THE civility and frankness, which I could not help thinking carried something of friendship in it, with which you used me, during our short acquaintaince, has kept me from for­forgeting you, since I saw you; nor have I forgot the repeated request you made me, before I left your place: Without hindering you then with apologies for my delay, I shall now begin to answer it.

A Christian, say we, in opposition to all the various ways wherein men seek to please God, is persuaded, upon divine authority, that GOD IS WELL PLEASED IN HIS BELOV­ED SON: This we are taught by the voice that came from heaven: This is the great point proved by the resurrection of Jesus, as [Page 4] being the point in dispute before he died, upon which he was by the Jews condemned to death; and upon which both sides ap­pealed to heaven for decision. It was no part of the dispute, whether Jesus, in cal­ling himself the SON OF GOD, signified himself to be truly and properly God. All parties concerned, friends and foes, were a­greed upon this: For under this title Jesus claimed equal honour with the Father; un­der this title the beliving Jews worshiped him, and ascribed the divine perfections unto him, even at a time when nothing was more zealously maintained among the Jews, than the worshiping of one God only. Upon his assuming this title, the unbelieving Jews ac­cused him of blasphemy; because, said they, he being a man, maketh himself God: and in another place, because he said, that God was his Father, making himself equal with God; while at the same time, however much they lay at the catch with his words, they never charged him with preaching up more gods than one. 'Tis too late now then to alter the meaning of that title. The only dispute then was, whether that title belonged to Jesus; whether Jesus was the beloved Son of God, in whom he is well pleased. This is the plain meaning and import of that fact, the resurrection of Jesus.

[Page 5]As Jesus came into the world not to suf­fer for any sin of his own, being without sin, but, as he declares himself, to give his life a ransom for many; so God, in raising him from the dead, gave the highest demon­stration of his being well pleased with the ransom which he gave: And as Jesus put the truth of all that he said, upon the issue of his being raised again from the dead, which you see his enemies also were apprised of; his re­surrection, by this means, must turn out to be the highest proof of the divine assent to every thing he spoke.

Accordingly the Apostles, in pursuance of their commission to preach that Gospel, upon which eternal life hinged, every where bare witness to this fact, and made it their first and chief business to persuade men of it: and when they had got men persuaded of it, their continual care about them was, that they might keep it in memory, (1 Cor. xv. 2. and 2 Tim. ii. 8.) and to serve this great purpose were the various observances, which the A­postles delivered unto the churches to keep. This is the first principle, the great axiom of Christianity, from which we find the apostles continually inferring almost every thing that we are called to believe or do in the Christi­an religion.

From this a Christian draws his first taste of that joy which is man's proper life in di­stinction [Page 6] from the brutes. This keeps him, like his pole star from groping in the dark, after every idle guess, started by the wise and the learned, about virtue and happiness. In­stead of seeking, like other men, to please God by any qualification he has or hopes to attain, he is persuaded that God is already well pleased in his beloved Son; that every thing needful to recommend him to the di­vine favour, was compleated by Jesus on the cross, when he said, It is finished, and gave up the ghost.

This is the influencing principle, the lead­ing line of his life: This leads him to love God and keep his commandments. His mo­tives to his deads of greatest self denial arise directly from this. His persuasion, that the character of Jesus was so amiable in the eye of God, as to procure his favour to the guil­ty, draws him to imitate that character; for 'tis plain, he that says he believes this, and does not make conscience of imitating Jesus, tells a lie. A Christian then is led in that path of virtue, which is in the highest repute with God; tho', as was examplified in Jesus, the true standard of it, it will never be the path to honor in this world. And he is moved forward by that principle, which of all others draws the heart of man with greatest pleasure, gratitude: So he toils not in the fruitless task [Page 7] of making out a title to the divine favour; but his obedience is a continued expression of thanks to God for the free gift of that righ­teousness, which he sent his Son to work, and which he finished on the cross, as a full title to the divine favour for the guiltiest of mankind.

This truth, believed on its proper evi­dence, gives such a dash to the natural pride of his own understanding, that he can no more trust his reasonings about God and hap­piness a priori; so he learns his character of God, and his own situation with respect to him, wholly from this fact. This forms his judgment about mankind and about himself, alters his mind entirely as to every thing he formerly thought valuable about himself in the sight of God, or gave him any prefe­rence to others in that repect; so keeps him from looking upon any of mankind with an air importing, stand by.

This directs him in the choice of his dear­est friends, and is the measure and rule of his friendship with them: And, if he have friends in other repects, his fonder with in their behalf is, that they knew and believed this truth: He wishes, I say, for he knows he cannot persuade, nor contribute any thing to the obtaining of his wish; even as he knows he did not contribute any thing himself to [Page 8] his obtaining any comfortable apprehension of this truth; yea, whatever pains might have been taken with himself, and however morally serious he might formerly have been, he sees plainly that the aim of his mind, in his most sincere endeavours that way, lay in direct opposition to the plain import of that f [...]ct, which he now believes and finds happiness in.

While I am saving, that one man cannot pers [...]de [...] Christian, I [...] [...]ible that I have [...] difficulty, [...] fully remove, as to hin­der you from objecting: Only at may be con­side [...]d, that, however plain the external evi­dence be, the fact is of such a nature, as to require more than human testimony to give us a certain undoubting persuasion of it. We can firmly rely upon human testimony, as to events that fall out in the course of na­ture: but as, in the resurrection of the dead, the course of nature is reversed; and as the resurrection of Jesus is so circumstanced, as to decide a point of the highest importance and most interesting nature, in opposition to the reasonings of all mankind; there is need in this case for more than the testimony of a­ny man, or set of men, to rest the firm per­suasion of our minds upon: There is need here for divine testimony, divine evidence, to [Page 9] our belief. For as to what kind of credit these people may give to it, to whom it is a matter of no moment whether it be true or not, I have no occasion to take notice of that here. And if we rate the believers of this fact on its proper evidence, by their appearing well affected to the plain simple scripture meaning of it, their numbers will turn out to be but small, and rarely to be found in the Christian world.

If you enquire, what is the nature of this divine evidence? I answer, first, it is very simple and forcible, as all the ways whereby God corresponds with men are: For instance, when one retires a moment, and casts his eyes round upon the magnificent frame of the hea­vens and the earth, his mind is struck with an awful apprehension of a grand contriver, the great Creator and former of all things: so, with respect to the scripture account of the resur­rection of Jesus, when one perceives the divine evidence of it, his mind is struck with a view of such a grand contrivance, that he is con­vinced none but God could be the author of it. But more particularly:

When man, who is distinguished from the brutes by his conscience, and whose proper life lies in a sense of God's fovour, allows him­self an interval from those functions that are common to him with other animals, and acts [Page 10] in his distinguished character, examining how matters stand betwixt his creator and him; his conscience must be convinced that God is an infinitely good being, so as opposite to all evil as he is good; of which the pain that arises in the mind of man, when he does evil, is a strong proof. This pain is man's proper death, which he shuns more than all other evils. The more he thinks on God, his pain encreases. When he looks abroad upon the inflexible opposition of the Almighty to all sin, he must conclude, seeing the Almighty is against me, who can be for me? All the creation cannot help here! He is surrounded with impossibilities on all hands as to any way of relief: He finds himself mortally wounded by the stroke of the Almighty, and so, in­curable by any inferior hand. He is torment­ed with the impossibility he finds of answer­ing that question, How shall God be pleas­ed?

That beam of divine wisdom, which shines in man's conscience, discovering his sin, is the very kindler of his misery; and that pow­er which gave m [...]n his being and proper life, appears armed for his ruin: For surely no pow­er but that of God can hurt a life that lies in his favour: So divine wisdom and divine pow­er stand the objectors. Therefore,

That answer, which can fairly satisfy and heal the mind of man, thus pained and wound­ed, [Page 11] without diminishing in the least his aw­ful conviction of God's inflexible opposition to sin, must, in the nature of the thing, car­ry its own evidence of coming from the infinitely good, wise and powerful Being; who created man, speaks in his conscience, made his life to lie in his favour; so could a­lone deprive him of that life, and alone re­store it to him when lost. Such an answer must contain a new display of divine wisdom and power; for, seeing these form the wound­ing objection, surely no inferior wisdom or power can provide the healing answer: and the wisdom and power displayed in this heal­ing answer, must appear as vehement for goodness and righteousness, and against sin, as formerly; that it may be manifest they are the wisdom and power of that infinitely good Being, who appears, in the wounded conscience, infinitely opposite to all evil, ma­lignity, or sin. So,

While I represent divine wisdom and pow­er as objecting against sinful man's happiness, and again providing a full satisfying answer to the objection, you must not think that I point out these divine perfections as in the least variable, or not perfe [...]ly uniform: No, for the answer must fully remove the founda­tion for the objection; it must shew that sin is taken away, by the full expression of God's inflexible opposition to it.

[Page 12]Now, this is the very case with the gospel: The gospel contains all that can be wished for in such an healing answer, to great advan­tage, and that by means which it could ne­ver have entered into the heart of man, or of any creature to devise; and which manifest a power not inferior to that which command­ed the light to shine out of darkness, and cal­led the world into being from nothing: So the gospel is the wisdom and the power of God, to save every one who believes it. It sets before us the inflexible opposition of the Almighty to all sin, fully expressed in the death of Christ: so, to use the scripture words, the answer of a good conscience towards God, is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is gone into Heaven and is on the right hand of God. Here the character of the true God shines forth before the eyes of a sinner, thus described in his own words, See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me; I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. And in another place, They have no knowledge, that set up—and pray unto a God that cannot save—there is no God beside me, a just God and a Saviour, there is none beside me; look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.

[Page 13]But further, to shew the necessity there is for some such evidence as I have been speaking of it must be considered, that when a man's mind is heartily pinched upon a question, that lies wholly betwixt God and his own consci­ence, he then finds he needs something to be said on the part of God to ease his mind; some­thing of greater authority and weight than the best connected chain of philosophic rea­soning, or the most authentic tradition: And it cannot be denied, that God may so shew himself in what he says, as fully to con­vince the hearer, that it is he that speaks; and such a conviction the hearers of the a­postles had, 1 Thess. ii. 14. So much then for the nature of the Christian truth, and its peculiar evidence.

But the great difficulty still remains: If this evidence lies quite plain and open in the bible before every one that reads or hears it, why does not every one perceive it? why cannot one man lay it so before another, as to make it strike him, as he may a proposition of Eu­clid?

In answer to this, I satisfy myself by say­ing, that as this truth as recorded in the bible, carrying its peculiar evidence along with it, presents a new idea of God, which our minds by their original constitution were not framed to take in; and which man, if he had re­tained [Page 14] his righteousness, could have no occa­sion for; it is therefore necessary that that same power, which at first framed the mind of man for taking in its present ideas, should put hand to it afresh, and make it capable of admitting this new one; which, in short, is this, God constituting and making a sinner a righteous person, as necessary to the enjoying his favour and eternal life, and yet appearing perfectly just in doing so.

I suppose you will think now, that by at­tempting to get out of one difficutty, I have fallen into a greater. You will say, at this rate, man is, by his very constitution led to reject the gospel: And this is indeed what I affirm. For man, by his original constitution, was made to live by his own righteousness; and while he retained this, his constitution was certainly well suited to his happiness, and he then could have no occasion for any such thing as the gospel: So his natural idea of God could be no other but this, that he is just in justifying the righteous, and in condemning the transgressor. And while he stood righte­ous, he co [...]ld look upon the just God as his friend. But this idea of God can yield no comfort to a sinner: For, seeing none but the righteous can enjoy the friendship of the just God; [...]o sinner can ever hope for that enjoyment, ti [...]l he know how God can be [Page 15] just in justifying the ungodly, or making them righteous; so fit for that enjoyment. But this new idea of God cannot be had from nature, but from the gospel; where God makes a new discovery of himself, acting above and beyond the sphere of nature altogether; yea reversing the course thereof, raising the dead, and calling those things that be not, as though they were.

Suppose one should be educated from a child, and promoted by a great and wealthy trading company to be their principal mana­ger and trustee with a pension of some thou­sands a year: and after he has lived many years splendidly in this office, he should at length forfeit all his wealth and his honor with the company, by gross unfaithfulness to his trust: would not his remaining taste for that honorable high life, which he had so long held by his integrity, make it almost impossible for him to beg, or even to exspect subsistence by alms from any of the company? would he not rather chuse to make any kind of shift for himself in some remote place, where he should never be seen by any of them? This similitude may serve to signify, tho' indeed very imperfectly, the natural e­strangment of sinful man's heart from God; and the strong biass which his orignal consti­tution must give him against the gospel.

[Page 16]When man became a sinner, his natural propensity to live by his own righteousness, which he had now lost, and could by no means repair, behoved to be criminal, as it leads him to think so dishonorably of God, as to imagine that he can be pleased with an imperfect righteousness, or a righteousness stained with sin; whereas his original appre­hension of God behoved to be, that he could be pleased with nothing short of pefect sin­less obedience; of which he soon had an awful proof, in God's condemning all mankind to death for one single transgression, and that not of what is commonly called a moral, but of a positive precept. To the same purpose we may yet find another abiding testimony among mankind, from the pain that arises in the mind of a man upon the commission of one single sin; and from the suspicious fear, which haunts those who have the best cha­racters among men, when they seriously think of their situation with respect to God, that something more than they have yet done is needful to please him: A remarkable instance of which you have in that young gentleman, of a most amiable character among men; who, with regard to the laws that respect human society, could say, All these things have I keept from my youth up: yet, when he seriously thought of eternal life, this natural [Page 17] question pained his mind, What good thing shall I do to obtain it? What lack I yet? As this question shews the language of conscience, so it shews also the natural propensity above­mentioned; which, after ever so many fruit­less attempts, still sets a man to work afresh, to seek life by something that he himself is to do. And tho' conscience still finds fault, and looks with a suspicious distrustful eye up­on all that is doing: yet, as it knows not, so cannot point out a better way; it is general­ly made to give place unto reasonings on the side of the natural propensity, as the only means left to keep from despair.

These reasonings then must be very cogent, as they are on the side of our constitution, and supported by the first and strongest principle in our nature, self preservation.

As the first business of these reasonings is to frame a new character of God suitable un­to their main tendency, against which if con­science offer to object, it is put off with this, that it cannot present a more comfortable one; so, according to the scripture, the whole ali­enation of the heart of man from God, and its opposition to the gospel, is conducted by these reasonings. Jesus Christ, giving a sum of the evils which proceed out of the heart of man, gives these the first rank; out of the heart proceedeth evil reasonings. What are [Page 18] the many voluntary penances undergone by Bramins, Papist's, and others? What are am­bition, avarice, &c? What even atheism it­self, but the effects of various reasonings to answer or shift that importuning question; What lack I yet to make me happy? Does not the heart of man, as it were, rumage all na­ture, to see if he can find in himself, or a­mong the creatures, any thing to supply that lack? What are the various excesses, in the enjoyment of the creatures, but so many at­tempts to sorce out of them that which they do not naturally yield? Whence proceed de­ceit, envy, murder, and all these vices which the world complain of; but from the inter­fering of the several ways which men take to compass the same end? And tho' one man may have a more decent idol than another in the world, yet if once the favour of the true God, man's proper good, be set aside, it mat­ters not much in the issue, whether a man i­dolize himself, whether he place his chief good in such a character as may best draw the esteem of the world, and flatter his own va­ [...] or in cups and whores.

[...]

[Page 19]In scripture the heart of man is represent­ed as a strong city, fortified with these against all access to the gospel; and the apostolic weapons are said to be mighty through God, for the demolishing of fortifications, imedi­ately after called reasonings. By these wea­pons (their testimony) the apostles are said to pull down every height or mount exalted a­gainst the knowledge of God, and to lead captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ. And, say they, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whose thoughts the god of this world has blinded, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

You see by this time, that I am ready to make the above natural propensity, supported by its reasonings, the principle of all the evil, even as I make the Christian truth, believed on its proper evidence, the principle of all the good that is in the world. And this I am taught by the scripture, which always gives these two principles, very opposite designati­ons, as light and darkness, the glory of the blessed God, and the power of Satan, &c.

[...] [Page 20] marvelous manner, to relieve our whole mi­sery, and to raise us unto the most exalted kind of happiness. The case in short is this, con­science finds fault, bodes the worst, and there leaves us, without pointing out one step to­ward relief. Relief of some kind, or diver­sion at least we must have: In this case, any chain of reasoning, any ignis fatuus, that pro­mises this, is readily entertained; and if we cannot be sure that it is, we at least greedily wish that it were, true. And we esteem a­ny thing of this kind so much the better, the less it has to do with conscience; by which, you see, I mean that instinct in man, where­by be corresponds with his Creator; or in sinful man, which dreads God. Accordingly our wise men have expunged this out of their schemes of virtue and happiness, and have substituted in place thereof, something that they call the moral sense, the fitness of things, the idea's of beauty and order; something that does not depend imediately on God, but on human reasoning; and which regards the temporal interest of society, consequently a man's own interest, more than the pleasing of God; and which leads us into a more cool way of thinking about sin, than the first man was taught, than Israel at Sinai was taught, than the natural conscience yet teaches, and, most of all, the gospel. It must be owned [Page 21] at the same time, that in this case, our wise men have not walked in an untroden path; for Paul gives us to understand, that the Greek philosophers paved this way long ago when he tells us, that they did not like to re­tain God in their knowledge; that is, they did not encline to build their schemes of virtue and happiness upon the fear of God; which the scripture makes to be the beginning of wisdom.

Now as God corresponds with man only by his conscience; so the apostles bringing a divine revelation to man, do not address his passions by the insinuating art of human rhe­toric; nor his reasoning faculty, by an artful chain of philosophic arguments: But as man is not distinguished from the brutes by either of these, they consider him in his proper dignity and excellency; and by manifestation of truth, commend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God These words plainly refer to the ancient oracle of Urim and Thummim by which the enquirer was assured, [...] God gave [...]he answer, when he saw the miraculous [...]ay of light shin­ing on the breast-pla [...]e of the priest, who pronounced the an­swer. To support this reference, it is observable, that the com­mon Greek [...]slation of Urim and Thummim is by two words, signifying mani [...]estation and truth. So the divine evidence of the apostolic testimony (which is the true oracle of Urim and Thummim) is fi [...]ted to strike the conscience with the simplicity and force of a sun-beam; and not like the conclusion of a phi­losophic argument, by which we are often silenced, merely to sh [...]n an inconsistency, or the shame of self-contradiction. They do not enter into a [Page 22] parley of capitulation with his reasonings; but [...] demolishing these, they press forward to his conscience, place him before God, and converse with him there. They unshackle his conscience, and make it speak out, and with the highest demonstration en­force every thing it speaks; shewing, in the death of Christ, the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and un­righteousness of men, holding the truth (what their conscience knows about God) in unrigh­teousness.

And when conscience has spoken and dread­ed the worst it can, and the man, left destitute of every subterfuge, is ready to be swallowed up in utter darkness; the apostles at the same time, from the mouth of God, pour in the comfortable beam of divine truth, a ray of the divine glory (or love) which shines in the face of Jesus Christ. By the irresistable splen­dor of the truth, which they testify, they at once put all his reasonings out of countenance, and bring a most sovereign cure to his con­science, every way becoming the divine ma­jesty in all its perfections, and in all respects suitable to his misery. Of this you may con­sider Paul's extraordinary conversion as a kind of emblematical representation. A sight of Jesus, alive from the dead, at once confuted all his schemes, and changed the man. The [Page 23] belief of what he saw, works the same effect to the end of the world: For it is the stand­ing scripture maxim, that the answer of a good conscience towards God, is by the resurrection of Jesus Christ; and, let every one that nam­eth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Solomon says, the spirit of a man will su­stain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear? And experience shews, that a con­science thoroughly wounded with a sense of the divine displeasure, is man's intolerable e­vil, his proper death; which pains him more than the fear of returning to dust. Now, if this be an evil beyond the power of man to provide a cure for, and God, in his sovereign mercy, was pleased to discover himself in some new work for this purpose; is it not very suit­able to all this, that the whole conveyance and application of this discovery, this cure, should be under the special direction, and by the special concurrence, of that sovereign mercy which provided it? It can throw no reflection then against this truth, that every one does not perceive and admit the divine evidence of it. For what if some do not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith or veraci­ty of God of none effect? Far be it! yea, their obstinate resisting of its evidence, to their own perdition, while many of them ex­cell most of those who embrace it in every [Page 24] natural endowment, serves, as a part of the divine scheme, to aggrandize the happiness of the sons of mercy, and to be an eternal proof to them, that sovereign mercy alone made the difference; even as the hatred and opposition of the enemies of the truth, is ne­cessary to prepare the lovers thereof for their happiness, by giving occasion for the exercise of those virtues, which are peculiar to Chri­stianity; wherein they must all be conform­ed to the Captain of their salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings. However many then persist in loving darkness, rather than the light, because their deeds are evil; still it holds true, that the gospel is the pow­er of God and the wisdom of God, to save e­very one who believes it: It strikes the con­science in the most simple and forcible man­ner, even as the conviction of sin does, re­moving at once every objection that can arise from that conviction; and so fairly shews it­self to be the voice of him, who speaks in the natural conscience.

The Christian truth, being once admited in the conscience on its proper evidence, becomes as it were a new instinct in man, by which his friendly correspondence with his Creator is re­stored. This leads him as a clew into the meaning and scope of the scriptures; shews him the admirable harmony and connection [Page 25] of them, as they all contribute to establish him in the persuasion of, and form his mind into a suitableness unto that wherein his hap­piness lies. He reads the scriptures, as one well affected to the great scope and design of them; so is not easily induced to hearken to such as would put a sense on words or sen­tences in opposition to the leading design.

All the commands and institutions of the New Testament, are directed to consciences endowed with this instinct, and are in a pe­cular manner adapted for the service thereof: So the apostle John, writing an epistle to re­commend the new commandment of Chri­stian brotherly love, says, I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but be­cause [...]e know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

This new instinct gives a man a great va­lue and esteem for all the sayings of Him, who came into the world to testify and accomplish the saying truth; leads him to sit at the feet of Jesus and hear his word, and, without dis­puting, to do just as he is bid. By this Chri­stians k [...]ow and love one another: For the cherishing of this the whole Christian church order is framed. The chief business of Chri­stians in their assembling together, in their preaching, in their brotherly exhortations, to their discipline, in their mutual service one in [Page 26] another, is to promote and strengthen this, and to check the opposite propensity; which, as it is natural and deeply rooted in our con­stitution, is always by fresh reasonings seek­ing the ascendant, and so cuts out fresh work for Christians, and gives them continual oc­casion to exercise themselves, in handling the apostolic weapons for defeating them.

Seeing it is plain from the New Testament, that every thing in a society of Christians must be done by a free conscientious unanimity, and no point carried by majority of voices, or driven by the influence of party or faction, as is the case in all worldly societies: if then you would have me to account for the unani­mity of a Christian church, in the many cas­es wherein their agreement is so necessary for the maintaining of fervent charity, I can as­cribe it to nothing else but this instin [...], and the prayer of him who said, I pray for all that shall believe on me through the word of the apostles, that they may be one: And for my own part I can say, that I have been wit­ness to such unanimity in many instances, as I could not account for any other way; and which yourself, I dare say, had you been wit­ness, behoved at least to ascribe to some ve­ry uncommon spring. Such an unanimity must appear liable to many objections, and be even impracticable in any society not gathered [Page 27] and cemented together by this instinct. And indeed I look upon it as the great standing sign, appearance, or visible representation of the union spoken of in the 17th ch. of John, and accordingly one of the principle eviden­ces, if not the most striking proof of the truth of Christianity: This is plainly intimated twice in that chapter; first in ver. 21. That they all may be one, &c. that the world may believe that thou hast sent me: And then in ver. 23. That they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me. The Christian unanimity corresponds to the New Testament, as a map does to the geographical grammar, and the appearance of it is one great thing that gives meaning and force to the preached gospel.

I cannot well conclude without taking no­tice of another grand obstacle, which the gospel has to overcome, in finding its way into the heart of man, and which is as firmly rooted in our constitution as the former, and stands in the closest connection with it; and that is, the appetite for an earthly paradise, something like what man originally enjoyed as the proper re­ward of his own righteousness, which his bo­dy was fitted for, and which he forfeited by his transgression. It is true, man's proper life was a sense of God's favour; yet it was in these delightful enjoyments, prepared for [Page 28] him in paradise, that he experienced that fa­vour: The divine smile upon his food and o­ther earthly enjoyments, gave them that pecu­liar exquisite relish, which other animals, not having his peculiar taste, could not find in the like. And tho' man has long since lost both his righteousness and paradise together, yet in sinful miserable man, the disposion still re­mains to join some shadow of both these to­gether. How bewitchingly are the stories of virtue rewarded drest up before our eyes? and the virtues chiefly recommended to us, and extolled by our wise men, are such as either aim at, or shine best in what is called high Life; so we are told, virtutibus obstat res an­gusta domi.

Now the gospel does not set before us the prospect of being re-instated into such an earthly happiness as man once held by his own righteousness, but a much more glorious life, the proper reward of the Son of God, for his humbling himself and becoming obedient un­to the death; a spiritual and heavenly life, to take place by a resurrection from the dead: And in order to the full enjoyment of which, the constitution of man must be changed, and whereof he can only have the hope and foretaste to comfort himself with in his mor­tal state: So the virtues, by which the gos­pel calls true Christians to be chiefly distin­guished, [Page 29] are such as will never be relished by the world, even those that shined in Jesus.

It must likewise be considered, that this happiness, this new life from the dead, is of such a nature as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to form a conception of it. We have no principles in our minds, nor any thing that affects our senses to draw a comparison from, by which we can frame any idea of it. For, however delicately a man may imagine about happiness, and however high he may raise his idea of it: still his most abstracted thoughts will never rise higher than some refinement upon earthly bliss. Hence also arises the ne­cessity that the mind of man should be touch­ed afresh by the finger of God, in order to his having some idea of, and relish for, this new life from the dead, these pleasures that are at the right hand of God for ever; even as the same divine energy was necessary to his knowing the just God and the Saviour, the name by which the true God distinguishes himself from all others. Tho' we may thus distinguish these things, yet they issue in one and the same, and are accordingly put toge­ther in scripture. This is life eternal, that they may know the, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent; and in ano­ther place, This is the true God and eternal life; little children, keep yourselves from idols.

[Page 30]Christianity then, as it calls a man off from the fruitless task of establishing his own righ­teousness, to be justified by the faith of Christ; so it calls a man off from the pursuit of an earthly happiness, which at best issues in death, to look for glory, honor and immor­tality, in fellowship with Jesus Christ, in the resurrection from the dead.

You will now ask me, how is a man act­ing a criminal part in rejecting the gospel, se­ing it reveals things, whereof he has natural­ly no idea? In answer to this I shall only say, that he acts a criminal part in insisting on these objections, which are the real [...] round of his disaffection to the gospel; that is, he is a criminal in pretending to please God by his own righteousness, while he is conscious that he is a sinner; and in pursuing an earth­ly happiness as its reward, while his consci­ence must tell him, he has forfeited that, and is guilty of death: So he is a criminal in be­ing angry at the gospel, because it asserts and enforces the verdict of his conscience in both these respects; and so far carries its own evi­dence of having come from that same God who speaks there.

I own at the same time that I believe no man will ever give up with these, till he find a better righteousnes [...] and happines [...] in place of them: But as God was no way debtor to [Page 31] man to provide these, so, neither is he obliged to call off any man, from his own wish and choice, to partake of these, but whom he pleases: And it is enough to condemn the rest who hear and despise the gospel, that they perceive more about it than they lov [...]; for thus saith the Son of God. This is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

If yo [...] have any questions about the per­sons priviledged to receive the Christian truth in the love thereof, whether they are persons excelling others in any qualification whatsoe­ver, or better disposed than others to admit the truth when laid before them? I have no­thing to answer but this, that God hath mer­cy on whom he will have mercy; and that God's choice is of grace, and not according to works: so differs from that of man, which always proceeds upon some difference, some fitness in one thing to be chosen, more than in that which is rejected.

You see, dear Mr. —, I have at length sent you a long letter; and after all you find it is mostly taken up in shewing to how little purpose any thing I can write on this subject must be. If you would see what true Christianity is, in its simplest and best light, read the apostles; to whom Christ said, [Page 32] Lo! I am with you always to the end of the world.

And if, happening to turn your eyes first to the close of my letter, you should take the hint just now given, and then burn this with­out reading more; I think I should then gain a greater point than I can well expect from it. However, dear Sir, if you accept of this as a testimony of friendship, it will not a little gratify

HAD Jesus, when buried like other mortals, remained in the grave, I had stedfastly adhered to the Pha­risees, and gloried in being one of them, as being convinced, that the grand controversy about righteousness, which was carried on with great zeal on both sides, was now fairly decided in their favour, and that they had gained an aditional honor by the opposition.

I received a liberal and virtuous education among the Sadducees, who admit no sense of our sacred writings but what they think agreeable to sound philosophy. But happen­ing, about the time that Jesus made his ap­pearance, to fall acquainted with some ami­able [Page 34] men of eminent piety among the Phari­sees, I began to conceive a liking to their party. I observed, that they maintained a more strict temperance, and, in general, a greater purity of life, and that they had more exalted sentiments about the power and character of God, than the other party. I made it my business now to attend their lectures, and study their tenets, in hopes of being found worthy to rank with them. Mean time, the uncommon opposition shewn to them by Jesus drew no small share of my attention, and served, on the whole, rather to increase than diminish my attachment to them. I considered their sentiments as a great im­provement of my former way of thinking, and highly conducive to my advancement in virtue as well as piety. I readily judged, then, that the opposition which was chiefly pointed against what came nearest to perfec­tion, behoved to flow from the worst of causes.

I had a very low opinion of Jesus, as well as of the company he kept, on many accounts, which I shall not now take time to relate. In the general, I thought him a stranger to every great and noble sentiment which charms and elevates the mind of man. What disaf­fected me most to him was, I thought him uncharitable to the last degree. I could not [Page 35] reconcile with any degree of charity or piety [...]he severe censures he past upon men of the [...]est established characters. It gave me great [...]isgust, to hear him addressing the men whom I myself thought worthy of the high­ [...]st esteem for every thing great and good, in such uncooth language as this, How can ye escape the damnation of hell! I thought it in­tolerable to hear him at the same time declar­ing, with singular assurance, that he himself was the only favourite of heaven; that every character of man, but his own, was the ob­ject of the divine displeasure; yea, without stopping here, with the greatest familiarity calling God his Father, in a sense peculiar to himself; and, without leaving us at any loss to gather his meaning, affirming, The Father and I are one; even while he shewed rather more zeal than any of us against the least ap­pearance of ascribing any divine attribute or name to any but the one God, or even to him­self in any other view;—to hear him, in the very house sacred to the honor of the one God, against the prophaning of which he himself had shewn the greatest zeal, not only receiving divine praise from his attendants, but receiving it in the very words of the sacred hymns which we used to sing in our most so­lemn assemblies to the praise of the Most High; yea vindicating this praise as his due, [Page 36] by quoting those very hymns in support of it; and rebuking my zealous friends, who complained of this as an abuse.

Let any one put himself in our place, and try how he could have borne all this, joined with many other provoking circumstances of [...]he like nature; or, if any thing less could have satisfied him, than to have seen matters [...]rought to the extremities to which all parties [...]mong us at last agreed to push them.

I must own indeed, that there was a pe­culiar energy in the rebukes of Jesus, which [...]ade it very difficult for one to resist the force [...]f them. But what alarmed me most was, is performing many works that could not be one by human power; yea such power ap­peared in them, that could no help suspect­ [...]g, upon occasions that the finger of God as there, notwithstanding all the pains that [...]ere taken to account for them otherwise. sowever, as his conduct, on the whole, [...]eemed to me to be so very opposite to the u­niversally received principles of reason and re­ [...]igion, I made the best shift I could to efface any impressions made on my heart from that quarter, concluding, that as the chara [...]er of God himself must be measured by those prin­ciples, it would be absurd to suppose, that any revelation coming from him could ever serve to undermine them.

[Page 37]By the same principles, I fortified myself a­gainst the prediction delivered by Jesus con­cerning his rising again from the dead; to which event he had openly appealed for proof of his doctrine; or, which is the same thing, the excellency of his person and cha­racter: and what served to give me the greater assurance was, I found my favourite party was very forward to refer the decision of the whole controversy to that same event, as being very confident that it would never happen.

When once Jesus was dead and buried, I thought the dispute as good as ended. But how great was my astonishment! when, not long after, those poor illeterate men, who had been the companions of Jesus, appeared pub­licly, testifying with uncommon boldness, that he had risen again from the dead, ac­cording to his prediction; that they were well assured of this by many infallible tokens, and that at last they saw him ascend into heaven; when I saw that no threatnings, no infamy, no punishment, could intimidate them;—when, moreover, I observed so many undeniable proofs of supernatural power, co-operating with them, and exerted in the name of Jesus, as risen from the dead.—Then the late won­derful works of Jesus, before his death, re­curred upon my thoughts.—The former im­pressions [Page 38] I had been at so much pains to stifle, revived afresh upon me.—In short, the evi­dence crowded so fast upon me from every quarter, I found there was no gain saying it.

But still I was averse to the last degree to admit it. I was shocked at the train of con­sequences which behoved to follow. And thus I questioned with myself, Has reason itself deceived me? Do all our best books of divi­nity and morality proceed upon false princi­ples? Must I give up with my choicest senti­ments? Is there no such thing as wisdom or righteousness in the world! Are all the world fools, and enemie to God, but these rude Ga­lile [...]ns? The reflection is confounding!—But what do these men propose? what do they aim at by their alarming the publick in this manner, with their testimony about the re­surrection of Jesus?—They can have no de­sign, no benevolent intention toward men. They seem rather to be influenced by a most malignant disposition. They certainly intend to b [...]ing this man's blood upon us,—to prove us all to be enemies to God and objects of his wrath. They intend to make is desperate and utterly mise [...]ble.

With such reflections, whatever inw [...]rd disquiet I should undergo, I [...]esolved to com­b [...]t whatever evidence they could produce:— till one day that I heard them charged, by [Page 39] some of my friends in authority, with the malevolent purpose I have just now mention­ed — But such was their reply, that I think I shall never forget it! They indeed not only allowed, but demonstrated all the consequen­ces I was so averse to admit, with such force and evidence, as quite defeated all my resolution.—But then they, at the same time, laid open such a treasure of divine good-will toward men;—they drew such a character of God, no less amiable than awful;—they laid such a solid foundation of everlasting conso­lation and good hope, for the most desperate and miserable wretch, as did infinitely more than counterbtlance the loss of all my favou­rite principles, all my fond reasonings, and every worldly advantage I had connected with them. And all this they shewed with the greatest simplicity and clearness, to be the plain meaning and import of the fact which they testifyed, even the resurrection of Jesus. And they confirmed every thing they said, by the unanimous voice of the prophets, whom I had never understood till now. Their doc­trine, in respect of authority, resembled the word of a king, against whom there is no rising up; and in respect of evidence, the light of the sun; or, to use a far more ade­quate simili [...]ude, it resembled the fact which they testified, and whereof it was the mean­ing. [Page 40] And it well corresponded thereto in its effects: for it proved sufficient to raise the dead, and give hope to the desperate.—The fact and its import, the hand-writing and the interpretation, equally became the majesty of him who is the Supreme.

I saw plainly, that in the resurrection of Je­sus, there behoved to be the agency of a power superior to the power of nature, even capa­ble to controul and reverse the course there­of: therefore I concluded, that this operat­ing power was greater than the God of the Sadducees and the philosophers. I found al­so, that this power had a peculiar character, manifest from the nature of the controversy, wherein it interposed its agency and gave de­cision. I found, by the decision, that its charac­ter was more grand and perfect, as well as its agency stronger, than that of the God of the Pharisees. As to its agency, it was able to raise from deeper misery to higher bles­sedness than the Pharisees thought of. As to its character, it appeared with unlimited sovereignty just and merciful in perfection. Whereas the God of the Pharisees was such onl [...] partially, and by halves; incapable to execute the threatened curse against every sin, and yet shew mercy and boundless favour to the transgressors, not so just as to maintain the honor, the spirit, and extent of the perfect law, at all events; nor so merciful, as to have [Page 41] any favour for the uttetly worthless and wretched: but, halving the matter, merciful to men of good repute, and just in accepting those who are deficient in their righteous­ness; or, in another view, just in exacting the debt of five hundred pence, and merci­ful in forgiving that of fifty; or shewing ju­stice only against the utterly insolvent, and mercy only to those who can make partial payment;—in short, (like all created poten­tates), incapable of appearing, at once, with­out limitation of either attribute, just and mer­ciful in perfection.

I found then that the power which operat­ed in the resurrection of Jesus, excelled not only in strength, but also in majesty and per­fection of character, all that was called God among men. So I perceived no small propri­ety in the saying of Jesus, O righteous father, the world hath not known thee.—I concluded then that this power is the only true God: for that which is greatest must be God. Thus am I called off from every idol, however high­ly dignified, whether the work of mens hands, or of their imaginations, to adore him who is higher than the highest.

I frankly acknowledge, then, that my re­ligion, or my hope toward God, is not found­ed on argument, not on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God;—not on any deduc­tions [Page 42] from any principles I had hitherto known; but on authority interposed in a manner quite unexpected, baffling, confounding, and re­pelling all my reasonings; and, if I may be allowed the expression, forcing upon me a new set of principles, by the most convincing and satisfactory, as well as irresistable evi­dence;—not on any reasons a priori, but on a plain matter of fact establi [...]ed by impreg­nable evidence;—not on any effort exerted, or any motion felt in my bre [...]st, but on that motion of divine power, which burst the bands of death when Jesus rose;—not on any operation which men call m [...]stical, to avoid say­ing unintelligible, but on the simplest and most striking operation of power that can affect the human mind, even the presenting alive again a man who was, dead;—no o [...] feeling any change on my heart to the better, o [...] the remotest good inclin [...]tion of my will, but on that fact, which, sore against my will, forc­ed upon me the most shocking view of my guilt, and proved me to be an enemy to Heaven, in that respect wherein I thought to have approved and valued mys [...]lf to my last hour;—not on any work of power assist­ing me to feel, will, or do any thing, in or­der to peace with God, but on a work of power, proving to demonstration, that every thing needful thereto is already compleatly [Page 43] finished;—to say all in one word, not on a­ny difference betwixt me and others, or any token for good about me whatsoever, but on the token or proof of divine good-will ex­pressed, in the resurrection of Jesus, toward sinners of all nations, without regard to any difference by which one man can distinguish himself from another.

This fact, firm as a rock, emboldens me to pay an equal regard to philosophical guesses and enthusiastical fancies. If any one, then, should ask me a reason of the hope that is in me. I h [...]ve only one word to say, The resur­recti [...]n of Jesus. Take away this from me, [...] mi [...]erable indeed. Let this stand true, and nothing shall ever make me despair.

This fact and its import, o [...] the character of God thence arising, mutually confirm and asce [...]tain each other. This character could never have been drawn to our view, but from some divine w [...]rk. No work but this could ever evince such a character; and if this work was done, of necessity there must be such a character. This fact and its import, then, must stand or fall together. But more parti­cularly,

As this divine character can no where be published but along with the fact, I am as­sured, by hearing the grandest character thence arising, that the fact must be true. [Page 44] For to suppose, that the bare notion or idea of ought greater than God could ever be any where imagined, would be the wildest of all absurdities. And it is very evident, that that view of God, which, the lower it abases the pride of man, raises his comfort and joy the higher; which reduces man to the most un­reserved or to extreme dependance, while it exalts him to the summit of all happiness; could never be the contrivance of man, whose strongest impulse is toward the gratifying of hi [...] pride, and whose joy naturally rises or sinks according to the success thereof. There­fore, when the fact and its import are con­veyed to my knowledge by the same testimo­ny, I have no room to doubt, that God, who alone can describe his own character, is the testifyer and declarer of both. And surely it would be extremely absurd to suppose, that such [...]i [...]ine character could arise from a con­trived li [...].

Again, It is from this fact that the amiable character of the just [...] and the Saviour ris­es to my view. I could [...] have known there was such a God, had [...] known this fact. But I know, that this fact being true, there must be such a God; because it is im­possible to account or it otherwise. Yea, every attempt to account for it otherwise, not only extinguishes all my former lights, but [Page 45] without furnishing me with any new ones, lands me in atheism, in chaos, and utter dark­ness. Whereas the account of it given by the witnesses, while it proves all my former wisdom to be foolishness, opens to me a new and more delightful source of knowledge, throwing light upon a thousand facts that I could never account for before; shewing me a no less wonderful than satisfactory proprie­ty, in all the extraordinary circumstances at­tending the birth, life, death, and resurrec­tion of Jesus, and the ministry of his witnes­es.—It throws light upon all the ancient sa­cred writings, and the extraordinary facts re­corded in them from the creation downward. It sets my mind at rest, as to all the difficul­ties about the divine character, and the con­dition of man, which occasionally pinched me before.—I am now reconciled to the en­trance of sin and death into the world, and the whole dark side of things, on account of the marvelous light that shines forth from the greatest darkness.—I am now reconciled to the shade, on account of the magnificent pic­ture thence arising to my view, and which could not otherwise have appeared. In a word, I thence perceive a no less amiable than grand uniformity of design, in all the works of God from first to last. Whe [...]as, should I shut my eyes gainst the light issuing [Page 46] thence, I am immediately lost in an unfa­thomable abyss of absurdities.

I know then, assuredly, when I hear these illiterate men, attended by supernatural pow­er, bearing witness to the fact, declaring the import of it, and speaking the grand things of God, I hear God himself speaking; I hear the voice and testimony of God. Divine wisdom and divine power, which are indeed inseparable, present themselves to my consci­enc at once; my pride is abashed; my rea­sonings are silenced, and hope arises to me firm a new and unexpected source.

Were such a majestie personage as is de­scribed by John, in the 10th chapter of the Apocalypse, to appear publicly to our vew, would not all our former ideas of human grandeur evanish at his presence? Have the wise men, of almost every succeeding age, ex­ploded the principles maintained by their predcessors both in ethics and in physics? and should it seem a thing incredible to us that when God, no longer winking at the times of ignorance, was to commence a public speaker and writer to men, he should ex­plode the wisdom of all the teachers who formerly taught mankind? and if we willing­ly hear wise men tracing to us the order and connection of facts and appearances in the course of nature, why should we not hear God [Page 47] explaining to us supernatural facts? This seems to be a province proper f [...]r the author and controuler of nature. It was surely far above the fishers of Galilee.

I am fully satisfied, then, in agreement with the witnesses, to hold the meaning they have given of the resurrection of Jesus, for the gospel, the word, and the testimony of God; and to call it, by way of eminence, THE TRUTH, in opposition to every false gloss on the scriptures, and every false reason­ing about the light or law of nature, or about any of the works or ways of God. This truth opens for me a plain path, and affords me from ground for every step: so that I have no oc­casion to grope among probabilities with the academics, or no less uncertain feelings with the devotees;—no reason to nay the former the pleasure they propose in their humble, candid and sincere enquiries after—a fan­tom, which has hitherto eluded their grasp; or the latter, the more re [...]ined delight they propose in their pious wrestlings and waitings for—a good concei [...] of themselves:—no reason to be scared by the scornful sneer of those, or the more so [...]mn frown of these. Let this truth be my co [...]pa [...]ion, and I will not be ash [...]med in the presence of [...]ll the sons of Socrates, though joined with those of Ga­mal [...]l.

[Page 48]In company with this truth I dare act the part proper to man. I dare give free scope to my conscience, before God, and look into his perfect law, as knowing, that, however heavy the charge turn out against me, the resurrec­tion of Jesus affords the answer of a good con­science toward God, as it shews a righteous­ness to be already finished, by which God can appear just in justifying me, even in the very worst view I can have of myself, or, which is more even in the worst view I can appear in before him, who knows all things. By being thus encouraged to look into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein, I see the extent of it to be vastly wider than I was hitherto willing to notice. And, by seeing what a righteosness was requisite to honor it, and at what an expence every the least trans­gression of it behoved to be expiated, I am led to hold every precept of it more sacred than ever I did before. I know that I cannot dis­regard any precept of it, without, at the same time, disregarding the revealed righteousness. I consider the perfect law, the law that re­quires godliness and humanity in perfection, as the sacred and invariable rule of corres­pondence with God. And though on this side the grave I cannot come before God at any time, and say, I have no sin, yet the TRUTH both binds and encourages me to aim at no less than perfection.

[Page 49]While I keep the perfect law in my view, which, like a faithful mirror, discovers all my deformity, I can find no reason to glory over the most infamous of mankind. The nearer I come to the light, which makes ma­nifest all things that are reproved, I have the more reason to say, Behold I am vile. I can have no room for glorying then but in the bare TRUTH: and I have good reason con­fidently to oppose the righteousness reve [...]led there, to all that is admired, in its stead, a­mong men.

I now see plainly, that all my former rea­sonings against Jesus and his charcter, were at the same time pointed against the divine law, and against the natural dictates of my own conscience. I chose to confine the exercise of my conscience to what might distinguish me from others. I took pleasure in reflecting what I was not, in comparison with others; but was averse to notice what I was before God. When any uneasy question, in this last respect, arose in my heart I was careful to turn it aside by more ageeable reasonings. If I might, for once call that which proper­ly distinguishes man from other animals, viz. his conscience, by the name of REASON, I would vary the stile of the received maxim, and say, R [...]ason pursued is despair, and faith, or the knowledge of the truth, is the cure of [Page 50] despair. Before I knew the cure, I found nothing but pain and misery, in listening to the simple dictates of my conscience. And, sure I am, neither conscience nor argument directed me to the cure. But it came to me, unexpectedly, from heaven, by supernatural revelation; that is, when I heard God, by the mouths of the witnesses, laying open the meaning of a supernatural fact; a fact that had not only awakened fresh disturbance in my conscience, but also demolished all my arguments.

I was convinced then, that the revealed truth, which not only awakened my consci­ence, and made me sensible of my malady, but also brought such releif as was sufficient to sati [...]fy it when most awakned, behoved to come from the same God who formed it, and whose law is naturally impressed there. I found I had hitherto neglected and resisted the natural notices of the true God there, and framed to myself another God by reasonings; —that I had been all along as one half a­fleep or intoxicated; and who chuses to be so, as not finding his circumstances in so good order as to give him pleasure and satisfaction in his soberest and coolest moments, And indeed, who w [...]uld incline to [...]ive place no s [...]ch apprehensions of God and of himself, as could yield no pleasure nor satisfaction; but, on the contrary, the greatest of all pains; [Page 51] yea behoved, without the knowledge of the cure, to fill his mind with the most repining hatred of God.

I have great reason then to value the gos­pel, as it enables me to reflect, without pain, that I am a human creature;—as it presents me with such an amiable view of the inflexi­bly just God, as that I may think of him, when fully awake, and need not cou [...] the momentary quiet, or rather insensibility, which is procured by resisting the natural no­tices of God in the conscience, or the more explicit declaration of his will in his written law. The gospel, while it enforces the law of God, and makes the conscience more sen­sible to the conviction of sin, conveys likewise the most refreshing remedy; so answers to the majesty of the living and true God, who says, Deut. xxxii. 29. See now that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: nei­there is there any that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to Heaven, and say, I live for ever.

Nor do I think I have any apology to make to men, for renouncing my former ways and thoughts, however tighteous they appeared to myself and others, upon my being found guilty, beyond reply, by the one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy; and demon­strated [Page 52] to be wicked and unrighteous in re­spect of both, by his irresistable work and testimony, I do not think it beneath the dig­nity of the wisest human creature, to be con­vinced of his mistake, by him, whom it well becomes to say,— My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (See Isaiah, lv. 7, 8, 9,)

I used to admire it as a fine imagination, that were truth and virtue to be presented be­fore our eyes in all their native charms, the beauteous splendor would be too transport­ing, too dazling to be beheld by us, but through some vail.—The experiment has been tried, and that in a manner far surpas­sing the reach of fancy. The unsullied per­fection of both has appeared in the world, in all their native charms indeed, yet so as not to hurt the weakest eye.—But what was the result? we saw no form nor comeliness in him; no beauty, that we should desire him. We turned aside our faces from him, as from a disagreeable object. The most wise and vir­tuous among us were the foremost to set him at nought.—Yet however strange it may seem, true it is, that some of the most base and stupid among us were, upon this occasi­on, [Page 53] struck with such an apprehension of di­vine beauty, as far exceeds all the raptures of imagination. The WORD was made flesh, (said they) and dwelt among us, (and we be­held his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.

I have said, the resurrection of Jesus serves me, as a new principle of knowledge or rea­soning. I do not set out from conjectures to inquire after truth; but I set out with the light of undoubted truth, to observe what path it opens for me to walk in. I do not set out from human maxims or presumptions, to in­quire how I shall form a god to myself; but I set out from heavenly truth, stamped with the divine character, to inquire how I shall form my heart and life suitably to it. I do not set out upon the inquiry, What I shall do to pla­cate the Divine Majesty? or, as the phrase is, How I shall make up my peace with God? but I set out from the persuasion, that God is just in justifying the ungodly, to inquire, what service he has for me,—to prove what is the good, and acceptable, and perfct will of God.

All my religious principles and practices are so many inferences from the afore-men­tioned fact; yet I have no ground to value myself as a reasoner, even on this new footing. For I could find no satisfactory meaning at all in that fact, till I was first taught it by the [Page 54] illiterate G [...]lile us. And, what is more, I can deduce no inference from thence, till I be first taught it by one or other of the inspired wit­nesses. But when I hear them displaying the manifold wisdom of God from that source, perceive a wonderful propriety and force in the whole of their reasoning. Thus God see meet to abuse my pride of understanding, by the very means he uses for conveying to m [...] the most useful and comfortable of all knowledge. And herein, I am persuaded, he consults my real benefit. For were I left t [...] indulge my natural itch for reasoning, eve [...] on this new footing, I am sensible I shoul [...] soon act the same part with this supernatur [...] revelation, as I formerly did with the ligh [...] of nature. When I reflect, where all [...] own wisdom, and that of the greatest sag [...] landed me; and that in the hight of my wi [...] dom, I turned out the greatest fool; I a [...] now fully satisfied that my safest and wise course is, simply to believe just as I am tol [...] and submissively to do just as I am bidde [...] without murmuring or disputing. Howev [...] foolish then my rule of faith and practi [...] may appear in the eyes of the WISE, a [...] however weak in the eyes of the DEVOUT I find myself kept in countenance by the [...] postolic maxim, The foolishness of God is wi [...] than men, and the weakness of God is strong than men.