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SERMON VIII.

JOHN XIV. 29.

I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe.

T was observed by Aristotle, and the just

IT

nefs of the remark and reputation of the author have often recommended the obfervation to others, that different fubjects admit of different forts and degrees of proof". The mathematician demonstrates the truth of his propofitions; the orator endeavours by probable arguments to perfuade his hearers; and the moralift, who is converfant with the variable actions of human life, deduces fuch conclufions as are generally true, and gives fuch directions as will feldom fail.

a Eth. L. I. c. iii. vii.

Had

Had this fupreme mafter of philosophy and of criticism appeared in a later age, or in a different country, he would perhaps have given a name to a fpecies of evidence, with which, at the time and place where he lived, he was not acquainted; the evidence, I mean, of divine revelation. By whatever term we may denominate this evidence; whether, from its own intrinfic excellence or from the object which it refpects, we choose to style it Divine; or whether the proofs of what God has been pleased to teach us, but not in fyftematic order and method, fhall pass, as hitherto, without a peculiar and appropriate appellation; whatever we may determine as to these matters, certain it is, that the proofs are infallible, our belief of them fuch as cannot poffibly be erroneous. If there is a GOD, a Being of infinite wisdom and goodness, the religion which avows Him for its author, and which under that avowal He has in all ages fupported, fometimes by making bare his holy arm to enforce it, and at all times by accomplishing its predictions and its promises; the religion, thus acknowledged and confirmed by GoD, must be, what it claims to be, the revelation of his will; or else we must believe, what it is equally abfurd

abfurd and impious to imagine, That the juft and holy Governor of the world has imposed upon the understanding of his rational creatures a system of delufion, carrying along with it fuch marks of authenticity, as compel the affent of the candid inquirer; fuch criterions of truth, as the pertinacious sceptic or determined infidel can never fhew to be doubtful, much lefs to be falfe.

To make good thefe affertions we need not have recourfe to multiplicity of arguments, from the figns and wonders openly wrought by Christ and his apostles, from the feries of prophecies ftretching through all ages, or from other confiderations tending to establish the fame conclufion. It will be fufficient to review thofe prophecies, neither few in number nor of fmall concernment, the particulars of which with their correfponding completions we have confidered at large; earnestly befeeching the God and Father of all to blefs to His glory, and to our benefit, the teftimony which he has been pleased to give to the everlasting gospel of his beloved Son.

We have seen then, first of all, that the various declarations and apparently incone fiftent

fiftent characters, which were at fundry times delivered to the fathers, refpecting the promifed Redeemer of mankind, met and concentred in Jefus Chrift. He was the prophet and lawgiver foretold by Mofes; the offspring of David, and at the fame time his Lord. He was the fon of a pure virgin, compaffed with a body of mortal flesh; and

yet he was Immanuel, Jehovah God of hosts. He came to his own at the very time when first they began to expect the Messiah; and foon after his appearance, the sceptre, which former calamities had not broken, departed from Judah, and their civil and religious polity was destroyed.

The predictions uttered by this divine perfon, whether they had reference to things near at hand, or whether they respected unborn ages; whether they regarded the ordinary occurrences of life, or whether they concerned events the most splendid that the world ever faw; clearly fhewed, that he was privy to the movements of universal nature; that the voluntary actions of men, and the myfterious counfels of GOD, were naked and open in his fight.

Did he intimate to his difciples, that fome of them fhould, even in this life, behold a

fpecimen

fpecimen of his future glory? Six days afterwards his words were verified, when he was transfigured in the prefence of three of his apoftles. Did he foretel his death, and defcribe the manner of it; and promise his difciples to return unto them, and comfort their hearts? The wonderful prophecy, in all its parts, in the proofs of power as well as inftances of patience, was punctually accomplished. Did he, upon his refurrection, affure those whom he condefcended to call his brethren, that all power was now given unto him in heaven and in earth? and did he, in confequence, promife, that not many days after his departure from earth to heaven, his miffion fhould be authenticated and his kingdom established, not by human ftrength, or temporal fplendor, but by the descent of the holy Comforter? The day of Pentecoft beheld the miracle, when the celeftial vifitant, with the found of a mighty wind and the fimilitude of fire, came down on the apostles; and forthwith the lips of Galilean fishermen fpake the multiform languages of the peopled earth; the kingdom of Chrift was erected in the hearts of men, and the bodies of the faithful were made living temples of the Holy Ghost.

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