lieved in our Saviour, and obeyed his Precepts as he should have done. This we all know, and must be fenfible of it; and it is a mighty Evidence of the Truth and Goodness of the Religion we profefs. We now can try our Religion, and give our Approbation of it, by the fame Standard and Measures by which we try and approve of our Customs and Common Laws. After long Experience, we find the Usefulness and the Conveniency of it; and to put another in its Place would involve us in horrible Mifchiefs, and Dangers and Perplexities. But this Argument for Chriftianity, thofe that were the first 1 Converts to it could not have; and therefore, in this Respect alfo, we have the Advantage of them.

Thirdly and Laftly, There is another very confiderable standing Argument for the Truth of the Christian Revelation, which those in our Saviour's Time were uncapable of; and that is, the Events, which he, by the Spirit of Prophecy foretold, fhould, after his Death, come to pass in the World; most of which have punctually happen'd as he predicted them, and the reft in due time, we doubt not, will be accomplished. I have not leifure to profecute this Argument particularly; only Two Things I cannot pafs by without mention, in both of which our Lord fhewed himself as wonderful, and as true a Prophet, as ever appeared in the World.

The one is, the Deftruction of Jerufalem and the Temple, which he foretold with all

the

the Circumstances imaginable, both as to Time and Manner. Now all that he faid concerning that Deftruction, was punctually verified, even according to the Accounts that the Jewish Hiftorian gives us of that Matter. And when afterwards Julian the Emperor, with a Design to blaft the Credit of our Saviour's Prophecy, refolved to re-edifie that Temple, and fet Men on work for that Purpofe; he was foon forced to defift from his Enterprize, by Earthquakes, and Globes of Fire iffuing from out of the Foundation: As the Writers of that Time, both Christian and Pagan, do affure us.

The other Inftance I mention is, our Saviour's Prophecy of the Rejection of the Jews, and that they should be carried Captive into all Nations, 'till the Times of the Gentiles were fulfilled. Now this we see hath been accomplished for many Ages, and ftill continues to be fo in our Days. That Nation of the Jews, who were once the peculiar People of God, fettled in the Land of Canaan, by his own immediate Hand, are now difperfed all the World over, but no where incorporated into a Nation. Yet, which indeed is wonderful, they continue Jews ftill; a People that mingle not with the rest of the World, and that they are ftill as zealous for the Scriptures, from whence we fetch the Grounds of our Christianity, as ever they were. So that they are a ftanding Monument of God's Vengeance upon a People for rejecting the Gospel, and a ftanding Teftimony of the Truth of our Saviour's Prophecies,

These

Thefe Things now, with others that I might name, are very confiderable Evidences of the Truth of our Religion, which those that were Contemporary with our Saviour could not have. So that putting all these Things together, I think we may fafely draw our Conclufion, viz. That we now have as great or greater Arguments to convince us of the Truth of Chrift's Revelation, as, or than they had who were Witnesses of what he did and taught. And confequently, those that are not perfuaded now by the Evidence of it, would not have been perfuaded, though they had feen with their Eyes, or heard with their Ears, the Publication of the Gospel : Which is in Effect to fay, They would not have been perfuaded, though one had risen from the Dead.

But notwithstanding all this that I have faid, it is to be feared, the Thing will not cafily go down with many of us; but ftill, with the Rich Man in the Parable, after all that Abraham had faid concerning Mofes and the Prophets, we will infift on our former Notion Nay, but if one came to us from the Dead, we should repent. The Motives that are offered to us in the Gofpel, are old and ftale to us; we find by long Experience, that they make no great Impreffions upon us: But if we were vifited in fuch an extraordinary way as the Rich Man here defireth for his Brethren, we should then, undoubtedly, be prevailed upon. Thus I believe feveral of us think: But that we have little Ground for

fuch

fuch a Fancy, nay, indeed, if we were tried in this way, that it is Ten to One, we should find ourselves miftaken; this may farther convince us, viz.

If God fhould indeed vouchsafe to work a Miracle, or to fend an Apparition for the Conviction of an obftinate Unbeliever, or vicious Perfon: Yet fuch a one would as easily find out Shifts and Ways to evade the Force of fuch an Argument, and to hinder the Effects it ought to have upon him, as he formerly did, to put off the standing Motives and Arguments of Religion. And confequently, there is little Probability, that he who is deaf to Mofes and the Prophets, will be perfuaded by one from the Dead.

This is the Second Point I laid down for the Proof of our Saviour's Propofition, and I come now to speak to it.

I deny not, indeed, but if an Apparition fhould be made to a wicked Perfon among us If, for Inftance, one of our Companions fhould, after he is dead, in a terrible manner come to any of us, and in a doleful Tone and Language tell us, how it goes with him in the other World; tell us, that there is indeed a God that judges the Earth, that there is a Heaven, that there is a Hell, (all which Things, he, as well as we, made it our Bufinefs to banish out of our Minds as much as we could ;) and acquaint us what an infinite unfpeakable Happiness he hath loft, by living loofly and carelefly, as we now do; and that he is damned, irrecoverably, and for ever damned for that Infidelity, and those lewd Courfes

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Courses we shared with him in the Guilt of, and do ftill continue to purfue; that all those Revels we had together, all thofe Pranks and Debauches we were joint Actors in, do now, as to him, end in unfupportable Anguish and Pains, in the gnawing of a Worm that never dies, and in a Life of everlafting Burnings; and that this fhall certainly be our Portion, as well as his, unless we do prevent it by a speedy Reformation of our Lives.

I fay, if one of our Friends fhould come from the Dead, and tell us all this, there is no doubt but it would ftrike us with infinite Horror and Amazement. It would be the moft confounding Scene that ever our Eyes beheld, the most awakening Lecture that ever our Ears heard, and fuch Impreffions it would, in all likelihood, make upon us, as would not fuddenly be worn out.

But here is the Point, Whether all this would be effectual for the working a perfect Change of Life, a lafting Reformation, upon a Man that hath long refifted the ordinary Means of Converfion, and by long Custom of Sinning hath made a Course of Vice almost natural to him? We fay, in all probability, it would not be effectual for the reforming fuch a Man; because it would be fo eafy after the firft Heats which the Vision occafioned were over, to find out colourable Excufes and Evasions, why he should not pursue a Reformation, which his Soul so much hated, and which his prefent Interefts and Appetites were fo much against.

For,