ings. We have no rational account any where else of a method for reftoring a world ruined by vice. In Scripture we have this great defideratum: Holy Scripture shines forth confpicuous by its own native heavenly fpendour; Enlightening the darknefs, and clearing the doubts, which, from the beginning of the world, hung upon the minds of the wifeft and beft of men, with refpect to the important points, of the moft acceptable manner of worshipping God; of the poffibility of gaining the Divine Favour and the pardon of fin; of a future ftate of retribution; and of the proper immortality, or perpetual existence of the foul: Giving more clear, rational and fublime notions of God; teaching a more perfect method of worshipping and ferving Him; and prefcribing to mankind a diftinct and explicit rule of life, guarded with the most awful fanctions, and attended with the most unquestionable evidences, internal and external, of Divine Authority. Bringing to light various important and interefting truths, which no human fagacity could have found out; and establishing and confirming others, which, though pretended to have been discoverable by reason, yet greatly needed fuperior confirmation. Not only enlightening thofe countries, on which its direct beams have fhone with their full fplendour; but breaking through the clouds of heathenism, and fuperftition, darting fome of its Divine rays to the most diftant parts of the world, and affording á glimmering light to the moft barbarous nations, without which they had been buried in total darknefs and ignorance as to moral and religious knowledge. Drawing afide the veil of time, and opening a profpect into eternity, and the world of fpirits. Exhibiting a fcheme of things incomparably more fublime than is any were elfe to be found; in which various orders of being, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, rife in their feveral degrees, and tower above another toward the perfection of the Divine Nature; in comparison of which, however, they are all as nothing. Holy Scripture, in a word, takes in whatever of great, or good, can be con ceived by a rational mind in the prefent ftate; whatever can be of ufe for railing, refining, and fpiritualifing

human nature; for making this world a paradise, and mankind angels; for qualifying them for that eternal blifs and glory, which was the end of their being. And it is highly probable, that while the world ftands, learned and inquifitive men will be from time to time difcovering new wonders of Divine Wisdom in that inexhauftible treafure. The continual improvement of knowledge of all kinds, and the farther and farther completion of prophecy, give reason to expect this. They, who know what amazing lights have been ftruck out by Mede, Locke, and a few others who have purfued their plan, will readily agree, that, as a century or two paft have fhewn us the Bible in a light, in which it was probably never feen before, fince the apoftolic age; fo a century or two to come may (if mankind do not give over the ftudy of Scripture) exhibit it in a light at prefent inconceivable.

That it may in a fatisfactory manner appear, how important the fubjects, how wide the extent, and how noble the difcoveries of Scripture are; it may be proper to trace the outlines of the vaft and various profpect it exhibits, I mean, to range in order the principal fubjects of Revelation, as they lie in the holy books. This I will endeavour to draw out of the Bible itself, in fuch a manner as one wholly a stranger to our fyftems and controverfies, and who had ftudied Scripture only, might be fuppofed to do it.

Holy Scripture begins with informing us, that God was the Author and Creator of the Univerfe; which truth is alfo confiftent with human reafon; and the direct confequence to be drawn from it is, That all creatures and things are his, and that all thinking beings 'ought to dedicate themfelves to his fervice, to whom they owe their existence, and whatever they have, or hope for. As the Almighty Creator is a pure fpirit, wholly feparate from matter, or corporeal organs of any kind, it is evident, that what he produces, he does by an immediate act of volition. His power reaching to the performance of all poffible things, nothing can refift his will. So that his willing, or defiring a thing to be, is producing it. His faying, or thinking, Let there be light, is creating light.

Scripture

Scripture informs us, that the human fpecies begun in two perfons, one of each fex, created by God, and by himfelf put directly in the mature ftate of life; whereas all the particulars of the fpecies, who have been fince produced, have been created indeed by God, but introduced into human life by the inftrumentality of parents. We learn from Scripture, that the firft of our fpecies were brought into being, not only in a state of innocence, or capacity for virtue, but likewife naturally immortal, being bleft with conftitutions fo formed, that they would of themselves have continued uninjured by time, till it should have been thought proper to remove the fpecies to a new and more fpiritual ftate.

The appointment of one day in feven, as a day of rest; the fanctifying a feventh part of our time to religious purposes, was an ordinance worthy of God; and the account we have in Scripture of its having been appointed fo early, by Divine Authority, and as a law for the whole world, explains how we come to find the observance of a feventh day as facred, by univerfal custom, mentioned in fuch ancient writers as Homer, Hefiod, and Callimachus. Nor can any appointment be imagined more fit for keeping up an appearance of religion among mankind, than this. Stated folemnities, returning periodically, have, by the wisdom of all, lawgivers, been thought the best expedients for keeping up the lafting remembrance of remarkable events. And it is evident, that no event better deferved to be kept in remembrance than that of the completing of the work of creation; till fuch time as the work of redemption, the fecond and beft creation of man, was completed in the refurrection of the Saviour of the World. Upon which the first Christians fanctified the first day of the week, and, according to the best authority now to be had, the feventh likewife; though neither with the ftrictnefs required by the Mofaic Conftitution; but with that decent liberty, with which Christianity makes its votaries free.

The defign of creating the human fpecies, was to put them in the way toward fuch a happiness as fhould be fit and fuitable to the nature of free moral agents. This rendered it neceffary to place them in a state of dif

cipline; the only poffible method for learning virtue; and we accordingly find a leffon of obedience prefcribed then immediately on their coming into exiftence. A law, to all appearance, very eafy to keep. Only to abstain wholly from one particular indulgence, being at liberty, within the bounds of moderation, with respect to others. In the ftate of things at that time, it would not have been easy to prescribe a particular trial, which fhould not turn upon the government of paffion or appetite. Being the only two on the face of the earth, they could not be guilty of a breach of duty to fellow-creatures. And with the frequent intercourse, Scripture gives us reafon to think, they had with angels, and celeftial beings, they could hardly bring themfelves to any pofitive violation of their duty to God; and were under no temptation to neglect it. That they fhould fall into this fatal tranfgreffion of the first law given for trial of their obedience, was to be expected from beings newly created, and wholly unexperienced and unprincipled. Thus we fee, that young children have no fixed principles fufficient to prevent their yielding to temptation: for virtue is an attachment to rectitude, and abhorrence of all moral evil, arifing from rea fon, experience, and habit. But though this, and other deviations from obedience, were to be expected from the first of mankind, it does not follow, that fuch deviations were wholly innocent. Pitiable undoubtedly their cafe was, and the rather, in that they were misled by temptation from a wicked being more experienced than themfelves. Accordingly their cafe, and that of the rest of the fpecies, has found fuch pity, and fuch interpofitions have been made in their favour, as we have reafon, from Scripture, to fuppofe other offending orders of beings, particularly the fallen angels, have not been favoured with. For it is exprefsly faid, that nothing equivalent to the Chriftian Scheme of Reftoration and Salvation has been planned out in favour of them; but that they are left to the confequences of their difobedience.

The

This point is not here ftated as the author now thinks it ought. See the Note page 252.

The natural tendency of the leaft deviation from moral rectitude is fo dreadfully and extenfively fatal, as to render it highly neceflary that the righteous Governor of the World thould inflict fome fignal and permanent mark of his difpleasure on the occafion of the first tranfgreffion of the firft of the fpecies. As a wife father, who has found his child once guilty of a breach of truth, or any other foul crime, feems at firft to disbelieve it, and then punishes him with the lofs of his favour for a very long time after, and otherwife; in fuch a manner as may be likely to make a lafting impreffion on his mind, and deter him from a repetition of his fault. Scripture informs us, accordingly, that immediately upon the first offence, the trangreffors, and in them the whole fpecies, were funk from their natural immortality, and condemned to a ftate obnoxious to death.

Whether eating the forbidden fruit was not the natural, as well as judicial caufe of disease and death, it is needlefs to difpute; but what is faid of the tree of life in the book of Genefis, and afterwards in the Apocalypfe, as if it were a natural antidote, or cure for mortality, and the means of preferving life, is very remarkable.

Death, the confequence of the first tranfgreffion, and which has been merited by innumerable fucceding offences, was pronounced upon mankind, on purpose to be to all ages a standing memorial of the Divine difpleafure against difobedience. With the fame view alfo, Scripture informs us, the various natural evils, of the barrenness of the earth, inclement feafons, and the other grievances, under which nature at prefent groans, were inflicted; that men might no where turn their eyes or their thoughts, where they fhould not meet a caveat against vice and irregularity.

Here I cannot help obferving, by the by, in how ridiculous a light the Scripture account of the fatal and important confequences of the firft tranfgreffion fhews the ufual fuperficial apologies made by wretched mortals in excufe of their vices and follies. One crime is the effect of thoughtlefnefs. They did not, forfooth, confider how bad fuch an action was. Another is a natural action. Drunkennefs is only an immoderate indulFf3 gence