VII.

SERM. fhall be given; and from Him that bath not, shall be taken away even That which he bath. By the Light of Nature, God manifests himself to men in the works of Creation; Vifibly enough, to those who, as St Paul expreffes it, feek the Lord, if kaply they may feel after him, and find him: But yet at the fame time in fuch a manner, as that vitious and ill-difpofed men, feeing, may ftill not fee; and hearing, may still not hear; but may go on to ascribe the most perfect works of infinite Wisdom, to Fate, to Chance, to Nothing. By Revelation, God has declared his Mercy towards Sinners: Signifying unto them, that as a Great King over numerous Nations, confiftently with the Laws of his univerfal Kingdom, pardons, in fome rebellious City, by the interpofition of his beloved Son, as many as, by his Son's invitation and perswasion, return to their Duty; fo alfo will God, the Supreme Governour of the Univerfe, accept all thofe, whom the Spirit of Christ, (inviting them either under the ftate of Nature, by fuch Preachers of righteousness

as

VII.

as was Noah and the Patriarchs; or under S ER M. the Law, by Mofes and the Prophets; or under the Gospel, by our Lord himself and his Apostles,) whom (I fay) by Any of these means, the Spirit of Christ shall bring to Repentance. And the Evidences of this Revelation, (in the fame manner, and for the fame reason, as the Evidences of God in the Works of Creation,) are fitted to fatisfy an unprejudiced Mind, and yet are not fuch as cannot be refifted. When the Jews demanded of our Saviour fuch a Sign, as was given to their Fathers when the Heavens rained down Manna for them to eat, Job. vi. 6. he would not gratify them with a new miracle, but gave them the true interpretation of the antient one: I am, fays he, the Bread of Life; the Bread of God is He which cometh down from Heaven, and giveth Life unto the World. Again, When the Pharifees asked of him a Sign from Heaven; Mat. xvi. his Answer was, Luk. xii. 56. Ye hypocrites, ye can difcern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it, that ye do not difcern this Time? referring them VOL. V.

L 2

to

I.

VII.

SERM. to the Prophecies, which much more plainly pointed out the Time of his Coming, than ever the face of the Sky forefignified the Weather. These Prophecies he fulfilled, in his Life and by his Death; by many miraculous Actions, and miraculous Sufferings. And when he was raised up the third day, God fhewed him openly; not to all the people, Acts x. 41. but unto Witnesses chofen before of God, and commanded to preach unto the people: God here likewise doing, not every thing that could be done, not every thing that unreasonable men might expect should be done, but what he himself faw fit and proper to be done. According to that affectionate obfervation of our Saviour, Luk. iv. 25. I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Ifrael in the days of Elias, but ------unto none of them was he fent, fave unto------a widow of Sarepta: And many Lepers were in Ifrael in the time of Elifeus the Prophet, and none of them was cleanfed, faving Naaman the Syrian. God has given us Faculties, to enable us to fearch after and to find the Truth; and

he

VII.

he expects we should attend with an im- SER M. partial and unprejudiced mind (which is the proper Duty of Rational Creatures,) to the Light he thinks fit to afford us. Why, even of yourselves, fays our Saviour, judge ye not what is right? Luk. xii. 57. They who do thus judge; who, with a mind defirous to do the Will of God, receive and embrace the doctrine of Truth; not carelefly, credulously, and implicitly; but with reason, with examination, with attention, with fuch impartial confideration and inquiry, as enables men to find (by observation and care) what Others are blind to, and to be ready always to give a reafon of the Hope that is in them; These are the perfons, whom the Scripture commends for their Faith; for having the Virtue of Faith; in opposition to the Vice of Infidelity, and to the Folly of Credulity. For, we walk by Faith, not by Sight, 2 Cor. v. 7. by a rational perfwafion, not by Neceffity: Seeing (as St Paul elegantly defcribes it; Seeing) through a glass (through a defcrying-glass) darkly, T 1 Cor. xiii. 12. not beholding, as in a glass L 3

(as

* κάτοπιζαν

*

SERM. (as in a looking-glass,) with open face, VII. 2 Cor. iii. 18. And This is That which makes Faith and Hope to be Virtues: For Hope that is feen, is not Hope; for, what a man feeth, why doth ke yet hope for? But if we hope for That we fee not, then do we with patience wait for it, Rom. viii. 25. The God of Nature, in whom we live and move and have our Being, and who is not far from every one of us, is not visible to mortal eyes: But the Light of Nature affords reasonable men, very great Arguments to believe and truft in him; And This, is a commendable and well-grounded Faith. For Faith is the Subftance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not feen: And the commendation of Mofes's patience in Egypt, before God's revealing them himself to him, was, that he indured, as feeing him who is invifible, Heb, xi. 27. The Evidences of natural reafon and of the most demonftrable Truths, do not force themselves upon All men; But to the impartial and attentive, to the unprejudiced and confiderate, they appear in their full Strength;

and,