one of the greatest nations since the time of Moses that ever existed, have held Moses as the only man of immediate conversation with God, and therefore their only proper basis of the way to God the Father; yea, in profane history as well as religious, we have much said of Moses; but I need not digress from the point to any other besides the Jews, for they are enough to establish the authority of Moses as from God to them.

The Jews as a people have been the most dissatisfied, doubtful, and disobedient; hence they have frequently degenerated into idolatry against God, and have slain his servants from time to time; this I need not bring many scriptures to prove, as it is clear by very many readings of them. Now what people disposed to every thing counter to God and his servants, would believe a ruler or guide in things opposite to their carnal states, if such a ruler had not given all the sound testimonies possible of his commission from God? None such people would nor could by their dispositions depend upon any opponent to their wicked states, had he not given every testimony, as aforesaid, of his power from God! Their past and wonted conduct proves that the people had every reason for their reliance upon the conduct and teachings of Moses; and such has ever been the dependance of that people upon him, that to this very day they prefer him before all that has been, or can be said of Jesus our Saviour. Thus then the conduct of the Jews serves to prove to this period that Moses was a sound man of God and that what he wrote and spoke was, ; and is to be depended upon.

It may be said, that notwithstanding all thus said of Moses, that there was one instance of

an awful crime against God, namely murder! which could not be right as a servant of the Lord. To this I will reply, that at that time he was not called and qualified of God, but was in his unrighteous state, and that it therefore had no connection with his appointment, which took place afterwards, Exo. ii. 11, 12. This being before he was called of God to his work, would be forgiven before he would appoint him to be his servant, as aforesaid. The testimonies of Moses being a sound man of God from the time of his appointmnet till his death, are all true notwithstanding that act. Then the whole of the unschemed appointment of Moses, the discouragements, or the honours he had, and might have had, prove him to have been firm and sound to the work of God; the civil, moral, and holy good he did and taught must have come from the same in him, and that also from God to him, and which proves him to have been a holy man of God, as well as firm in his union to him, and the past and present dependance of that people upon him, are all undeniable corroborations of his commission from God. He therefore on every fair principle stands as one of the true revealers of the mind of God to man.

What I have said of Moses, is as proper relative to all the teachers from God to them. Josuah and Calib, who succeeded Moses and Aaron, were instructed both by Moses and the Lord; and all they did was a manifold evidence of the work of Moses and his colleagues, and was also a continued medium of God to the people: yea, all that can be said of any of the official persons succeeding these mentioned, have given evidence of their divine work upon the same principles as Moses in many instances.

C

The whole of the Judges, Kings, Prophets, and Priests, who were received as men of God, all have more or less evidenced their commission from God, otherwise they would not have been received as such by that most dubious and doubtful people, since it appears that they were so fond of any least cause of revolting, that they disobeyed when none could be found; and therefore what they have received must have been so satisfactory as to suppress their disposition to doubt aud réject the same, which to do so must have been most true, as in the case of Moses.

In establishment of this statement of the righteous character and conduct of the writers of the Scriptures, we find that when any of them had by some cause or other sinned, they were discountenanced accordingly, and had to repent and forsake before they could obtain their reconciliation and friendship with God. "Saul was forsaken of the Lord and dethroned for his sins against God," first Book of Samuel, xxviii. 15 to 18; David was obliged to repent of an awful crime, Second Book of Samuel, xii. 13 to 17. Yea, in many instances the servants of the Lord fell into crime, but not one countenance of that crime, or those crimes. were manifested; but the Almighty did impress the hearts of the individuals to repentance, when such had sinned; or he forsook and left them in their awful state when they did not repent: such being the case shows that had the scripture characters been otherwise than holy, they could not have wrote or spoke for God; for he would not empower them so to do, being offended thereby; and by such a state they would also have lost the countenance of a rebellious people, by not coming

arp to the strict standard of evidence they had been wont to have in Moses and others. Thus therefore God did not allow any unholiness in his biblical servants; but for any offence they had to repent, and from which to turn. The people would not have depended upon them had they been unholy or profane.

The power all the biblical servants of God had, as stated in the Scriptures, could not have been had they been unrighteous, but which in the very possession shows that they were the appointed servants of God; and the admission into the approbation of the people, denotes the same and although there was a deviation in some instances from the holy will of God, yet it was in each case as stated; and it was no interference with the holy performances of such men before such deviations took place, nor any interference after such conduet. In that case it would be thus: namely, a man living for a number of years in true holiness, but who afterwards falls into sin; his late sin is since the holy state, and is therefore as distinct as one year is from another; by which distinction the sin is since the holiness and doing the will of God, but which, when changed, takes place again in holiness the same in that time as it could be. And according to that, had some of them who were the servants of God fallen into sin, so as to be lost, what they did while in the service of God would be just the same during that time as if they had never sinned.

Now what has been said of Moses as a man of pure motives, holy conduct, braving every discouragement, and avoiding every undue honour, and doing the will of God to his people, may be said of all the men of God after his time; and what has been said of the holy nature

and end of the writings of Moses, may be said of all the subsequent writings, for they, as stated, did and do tend to the sole happiness and safety of the people, and the glory of God; and what has been said of the reception of and dependance of the Jewish nation or people on the writings of Moses, may also be said of the rest of the biblical writings; all therefore staud on sure evidence to us, that they were from God to holy men, and from them to us, as from men of real truth; they therefore are the undeniable words of God to mankind.

Having so far stated the certainty of the writers and promoters of the Old Testament being the true servants of God, so as to declare his will in the Old Scriptures to mankind; I now shall produce some equal evidences of the New Testament writers being the servants of God to the revelation of the Gospel to mankind. In so doing I observe, that before they could have wrote upon the Saviour of the world, and the righteousness of life by him, the sufferings he endured, and the effect or design of all, they must have been appointed by no less a being than God himself in the Saviour; because the works they performed in reference to the Saviour could not have been by the power of prepossessed knowledge or scheme to deceive, as many have done by being Antichrists: they were men of little learning and of humble occupations who were the first propagators of the christian cause, and they therefore could not have such a knowledge of the Scriptures as the learned Doctors, and Rabbies, and Scribes, who were of the Jews; for which reason they had it not in their power to acquire any means by which to falsify the old predictions of the Saviour, or the circumstances of his coming according to prophecy.