The evil, then, to be avoided, is "the judgment of God," confequent upon fin, and fure to overtake it, if unrepented of. Sin, which is the tranfgreffion of the law, cannot but be noticed by Him who gave that law; and if noticed, must be punished, either in this life, or that which is to come. No principle can be plainer than this; for otherwise, a law would ferve no purpose but that of bringing contempt upon the maker of it. There is not an inftance, perhaps, upon record of any age or nation, where the idea of punishment has not been connected with that of guilt; and the certainty of fuch connection is the great fubject of all the Scriptures.

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Sin is often punished in this life; much oftener than we are aware; indeed fo often, that we may fay as Mofes to Ifrael :-— "If you have finned against the Lo:d, be fure your fin will find you out," Numb. xxxii. 23. We fee how much this is the cafe in the facred hiftory, where we are admitted within the veil, and the rationale of the divine proceedings in particular cafes is unfolded to us. When we are ignorant of that rationale, as, without fpecial information from above, we muft be, refpecting the courfe of God's ordinary providence in the world, it is unfafe, and it may be not only uncharitable, but unjust, to judge in this manner of the calamities which befal our neighbour. But there would be no harm, when calamities befal ourselves, if we should take a retrospect of our conduct, and in that conduct endeavour to discover the cause that might have induced our heavenly Father to fend them. It will not be faying too much, I believe, to fay, that many times, if the fearch were made with diligence and fidelity, we should discover it: at least, were we not able to particu larize, we should difcover enough in general to fatisfy us, that, be our fufferings at any time what they may, we do not fuffer more than we deserve to fuffer; but that each of us, without any tincture of fuperftition or hypocrify, may from heart-felt conviction exclaim, with the good Pfalmift, "I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and thou, of very faithfulness, hast caused me to be troubled."...Every fresh inftance of this fort is indeed only a fresh confirmation of that grand and most important truth, which should ever be uppermoft in our thoughts, that, all natural evil is the confequence and punishment of moral. Remove the latter by repentance, and God will remove the former, when he fees that it has performed the work, and produced the effect intended.

It would be in vain, however, to diffemble, that, in the present ftate, as is the offence, fuch is not always the punishment. Notorioufly profligate finners often partake not, to appearance, the common evils of life, but pafs their days in profperity, affluence, and health, and die without any visible tokens of the divine difpleasure. The fact is indisputable; and it was a stumbling-block by very good men of old time not without great difficulty furmounted. The conflict occafioned by it in the human mind is

defcribed

defcribed at large in the lxxxiiid. Pfalm, and in the xiith. chapter of Jeremiah; nor will believers fail fometimes to experience a temptation of a fimilar nature, while the object fhall continue to prefent itself, that is, while the world fhall laft.

To take off, in fome measure, the force of the objection, it must be remarked, that, besides those judgments of God, which lie open to the observation of mankind, there are others, even in the prefent life, of a fecret and invisible kind, known only to the party by whom they are felt. There is a court constantly fitting within, from whofe jurisdiction the criminal can plead no exemption, and from whofe prefence he cannot fly; there is evidence produced against him, which he can neither difprove nor evade; and there, a just fentence is not only paffed, but forthwith executed upon him, by the infliction of torments fevere and poignant as the ftrokes of whips or fcorpions; torments, exquifite in proportion to the fenfibility of the part affected; torments, of which he fees the beginning, but is never likely to fee the end.

[To be concluded in our next.]

AN EXTRACT OF

A fhort and eafy METHOD with the DEISTS.

[Concluded from page 28.]

IV. CHERE are feveral other topicks, from which the truth of the Chriftian religion is evinced to all who will give themfelves leave to confider. As the improbability that ten or twelve poor illiterate fishermen should form a defign of bringing the whole world to believe their delufions; and the impoffibility of their effecting it, without force of arms, learning, oratory, or any one vifible thing that could recommend them! And to impose a doctrine quite oppofite to the lufts and pleafures of men, and all worldly advan tages, or enjoyments! And this in an age of fo great learning and fagacity, as that wherein the Gospel was firft preached! That thefe Apoftles fhould not only undergo all the fcorn and contempt, but the fevereft perfecutions, and the most cruel deaths that could be inflicted, in atteftation to what themselves knew to be meer deceit and forgery of their own contriving! Some have fuffered for errors which they thought to be truth: but never any for what themselves knew to be lies. And the Apoftles muft know what they taught to be lies, if it was fo, because they fpake of those things which they faid, they had both feen and heard, had looked upon, and handled with their hands, &c.

Neither can it be faid, that they might have proposed fome temporal advantages to themselves, but miffed of them; for had it been fo when they faw their disappointment, they would have difcovered their confpiracy; efpecially when they might not have only faved their lives, but got great rewards for doing it. How

is it then that not one of them fhould ever have been brought to do this.

But this is not all. For they tell us, that their Master bid them expect nothing but fufferings in this world. And they told the fame to all whom they converted. So that here was no difappointment.

All that were converted by them, were converted on the certain expectation of fufferings, and bid prepare for them. Chrift commanded his disciples to take up their crofs daily and follow him; and told them, that in the world they fhould have tribulation: that whoever did not forfake father, mother, wife, children, lands, and their very lives, could not be his difciples: that he who fought to fave his life in this world, fhould lose it in the next.

Now that this despised doctrine of the Crofs fhould prevail fo univerfally against the allurements of flesh and blood, and all the blandifhments of this world; against the rage, and perfecution of all the kings and powers of the earth, muft fhew its Original to be divine; and its Protector almighty. What is it elfe, could conquer without arms, perfuade without rhetorick; overcome enemies; difarm tyrants; and fubdue empires without oppofition!

V. We may add to all this, the teftimonies of the moft bitter enemies and perfecutors of Christianity, both Jews and Gentiles, to the truth of the Matter of Fact of Chrift, fuch as Jofephus and Tacitus; of whom the first flourished about forty years after the death of Christ, and the other about feventy years after: fo that they were capable of examining into the truth, and wanted not prejudice and malice fufficient to have inclined them to deny the Matter of Fact itself. But their confeffing it, as likewife Lucian, Celfus, Porphyry, and Julian the apoftate; is an undeniable teftimony to the truth of these Matters of Fact.

VI. But there is another argument more ftrong and convincing than even this Matter of Fact. More than the certainty of what I fee with my eyes. And which the Apostle Peter called a more fure word, that is, proof that what he faw and heard upon the holy Mount, when our bleffed Saviour was Transfigured before him and two other of the Apoftles: for having repeated that paffage as a proof of that whereof they were eye-witneffes, and heard the voice from Heaven giving atteftation to our Lord Christ, 2 Peter i. 16, 17, 18. verses. He fays, ver. 19, "We have alfo a more fure word of prophefy," for the proof of this Jefus being the Meffiah, that is the Prophefies which had gone before of him, from the beginning of the world; and all exactly fulfilled in him. Men may difpute an impofition, or delufion upon our outward fenfes. But how can that be false, which has been fo long, even from the beginning of the world, and fo often by all the prophets, in feveral ages foretold; how can this be an impofition, or a forgery?

The Deifts must confefs, that the book which we call the Old Teftament, was in being, in the hands of the Jews long before

our

our Saviour came into the world. And if they will but compare the prophefies that are there of the Meffiah, with the fulfilling of them, as to time, place, and all other circumftances, in the perfon, birth, life, death, refurrection, and afcenfion of our bleffed Saviour, they will find this proof what the Apostle here calls it, a light fhining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-ftar arife in your hearts." Here is no poffibility of deceit or imposture.

I defire them likewife to confider the prophecies given fo long ago, of which they fee the fulfilling at this day, with their own eyes, of the ftate of the Jews, for many ages paft, and at prefent; particularly Jer. xlvi. 28. "Fear thou not, O Jacob my fervant, faith the Lord, for I am with thee, for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee, but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in meafure, yet will I not utterly cut thee off." And chap. xxxi. 36, 37. If thofe ordinances depart from before me, faith the Lord, then the feed of Ifrael alfo fhall ceafe from being a nation before me for ever. Thus faith the Lord, if Heaven above can be meafured, and the foundations of the earth fearched out beneath, I will alfo cut off all the feed of Ifrael, for all that they have done, faith the Lord."

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Now let us fee how literally this is fulfilled at this day. The great and famous monarchies, who, in their turns, governed the world, and fucceffively had deftroyed the Jews (the Affyrian, the Babylonian, and the Roman) are all vanished, as a dream; there is not one of them left. But the Jewish nation, though fifted among all nations (as the prophet Amos expreffes it) like as corn is fifted in a fieve, yet are they preferved a vifible diftinct people, in all the nations whither they have been fcattered. And the rage of many kings and governments have been let loose against them, to root them off from the face of the earth; and they had no helper; yet the Lord was their helper, and put it out of the power of all the earth (though without any vifible oppofition) to infringe the promife he had made to them.

The Deifts dare not fay, that these prophesies were made yefterday, or not before the fall of these monarchies; especially of the Roman, the greatest of them. And what a folly, as well as vanity had it been in the Jews, to have forged fuch audacious and provoking prophefies, to have thus dared all the powers of the earth to extirpate them, who hated them, and had them perfectly at mercy?

And here let the Deifls take notice of this wonderful infance, fresh before their eyes, of God's particular regard to this moft defpifed and contemptible people, above all the other nations of the earth, how great and honourable foever. This is a flanding miracle exhibited to the whole world!

Yet is there no partiality in this, as the Deifts weakly reafon : For as Mofes was a type of the Meffiah, fo the Church of the Jews was of the Chriftian, whofe pales are enlarged to take in

the

the Gentiles, as often promised in the prophets: by which means the Jewish nation was indeed a type of the whole world (reprefented in the long garment of the high-prieft, Wifd. xviii. 24. Ifrael called the firft-fruits of God's increafe. Jer. ii. 3.) And confequently the bleffings of which the Jews partook; the promifes made to them, and miraculous protection over them, was taking poffeffion in the name, and fecuring the reverfion of the Gentile world, in the fame glorious inheritance. And it was indifferent as to the good of the world, which nation had been pitched upon as their type. But God chofe the leaft, that his power and protection over his church might be more visible; and to fhew that the muft ftruggle through many difficulties and temp tations; yet never be extinct (though often diftreffed) when all the powers and glory of this world shall vanish as smoke before the. wind.

Moreover, if God had chofen any of the great and powerful nations of the earth for his peculiar people, to whom if he had given his promise to continue them for ever; the scorners would have blafphemed and faid that God was ftill on the ftrongeft fide. And they would have afcribed their prefervation to their own power and greatness. This is the reafon God gives, why he chofe the feweft of all people, Deut. vii. 7. viii. 17. left they should say it was through their own power and might that they were preferved. Befides, the peculiar nation being a type of the Chriftian church, it was neceffary that the odds, as to the world, fhould be against that nation; which should fubfift not by worldly ftrength and politicks, but by fignal and miraculous providences. Thus the church was beft reprefented, as greatly DISTRESSED, but wonderfully preferved!

And yet behold an equal promife of our Meffiah to his church, and as miraculously fulfilled, as that before-mentioned to the Jews. He promised, that his Church fhould continue even unto the end of the world; that he would be all that time with her to preferve her, and that the gates of Hell fhould never prevail against her. And when was this promifed? Even at the beginning, when his religion was low and contemptible, hardly yet known in the world. All the rage and madness of kings, and states, and mobs, have been exerted against her to deftroy her, for many ages together and she was deftitute of all human help. Could any power less than Divine have foretold this preservation, and have effected it for fo long a time without human means, without fword or policy?

The Jews cannot deny the Matters of Fact done by our blessed Saviour, to be truly miracles, if fo done as faid. Nor can they deny that they were fo done, because they have all the four marks before-mentioned. Yet they cannot yield to the Truth! Why? Because they think that the Gospel is in contradiction to the Law. Which, if it were, the confequence would be unavoidable, that VOL. XIX. Feb. 1796.

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