PROP. XI.

THE UNITY OF DESIGN WHICH APPEARS IN THE DISPENSATIONS RECORDED IN THE SCRIPTURES, IS AN ARGUMENT NOT ONLY OF THEIR TRUTH AND GENUINENESS, BUT ALSO OF THEIR DIVINE AUTHORITY.

FOR this unity is not only fo great as to exclude forgery and fiction in the fame way as the mutual agreements mentioned in the laft propofition, but also greater than the beft and ableft men could have preferved, in the circumftance of thefe writers, without the divine affiftance. In order to fee this, let us inquire what this defign is, and how it is pursued by the feries of events, and divine interpofitions, recorded in the Scriptures.

The defign is that of bringing all mankind to an exalted, pure, and fpiritual happiness, by teaching, enforcing, and begetting in them love and obedience to God. This appears from many paffages in the Old Teftament, and from almost every part of the New. Now we are not here to inquire in what manner an Almighty Being could foonest and most effectually accomplish this. But the question is, Whether, laying down the fate of things as it has been, is, and probably will be, for our foundation, there be not a remarkable fitnefs in the difpenfations afcribed to God in the Scriptures, to produce this glorious effect; and whether the perfons who adminiftered thefe difpenfations did not here concur with a surprising uniformity, though none of them faw God's ultimate defign completely, and fome but very imperfectly; juft as brutes by their inftincts, and children by the workings of their natural faculties, contribute to their own prefervation, improvement, and happiness, without at all forefeeing that they do this. If we alter any of the circumftances of the microcofm, or macrocofm, of the frame of our own natures, or of the external world that furrounds us, we fhall have queftion rife up after queftion in an endless feries, and fhall never be fatisfied, unless God fhould be pleafed to produce happiness inftantaneoufly, i. e. without any means, or fecondary inftrumental caufes at all; and, even then, we fhould only be where we were at our firft fetting out, if things be confidered in the true ultimate light. We are therefore to lay down the real state of things as our foundation; i. e. we are to fuppofe man to be in a ftate of good mixed with evil, born with appetites, and expofed to temptations, to which if he yields, fuffering muft follow; which fuffering, however, tends to eradicate the difpofition from whence it flowed, and to implant a better. We are to fuppofe him to be endued with voluntary powers, which enable him to model his affections and actions according to a rule; and that the love of God, his ultimate happiness, can never be genuine, but by his first learning to fear God, by his being mortified to pleasure, honour, and profit, and the moft refined feififh defires, and by his loving his neighbour as himself; i. e. we must fuppofe all that which practical writers mean by a state of trial, temptation, moral exercise and improvement,

provement, and of practical free-will. Let us fee, therefore, how the feveral difpenfations mentioned in the Scriptures, their being recorded there, and the fubordinate parts which the prophets and apoftles acted, confpired to bring about this ultimate end of man, both in each individual, and in the whole aggregate, confidered as one great individual, as making up the myftical body of Chrift, according to the language of St. Paul; and inquire, whether, if all other reafons were fet afide, the mere harmony and concurrence of fo many parts, and fo many perfons removed from each other by long intervals of time, in this one great defign, will not compel us to ac knowledge the genuineness, truth, and divine authority of the Scrip

tures.

The first thing which prefents itfelf to us in the Scriptures, is the hiftory of the Creation and Fall. These are not to be accounted for, as was faid above, being the foundation upon which we go. However, the recording them by Mofes, as tradition began to grow weak and uncertain, has been of great use to all those who have had them communicated by this means, perfectly or imperfectly, i. e. to a great part of the world. This hiftory impreffes an awful and amiable fenfe of the Divine Being, our Creator and Judge; fhews the heinousness of fin; and mortifies us to this world, by declaring that our paffage through it must be attended with labour and forrow. We find ourselves in this ftate: Revealed Religion did not bring us into it nor is this ftate an objection to Revealed Religion, more than to Natural: however, Revealed Religion goes a step higher than Natural, and fhews the immediate fecondary caufe, viz. the fin and wilful disobedience of our first parents. And when the account of paradife, of man's expulfion thence, and of the curfe paffed upon him in Genefis, are compared with the removal of this curfe, of forrow, crying, pain, and death, with the renovation of all things, and with man's reftoration to the tree of life and paradife, and his admiffion into the new Jerufalem in the laft chapters of the Revelation, hope and fear quicken each other; and both confpire to purify the mind, and to advance the great defign confidered under this propofi

tion.

How far the deluge was neceffary, cæteris manentibus, for the purification of those who were deftroyed by it, i. e. for accomplishing this great end in them, we cannot prefume to fay. It is fufficient that there is no contrary prefumption, that no methods confiftent with the state of things in the ancient world were neglected, as far as we know, and that we are not in the least able to propofe a better fcheme. We leave these rebellious, unhappy people, now tranflated into another state, to the fame kind Providence which attended them in this, and all whofe punishments on this fide the grave are for melioration. However the evident footsteps of this in the world, and the clear tradition of it, which would continue for several ages, alfo the hiftory of it delivered by Mofes, have an unqueftionable good tendency. Sinners, who reflect at all, cannot but be alarmed at fo dreadful an inftance of divine feverity. FarD 2 ther,

now contiguous to the North-eaft part of Afia. Secondly, that it might have been contiguous to other parts of our great continent for fome centuries after the deluge, though that contiguity be fince broken off. Thirdly, that the firft failors who ventured out of the Streights, or others, might be driven by ftrefs of weather and their own ignorance, firft within the influence of the trade-winds, and then to fome part of America. One can offer nothing certain on either fide, in respect of thefe points. However, it feems to me, that many cuftoms found amongst the Negroes and Americans are ftronger evidences that they are of the fame original with the Afiatics and Europeans, than any which have yet appeared to the contrary. And, upon the whole, I conclude certainly, that the Mofaic account of the deluge is much confirmed by both natural and civil hiftory, if we embrace the fift and loweft hypothefis concerning divine infpiration ; and has very strong prefumptions for it, according to the fecond or third.

If we could fuppofe the high mountains in South America not to have been immerged in the deluge, we might the more eafily account for the wild beafts, poisonous ferpents, and curious birds of "America. Might not the ark be driven round the globe during the deluge? And might not Noah be aware of this, and obferve that it had been immerged fifteen cubits in water? And may not the Mofaic account be partly a narrative of what Noah faw, partly the conclufions which he muft naturally draw from thence? Thus the tops of fome of the highest mountains might efcape, confiftently with the Mofaic account. The future inquiries of natural hiftorians may perhaps determine this point.

The next great event recorded in Genefis is the confufion of languages. Now the Mofaic account of this appears highly probable, if we firft allow that of the deluge. For it feems impoffible to explain how the known language fhould arife from one ftock. Let any one try only in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English. The changes which have happened in languages fince hiftory has been certain, do not at all correfpond to a fuppofition of this kind. There is too much method and art in the Greek and Latin tongues, for them to have been the inventions of a rude and barbarous people; and they differ too much from Hebrew, Arabic, &c. to have flowed from them without defign. As to the Chinese, it is difficult to make any probable conjectures about it; partly from its great heterogeneity in refpect of other languages, partly becaufe learned men have not yet examined it accurately. However, the moft probable conjecturefeems to be, that it is the language of Noah's poftdiluvian pofterity; the leaft probable one, that it could have flowed naturally from any known language, or from the fame stock with any; which it must have done, if we admit the deluge, and yet reject the confufion of languages.

The difperfion of the three fons of Noah into different countries, related in the tenth chapter of Genefis, comes next under confideration, being a confequence, not the cause, of the diversity of languages,

Now

Now here antiquaries and learned men feem to be fully agreed, that the Mofaic account is confirmed, as much as can be expected in our prefent ignorance of the ftate of ancient nations. And it is to be obferved of all the articles treated of under this propofition, that we who live in the North-west corner of Europe, lie under great difadvantages in fuch researches. However, fince thofe who have studied the Oriental languages and hiftories, or have travelled into the Eaftern parts, have made many difcoveries of late years, which have furprifingly confirmed the Scripture accounts, one may hope and prefume, that if either our learned men be hereafter fuffered to have free access to thofe parts, or the natives themselves become learned, both which are furely probable in the highest degree, numberless unexpected evidences for the truth of the Scripture hiftory will be brought to light.

Let us next come to the ftate of religion in the ancient poftdiluvian world, according to Mofes and the fucceeding facred hiftorians. The poftdiluvian patriarchs then appear to have worshipped the one Supreme Being by facrifices, but in a fimple manner, and to have had frequent divine communications. By degrees their pofterity fell off to idolatry, worshipped the fun, moon, and stars, deified dead men, and polluted themfelves with the most impure and abominable inftitutions. The Ifraelites alone were kept to the worship of the true God, and even they were often infected by their idolatrous neighbours. Now all this is perfectly agreeable to what we find in Pagan hiftory. The idolatries of the Pagans are acknowledged on all hands. It appears alfo from Pagan hiftory that they grew up by degrees, as the Scriptures intimate. All the Pagan religions appear to have had the worship of one God fuperior to the reft, as their common foundation. They all endeavoured to render him propitious by facrifice; which furely cannot be an human invention, nor a cuftom, which, if invented in one nation, would be readily propagated to another. They all joined mediatorial and inferior, alfo local and tutelar deities to the one God. And they all taught the frequency of divine communications. Hence the Pagan religions appear to be merely the degenerated offspring of patriarchal revelations, and to infer them as their caufe. Hence the pretences of kings, lawgivers, priefts, and great men, to infpiration, with the credulity of the multitude. That there had been divine communications, was beyond difpute; and therefore all that reluctance to admit them, which appears in the present age, was over-ruled. At first there were no impoftors. When therefore they did arife, it would not be eafy for the multitude to diftinguish between those who had really divine communications, and thofe who only pretended to them; till at laft, all real infpiration having ceafed amongst the Gentile world, their feveral religions kept poffeffion merely by the force of education, fraud in the priefts, and fear in the people; and even thefe fupports began to fail at laft, about the time of Chrift's coming. And thus many things, which have been thought to weaken the evidences for the Scripture accounts, are found to ftrengthen them, by flowing naturally from that ftate of religion in ancient times, and from that only which the Scripture delivers.

A far

A farther confirmation of the fame Scripture accounts of the flood, difperfion of mankind, and patriarchal revelations, may be had from the following very remarkable particular: it appears from history, that the different nations of the world have had, cæteris paribus, more or lefs knowledge, civil and religious, in proportion as they were nearer to, or had more intimate communication with, Egypt, Palæftine, Chaldæa, and the other countries, that were inhabited by the most eminent perfons amongst the first defcendants of Noah, and by those who are faid in Scripture to have had particular revelations made to them by God; and that the first inhabitants of the extreme parts of the world, reckoning Palæftine as the centre, were in general mere favages. Now all this is utterly inexplicable upon the footing of infidelity, of the exclufion of all divine communications. Why fhould not human nature be as fagacious, and make as many difcoveries, civil and religious, at the Cape of Good Hope, or in America, as in Egypt, Palæftine, Mefopotamia, Greece, or Rome? why fhould Palatine fo far exceed them all, as it did confeffedly? Allow the Scripture accounts, and all will be clear and eafy. Mankind, after the flood, were firft difperfed from the plains of Mefopotamia: fome of the chief heads of families fettled there, in Palaeftine, and in Egypt. Palatine had afterwards extraordinary divine illuminations bestowed upon its inhabitants the Ifaelites and Jews. Hence its inhabitants had the pureft notions of God, and the wifeft civil establishment. Next after them come the Egyptians and Chaldeans, who, not being removed from their firit habitations, and living in fertile countries watered by the Nile, Tigri, and Euphrates, may be fuppofed to have preferved more both of the antediluvian and poftdiluvian revelations, alfo to have had more leifure invention, and a more free communication with the Ifraelites and Jews, than any other nations: whereas thofe fmall parties, which were driven farther and farther from each other into the extremes of heat and cold, entirely occupied in providing neceflaries for themfelves, and alfo cut off by rivers, mountains, or diftance, from all communication with Palæftine, Egypt, and Chaldæa, would lofe much of their original ftock, and have neither inclination nor ability to invent more.

Let us now confider the hiftory of particular facts, and inquire what atteftations we can produce from Pagan hiftory for the Scripture accounts of Abraham, and his pofterity the Ifraelites and Jews. We cannot expect much here; partly because these things are of a private nature, if compared to the univerfal deluge; partly because the Pagan hiftory is either deficient, or grofsly corrupted with fable and fiction, till we come to the times of the declenfion of the kingdoms of Ifrael and Judah. However, fome faint traces there are in ancient times, and many concurring circumftances in fucceeding ones; and, as foon as the Pagan records come to be clear and certain, we have numerous and ftrong confirmations of the facred hiftory. Thus the hiftory of Abraham feems to have tranfpired in fome meafure. It is alfo probable, that the ancient Brachmans were of his pofterity by Keturah, that they derived their name from him, and worshipped the true God only. Mofes is mentioned by many Heathen writers, and

the