natural Reach of our Faculties, is no Sort ofCHAP. Prefumption against the Truth and Reality of II. them because it is certain, there are innu-W merable things, in the Conftitution and Government of the Universe, which are thus beyond the natural Reach of our Faculties. Secondly, Analogy raises no Prefumption, against any of the things contained in this general Doctrine of Scripture now mentioned, upon account of their being unlike the known Course of Nature. For there is no Prefumption at all from Analogy, that the whole Course of things, or divine Government, naturally unknown to us, and every thing in it, is like to any thing in That which is known and therefore no peculiar Prefumption against any thing in the former, upon account of its being unlike to any thing in the latter. And in the Conftitution and natural Government of the World, as well as in the moral Government of it, we see things, in a great Degree, unlike one another: and therefore ought not to wonder at fuch Unlikeness between things vifible and invifible. However, the Scheme of Christianity is by no means entirely unlike the Scheme of Nature; as will appear in the following Part of this

Treatife.

The Notion of a Miracle, confidered as a Proof of a divine Miffion, has been stated

PART with great Exactness by Divines; and is, Í II. think, fufficiently understood by every one. There are alfo invifible Miracles, the Incarnation of Chrift, for Inftance, which, being fecret, cannot be alledged as a Proof of fuch a Miffion; but require themselves to be proved by vifible Miracles. Revelation itself too is miraculous; and Miracles are the Proof of it: and the fuppofed Prefumption against these, fhall presently be confidered. All which I have been obferving here is, that, whether we chufe to call every thing in the Dispensations of Providence, not discoverable without Revelation, nor like the known course of things, miraculous; and whether the general christian Difpenfation now mentioned, is to be called fo, or not; the foregoing Observations feem certainly to fhew, that there is no Prefumption against it, from the Analogy of Nature.

II. There is no Prefumption, from Analogy, against fome Operations, which, we fhould now call miraculous; particularly none against a Revelation, at the Beginning of the World: nothing of fuch Prefumption against it, as is fuppofed to be implied or expreffed in the Word, miraculous. For a Miracle, in its very Notion, is relative to a Course of Nature; and implies fomewhat different from it, confidered as being fo. Now, either there

was no Course of Nature at the Time which CHAP. we are speaking of: or if there were, we are II. not acquainted, what the Course of Nature is, upon the first peopling of Worlds. And therefore the Question, whether Mankind had a Revelation made to them at That Time, is to be confidered, not as a Question concerning a Miracle, but as a common Queftion of Fact. And we have the like Reaton, be it more or less, to admit the Report of Tradition, concerning this Question, and concerning common Matters of Fact of the fame Antiquity; for Inftance, what Part of the Earth was first peopled.

Or thus: When Mankind was first placed in this State, there was a Power exerted, totally different from the present Course of Nature. Now, whether this Power, thus wholly different from the prefent Course of Nature, for we cannot properly apply to it the Word miraculous; whether This Power ftopped immediately after it had made Man, or went on, and exerted itself farther in giving him a Revelation, is a Question of the fame Kind, as whether an ordinary Power exerted itself in fuch a particular Degree and Manner,

or not.

Ör fuppofe the Power exerted in the Formation of the World, be confidered as mira

PART culous, or rather, be called by that Name; II. the Cafe will not be different: fince it must be

acknowledged, that fuch a Power was exerted. For fuppofing it acknowledged, that our Saviour spent fome Years in a Course of working Miracles: there is no more Prefumption, worth mentioning, against his having exerted this miraculous Power, in a certain Degree greater, than in a certain Degree less; in one or two more Inftances, than in one or two fewer; in this, than in another Man

ner.

It is evident then, that there can be no peculiar Prefumption, from the Analogy of Nature, against fuppofing a Revelation, when Man was first placed upon the Earth.

Add, that there does not appear the least Intimation in Hiftory or Tradition, that Religion was first reafoned out: but the whole of Hiftory and Tradition makes for the other Side, that it came into the World by Revelation. Indeed the State of Religion in the firft Ages, of which we have any Account, seems to fuppofe and imply, that this was the Original of it amongst Mankind. And these Reflections together, without taking in the peculiar Authority of Scripture, amount to real and a very material Degree of Evidence, that there was a Revelation at the Beginning

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of the World. Now this, as it is a Confir- CHAP. mation of natural Religion, and therefore II. mentioned in the former Part of this Treatifed; fo likewise it has a Tendency to remove any Prejudices against a subsequent Revelation.

III. But ftill it may be objected, that there is fome peculiar Prefumption, from Analogy, against Miracles; particularly against Revelation, after the Settlement and during the Con tinuance of a Course of Nature.

Now with regard to this fuppofed Prefumption, it is to be obferved in general; that before we can have Ground for raifing what can, with any Propriety, be called an Argument from Analogy, for or againft Revelation confidered as fomewhat miraculous, we muft be acquainted with a fimilar or parallel Cafe. But the History of fome other World, feemingly in like Circumftances with our own, is no more than a parallel Cafe: and therefore Nothing short of This, can be fo. Yet, could we come at a prefumptive Proof, for or against a Revelation, from being informed, whether fuch World had one, or not; fuch a Proof, being drawn from one fingle Instance only, must be infinitely precarious. More particularly: First of all; There is a d p. 170, &c.

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