than in any former period; if we confider the united teftimonies of the prophets, John the Baptift, our Lord himself, and his apoftles.

From this detail of the divine difpenfations, I hope it appears, that, while grace lays the foundation, equity prefides over and fecures the glory of the whole fuperftructure and each department.

SECT. IV.

Of the UNIVERSAL ASPECT of revelation.

§ 1. We should distinguish between the afpect and the boundaries of revelation. § 2. All revelation from Adam to Noah had an univerfal afpect. § 3. Alfo to Abraham and Mofes. § 4. The want of univerfality in the actual acquaintance of mankind with revealed truths, from Abraham to Messiah's advent, accounted for. § 5. The afpect of the chriftian revelation, univerfal. § 6. How to reconcile this with matter of fact. § 7. Corollary.

WE

E fhould carefully obferve the difference between the actual boundaries and the afpect of revelation. The latter is univerfal in every period, at least as to the most important parts of it; the former has been, in most ages, very partial. Thus light, air, water, natural liberty, are defigned for the ufe of all, or the grant of them bears an univerfal afpect, but the actual ufe is not fo extenfive.

§ 2. Whatever divine revelation was made to Adam, Enoch, and Noah, it had undoubtedly an univerfal afpect, there being no express restriction of its promulgation and ufe to one more than another; nor any affignable reafon exifting for fuch a reftriction, though there is little doubt that the actual knowledge of the facred discovery was very unequal. Through

Through carelessnefs, worldly pursuits, and fenfual gratifications, it is easy to conceive how many perfons, families, and even tribes or large neighbourhoods, would lose the clearness of certain revealed truths, however interefting and important, while they were no less intended by the exhibitory grants of fovereign benefits than others who enjoyed advantages far fuperior. The afpect of the original promise, "that the Meffiah fhould bring deliver"ance to men," was to Cain as well as Abel; to the daughters of men as well as the fons of GOD; to Ham and Japheth as well as to Shem.

§ 3. It may, at first, be not so easy to apprehend, how what GOD revealed of his will to Abraham and Moses had an aspect fo diffufive and universal. But when we confider that there is a wide difference between the inftruments and the objects of covenant favours, the difficulty will vanifh. Abraham and Sarah, Ifaac, Jacob, and his defcendants to the time of the Meffiah, were not only the objects but also the inftruments of covenant bleffings. While the Ifraelites alone (including profelytes) were the honoured inftruments of introducing the promised bleffing; while it was faid to Abraham, "I will make thee "the father of many nations, and in Ifaac fhall thy "feed be called;" it is evident from the encouragement given to profelytes, and from the coincidence of the Abrahamic promife with the gofpel, that towards the objects of the covenant its afpect was univerfal. Had any one of the human race stepped forward, and put in a claim of admiffion in virtue

G4

of

of the clause inferted in the facred ftatute in favour of profelytism, the Jews had no right to dispute that claim; which demonftrates, that even the revelation which of all others is deemed the moft restrictive, abfolutely excluded no man.

§ 4. It is not difficult to account for the want of univerfality in the actual acquaintance of mankind with revealed religion from the time of Abraham to the Meffiah's advent. For,

1. Antient predictions of a Saviour were neceffary in order to encourage and establish the belief of finners from the beginning; which to an impartial mind must appear to be a truly amiable trait of moral government. And, in pursuance of the fame end, the more specific and particular these predictions were the more valuable they must be. But it is plain,

2. That the truth of thefe predictions could not be afcertained, by identifying the person for the conviction of all the world, but by fuch limitations and exclufive rites as were in fact enjoined upon the Ifraelites. By not mixing with other nations their genealogies were kept exact, whereby the predictions, the life and glory of which were derived from their specific character, were cafily traced; the evidence of his fpringing from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the tribe of Judah, and family of David; the time of his coming, and the place of his nativity; muft break forth with peculiar luftre, and conftitute no fmall part of the evidence of Christianity.

$ 5. The

§ 5. The universal aspect of the christian revelation is fo plain on the face of the New Teftament, that it would be needlefs to enter on a formal proof of the fact. Though John the Baptift was confined in his miniftrations to the jewish nation, being commiffioned to call them, as the fubjects of the Mosaic covenant, and to whom primarily and moft directly the promises were made as the defcendants of Abraham, to the exercife of repentance and a thankful reception of the Meffiah; and though our Lord himself, for fimilar reasons, came only to "his own," the "loft fheep of the house "of Ifrael," when he had finished his redeeming work he speaks a different language from what he had done before: And Jefus came, and fpake • unto them, faying, "All power is given unto "me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore " and teach, or difciple, ALL NATIONS;" or, as St. Mark expreffes it, "Go ye into all the world, "and preach the gospel to every creature." St. Peter, for a time, hesitated, with respect to the univerfality of this commiffion, but he was, at length, fufficiently convinced, that the gofpel look.. ed upon every man, and made a gracious profer to him of life and falvation. "GOD hath fhewed me "that I should not call any man common or un"clean."* Accordingly the apostles went forth in all directions, making no difference between Jews and Gentiles, Greeks and barbarians, preaching peace by Jefus Christ as Lord of all.

See Acts x. throughout.

§ 6. If