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SERM.IV. public Sphere, which they heartily condemned before. So much Reafon is there for that Prayer, Lord, deliver me from myfelf. He, that thinketh be ftandeth, let bim take heed, left he fall; then most especially, when he thinketh he standeth. For Security is our Ruin: And the Minute we are off our Guard, we may be furprized into Vice by a powerful Tempter, who knows each Avenue to the Soul, or by our own Paffions, the most powerful Tempters of All. And he, who is now virtuous, is no more fecure of continuing fo, without much Circumfpection, and the Grace of God; than he, who is in perfect Health, is safe against every Attack of Infection.

We fee the wifeft of Men, in their unguarded Hours, betrayed into unaccountable Follies; we startle at it, and cry out, Lord, what is Man! Why, a Being, who, without God's upholding Power, would the next Moment fink into Nothing; and, without the Affiftances of his Spirit, would be a Sinner, that is, worse than Nothing ; then always betraying his Weakness, when he depends prefumptuously upon his own Strength; a Child ever in this Refpect, that, if left to himself, without the Gui

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pacity: Their Speech and Idiom never be- SERM II. wraying them, to be of a different. Country, but every where adapted to that Dialect and Manner of Expreffion, which was pe culiar to the Jews. If then the Scriptures were not of that Antiquity, which they lay Claim to; then it would have been morally impoffible, for a Writer of a later Date; to hit critically the Air of Antiquity, to hit the diftinguishing Marks, and appropriate Characteristicks of the Time and. Nation, in which they were pretended to be compofed, and to be confiftent, and all of a Piece, from firft to laft, throughout feveral Performances of a confiderable Length, without being ever off his Guard, without once dropping the Mafk, without once giving Way to Phrafes, that were in Vogue, when he himself lived, Phrafes, that would be ever uppermoft in his Mind, and preffing for a Vent; without any Allufions to Customs, that were not then in Being; without any Mistakes in Chronology, Geography, and the History of those Times. It is thus, that all Forgeries have been

laid
open, and none of them have been
able to stand the Teft of Criticism; Some-
thing there was in their Stile or Matter;
Something

VOL. II.

X

SERM III. Something in the Nature and Texture of

the Books, that betrayed them. And it is easier for a Perfon of Learning, Sagacity, and Judgment, to discover the Age of an Author, than it is for a Connoiffeur to dif cover that of a Medal, Coin, Picture, of Statue. It remains then, that the Scriptures are as ancient, as they pretend to be.

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And if fo, then they must be true; 0therwise they could not have been received: For as they contain a punctual circumstantial Relation of public Facts, with the Time when, the Places where, and the Perfons before whom they were performed, the Authors of them could not have put upon the World fuch a continued Series of marvellous unparalleled Actions, faid to be done in the Eye of the World, when they must be fresh in their Memories, without being detected,

It is certain, that St. Paul's Epiftles (all except that to the Hebrews) ever were looked upon as genuine, by uncontroverted written Tradition, from the Time in which they were published in a continued Train of Vouchers, down to the prefent Age; the very judaizing Chriftians, who would not be determined by his Authority, as an Ene

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my to those Jewish Ceremonies, which SERM.III. they would have incorporated with Christianity, never denying him to be the real Author. St. Peter 2 Epiftle iii. 16. first of all gives a full Sanction to all his Epiftles, giving us to understand, that they were read publickly, as other Scriptures, and that many made a bad Ufe of them. Clemens Romanus his Fellow-Labourer, whose Name is in the Book of Life, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, defires them to read again St. Paul's first Epistle to them, where he bids them fhun Divifions, while one faid I am of Paul, another I am of Apollos, another of Cephas. Ignatius, in his first Epistle to the Ephefians, makes mention of St. Paul's to them. Polycarp, writing to the Philippians, very warmly recommends St. Paul's Epiftle to them, with high Commendations, both of the Author and his Compafition. And these three laft mentioned Writers in the Apoftolical Age, beautify their own Performances with Quotations from his. If then St. Paul's Epiftles, for which we have uncontradicted decifive Evidence, be genuine, Christianity will stand it's Ground: For they contain all the effential and vital Articles, all the main Stamina of the Chriftian Doctrine. Besides,

X 2

SERM. III.

Befides, he must have little Knowledge of Painting, that cannot difcover St. Paul's Letters to be Originals * : His very Soul fpeaks in all his Writings. There is that undiffembled Zeal for the Glory of God, and the Salvation of Mankind; that Courage; that beautiful Difregard to his own Intereft, when it interfered with higher Views; that Boldness of Expreffion, that Life and Spirit, which is hard to be counterfeited. The fame Force and Energy, which animated all his Actions, and empowered him to fpread the Gospel from Eaft to Weft, ennobles all his Compofitions; and it would be almost as impoffible for an Impoftor to write, as St. Paul did; as it would be to act, as he did. It is very difficult to perfonate a warm, affectionate, interefting Writer. We may trace the fame Features, and an exact Refemblance in his Speeches in the Acts of the Apostles, and in his Epiftles, which proves them both to be the Offspring of the fame Parent. In both there is the fame Greatnefs of Spirit, the fame glowing Language, and elevated Thoughts, warm from the Heart. In both he either speaks or writes with too animated * Temple's Effays, zd Vol. Page 59.

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