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the minute stamina originally disposed in the grain sown, gives countenance to this conjecture, and probably fur nished the first hint of it. It is not my purpose to establish any one hypothesis whatever. The only end answered by mentioning a conjecture for solving this difficulty, if it be a difficulty, is to show the doctrine of a future resurrection to be conceivable, without any absurdity. It must even be owned, that the scheme of a restoration, or renovation, of the whole human nature is incomparably more beautiful and regular, and consequently more likely to be the true one, than that received by the heathen world, which supposed the total loss or destruction of one essential part of the nature, I mean the body, and made the future man a quite different being, an unbodied spirit, instead of an embodied one. Whereas the Christian scheme represents the dissolution and separation of the body for a time as the effect and punishment of vice, and its restoration as the effect of the kind interposition of our glori ous Deliverer; by which means the whole existence of the human species (I mean, that part of them which shall be found fit for life and immortality) appears uniform, and of a piece; and after the conclusion of the separate state, goes on as before, only with the advantage of being incomparably more perfect, though still the same in kind.

The views held forth in Scripture of the future restor ation, glory, and happiness of the peculiar people of God; of the universal establishment of the most pure and perfect of religions; of the millenium, or paradise restored, with the general prevalency of virtue and goodness; by which means a very great proportion of those, who shall live in that period, will come to happiness; all these views are sublime, worthy of the Divine revelation which exhibits them, and suitable to the greatness of the moral economy. But as the future parts of prophecy are, and ought to be, difficult to understand in all their minute particulars, as is evident from the diversity of opinions given by the commentators on those parts of holy writ; while they generally agree, that the above-mentioned particulars are in scripture held forth as to be hereafter accomplished; as as this, I say, is the case, it may not be necessary that I attempt to fix any one particular scheme of the completion of those parts of prophecy.

The doctrine of a future general judgment of the whole human race by the same Divine Person, who, by the power of the Father, made the world, and who redeemed it, is held forth in scripture in a manner suitable to the pomp with which so awful a scene may be expected to be trans acted. That the whole Divine economy, with respect to this world, should conclude with a general inquiry into, and public declaration of, the character, and so much of the past conduct, as may be necessary, of every individ, ual of the species; and that, in consequence of the dif ferent behaviour of each, during the state of discipline and probation, their future existence should be happy or miserable; that every individual should be disposed of according to what he has made himself fit for; all this the perfect rectitude of the Divine nature indispensably requires. And without this conclusion of the whole economy, the moral government of the world must be imper. fect; or rather, without it, the very idea of moral gov ernment is absurd. That the decision of the future state of men will turn chiefly upon their general prevailing cha racters; the habits they have acquired; the dispositions they have cultivated; their attachment to virtue and obe dience, or to irregularity and vice, seems probable both from Scripture and reason. So that, as on one hand a few errors, if not persisted in, but repented of and reformed, being consistent with a prevailing good character, may be overlooked; so, on the other, a thousand acts of charity or virtue of any kind, if done from indirect views, or by persons of hypocritical or bad hearts, will gain no favour from the general Judge. Of what consequence is it then that we be sure of our own integrity! And how dreadful may the effects prove of going out of the present state of discipline, with one vicious babit uncorrected, or with a temper of mind defective in respect of one virtue!

Whether all the more secret errors of persons of good characters, of which they have sincerely repented, which they have for years lamented with floods of undissembled tears, and which they have thoroughly reformed, will be displayed to the full view of men and angels, seems a questionable point: For it does not to reason appear ab solutely necessary: It being easily enough conceivable, that the character of a person may be determinable by

Divine Wisdom, and capable of being set forth to the general view in a manner sufficiently satisfactory, without so minute an examination. And if so it may be conclu ded, that the sincere penitent will be put to no needless pain. And if there is a pain more cruel than another, it is for a generous mind to be exposed to public shame. Besides what reason may suggest on this head, the numer ous expressions of Scripture, of "blotting out the sins of penitents from the books of remembrance; of hiding, covering, and forgetting them," and the like, seem to favour the opinion, that the character and conduct of pen. itents will be only so far displayed, as to show them to be fit objects of the Divine mercy.

SECTION IV.

Considerations on the Credibility of Scripture.

IT is not only to the studious and learned, that the proofs of Revelation lie level. All men, who will apply their faculties with the same diligence and attention which they every day bestow upon the common affairs and even the amusements of life, may be rationally convinced, that they are under Divine Government, and must feel, that they are accountable creatures; upon which fundamental principles the whole scheme of Revelation being construct ed, they may easily bring themselves to see the force of the evidence arising from miracles and the completion of prophecy, particularly those relating to the Jewish people; which, in conjunction with the character of Moses and the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles; a due attention to the nature and tendency of the doctrines and precepts con. tained in scripture; and the consideration of the establishment of Christianity, so wholly unaccountable upon any other footing, than its being from God; may give full and well grounded satisfaction to any considerate person, that all the objections of the opposers of Revealed Religion can never amount to such a degree of weight in the whele, as to over-balance the positive proof for it, or yield a sufficient proof that the whole is a forgery.

At the same time it must be observed, that to be qualiSed for examining in a proper manner all the various a

guments in favour of Revelation, requires a very extensive knowledge in various ways, as in philological and critical learning, history, and philosophy, natural and moral. Which shows in a very strange light the presumption of many men of supernatural and narrow improvements, who pretend to oppose religion, and rashy enter into a dispute for which they are so ill furnished.

For it is the unfair and fallacious proceeding of many disingenuous opposers of revealed religion, to detach some single branch of proof, or some doubtful argument, and by caviling at that, endeavour to overturn the whole evidence for revelation. But whoever will consider the subject with candour, will see, that it is of such an extensive nature, comprehends so many different views, and is established upon such a variety of arguments, drawn from different parts of knowledge, that the true state, and full result, of the evidence, upon the whole, cannot, by the nature of the thing, be reduced to one point; and consequently that taking any one narrow view of it, and judging from that, is the way to deceive ourselves and others. It is indeed as if a man were rashly to pronounce that the earth is of no regular figure whatever, merely from observing the irregularity of the Alps, and other ranges of mountains, which fill the eye of the traveller, while the whole globe is too large, and too near, for the human sight to comprehend its general figure. Yet the very first principles of geography show, that the protuberance of the highest mountain of the world, being but three miles perpendicular, is no greater irregularity upon a globe, eight thousand miles in diameter, than the little roughnesses upon an orange are derogations from the general roundness of its figure; as a mite, or other very small insect, might be supposed to imagine them.

To consider any complex subject in a partial manner, exclusive of any material part, and without taking in the whole of it, is not considering it as it is; and subjects will not be understood otherwise than as they are. Men of narrow minds may run themselves, and designing men others, into endless labyrinths, and inextricable errors: but Truth stands upon its own eternal and immoveable basis : and Wisdom will in the end be justified of her children. The whole evidence of Revelation is not prophecy alone,

nor miracles alone, nor the sublimity of its doctrines alone, nor the purity of its precepts alone, nor the character of Ma ses and the Prophets, Christ, and his Apostles alone, nor the internal character of simplicity in the writings of scripture alone; nor any one of the other branches of proof alone; but the joint coincidence and accumulated effect of them all concentred. Now, he who can bring himself to believe seriously, that such a number of amazing coincidences, such a variety of evidence, presumptive and positive, circumstantial and essential, collateral and direct, internal and external, should by the Divine Providence be suffered to concur, to the effectual and remediless deception of the most inquisitive, judicious, and ingenuous part of mankind, must have strange notions of the Divine economy in the moral world. And he, who, in spite of the super-abundant and accumulated evidence for the truth of Revelation, will suffer himself to be misled into opposition against it, merely on the account of some single circumstantial dif ficulty, must have no head for judging complicated evi dence; which yet every man has occasion to weigh, and to act upon almost every day of his life. And he, who, from indirect views of any kind, labours to mislead mankind into opposition against what would be infinitely to their advantage to receive, is the common enemy of truth, and of mankind.

If the sacred history of scripture has not the internal marks of truth, there is no reason to give credit to any history in the world. And to question the veracity of ancient history in the gross, would be (to mention no other absurd consequences) doubting whether there were any men of integrity in the world, till these four or five centuries last past. The remarkable coincidence betwixt sacred and profane history shows the genuineness of the former; and its delivering grave and credible accounts of things, while many of the ancient writers amuse us with fables evidently drawn from imperfect accounts of the sacred story, plainly discover scripture to have been the original from which the other is an imperfect copy. Of the foundation and measure of certainty attainable by testimony, I have treated elsewhere.*

The fragments of ancient Phanecian historians preserved by Eusebius; with what we have of Zeno, the

• See page 226.
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