature of things directed and would permit. The fcope and intendment of the whole fcheme of Divine Providence, in all its various difpenfations, was to bring human nature, by proper degrees, and in a way confiftent with moral agency, to all the beauty, holiness, and perfection it can, in this prefent ftate, attain to. And though we are not indeed able abfolutely to trace all the reafons of the Divine conduct, and to demonftrate the wifdom of it in every particular; yet we may in general difcover, that all the parts of this fcheme were wifely formed, and purfued, depending regularly on each other, leading to the fame great and good end, and adapted to the refpective circumftances and condition of mankind. Note-After the publication of the Gofpel, the Jewish peculiarity was no longer of ufe for preferving the knowledge of God in the world.

That

That end would be much better answered by its diffolution, and the difperfion of the Jews all over the earth, as they are even unto this day, For the moft excellent character of Jefus Christ, and the Divine principles, doctrine, and fpirit of the Golpel, fee my Treatife upon the LORD'S SUPPER.]*

СНА Р. XXXVIII.

Mankind, having abused their Natural POWERS, fland in need of an Extraordinary REVELATION.

are the val father his children in this HE Scriptures are the word of God; they are the language

THE

whom he hath endowed with rational faculties to hear and underftand his voice. The Scriptures are given by infpiration of God, and are profita ble for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for inftruction in righteousness. 2 Tim. iii. 16. The glory of God indeed is to be feep in all the works of his hands; and the fpeech of his Almighty power, wisdom, and goodness, is to be heard in the appearances of creation which are daily before our eyes. Pfal. xix. 1, &c. Mankind, in a faithful use of their natural Powers, might, without any other guide, know God. Rom. i. 19. For that which may be known of God is manifeft in them; for God bath fhewed it unto them (for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly feen, being understood by the things that are made, fo) that even the Heathen, who have no other rule but the light of nature, they might be without excufe, if they are totally ignorant of God. But how much Mankind in all ages have abufed and mifapplied their underStandings, is notoriously evident; and therefore it must be evident how much they stand in need of an extraordinary Revelation to correct their errors, to reduce them to the obedience of God, and to fecure them from relapfing into idolatry and apoftacy from him.

I think, no book can contain more evident marks of such a Revelation than the Scriptures, eminently fo called, which we are happily poffeffed of. There we have the fulleft and clearest account of the nature and perfections of God, beyond what the world at beft could have attained to, and far beyond what could, in the ordinary courfe of things, have been preserved through fucceeding generations. The knowledge

of

• With this chapter ends Dr. TAYLOR'S SCHEME of SCRIPTURE-DIVINITY, from the copy he printed at Warrington, for the ufe of the Students in the Academy there; and fince corrected, with the Hebrew and Greek words inferted, by himself.

The following chapters the EDITOR hath annexed, and are printed from Dr. TAYLOR's Manufcript; and would have appeared to greater advantage, had they had his correcting hand,

of God not being a mere fpeculative truth, but having near connexion with our morals, would confequently, as the morals of men are very liable to be corrupted, have alfo proportionably been obfcured, till it had in a manner quite vanished away; which we know hath in fact been In the Scriptures, as in a durable ftorehouse, not to be demolifhed by time, or uncertain tradition, we have the most noble difcoveries of the nature and perfections of God, as he is our Maker, our Father, Owner, Ruler, and daily Benefactor; as he is glorious in all his attributes; as he is infinite, and independent, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, knowledge, wifdom and power; as perfectly holy, good, righteous, and true. And thefe glories of the Divine nature are defcribed, not in the way of philofophical differtations, not by a feries of abstract reasoning, which, how amufing or inftructing foever to minds of a more refined turn and tafte, are but of little fervice to the bulk of mankind, who have but little leifure, and perhaps lefs inclination, to attend to the curious and abftrufer deductions of reafon; not thus are the glories of the Divine nature delineated in Scripture, but exhibited in a long and eafily-intelligible feries of facts and events, wherein God hath manifefted his goodnefs, wifdom, power, and juftice, from the beginning of the world, In which way the mind, with very little labour of thought, is at once convinced of the being and perfections of God, and struck with admiration, reverence, love, and every right affection which the knowledge of God fhould produce in us.

In the Scriptures any one, in common life, may not only very readily fee that God is, and that he is all that the moft learned, the most exact, the most fubtle, the moft fublime philofophy, all that the utmost appli cation and ftudy of the wifeft men can difcover; but he feeth this at the fame time in a practical light; he feeth that God is all this to us; that, as great as he is in himself, he is our God and Father; that he hath, from his own immenfity of being, given us being, a noble and diftinguished kind of being; that he conftantly regards us, loveth us, interefts himself in our affairs, is concerned for our welfare, is daily near us, the object of our truft and dependence; that all our fafety is in his favour; and that in his favour, and under his protection, we are infinitely fafe and happy; that we are accountable to him for our actions, that we are continually under his eye, and can flee no whither from his fpirit and prefence; that we ought always to fet him before us, to act as in his fight, and to approve ourselves to his all-fearching eye; that he hath taken us into the nearest relations to himself; that his design is to make us good, in order to make us for ever happy; that, for this purpofe, he hath been carrying on various difpenfations, from the beginning of the world, to invite and draw men unto himself.

At length, in the fulness of time, in that time which to his infinite wifdom feemed moft expedient, he fent a divine meffenger, the word, his only begotten Son, from his own boom, to redeem men from iniquity, to reconcile them to God; and in the way, Divine wifdom judged moft proper to establish, upon the most firm and beautiful foundation, the eternal falvation of all pious and virtuous men that have ever been, or fhall hereafter be in the world. The eternal God in Chrift will be their everlasting strength, and joy, and glory. Thus, I would obferve,

we

we not only, in the eafieft and cleareft way, learn God and his perfections from Scripture, but we learn them in a manner the most proper and powerful to engage and unite our hearts to God, to warm and quicken our fpirits, to excite us to the love and obedience of God, and to confider ourselves infinitely interested in his attributes and perfections; which is to learn divine things, i. e. the most excellent things, in a method vaftly fuperior to all the reafonings and inftructions of the best and wifeft philofophers.

In the Scriptures, any man of common fenfe may not only with ease learn his duty in the fullest extent; but at the fame time, by the numerous examples of pious men in all ages, he may fee that it is practicable, and may fee how to engage in it; how exact, how conftant, how ready and cheerful he should be in the difcharge of it; how he ought to refift temptations, to ftruggle with difficulties. Even a mean capacity, by reading the Scriptures, fhall at the fame time difcern the reafonableness and the beauty of holiness, and alfo be furnished with the strongest arguments and motives to embrace it, and to perfevere therein; fhall be affured of the Divine affiftance and protection in a religious course, shall find the moft proper confolations and encouragements in every the most diftreffed state of affairs; to every precept he fhall find an adjoined promife; and his duty will thine brightly before his eyes, in the light and hope of everlafting glory.

There we have the trueft and most effectual rules for forming our minds into all habits of virtue; not fimple propofitions, declaring what we ought to do and be, but rules of life intermixed with the power and fplendour of Divine grace, working mightily to renew us into the Divine nature. There religion appears in all its truth, luftre, fweetnefs, and majefty. There it is dreffed in all its charms; not as a four, fevere, morofe, gloomy principle, forbidding enjoyment, and the parent only of forrow, horror, and defpair; but as our life, our glory, our peace, our joy; as giving us the trueft relifh and enjoyment of life, as the fource of the most folid pleafure and comfort, as uniting us to God, as lodging us for ever in the Almighty arms of his love and goodness; as leading to, and preparing for, endlefs joys and pleafures in his prefence.

As to fin and wickedness, the philofophers have faid much concerning the odious nature of vice; that it is evil, and the worst of evils; that it is the difeafe and deformity of the mind, hurtful to the health of the body, and ruinous to the reputation and estate. Their reflections were fo far juft, but the benefit of them was confined to men of letters and ftudy; the vulgar received little or no advantage from them: but in the Scriptures, the meanest minds are favoured with far better inftructions than they could give. There fin is not only fet forth in all its odious colours, and in all its pernicious effects, as to this prefent life; but its deadly nature is demonftrated as it ftands in contrariety to God, as it is the tranfgreffion of his holy law, as it expofeth us to his difpleafure, and disqualifieth us for his bleffing; as it is oppofite to all the ends of our creation, and confequently as deferving of death. That God will punish all the impenitent workers of iniquity with everlafting destruction, and purge out of his kingdom every thing that offends, that is either mifchievous or polluting. And all this is fo plainly and power

fully

fully inculcated upon the mind, by many dreadful examples of the Divine vengeance upon ungodly men, throughout the whole feries of Scripture- hiftory, by fo many express declarations of God's wrath, and fo many exhortations of his good nefs and mercy, to turn from every evil way, that no one, who carefully and feriously reads the Scriptures can mifs, not only of feeing the evil, the irregularity and deformity of fin, but of having his mind affected with it, and wrought into the most rational and the moft fettled deteftation of it.

With regard to the pardon of fin, the wifeft of philofophers feem to have very imperfect notions of it. They rarely and very fuperficially confidered it in its relation of diffonancy to the Divine perfections; and therefore fay little or nothing concerning the placablenefs of the Deity, whether God would pardon fin, or in what way his wifdom thought proper to do it. Sacrifices were frequent among them; but they feem to have understood nothing of their true nature and end, nor were at all folicitous to inquire into them. In truth, they did not understand the true demerit of fin, and therefore of course must be in the dark as to the remiffion of it. But all these things are open and obvious to the weakeft capacity, in Scripture.

How much the world was in the dark about a future ftate without a Revelation, is well known; and how clearly now the world to come is opened to us in the awful profpects of eternal happiness, or endless perdition, can be concealed from none who are ever fo little acquainted with the Gofpel of Chrift.These things, duly attended to, will fhew us the admirable excellency of the holy Scriptures; that God's word is truth, and able to make us wife unto falvation; and further to demonftrate, that it is our duty to be much in reading them.

Reading the Scriptures is one of the first principles of our religion, as we are Chriftians, because our profeffion is built wholly upon the Scriptures. We justly own no other rule of our faith but the word of God. Eph. ii. 20. We are built upon the foundation of the Apolles' ana Prophets, Jefus Chrift himself being the chief corner-stone. And we are built upon no other foundation. If we are true Chriftians, however we may ufe or value the writings of men, we make not them, not the beft of them, the rule of our faith, but the word of God alone. But that rule ought to be thoroughly perused, and digefted; otherwife, how good foever in itfelf, or how much foever we profefs to take it for our rule, it is in fact no rule to us. The word of God is the guide of our actions; it is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. Pfal. cxix. 105. Should we not then diligently ftudy the word of God, that we may not wander from his commandments? The word of God is the fpring of all our comfort and hopes.

There, and there alone, we have the rich and immenfe treasure of the Divine promifes; and from thence alone we can draw folid fupport and confolation, in any dark hour of trial and affliction. In fhort, to all the valuable purpofes of knowledge and life, the Scriptures do infinitely excel all human compofitions what foever. They are but as the twinkling ftars to that ocean of light which is poured out daily from the body of the fun. Of all the means of knowledge and wisdom in the world, I know nothing to be compared with the word of God. The reafon of

the