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SER M. from the one Sea to the other, and from the
IV. Flood unto the World's end: All Kings

fhall fall down before him, all nations
fball do bim Service, Pf. lxxii. 8, II.
The Gospel of Chrift, was to be an uni-
verfal Religion; a light to lighten the Gen-
tiles, as well as to be the glory of his peo-
ple Ifrael; According to that remarka-
ble prophecy of Ifaiah, ch. xlix. ver. 6;
It is a light thing, that thou shouldst be
my fervant to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
and to restore the preferved of Ifrael; I
will also give thee for a light to the Gen-
tiles, that thou mayeft be my falvation un-
to the ends of the earth. Now about the
time of our Saviour's Birth, 'tis obferva-
ble there was a concurrence of many
things in the World, to promote and fur-
ther the propagating of Such a Religion.
The Romans had then conquered almost
all the known parts of the World; they
had spread and settled their language a-
mong all the nations of their conquests,
and had made the communication eafy
from one part to another. They had
moreover improved moral Philofophy to
its greatest height; and by having framed

better

better notions of God and of the nature of S ER M. things, than were usual in the idolatrous IV. Heathen World, they were in fome meafure prepared for the reception of the Truth. This appears plainly from the vast numbers of Profelytes, which were about this time converted to the Jewish Religion; fo far converted, as to believe in and worship the One only true God, and to obey the moral Law, yet without observing the ritual and ceremonial performances of the Mofaick inftitution. These Profelytes are they which in the Hiftory of the Acts of the Apostles are stiled devout men, worshippers of God, and men fearing God; Of whom how great numbers there were at That time, may be feen in the 2d chapter of the Acts ver. 5, &c. where 'tis faid that there were dwelling at Jerufalem devout men out of every nation under heaven; Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mefopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Afia, Phrygia, and Pamphilia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Lybia, about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and profelytes, Cretes and Arabians,

IV.

SER M. rabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. Further; the great improvement and increase of Learning in the World about this time, (according to that prophecy of Daniel, Many fhall run to and fro, and knowledge fhall be increased;) gave occafion to the Jewish books to be dispersed through the World: And particu larly, the tranflating of the Bible fome few Ages before the Birth of Christ, into one of the then most known and univerfal languages upon Earth, which had before been confined in a peculiar language to the Jews only; was a fingular preparative to the reception of that great Prophet and Saviour of mankind, whose Coming was in that Book so plainly and so often foretold. Indeed this seems to have been the first step of God's discovering himself further than by the Light of Nature to other nations as well as to the Jews, and of his giving the heathen also the knowledge of his revealed laws; And remarkably inftrumental it afterwards appeared to be, in the propa

gating the Chriftian religion through the SER M Gentile World.

BUT I barely mention these things, as only brief intimations to inquifitive and confiderate perfons; and haften in the laft place, to draw fome more universally ufeful and practical inferences, from the particulars of the doctrine contained in the Text. And ift, If our Saviour came into the World precisely at the time determined and foretold by the prophets; then have we from hence an unanfwerable proof of our Saviour's being the true Meffias. For if our Lord appeared. exactly at that time, which God by his Holy prophets had before appointed should be the time when the promised Meffias, the defire and expectation of nations, was to appear; and no other perfon did arise near that time, to whom that Character could poffibly belong; then have we an undeniably evidence that our Saviour was that Perfon, whom the prophets did point at and describe. And this evidence is fo convictive and unanfwerable, that the Jews at this day have no other way to elude the force of it, but

IV.

by

SERM. by pretending that though God had inIV. deed foretold pofitively by his Prophets

~

that the Meffias fhould appear about that
time, yet for the Sins of that nation he
has deferred the fending of the Meffiah,
and the fulfilling of those prophecies, for
above Seventeen hundred years. But
there are moreover two peculiar circum-
stances, which make this argument yet
more strong and concluding; the first is,
that as our Saviour appeared exactly at
the time determined by the prophets, fo
his character agreed perfectly with all the
descriptions, which the prophecies had
given of That person, whose coming was
foretold. I need not inlarge upon This
particularly; the Evangelifts having in
their gofpels, with all clearness and evi-
dence, applied to the Hiftory of our Sa-
viour all the feveral paffages of the
phets, which speak of the time and place
of the birth of the Meffiah; the manner
of his education; the course of his life;
the nature and extent of his doctrine; the
peculiar circumstances of his paffion and
death; and That most remarkable in-
ftance of the divine power, his Resurrec-

pro

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