SEP.M.IV. The Almighty feems to have observed the fame Design in conftructing the Body of Revelation, as he has in the Body Natural; that is, to bestow the more abundant adventitious Comelinefs on the Members of it, which feem to have no Comeliness in themselves. Thus, for Example, the Accounts of frequent Appearances of God or his Angels to Men in the earliest Ages (fometimes upon Occafions feemingly not very extraordinary) have been thought as incredible as fo many Legendary Tales; and we are afked, if we could digeft fo much of the Marvellous in any other Book? God, however, would not lay the Firft of Mankind under a Neceffity either of having no Religion, or of erring in the grand and fundamental Articles of it: which muft unavoidably have been the Cafe, without frequent Intercourfes with Heaven, and Affiftances from thence; they, unpractifed in the Arts of Reasoning, and unfurnished with Materials for it, being utterly unable to reason out a Syftem of true Religion, or even to prove the Unity of God. Reafon, in the Infancy of the World, was not capable of going alone, and therefore most probably was led by the Hand; guided and fupported by the SERM.IV. great Parent of all Things. How could it be expected, that a Set of recent Mortals, wholly employed in the neceffary Accommodations of Life, having few Ideas, and not Leisure to acquire more, fhould raise their Minds above fenfible Impreffions to the Discovery of one Invifible Supreme Being, and of the Worship due to him only; when of two fuch Men as Julian and Celfus, who enjoyed the Advantages of the Obfervations and Reafonings of all precedeing Ages, one of them could invocate the Sun as the supreme Deity; and the other + make the following Objection to the Jewish Religion: "Thofe ftupid Shepherds" (says this great Master of Reafon)" and Herdfmen, following Mofes as their Leader, "and being impofed upon by his unpolish'd Frauds, were induced to believe (won"derful Stupidity!) that there was only one God?" Thus what is thought an Objection, turns out an illuftrious Proof for the Truth of Revelation. Here is a Matter of Fact, for which there is Historical Julianus ad Regem Solem, Orat. IV. + Celfus apud Origenem, Pag. 17, 18. Ed. Cantab. SERM.IV. Evidence, that there was, in the early Ages of the World, a Religion plain, fimple, and true, as far as it went. Frequent Intercourses with the Deity, and Meffages from Heaven, give an easy and fatisfactory Solution of this Fact, of which no other poffible Solution can be given. How ever extraordinary a Thing the Introduction of the Deity may be upon the Drama of Nature; here It is abfolutely neceffary to unravel the Difficulty. I might obferve further, that no other Reafon but this can be given, why the Jews alone should adhere to the Worship of one God, and be a standing Teftimony against Idolatry amidst an idolatrous World. Repeated Interpofitions of the Deity being to them, what Improvements in every Branch of Literature are to us; enabling us to demonftrate the Being, Attributes and Providence of God, and the Homage due to Him: So that even Natural Religion could not have been introduced into the World, and preferved in it, without supernatural Instruction. Thus again, however aftonishing a Matter of Fact the Deluge may appear to be; it must be admitted as fuch, because it is as well attefted as any Thing in Antiquity: and and whoever admits this Inftance of God's SERM.IV. Displeasure, which involved the Innocent as well as Guilty in one promifcuous Doom; cannot, with any Colour of Reason, object to the utter Excifion of the Idolatrous Nations (when they had filled up the Measure of their Iniquities) by his Command who could, and would, in another World make a Difference between the unoffending Perfon and the presumptuous Sinner. Thus again fome Parts of the Jewish Law prove themselves, and fhine with an original unborrowed Evidence, as those relating to the Sabbatical Year; the Afcent of all the Males to the Temple of Jerufalem three Times a Year; against multiplying Chariots, &c. they being fuch, as no wife Lawgiver would enact, nor any Nation fubmit to, without an abfolute Certainty of a Standing Divine Interpofition: and whatever intrinfic Brightness these are attended with, they diffuse it over the whole Body of the Law. Again, nothing hath furnished an ampler Handle for Exceptions, than those Ways which the Prophets made ufe of to notify the Will of God; as if they denoted a frantic Turn of Mind. Now the exact and SERM.IV. and punctual Correfpondency between the Prophecy and the subsequent Events, plainly proves that God spoke by the Mouth of his Prophets; and it is demonftrable, that thofe, whose Writings are inspired by God, cannot, in those Writings, be guilty of an Abfurdity. But there is no Demonftration that those Schemes of Discourse, which the Prophets used, carried any Indications of Frenzy. It being the only Indication of Frenzy, in Modes of Expreffion and Dress, not to fall in with received Customs, as far as they are innocent. It was customary among the Orientals (and among other Nations too, as appears from the old Way of ratifying Leagues and Covenants, from the Act of the Phocæans (to which Horace * alludes in his Epodes, and even from Pilate's washing his Hands) to communicate their Sentiments by Typical Signs and Symbolical Representations, in order to impress them with more Energy. They used to 1peak to the Eyes, by Actions expreffive of their Meaning. Abfurdity is either, *Hor. Lib. Epodôn, Od. XVI. y. 25, 26. what |