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upon all the dealers in those myfteries, and all the advocates for them, to give a cafe, and fhew in one fingle inftance, that any good purpofe has been, or can poffibly be answered to mankind by them; excepting. the worldly advantages which the traders in those mysteries may gain to themselves thereby. Religious myfteries answer the purposes of crafty men, by which they play their game upon the weak and inattentive; and which has turned to very great account in the Church of Rome, as is most evident and, perhaps, in a leffer degree, in many other parts of the world: And as the Deity knows full well what mankind are, that fome will be much too sharp for others; fo from hence we may juftly and safely conclude, that he will not furnish the artful part of our species with materials, thereby to play upon and make their advantages of

the reft.

اذ

HAVING fhewed what care and caution ought to be used, and under what reftrictions and limitations all books ought to be admitted, that are to be guides to our judgments and actions, fuppofing the Deity not to have given a pasport with those books, which would have conducted them fafely through

through the world, and down to latest pofterity, free from all corruption and alteration; but has left those books (without any guard upon them) in the hands of men,

who are at liberty to do with them, and by them, and make them fubfervient to what purposes they please, which is manifeftly the cafe of the hiftories of Christ's ministry.

I Now come to enquire, how Chrift's mesfage, or the chriftian revelation, is to be collected from those histories. And, in order to do this, I think, we must carefully and diligently examine thofe books, diftinguishing and feparating as aforefaid; and thereby endeavour to find out what it is which Chrift's discourses and parables principally lead to, and terminate in; and what it was which Chrift laboured to imprefs deeply upon the minds of the people; and that, I think, may, with propriety and fafety, be called the Chriftian revelation, or the true gospel of Jefus Chrift. What that gofpel is, I have already fhewn, in a difcourfe on that fubject; and tho' great fault has been found with that treatise, and great oppofition has been made to it, yet I have not been able, by the closest infpection, to difcover any just grounds

VOL. II.

grounds upon which I can depart from the principles there laid down; which principles, as I here reaffume the fubject, I beg leave to repeat. In the forementioned treatise I have obferved, that what Chrift's discourses and parables chiefly point at, and terminate in, and what Chrift laboured to impress deeply upon the minds of his hearers, may, I think, be fummed up in the three following particulars. First, that nothing but a conformity of mind and life to that eternal and invariable rule of affection and action which refults from, and is founded in the natural and effential differences in things; or the denying all ungodliness and worldly lufts, and the living godlily, foberly, righteously and benevolently in this present world, will render men acceptable to God. Secondly, if men have greatly departed from this rule, and have thereby rendered themfelves the proper objects of divine revenge; then, nothing but their repentance and reformation, their ceafing to do evil and learning to do well, their being converted from bad men to good men, will render them the proper objects of, and will be the ground and reafon of God's mercy to them. Thirdly and lastly, that God will judge the

world

world in righteousness, and will render to every man according as his works fhall be, whether they be good, or whether they be evil. These propofitions appear, to me, to contain the fum and fubftance of Chrift's miniftry and, as they are altogether worthy of the supreme Deity; fo, I think, they may, with propriety and truth, be called the gofpel of Jesus Christ, or the Christian revelaNevertheless, if any perfon fhall think that I have erred, either in excess or defect, by extending the chriftian revelation beyond, or by contracting it within it's proper bounds, and fhall give a jufter, truer and better account of this matter than I have done; when that is plainly fhewn, then what I have obferved will stand for nought.

tion.

PERHAPS, it may be thought that I have too much limited this fubject, by confining it to the miniftry of Chrift; whereas Chrift fent his Apoftles to preach the Chriftian revelation to the world, and therefore regard must be had, and that printipally, to what the Apostles have faid touching this matter, as they were fpecially appointed by their mafter to this office, and were properly qualified for that work. That the Apostles were appointed to preach the gospel, and G 2 thereby

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thereby to lay the ground-work of Chriftianity, is confonant to the hiftory; and that they were fufficiently qualified for fuch an undertaking is very naturally supposed, and feems confonant to the hiftory alfo; and yet to extend the subject, as is here propofed, I am apprehenfive, will greatly perplex it. The writers of the hiftories of the ministry of Chrift have informed us, that, after Christ rose from the dead, he charged his Apoftles to preach the gospel to all nations; and the writer of the history of the miniftry of the Apoftles has farther informed us, that, after Christ's resurrection, he was with the Apostles forty days, fpeaking to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God; the fame hiftorian does also inform us, that on the day of Penticost, next after Christ's refurrection, the Holy Ghost defcended on the Apostles and brethren, of which St. Stephen is said to have been full, and which, furely, must have been the cafe of the Apoftles alfo ; fo that then the Apostles had a divine plethora, a fulness or overflowing of the divine fpirit, to lead them into all truth; by which extraordinary advantages they feem to have been as well, or rather better qualified for fettling Chriftia

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