we shall despair; but the Lord is in his holy Temple, beholding the evil and the good, let all the Earth keep filence before him.

Many other abuses of reafon might have been enumerated, but having adverted to fuch as feemed most fatal to the real interest of religion, we shall perhaps be the more fully prepared and the more properly armed for its defence; we shall in fome degree have adjusted the previous conditions and the legitimate mode of contention; we shall be cautious how we engage upon untenable ground, with unlawful, inefficient, unwieldy or untractable weapons; we shall be fober minded, cool, collected, we shall facrifice no folid good to fpecious advantages; and may the Lord of Hofts himself, who stilleth the raging of the fea, who ftilleth alfo the madness of the people, guide us with his counfel, and lead us on to conqueft and unfpeakable glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and praise now and for

evermore.

SERMON II.

PSALM CXIX. 130.

THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIGHT: IT GIVETH UNDERSTANDING

UNTO THE SIMPLE.

I

N all our religious enquiries, it is of the utmost moment previously to ascertain the nature and weight of that authority, to which we make our appeal. And as the facred writers poffefs the greatest, it is natural to begin with them. The fubject of infpiration has been frequently handled; it is intended in the following discourse to answer objections as they lie fcattered in various authors, whether open enemies or pretended friends, to obviate or prevent mifconftructions and miftakes. The variety of matter is difficult to be arranged in a particular method and in due regularity.

On

On this occafion, as on many others, we shall find cause to reject the argument, a priori. For any thing we can prove to the contrary, the Almighty might have withheld part of the information he hath been pleased to grant, or he might have added more. Suffice it for us to acknowledge with gratitude that he hath made ample provifion for all our fpiritual wants and infirmities, and that his Glory is best confulted when we confult our own real intereft and happiness.

Perhaps no propofition can be more indifputable, than that if the facred writers affumed a character which did not belong to them, if they obtruded upon men their own opinions for divine truths, they must be deemed most fhameless hypocrites. No plea of policy or temporary expediency could juftify fuch a conduct. Solemn invocations and folemn appeals to Heaven, declarations of being not only instructed what to speak, which was frequently the act of God, but of being commanded under the feverest penalties actually to speak, would amount to nothing short of blafphemy. But the facred writers, who difdain false praife, who, with a dignity of mind unknown to other writers, record their own failings,

failings, defects and miscarriages, which they neither attempt to defend nor to palliate, are free from the very fhadow of fuch an imputation. And as it was clear from the beginning of the world how liable even miracles themselves were to be imitated or counterfeited, Mofes established the certainty of his miffion by a compleat victory over the magi

cians.

Various have been the interpretations of the word Prophet and its correfponding terms in other languages. We are at present only concerned to examine the pretenfions of thofe, who were, according to our belief, delegated to inftruct or reprove the men of their own age, and to foretel what fhould happen in future periods. Dreadful were the denunciations against such as should falfely pretend to a divine commiffion. The Prophet which shall prefume a word in my name, which I have commanded him not to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other Gods, even that Prophet shall die. Then is fubjoined the proper teft of a Prophet. If thou shalt fay in thine heart, how Shall we know the word which the Lord hath not Spoken? When a Prophet Speaketh in the name

a

* Deut. xviii.

of