a more just and diftinct view of the ways and difpenfations of God, fuch things they learn from other books; not to confirm and establifh their minds in the faith of God and of Chrift; not for those purposes, I fear, are the Scriptures read, but only in a cuftomary, fuperftitious, or however in a very carelefs, fuperficial way and therefore there are fo few Chriftians that grow in grace, that rife in fpiritual ftrength, peace, love, and joy, because there are fo few that grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift. 2 Pet. iii. 18.

The full knowledge of Chrift most people presume they have attained long ago; and to talk of knowing more of Chrift, or in a clearer and more rational way, is perfectly fhocking to them. They have fomewhere or other fixed the precife ftandard of Divine knowledge, and either more or less than that standard of theirs is impious and heretical. How then can they grow in the knowledge of Chrift? How can they fet themfelves to understand the Scriptures, who in another way, as they think, have already gained the whole fum and body of spiritual understanding? See Rom. xv. 4. Whatfoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, for our inftruction, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. We have hope through that patience and comfort which is taught in the Scriptures; but the grounds and reasons of that patience and comfort must be understood, otherwife we cannot establish in our minds a fure and folid hope. Hence it is that the Chriftian hope, that faith and hope which overcometh the world, is fo great a rarity; therefore fo few rejoice in hope, because fo few understand the Scriptures, which are the ground of the Chriftian hope. Laftly, because the Scriptures are but little understood, therefore they are fo little valued. We delight not in them, because we know fo little of them.

Let it be remembered, that we shall have the benefit of the Scriptures by ftudiously endeavouring to understand them. Then fhall we know if we follow on to know the Lord. So far as we understand the word of truth, we shall be truly enlightened, our confciences will be rightly directed, and all our principles well established; we fhall fee its real excellency, and it will accordingly be valued and efteemed; we shall tafte its comforts, feel its power, be convinced of its Divine original, and it will be pleasant and precious to us. The more we understand of the Scriptures, the more we fhall with pleasure see the righteousness, wif dom, and goodness of all the Divine difpenfations, that all of them are adjusted and fettled by the love of a Father, and calculated to promote our happiness. This will draw our hearts to God, and fhew us the infinite reasonableness of comporting with the conftitutions of his grace.

If we are built upon the foundation of the Apoftles and Prophets, our faith will stand upon a fure bottom, and not upon the weak, precarious judgment of man; henceforth we fhall be no more children toffed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, Ephef. iv. 14. but shall by ufe have our fenfes exercised to difcern both good and evil. Thus we fhall with our own eyes fee the truth, and be inftrumental in preferving the purity of our religion. Thus we fhall grow up into Chrift in all things, in knowledge, in faith, and love. Thus we shall be rooted and grounded in love, in the love of God, of truth, and of

our

our neighbour. The knowledge we gain, whether it be more or lefs, being drawn from the true fountain, will compofe our fpirits, and incline us neither to defpife the weakness of thofe that know lefs, nor to reject the instructions of thofe that may know more than ourselves.

Thefe weighty confiderations fhould engage us to read the Scriptures with all poffible care and diligence, to study them with an upright defire to gain their true fenfe and meaning. We all know how much men are at variance about the fenfe of Scripture, one affirming that this, another that that is the true fenfe. So it may well be expected to be in our present weakness; and fo God hath permitted it to be; not to give us occafion to cenfure, judge, and difparage one another, as is too cominon, for this is exprefsly forbidden; but this variety of fentiments is permitted, to teach us to ceafe from man, and fhould convince us that we ought not to refign our understandings or confciences to any man's judgment whatfoever.

I

The Hiftory of REVELATION, and fome OBJECTIONS to it answered.

SHALL confider, firft,

The authority and original of holy Scripture; and then,

The ufe and importance of it; it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for inftruction in righteoufnefs. 2 Tim. iii. 16. and fo is profitable for the nobleft purposes, the enlightening of our minds, the purifying of our hearts, the regulating of our practice, and the faving of our fouls.

As to the authority and original of holy Scripture, it is faid, by a very good and fufficient judge, that it is given by inspiration of God. How we are to understand being given by infpiration of God, the Apostle PETÉR will inform us, 2 Pet. i. 20, 21. Knowing this, fays he, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation, fenfe, or impulfe; meaning, that no prophecy did iffue or proceed from the private sense or thoughts of the writer; it was not giving a loose to his own conceits and imaginations. For, as it follows, the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the holy Ghoft; or by the holy Spirit of God, enlightening their minds, and directing them what to fay. Thus the Scriptures are infpired, they are the word of God; and what is contained in them, we are to understand and reverence, as fpoken by God himself. But then, in the ftricteft fenfe, this is to be understood only of what Prophets, as Prophets, have delivered to us; fuch as Mofes, Samuel, David, Ifaiah, Jeremiah, and the reft. VOL. I.

M

No

No prophecy of Scripture did proceed from the private fenfe of the writer, but was dictated by the fpirit of God. But as for the hiftorical writings, though, doubtless, they owe their original to the special Providence of God, yet it is fufficient to fuppofe that they were wrote by men of probity, fully acquainted with the facts which they relate.

This premifed, I fhould now advance a few arguments to establish the authority and excellency of the Scriptures, that they were indeed given by infpiration of God, or that in them holy men of God fpake as they were moved by the holy Spirit. But to prepare the way, it is neceffary I fhould give a general account and hiftory of Revelation; then remove fome Objections which are levelled against it, as if it were needlefs, too partial, or too ineffectual, to be confiftent with the Divine goodness; or as if we were not fufficiently fecure, that we now have in poffeffion thofe very books entire and perfect, in which Revelation was originally

recorded.

Revelation is that which makes known to us the will and ways of the moft high God, the Father of the univerfe, the Fountain of all being and happiness, upon whom we have a neceflary dependence for life, for understanding, and knowledge, for well-being, and enjoyment, at all times and in every refpect; for without him we cannot live, we cannot breathe, we can have no kind or degree of fenfe and understanding. This is true. And it is equally true, that the best and most beneficent of Beings, the greatest and the kindeft of all Fathers, could have no other end or defign in creating mankind, but his own glory, and their, happiness. The chief end of man muft be to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever; for perfect goodness cannot be conceived to propose any lower end in making a creature fo noble and excellent. But then it is certain, both from the holinefs of God, and the nature of an intelligent rational being, that a character of holiness and virtue, of obedience, righteoufnefs, or right conduct, is neceffary, on our part, to our enjoyment of God, or our happiness in his favour and bleffing. It is neceffary that we love the great Author of our being, that we pay him all due honour and obedience, that we are dutifully fubmiffive to his will, that we understand our dependence upon him, and what we have to expect from him, that we may be excited to gratitude, and a due improvement of his benefits.

We cannot love, honour, and obey God, unless we know him, and are acquainted with him; nor can we poffibly have any knowledge or understanding, of any kind whatever, but what must come originally from God. Therefore, that God, our Father, fhould inftruct and teach his creatures, whom he has made for the highest and nobleft ends, in thofe things which immediately relate to his glory and their happinefs, is perfectly confonant to his goodnefs and love. And that Infinite wisdom, the Lord and Proprietor of all Being, fhould have various ways of making known himfelf and his will to us, is alfo perfectly true. He hath produced a great variety of creatures with different powers and inftincts in our world, by them to fhew that he can beflow upon us any kind or degree of being; he hath difplayed his immenfe greatnefs, power, wifdom, and goodnels, in the numberless glorious bodies which, by his hand, are perpetually rolled about us in the heavens. His continually providing

providing for our fubfiftence, in a way which is quite out of our power, plainly demonftrates our abfolute dependence upon him, and obligations to him. This is the book of nature spread before all nations, and legible to every understanding; in which every attentive mind may read the perfections of God, and the main duties which we owe him. But, to him who made our fenfes and minds, and is always intimate to them, there must be many other poffible ways of making known his will to us; as by an audible voice, a vifion, or fecret impreffions upon our fpirits. Therefore, to believe that God, at fundry times, and in divers manners, fpake to the ancient fathers by the Prophets, is believing a thing very poffible, reasonable, and fitting.

And it is no improbable fuppofition, that in the earliest ages of the world, God fhould only communicate his will to pious men, and leave them to hand it down to others by tradition; for in thofe days the longevity of mankind favoured this manner of conveyance. With our grand parent Adam, Methuselah lived 243 years; with Methuselah, Shem the fon of Noah lived about 97 years; and with Shem, Jacob the fun of Ifaac, the fon of Abraham, lived 50 years, as appears from the hiftory of Genefis. So that no more than three perfons, Methuselah, Shem, and Jacob, were fufficient to hand down the knowledge and worship of the true God from Adam to the time when the children of Israel went down into Egypt, that is, through the space of 2238 years. But when the life of man was reduced to the narrow period of fourfcore years, and the world on all fides was fallen into various forts of corruption, and idolatry and ignorance of God generally prevailed among the nations, tradition evidently ceafed to be a fafe mean of conveyance.

It was then the Divine wisdom judged it a proper time to erect a peculiar kingdom, church, or congregation, in the world; and for its illumination gave the knowledge of his will and worship in writing, by the hand of his fervant Mofes ; that by fuch writing, or fcripture, divine truth might more eafily be preferved, be further fpread, and, when loft, more eafily reftored. This must be acknowledged a wife and proper expedient. After the time of Mofes, God was pleafed to give Revelations to the fubfequent Prophets, as occafion required; till in the fulnefs of time, the great Prophet, the Son of God, came into the world, opened a new difpenfation, and all the treafures of the Divine grace, which had not before been fo clearly made known to the church and people of God. And what he and his Apoftles taught is alfo committed to writing, and completes what we call the Canon of Scrip

ture.

This is the general account and hiftory of Revelation which I proposed to give. And we may here obferve, that a written Revelation and the church of God are co- -exiftent; that is to fay, at the fame time the church was brought into the world, the Scriptures were brought into the church; and both are fo effentially connected, that take away the one and you take away the other. Take away the Scriptures, and we are reduced to the ftate of mere nature; our charter is deftroyed, and our polity, as we are God's church and kingdom, is overthrown. We may indeed, poffibly, pretend, as the Papiits de, that we are, though deprived of the Scripture, ftill a church; yet without the Scriptures, as

ΜΑ

cur

our rule and foundation, we are not the church of God, but under a different head, it may be the Pope, or fome other ufurped authority. But this by the bye.

I fhall now remove fome Objections which may be levelled against Revelation in general.

It is pretended-To be quite needlefs, nature and reafon being fufficient to direct any man in the plain way of his duty, without any fupernatural affiftance. I answer-It must be allowed, in general, that nature and reafon are fufficient to direct any man in the way of his duty, fo far as God, in his circumftances, expects duty from him; for God expects duty from every perfon only in proportion to the light he enjoys, and to the talents he hath received. But the experience of all mankind fhews that nature and reafon, by themfelves, will advance but a little way in the knowledge of Divine things. Gentlemen in a land like ours, where, in fpite of themselves, their nature and reason is enlightened and directed in a confiderable degree by Revelation, may talk of the perfection and fufficiency of nature and reafon.

If we look into those nations which are perfect strangers to Revelation, we shall find them grofsly ignorant of the being, unity, and perfections of God, the difpenfations of his Providence, the proper honour and worship that is due to him, the prayers we may addrefs to his goodnefs, and the hopes we may entertain of his acceptance. They know nothing of the pardon of fin, the promises of God's mercy and bleffing, nor of any thing belonging to the covenant of his love, the prefent privileges, or future glory of his kingdom. The refurrection from the dead, the day of judgment, the immortal life, which will be the reward of piety and virtue, and the death everlafting, which will be the fad lot of all the impenitentially wicked, they are altogether, or in a great meafure, unacquainted with. But all these are great principles in religion, and of great force to purify our fpirits, ennoble our minds, animate our hopes, and guard us against the influence of bodily appetites, and the violence of temptation.

And however others may fare, in a great degree of darkness and ignorance, through the favourable allowance of God, yet furely every man's reafon will tell him, that fuperior knowledge, and a more extenfive view of the Divine difpenfations, is abfolutely neceffary to a higher degree of goodnefs, comfort, obedience, and devotednefs to God. What the poets relate may be true, that fome primitive mortals fubfifted only upon acorns and water, in dens and caves; and we know there are some parts of the world where the naked inhabitants enjoy very few conveniences of life; but fhall we therefore defpife the bleffings of agriculture, and the various accommodations which make life happy and comfortable, and say they are needlefs? Would any man in England ever think of turning out naked into the fields and woods, because it is poffible, and may fomewhere in fact be true, that men may live upon wild fruit and water, without clothes, or any habitation but the dens and caves of the earth? Corn and other agreeable food, clothes, and commodious habitations, fitted up with proper furniture and utenfils, are neceffary to our kind and and degree of life in the natural world; and fo is Revelation to a correfponding kind and degree of fpiritual life. The

foud,