Hope; the Terms of it are more beneficial, and convey to true Penitents not only Hope, but a Claim to Pardon. But Pardon only will not fatisfy: There is still something farther that Nature craves, fomething which with unutterable Groans fhe pants after, even Life and Happiness for evermore. She fees

all her Children go down to the Grave: All beyond the Grave is to her one wide Waste, a Land of Doubt and Uncertainty: When she looks into it, fhe has her Hopes, and fhe has her Fears; and, agitated by the Viciffitude of these Paffions, fhe finds no Ground whereon to rest her Foot. How different is the Scene which the Gospel opens! There we fee the heavenly Canaan, the new Jerufalem; in which City of the great God there are Manfions, many Manfions, for receiving them, who through Faith and patient Continuance in Well-doing, feek for Glory and Immortality. Our bleffed Master has abolished Death, and redeemed us into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God, that we may dwell in his Prefence as long as Time itself shall last.

If we were to form a Syftem of Religion for ourselves that fhould anfwer to all our Wishes and Defires, what more could we ask for ourselves than what the Gospel has

offered?

offered? The Obedience required of us is the fame to which we are antecedently bound in virtue of that Reason and Understanding which makes us to be Men. The Promises of the Gospel extend to more than Nature could ever claim; they take in all her Wishes, establish all her Hopes; and they are offered by a Hand that is able to make them good.

The Conclufion of the whole is, That, fince the Religion of a Sinner must neceffarily be founded in the Hopes of Mercy; fince these Hopes have at best but uncertain Foundation in Natural Religion, and are liable to be disturbed and fhaken by frequent Doubts and Mifgivings of Mind; we have great Reason to blefs and adore the Goodness of God, who has openly displayed before our Eyes the Love that he has for the Children of Men, by fending his well-beloved Son into the World, that all who believe in him fhould not perish, but have everlasting Life.

DISCOURSE

And bath brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel.

T

HESE Words being spoken of our bleffed Saviour, and affirming that he through the Gospel brought Life and Immortality to Light, are thought by fome to be exclufive of all Arguments for a future Immortality, drawn either from the Light of Reason and Nature, or from the Writings of Mofes For, if the Hopes of Immortality were fo fupported before the Coming of Christ Jefus, it could not be truly afferted of him, that he brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel. And fo far at leaft they must be allowed to argue justly,

that,

that, if the Text is to be understood in this exclufive Sense, it will affect the Proofs and Authorities of any former Revelation equally with thofe of Senfe and Reason. But then, on the other fide, 'tis certain, that, if this Argument does not impeach the Authority of Mofes with regard to this fundamental Article of Faith, neither will it fhut out the Proofs of Natural Religion; fince it must destroy the Evidence of both, or of neither. Now, that it does not fet afide the Authority of Mofes, is evident from our Saviour's Argument to the Sadducees: Now that the Dead are raised, even Mofes fhewed at the Bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Ifaac, and the God of Jacob, Luke xx. 37. From whence it appears that our Saviour thought the Law of Mofes afforded good Proof of a future Life; which is inconfiftent with the Suppofition that there was no Evidence for Life and Immortality till the Publication of the Gospel.

But, fuppofing Mofes or the Law of Nature to afford Evidence for a future Life and Immortality, it remains to be confidered, in what Senfe the Words of the Text are to be understood, which do affirm that Life and Immortality were brought to Light through the Gospel. To bring any thing to Light

may

may fignify, according to the Idiom of the English Tongue, to discover or reveal a Thing, which was perfectly unknown before: 'But the Word in the Original is fo far from countenancing, that it will hardly admit of this Senfe. The Greek runs thus; patioarTos δὲ ζωὴν καὶ ἀφθαρσίαν. Now φωτίζειν fignifies (not to bring to Light, but) to enlighten, illuftrate, or clear up,any thing. You may judge by the Ufe of the Word in other Places: "Tis ufed in John i. 9. That was the true Light, which lighteth (or enlighteneth) every Man that cometh into the World; ὁ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον. Jefus Chrift did not by coming into the World bring Men to.. Light; but he did by the Gospel enlighten Men, and make thofe, who were dark and ignorant before, wife even to Salvation. In like manner our Lord did enlighten the Doctrine of Life and Immortality, not by giving the first or only Notice of it, but by clearing up the Doubts and Difficulties under which it laboured, and giving a better Evidence for the Truth and Certainty of it, than Nature or any Revelation before had done. There is one Place more where our Tranflators render the original Word as they have done in the Text: 1 Cor. iv. 5. Therefore judge nothing before the Time, until the

Lord