SERM. Gospel and Epiftles. Indeed in the Book of VIII. the Revelation, (taking it for granted, that

this book is his) which is of the prophetic kind, we have an account of many vifions, with which he was favoured; we have description, and very grand imagery; which different manner is a ftrong prefumption, that the objects were prefented to his imagination just as he hath delineated them, But, I fay, in his Gospel, and Epiftles, we fee the greatest fimplicity. Yet the justest maxims, the deepest moral philosophy, and the fublimeft fentiments, are scattered through his writings; as all, who are capable of difcerning these things, and have read his writings with attention, will readily acknowledge; and a most excellent, and pure, and elevated fpirit, shineth throughout them. And in the view, which I am now pursuing, we must take in all thofe fublime things, which are faid by him in the person of our Saviour, as well as what he faid in his own; for if he is imagined to have put a fiction upon the world, which, in the prefent argument, will be the fuppofition of infidelity, all must be his own. But, upon fuch a suppofition, must it not appear unaccountable,

where

where fuch a perfon as the fon of a poor SERM. fisherman, and himself brought up to that VIII. bufinefs, could come by fuch juft maxims, fuch knowledge of human nature, fuch fublime sentiments, as are far from being equalled by any of the ancients, who lived before Christianity appeared in the world, as far as I know? In the writings of this Apostle, we have no appearances of laboured investigation, no continued chains of reafoning, and first principles pursued, through many steps of argumentation, to most distant confequences; and thus truths found out, which could not, without fuch careful attention and application of the powers of understanding, have been known; which is the method, that the celebrated ancients pursued, and it is every-where seen in their writings: We have, I fay, nothing of all this; but without any studied order or method, without any laboured connexion, the moft useful and most exalted sentiments are uttered by this author, juft as they were fuggefted to his mind. What then can be more probable, than that they were not the growth of his own genius, or the productions of his own understanding. He must have had an in

ftructor;

;

SERM. ftructor his writings cannot poffibly VIII. otherwise be accounted for: and this maketh it extremely probable, that he got his knowledge in religion, in the manner, which his own history relateth; namely, from the great Prophet of the Christian church, and a divine illumination.

But this is not all, which is to be faid in favour of Christianity, from the writings of this author, (to collect and represent which, was the third general head propofed ;) for we fee in them the plainest marks of a moft candid and affectionate fpirit. The whole tendency of his writings is to make men innocent and good, to fill them with love to God and one another, and communicate that facred flame, which. blazed fo remarkably in himself. There are as ftrong appearances, as can poffibly be in a matter of that nature, that he was in the greatest earneft in this, and had his whole heart engaged. Nor, in reality, is there any other purpose, which his writings could be intended to ferve. Did he defign to impofe upon mankind and delude them? Delude them into what? Into the love of God their maker? Into kind and tender affection to one another ?

Into

Into righteousness and purity of manners? SERM. Into a temper the most exalted above the VIII. low fpirit of this world, and a state of mind the moft divine, to which human nature can attain, and which must always be attended with pleafing inward approbation, the greatest tranquillity, and the most perfect self-enjoyment? These are the only ends, which his writings can ferve and can fuch a writer be conceived deliberately to meditate, and execute a scheme for impofing upon and enfnaring the world?

Let it be ferioufly confidered, whether there be the least probability, that this perfon invented the story, which he hath given us of the life of our Saviour, and the many discourses, which it containeth? Is there any thing in his genius and manner of writing, which could incline an impartial reader to think, that he was putting a mere fiction upon mankind, or was in the fecret and contrivance with others to do it, and aiding to them in the execution of their defign? It hath been obferved upon other occafions, that the part, which the Apostles acted, can by no means be accounted for on the foot of enthusiasm :

and

SERM. and to fuppofe them a company of wicked VIII. deceivers, is likewife manifeftly abfurd.

But there is the moft manifeft repugnancy between the fpirit, which appeareth throughout the writings of the Apostle John, and fuch a character. If ever man wrote with fimplicity of fpirit, he did; having nothing in his eye, but to publish to the world the glorious things, which he had feen in his great Mafter, and which he had learned from him; things far abovethe ftrength of his own genius to invent.

But, had he been capable of inventing them, and of a corrupt defign of putting them upon the world, what, purpofe he could propofe to ferve by it, is a question, which doth not admit of any substantial anfwer. He lived long, and is faid to have written his gospel late in life; but he did not live to see his party happy, with refpect to the things of this world; for they continued a reproached, and defpifed, and perfecuted people. So that no temporal confideration could be his motive for framing fuch a fable; a fable, which flood in direct oppofition to the principles and expectations of his countrymen; and, in their esteem, perfectly execrable, nor, ag

the