out fome

ginal, could be conveyed through such hands as even the best of men are, withvery material alterations. And accordingly two provifions were made for their prefervation: first, The longevity of the first men, and the frequent familiar appearances of celestial beings to, and converfations with them; to which may be added, the rites and obfervances of their religious worship, until the wife director of all found it proper to reduce them into writing, begun by Mofes, carried on from time to time by the prophets, and finished by Jefus Chrift and his apoftles; and, fecondly, A people separated from the reft of mankind, and invested with very diftinguishing privileges, for this very end, to be witnesses for God, and to preferve in their purity thofe divine oracles, which were committed to them with fuch circumftances as could leave no doubt of their divine original, and the authority by which they were established, fuch as never attended any other facts whatfoever; and that nation was fo wifely placed in the midst of the then habitable world, and the neighbourhood of thofe ftates which had extended their trade and navigation farthest, that

all

all the inhabitants of the earth had, or might have had, eafy accefs to recover the truth of their traditions, however they might have been corrupted, or even altogether lost.

In fact, we find that this was the way which the ancient Greeks took for acquiring knowledge. Travelling was their beft courfe of education; and their travels lay all one way. Egypt, and the neighbourhood of Canaan, were the places they frequented; and he who could give the beft account of their traditions, was the wifeft man. And thence, we have good reafon to think, these veftiges of truth were ta→ ken which are fo much admired in ancient writings. Thus, however, things went on, until a generation of men arofe, who, affuming the then modest name of philofophers, and fcorning to take any thing upon truft, would needs fall a-reafoning, as they called it, on facts greatly above their reach, and where they could have no data to fupport them. In confequence. whereof, the principal facts were either rejected as impoffible, or explained away into a confiftency with their own low and mistaken notions or imaginations. Thus, profeffing

A 2

profeffing themselves wife, they became fools; and the knowledge of the true God, and of all the concerns of the fpiritual and eternal world, was in effect totally loft; infomuch that the very writings of Mofes and the prophets were, by the generality of that people to whom they were committed, greatly perverted from their original intention, and made void by their foolish traditions.

Such was the unhappy ftate of mankind when Jefus Chrift came into the world; who, by himself, and his disciples, fo fully vindicated the original truth, that now, one would have thought, there was effectual provifion made against all corruptions and abuses for ever; efpecially when these ftandards of facred truth came to be tranflated into vulgar tongues, and lodged in every hand. Thus, we are told, the primitive Christians, contenting themselves with the fimplicity of faith, made it, their fole bufinefs to improve the facts which they believed; to form their hearts and lives upon them, into a converfation becoming the gospel of Chrift, which comprehended them all, and fet them in their. proper light.

But

5

But many ages had not paffed, until the fame fort of men treated the written revelation much in the fame manner as their predeceffors had done the traditional one; and fetting out as they did, upon this very fallacious principle, That no man can believe what he does not understand, or understand any thing of which he has not clear and diftinct ideas, as the images we form of external objects are called, they found themselves obliged, either flatly to deny, or explain away the most momentous facts, however ftrongly supported, on which Christianity, or indeed any religion, can stand. It is palpably certain, that we can have no idea at all, `much lefs a clear and diftinct one, of any thing, but what we can imagine, or form fome image of; and that cannot poffibly go any further than material objects, whatever notions or conceptions we may form by description, or analogy and refemblance; and where thefe fail, there fhould be an end both of our knowledge and our faith, and a strong foundation laid for fetting afide all the numerous fingular facts recorded in the holy fcriptures, and even that on which all religión refts, the being

being of a God, who is the creator and proprietor of all things in heaven and earth.

Our modern philofophers indeed, taking the advantage of that light which revelation has given, undertake boldly, not only to discover the being of God, but to make out a complete character of him in all his perfections, with all the evidence of demonftration. And it must be acknowledged, they have said many plausible things. But as the belief of some being which is called God has been in the world ever fince there were men in it, all that is left for them is, to try what can be faid for or against it. This is a quite different thing from finding out a fact altogether unknown; a province that reafon was never made for; and which indeed cannot poffibly be done, but by bringing it fome how under our observation; and that cannot be done, but either by bringing it within the reach of our perceptive powers, or by the information of others: and when the most momentous facts on which the proper evidence of the divine being and diftinguishing character refts, are confidered, they will be found to

be