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1. First Use I will make of it, fhall SERM. be, to fhew from thence, how great an Advantage the Chriftian Religion hath, on this Account, over all Other Religions, whether true or falfe; not excepting even the Dispensation of Mofes.

'Tis true, scarce any Religion ever set up in the World, without pretending, fooner or later, to derive its Authority from Miracles. But then, either those Miracles (as they are call'd) have been acted confeffedly in Secret; or, if they are faid to have been done in Publick, yet the Account, which was given of them, came too late to deferve Credit, or to leave room for a Difproof. And in Both these Cafes, the Pretence to them is very fufpicious.

Thus, in the first Inftance, Numa's Nightly Conferences with a Goddess, was a Figment, for which the People of Rome had His Word only; the Truth of the whole Transaction was refolved into his Single Testimony. And fuch was Mahomet's vain Boast of his receiving the feveral Chapters of his Alcoran from

the

SERM. the Angel Gabriel; for he wrought no I. publick Miracle to enforce this private

one; nor did he, that we can learn, pretend to the Power of working any. On the contrary, when Miracles were demanded of him, he at firft (as his Followers have done ever fince) appealed to the Alcoran itself, as to the greatest and most convincing Miracle; which was written (he faid) in fuch a manner, as to carry upon it the plain Stamp and Evidence of its own Divine Authority. And this was the Only way in which he could make out his Intercourse with the Angel Gabriel.

Thus again, the feveral Idolatrous Religions, in the East and West Indies, are faid to have received their Sanction from Miracles done by the first Authors and Founders of them: But then the Reporters of these Facts are so much later than the Facts themselves, that 'tis impoffible to have any Rational Affurance concerning the Reality of them: [Their Mango-Copal, Amida, Brama and Zaca are fuppofed to have atchieved Wonders]

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at a time, when there was no way of SERM. tranfmitting Accounts of them to Pofte- I. rity, but by Memory alone, and fome thousands of Years before there could be any written Monuments of them. Now, this, I fay, is to build the Proof of Divine Truths upon the Certainty of fome Accounts, whereof Men can never be certain; it is to establish the Belief of a Revelation upon Things done, or said to be done, in a Corner, and which require a new Revelation, to make them Credible.

The Jewish Religion was indeed publifhed by God in a very open and folemn Manner, before a whole Nation, with Thunders and Lightnings, and the Sound of Heavenly Trumpets, on the Top of Mount Sinai. Yet ftill Infidelity finds room to object, that the Truth of this Revelation depends upon the Teftimony of Friends only; and that the Scene of it is laid in a Place where no body could be prefent, but the Perfons concerned to fupport the Account, whether True or False. And fhould any of these Persons have been inclined to contradict it, yet

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SERM. they could not, because the whole Race I. of them perifhed in the Wilderness, e'er a Correfpondence was as yet open'd-between them, and any Other People.

Such Objections, 'tis true, are of no Weight, laid in the Balance with the Evidence given for the Truth of those Facts; yet is it fome Advantage to the Proof of Gospel Miracles, not to be liable even to these little Exceptions, and on no fide to lie open to any Doubts or Sufpicions whatsoever. And from hence we may take Occafion to confider alfo, in the

2. Second place, how inexcufable They are, who, notwithstanding that Open, Inconteftable manner, in which the Divine Authority of the Gofpel was manifested, continue ftill to ftand out against it; to Refist, and even to Deride the Utmoft Efforts made by an Omnipotent Arm towards afferting the Miffion of Jefus; to parallel them with the Mock Wonders of Satan, and the Impostures of False Prophets; and to infinuate, as if they were all equally done by Collu

fion. Such was He, whofe Name ought SERM. not to be mentioned without Reproach, 1. and whom therefore I shall not mention ; but his Words are thefe: " If we look

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(fayshe) upon the Impostures wrought "by Confederacy, there is nothing, "how impoffible foever to be done, "that is impoffible to be believed. For "Two Men confpiring, the One to feern "Lame, the Other to Cure him with a "Charm, will deceive Many, but Many

confpiring, One to feem Lame, Ano“ther to Cure him, and all the Reft to "bear Witness, will deceive more. Which was intended to suggest, that the Miraculous Cures, recorded in the Gofpel, were not really Cures, but Cheats, and concerted between the feeming Objects and Authors of them; though the Relation of feveral of thofe Cures be, as I fhewed before, fo circumftanced, as to make this Account of them not only Ridiculous, but Impoffible. He might as well have pretended to explain the Miracle of our Saviour's giving Eyes to the Blind, by reafoning on the Medicína!

Virtues